Eufy Video Doorbell S4 Review: One Lens Does the Work of Two, and It’s Subscription-Free

Video doorbells have spent years fighting the same problem: a porch is taller and wider than a camera can comfortably see. Eufy‘s last answer was the E340, which put a second camera on the bottom to watch for packages. The new Eufy Video Doorbell S4 goes a different way, with a single fisheye lens that covers 180 degrees both side to side and top to bottom, then uses AI to frame and follow whoever walks up. We swapped out our own E340 for the S4 to see whether one lens really can do the work of two.

The Eufy Video Doorbell S4 with Chime 2 (model E82151F2) is a $299.99 wired doorbell built around a 3K, 9-megapixel sensor with a 180 x 180 degree field of view. It records locally with no monthly fee, uses radar and dual PIR sensors to decide what is worth an alert, and has a built-in light that can switch on when someone approaches. Eufy calls the tracking system OmniTrack, and it is the feature that makes the fisheye lens practical rather than just wide.

Eufy sent us a review sample of the S4, and it has been on our front door for a little under two weeks, wired to the same doorbell circuit our E340 used and paired with a HomeBase 3.

Quick Specs:

• Model: E82151F2
• Resolution: 3072 x 3072 (3K), 9 MP
• Field of View: 180 x 180 degrees
• Tracking: OmniTrack AI tracking with auto-framing
• Detection: Radar plus dual PIR; human, motion, package, and face
• Power: Wired, 16-24V AC, 10VA-40VA
• Backup Battery: 2,600 mAh for power outages
• Storage: 4 GB built-in eMMC, expandable through a compatible HomeBase
• Recording: 24/7 recording supported
• Night Vision: Color
• Lighting: Built-in welcome light
• Wi-Fi: 2.4 / 5 GHz, Wi-Fi 6
• Smart Home: Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit (through HomeBase 3)
• Dimensions: 50.8 x 167 x 38.6 mm
• Weight: 287.2 g (0.63 lb)
• In the Box: Doorbell and Chime 2
• Subscription: None required
• Price: $299.99

I went into the install expecting the usual afternoon of doorbell frustration and it never showed up. From taking the E340 off the wall to having the Eufy Video Doorbell S4 live in the app took less than 30 minutes. If you already have a wired doorbell, you are mostly reusing what is there: two low-voltage wires, a mounting plate, and a few screws.

The app side was even easier than the hardware. The Eufy app walks you through adding the doorbell, joining Wi-Fi, and linking it to the HomeBase, and at no point did I have to stop and look something up. If you are already in Eufy’s ecosystem, the S4 simply shows up alongside your other cameras when you are done.

One thing to know before you order: the Eufy Video Doorbell S4 is a wired doorbell. There is a 2,600 mAh battery inside, but it is there to keep the doorbell running through a power outage, not to run it day to day. Our E340 could go either way, battery or wired, so this is a step back in flexibility. For us it did not matter since the wiring was already in place, but if your door has no doorbell wires, this is not the model for you.

The lens is the reason to buy this doorbell. A 180 x 180 degree view means you see everything in front of the door, from the edges of the porch on either side down to the mat at your feet, in one picture. The E340 needed two cameras and two separate video panes to do that. The Eufy Video Doorbell S4 does it with one lens and one image, and I found that easier to read at a glance.

Fisheye lenses usually trade clarity for coverage. That is not what happened here. The picture is extremely clear, with enough detail across the frame that faces and packages are easy to make out, and the 3K sensor has pixels to spare when the camera zooms in.

That zooming is where the tracking comes in. When there is motion, the Eufy Video Doorbell S4 automatically frames the person in the shot and follows them as they move. Someone walking up the path, stepping onto the porch, and bending down to leave a box stays centered the whole time. It turns a very wide security view into something closer to a video call, which is the right way to look at a visitor.

Most doorbell complaints are really notification complaints. Too many alerts and you stop looking at them. The S4 gives you two good tools to prevent that.

The first is distance. You can set custom alerts based on how far someone is from the doorbell, so a person on the sidewalk does not count but a person halfway up the walk does. The second is painting. Instead of dragging a box around a zone, you paint the areas of the frame you want alerts from, which is far better suited to a fisheye image where the driveway, the walkway, and the neighbor’s yard do not line up in neat rectangles.

Used together, they let us tell the doorbell exactly which part of the front yard we care about. That is a level of control I have not had on previous doorbells.

Package alerts are a feature we use constantly. The Eufy Video Doorbell S4 lets you set alerts for when a package is delivered and for when one is picked up. The second half is the more useful one. Knowing that a box arrived is nice; knowing that it just left the porch is the alert you actually want, whether it was a family member bringing it inside or someone who should not have been there.

Because the lens sees all the way down to the doorstep, the S4 does this without the dedicated downward camera the E340 relied on.

The Eufy Video Doorbell S4 has built-in lighting that shines up and down from the doorbell, and you can set it to come on based on the time of day. We have ours active at night, so when someone approaches after dark the area around the door lights up.

That does two jobs. If the person should not be there, a light snapping on is a decent deterrent. If they should be, a delivery driver or a guest, it gives them enough light to walk up safely. It also helps the camera, which already has color night vision, by putting real light on whoever is standing there.

This is where the Eufy Video Doorbell S4 separates itself from the best-known competition. Ring’s wired doorbells need a subscription plan to save and review recorded video, and Google’s Nest Doorbell keeps only a short window of event history unless you pay monthly. The S4 stores video locally, on its own 4 GB of built-in storage and on a HomeBase if you have one, and the detection features we have been describing are not locked behind a fee.

At $299.99, the Eufy Video Doorbell S4 is expensive for a doorbell, and there is no pretending otherwise. But a doorbell that costs less up front and then charges you every month for years is not actually cheaper. Add up a few years of subscription fees on a competing doorbell and the S4’s price starts to look a lot more reasonable.

You will probably be happy with the S4 if you already have doorbell wiring, you want to see your entire porch in a single clear image, and you are tired of paying a monthly fee to look at your own video. It is an especially easy upgrade for anyone already using Eufy cameras or a HomeBase, since it drops right into the same app.

You might want to look elsewhere if your door has no wiring, because the S4 cannot run on its battery alone. And if you just want a basic doorbell that shows you who rang, $299.99 buys more camera than you need.

After a little under two weeks, the Eufy Video Doorbell S4 has been the best doorbell we have had on our front door. The fisheye lens is clear, the tracking keeps visitors framed, the alert controls are precise, and the lighting and package alerts are useful every day. While $299.99 is steep for a doorbell, the features and the subscription-free setup cannot be ignored. Highly recommended despite the cost.

The Eufy Video Doorbell S4 with Chime 2 retails for $299.99; it is available directly from the manufacturer and other retailers, including Amazon.

Source: Manufacturer-supplied review sample

What I Like: Installed in less than 30 minutes as a swap for our older E340; App setup is even easier than the hardware install; Fisheye lens sees 180 degrees both side to side and top to bottom; Extremely clear picture; Automatically frames and follows a person in the shot; Custom alerts based on distance from the doorbell; Paint the exact areas of the frame you want alerts from; Alerts for both package delivery and package pickup; Up and down lighting can be scheduled to come on at night when someone approaches; No subscription required; Backup battery keeps it running in a power outage

What Needs Improvement: Wired only, the battery is for backup and not everyday power; $299.99 is steep for a doorbell