Blink and it’s here: Amazon’s affordable home security range finally arrives in Australia

The Blink Mini 2 in black
(Image credit: Amazon)

Online retail giant Amazon has launched its affordable home security brand Blink in Australia and New Zealand, offering a more accessible entry point to household smart cameras than its premium Ring brand.

Blink originally launched overseas back in 2009, with Amazon buying the company in 2017 and positioning it as a step down from Ring. While the latter offers a wide variety of video doorbells, along with much higher definition cameras and more niche products like floodlight cameras, Blink’s products are more basic by design, making them an attractive option for renters and people who don’t want to spend too much on a smart home camera setup.

Despite being cheaper by design, there are still a surprising amount of features available with a Blink camera. At launch, only two from the Blink security camera range will be available in Australia – the Mini 2 and the Outdoor 4 – but both come with motion detection, Alexa app compatibility and live video feed directly to your smartphone. They also have an in-built microphone and speaker for two-way communication between you and the person in front of the camera.

The Blink Mini 2 being used indoors on a benchtop

(Image credit: Amazon)

The good news is that the Blink devices coming to Australia are the latest available in other markets.

The Blink Mini 2 (AU$69/NZ$79), which was announced in the US this year in March, is intended to be both an outdoor and indoor camera, with a mounting plate built into the stand (in case you want to put it up on a wall) and a light atop the camera lens for illuminating subjects in the dark. To use it outside, it’s recommended that you also buy the Weather Resistant Power Adapter, though for indoor use you could get by with the included cable. The Blink Mini 2 is already available on Amazon to buy, although there’s no guarantee there’ll be a discount when Amazon’s second Prime Day sale starts on October 8.

​​If you want to save recordings to some local storage, consider picking up the 256GB Sync Module 2 as well. This module connects wirelessly to the Blink Mini 2 and is where footage from the camera is saved for you to transfer over to a USB stick. It can also be used as a hub for up to 10 Blink cameras, accessible through the Blink Home Monitor app.

Blink  Mini 2
Blink Mini 2: $69 at Amazon AU

If you don’t want to fork out the cash for a Ring security camera system, Blink might be your best bet. Operating with Alexa compatibility and shooting footage in a 1080p resolution, the Blink Mini 2 comes with a mounting kit and stand, a USB cable and an indoor power adapter. You can also pick up a two-pack of Mini 2 cameras for AU$99, with options available in black and white. Just be aware that some features are locked behind a subscription service.

The Blink Outdoor 4, on the other hand, seems to be a more impressive piece of kit on paper and we have high expectations from the fourth-gen model as we quite liked the original in our Blink Outdoor review from 2021. This camera system is intended for outdoor use straight out of the box, with Amazon boasting an impressive two years of battery life from two AA batteries. The camera shoots in 1080p and can be repositioned at will, with a stand and wall-mounting kit included. It’s capable of two-way audio and motion detection, with a Sync Module 2 for saving local video included with your purchase. The additional features, though, will cost you a little extra.

Blink Outdoor 4
Blink Outdoor 4: $149 at Amazon AU

An impressive two-year battery life estimation makes the Blink Outdoor 4 an attractive device to consider from the get-go, but with motion detection, Alexa compatibility and the ability to put it pretty much anywhere on your property makes it all the more attractive. As with the Mini 2 and the Ring security devices, some of the features will be locked behind a subscription. The Outdoor 4 is available now in two-pack, three-pack and five-pack varieties.

As mentioned, these wouldn’t be Amazon products without a subscription. The Blink Subscription plan comes with the ability to save and share clips from your Blink devices to unlimited cloud storage, where you’ll have up to 60 days to download or share your clips. Person detection, automatic local storage backups, and the ability to record live views and capture photos are included with your subscription.

The Basic tier costs AU$4.95p/m per device, or AU$15p/m for the Blink Plus Plan, which supports unlimited devices. Yearly subscriptions cost AU$49.95p/y per device for the Basic plan, or AU$150p/y for the Plus, again with unlimited devices for the latter.

The unlimited plan also offers a feature called Blink Moments, which stitches together key events captured by your cameras and puts them into one seamless video. It also comes with the ability to snooze motion-activated notifications and grants the user a 10% discount on Blink devices.

The Blink Outdoor 4 being used outdoors, attached to a fence

(Image credit: Amazon)

It’s an interesting time for Amazon to launch its budget smart home camera brand in Australia, with Prime Big Deal Days coming up and gadgets in its Ring home security range currently discounted substantially.

In fact, the Ring Indoor Camera (2nd Gen) is currently going for AU$59 (down from AU$99), making it cheaper than the Blink Mini 2. The Ring Video Doorbell Plus is also discounted to AU$159 (was AU$249), which may be attractive over a Blink system for two reasons: one, it works with the wider Ring ecosystem (Blink gadgets do not) and two, it adds a doorbell to your home security system (which Blink isn’t offering in Australia at the time of writing, though there is a video doorbell model available overseas).

While brand-new tech devices don’t usually see a discount right after being released to the market, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if, come Prime Big Deal Days, the two cameras get some kind of a discount — both as a way of celebrating the big sales event and a way to celebrate the launch Down Under, but mostly so that it’s accurately brought into line with the discounted and higher-end Ring alternatives.

For the price and simplicity though, Blink gadgets are quite a competitive option. Personally, I’m drawn to the Outdoor 4 and how portable it is, along with that massive two-year battery estimation. I can definitely see myself setting one of these up in the window of my home to keep an eye on things.

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Zachariah Kelly
Staff Writer

Zac has been in the tech writing game for six years, having previously written for Gizmodo Australia, Canstar Blue, and The Daily Mail Australia (with articles on Nine, Junkee, Kotaku Australia and Lifehacker Australia). He’s a huge nerd with a deep passion for technology. While his main focus at TechRadar Australia is phones, monitors and peripherals, he also has a deep interest in the growing Australian EV landscape. Outside of Techradar, Zac’s a Headspace (a youth mental health organization) volunteer and an avid gamer. 

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