I liked the specs of 2 MP 1080p (1920x1080 at 30 fps), the 93 degree field of view, built in microphone and speaker, H.265 video compression, and Micro SD storage. The Amcrest ASH21-B camera doesn't feel flimsy and seems to be well built. The color balance looks true to life. The fixed focus lens has a 93 degree field of view which covers a lot of the area in a room. The brightness of the video is very usable. The microphone and speaker audio work well.
To setup the camera and view the video, you must install the Amcrest Smart Home app on a smart cell phone. There have Android and iOS versions of the Amcrest Smart Home app. Once the app is installed, you can setup the camera. You setup an account to register your camera. You have to allow location and give permission to connect to the camera. You can either scan the QR code on the bottom of the camera or type in the serial number. You then either connect an Ethernet cable to your network switch or setup the WiFi connection. Initially, I used the Ethernet connection with a cable plugged in my network switch. At this point you can view live video on the camera on the phone app. You have the option to record video as desired or set it to trigger on movement. You can either store recorded video on the Micro SD card or activate a Smart Home Cloud storage account. Amcrest provides a one year trial Smart Home Cloud subscription with the camera. I had to Google how to insert the MicroSD card because it was not covered in the leaflet instructions. It is covered on page 5 in the User Manual (which can be downloaded at from the Amcrest website). You would want to format the Micro SD card to make sure it can be accessed by the camera which can be done from the phone app. Micro SD cards up to 256 GB are supported. You have to remove the Micro SD card and plug it into a computer to download the saved video files.
In the Amcrest Smart Home app there is no way to manually add a WiFi connection. Because my WiFi is set to not broadcast its SSID, it would not appear in the list and I could not manually add it. I had to enable SSID broadcast in order to connect it to my WiFi and turn off broadcasting after it connected. I also discovered that once you connect to Ethernet and then switch to using WiFi, you cannot change the IP address in the Amcrest Smart Home app and you cannot add the camera again with the new WiFi IP address because it says the device has already been added. You have to delete the device and re-add it to change the IP address.
The controls for adjusting the camera up, down, left or right were easy to use on the app and worked well but are not supported in the Amcrest Surveillance Pro app. The microphone is sensitive enough to pick up most any noise in the room. The picture was very clear and crisp. If it needs to be mounted up high in a room, the length of the AC adapter cable would become a concern.
I would recommend the ASH21-B camera for use as a pet, baby or room monitor.