Smart home specialist Reolink has fully cut the cord for its latest home security camera. The new OMVI 2i Ultra is both battery- and solar-powered, making installation a cinch pretty much anywhere – not just places you can run power to. That’ll be great news for anyone that doesn’t own their home, as they won’t need to modify any electricity cables.
The OMVI 2i Ultra is packing a detachable 10,000mAh battery that can provide as much as six months’ use from a single charge, which Reolink reckons is double that of a typical bullet-PT camera. The 6W solar panel boosts efficiency by more than 25%, so the camera will keep running with just 30 minutes of sunshine per day – and direct sunshine isn’t a must either, so partially shaded locations will work too.
It combines a 355° pan & 50° tilt (PT) movement 5MP camera with a 180-degree, panoramic view 8MP backup, letting it cover multiple angles rather than the one a regular security cam could manage. An auto framing function then automatically zooms in when a motion target is detected, or you can tap anywhere on the live preview within Reolink’s companion app to direct the PT camera to your chosen spot.
Smart home support has never been better, with the ability to see view live camera feeds on Echo Show and Google Nest Hub smart displays. It also plays nicely with Homey, IFTTT and the infinitely customisable Home Assistant, with more to follow later down the line.
The OMVI 2i Ultra is set to go on sale this Autumn, with prices starting from £170-£220. There was no word on US pricing or availability at the time of writing.
If you need more resolution, for catching crims in the highest possible quality, there’s also the OMVI X16 PoE. Reolink hasn’t confirmed pricing for this one, only that it’ll land before the end of 2026, but the 24MP sensor and massive 16x optical zoom should mean there’s not an inch of garden or back yard it can’t see.
Add on Reolink’s Home Hub 2 (£150, landing in the coming months) and you’ll be able to store and search through footage entirely locally, with no cloud uploads and no subscription fees. It supports up to eight cameras, holds as much as 16TB of storage, and lets you search through footage using natural language text prompts thanks to some clever on-device AI.
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