I upgraded my home security with the Reolink Solar Floodlight Cam – it lit up a blind spot nothing else could reach

Why is it that the spots that most need lighting are never near a plug? I mean the dark corner by the shed, or the unlit gap down the side of the house where anyone could slip past unseen. Neither comes with a handy socket, and running armoured cable across the garden isn't top of most people's DIY list.

That's what made the Reolink Solar Floodlight Cam worth a proper look. It promises full floodlight-level security powered entirely by sun and battery, requiring no cable and no electrician. The Homebuilding team has tested a fair few of the best home security systems, and power has always been a limiting factor in where a camera or light can go. So I wanted to know whether solar could actually close that gap.

With a 1,000-lumen adjustable floodlight, 2K video and AI detection built in, this camera had a lot to prove. Here's how it got on around my own home.

Specifications

The Reolink Solar Floodlight Cam packs a fair bit into a modestly-sized unit, including 1,000-lumen adjustable floodlights, 2K video, two-way audio and a 110dB siren. Here's a breakdown of the spec:

First impressions of the Reolink Solar Floodlight Cam

Off the bat, it's a stylish piece of kit and there aren't too many pieces to put together before you can start recording. There's a nice weight to the unit that hints at the quality, and the look isn't dissimilar to a drone camera, thanks to its wing-like floodlights, which pivot nicely.

It arrived neatly and securely packaged, complete with an instruction manual and everything you need to set it up: a wall mount and pivoting bracket, a plastic spanner for tightening it all into place, a screw pack and wall plugs for fixing to brick or render. There's also a quick start guide and a set of "Protected by Reolink" window stickers in five languages.

It's worth noting that footage is stored locally on a microSD card rather than the cloud, which means no mandatory subscription, but there's a catch: the camera doesn't come with a card included, and Reolink's own start from £34.99. Without one fitted, the camera still works as a live monitoring tool, you'll get real-time notifications, live view and can trigger the floodlight or siren, but nothing gets recorded, so there's no footage to look back on afterwards. If you don't already have a card lying around, it's an extra cost worth factoring in from the outset.

Setting up the Reolink Solar Floodlight Cam

Image 1 of 3

1. Charge the camera and scan the QR code

To get started, I needed to charge the camera for around 15 minutes before it beeped to let me know that it was ready for set up. Next, I scanned the QR code in the manual, which took me straight to download the Reolink app on my phone. Setup was really intuitive from there, as the app walked me through connecting to my home Wi-Fi and pairing the camera in a few taps. At this stage you can give the camera a custom name (such as 'side door' or 'garage' for example) and also choose a login password.

2. Get familiar with the app

Once the camera's paired, the Reolink app is where all the day-to-day control lives. From there you can adjust the floodlights, check notifications and view playback, whether you're on the same Wi-Fi network or out and about.

It isn't the most intuitive app, there's a lot to take in when you first open it, with settings for AI detection, lighting, storage, notifications and more all competing for attention. I left the AI lighting response on its default setting rather than customising it per detection type, and it worked perfectly well without any adjusting, but if you do want to dig in, the option's there to configure a different floodlight response depending on whether it's a person, vehicle or animal that's triggered it.

You can also adjust colour temperature and brightness from the app, choose between local storage on a microSD card or Reolink's cloud service (which is a paid for subscription), and link the camera to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant if you use either.

3. Mount the camera

Next, I chose the best spot for my new security camera and floodlight. Since the camera runs on solar, I needed somewhere that gets plenty of light, but not too much direct sun, and somewhere that isn't overly exposed to the weather, even though the unit itself is water resistant. I opted for my shed, which gives coverage over a sheltered part of the house and the wheelie bin store, perfect for covering all bases, and for finally getting some light on recycling day (because let's be honest, we always remember the bins need doing right as it gets dark).

Mounting the camera to the shed was refreshingly easy. You just drill the mount into the wall, pop the camera onto it, and you're good to go.

Using the Reolink Solar Floodlight Cam

Day and night footage quality

Daytime footage is sharp and does the 2K resolution justice, holding up well even towards the edges of that wide 150° view. After dark is where the compromises start to show. The camera leans on the floodlight rather than infrared alone to produce colour footage at night, which works well enough at close range, but whites blow out quickly once the light kicks in, and faces looking directly into the lens lose a lot of detail as a result.

It's also better suited to close-up coverage than anything at the far end of a large garden, a side effect of that wide-angle lens. That said, for the price, I was still really impressed by the overall quality of the recorded footage, this isn't a camera that feels like it's cutting corners.

Solar and battery performance

Reolink says the battery can run for up to three months unaided, and the 3W solar panel needs as little as an hour of sunlight a day to keep it topped up (it'll even trickle-charge on a grey British day). In the time I've had it mounted, the battery level hasn't dropped in any meaningful way.

The one caveat is that the solar panel is fixed directly to the top of the unit rather than sold separately, which makes the whole thing feel a little bulkier and less discreet than I expected. It also means you can't angle the panel independently of the camera if your ideal spot for coverage isn't a sunny spot on the wall.

Alerts and notifications

The AI detection is smart enough to tell a person, vehicle and animal apart, which matters more than you'd think when you've got a cat and your neighbour has two. Motion alerts landed on my phone as handy push notifications, though it's worth knowing the first 25 are free before Reolink starts asking you to pay for more, worth bearing in mind if you're somewhere with a lot of passing foot traffic.

Beyond alerts, there's real deterrence built in too. If someone does linger too long, the 110dB siren is loud enough to make you jump from the other end of the garden, let alone an intruder standing right next to it. Two-way audio also means you can speak through the camera directly if you'd rather warn someone off yourself. Both features worked well in testing, and I'd be confident in their ability to see off anyone caught sneaking around the outside of the house.

The floodlights

The floodlight's colour temperature adjustment turns out to be one of the camera's best features, letting you dial the light anywhere from 3000K (soft, warm) to 6000K (cold, daylight-bright) depending on how subtle or full-beam you want the coverage to feel.

I settled on something in the middle, as it was bright enough to be useful without lighting up the whole space every time next door's cat wandered past. You can also link colour temperature to what's actually triggering it, so a person – or aforementioned cats – get a different response to a passing car, which is a nice touch if you want the light to feel proportionate rather than blasting on for everything.

It's worth noting that if you want floodlights on continuously, or something more powerful, this isn't the camera for that, you'd want something you can hardwire instead.

Storing footage

As I mentioned earlier in this review, without a microSD card fitted, you'll still get everything except a recorded history. Live view, real-time alerts, and manual control of the floodlight and siren all work regardless, but what you're paying that extra £30+ for is the ability to actually look back on what happened, which for most people considering this as a proper security camera rather than a smart floodlight, is the whole point.

It's worth noting, therefore, that the camera is actually about 30% more expensive than the initial price, once you factor this in – still not a lot but still a factor to consider.

It's also worth knowing the card lives inside the camera itself, so if the unit is stolen, your footage goes with it, unless you're on Reolink's cloud storage or running it through the Reolink Home Hub instead. And since live view and remote playback both depend on your home Wi-Fi, a slow connection will make the camera feel sluggish too, no fault of the hardware itself.

Is the Reolink Solar Floodlight Cam worth it?

Do I think this camera is worth investing in? For the price, yes. It's low effort to set up, genuinely wireless, and offers a lot of camera and floodlight for very little outlay. The colour temperature control and wide coverage are real strengths, and being subscription-free if you want it to be is a proper point in its favour.

It isn't without its trade-offs. You'll want to budget for a microSD card or a subscription for cloud storage, and night-time detail isn't its strongest point. But as a wireless, low-maintenance way to light and watch the edges of a property, it does exactly what it promises.

Before setting up your own, it's worth reading up on where to place a security camera to get the most out of it, especially with a solar-powered model, where positioning affects both charging and coverage.