The original Blink Mini earned praise in our review last year for its affordability, video quality, and integrations with Amazon Alexa and IFTTT, but we dinged it for its lack of Google Assistant and HomeKit support and required hub for local video storage. The Blink Mini 2 camera doesn't address either of those drawbacks, but it offers new features such as color night vision, a spotlight, a wider field of view, and a weather-resistant power adapter for outdoor use (sold separately). At $39.99, it’s a good value, but you’ll get sharper 2K video, free intelligent alerts, and a fully weatherproof build out of the box with the similarly priced TP-Link Tapo C120, which remains our Editors' Choice.

Design and Features

As the name implies, the Mini 2 is a tiny camera that measures 2.0 by 2.0 by 1.5 inches and weighs just 2.2 ounces. It comes in white or black and has an IP65 weatherproof rating, but you’ll have to purchase a $9.99 weather-resistant power adapter to use the camera outdoors. Or, you can pay $49.98 for a bundle that includes the camera and the adapter. If you'd rather not deal with wires, the $99.99 Blink Outdoor 4 promises up to two years of battery life from two AA batteries.

The front of the Mini 2 holds the camera assembly, a spotlight and infrared LED, a blue status LED, a red/green LED, and a bidirectional microphone. The blue LED blinks during setup and is solid when the camera detects motion. The red/green LED flashes red when the camera is powered up and is solid green during setup. Around back is a speaker and a USB-C power port, and inside is a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi radio.

(Credit: John R. Delaney)

The camera captures 1080p video at 30fps and has a 143-degree field of view (the original camera has a 110-degree field of view). It will capture color video at night when the spotlight is activated, otherwise night video is in black and white.

If you have an optional Sync Module 2 ($49.99), you can have the camera store recorded video locally on an SD card (up to 256GB), but otherwise, you’ll have to pay for a Blink Subscription plan. The $3 per month/$30 per year Basic Plan provides 60 days of unlimited video storage for a single camera. It also unlocks live view recording, person detection, video sharing, photo capture, and 90-minute continuous live stream viewing (otherwise you only get five minutes of viewing). The $10 per month/$100 per year Plus Plan gives you everything from the Basic plan for an unlimited number of cameras.

The Mini 2 works with Alexa voice commands and supports IFTTT applets that provide third-party smart home device integrations, but it doesn’t work with Apple HomeKit or Google Assistant. It uses the same Blink Home Monitor app (available for Android and iOS) as other devices from the brand and gets its own panel on the app’s home screen. Tap the play arrow in the panel to open a screen with a live video panel that can be viewed in full-screen mode by turning your phone sideways. Below the panel are buttons to turn the spotlight on and off, save the current live view session, and mute the speaker.

(Credit: Blink/PCMag)

Tap the More button to enable Extended Live View to stream 90 minutes of live video (with a subscription) and access the full device settings menu. Within device settings, you can adjust general settings (name, Wi-Fi, firmware updates), motion settings (sensitivity, motion zones, person detection, retrigger time), video settings (video quality, motion video clip length, night vision), audio settings (speaker volume), lighting settings (brightness, motion activation), and privacy settings (privacy zones, video and audio recording). To view a list of recorded events, tap the Clips button at the bottom of the home screen.

Installation and Performance

Installing the Mini 2 is easy. Once you’ve downloaded the mobile app and created an account, tap the plus icon in the upper right corner of the home screen and select Mini Cameras from the list. Use your phone’s camera to scan the QR code on the back of the Mini 2, then choose or create a home system to add the camera to, and plug in the camera. When the blue LED is flashing and the green LED is solid, tap Discover Device and join the network when prompted. Finally, choose your Wi-Fi SSID from the list, enter your Wi-Fi password, and wait for a firmware update to install to complete the installation. 

(Credit: Blink/PCMag)

The Mini 2 delivered relatively sharp, colorful 1080p video during daylight hours but didn't fare as well in low-light conditions. Black-and-white night video lacked the brightness and sharp detail we’ve seen with other budget-priced cameras such as the TP-Link Tapo C120 ($39.99) and the Eufy Indoor Cam C120 ($42.99). Color night vision was a bit sharper, but colors weren't as vibrant as in the daytime.

Motion alerts arrived instantly and two-way talk came through loud and clear. The camera had no trouble streaming video to an Amazon Echo Show smart display using Alexa voice commands, and my Alexa routine to have the camera’s motion detection trigger a Nanoleaf BR30 smart bulb worked correctly.