Tapo TC60 Review: a cheap indoor camera that mostly just does the job

I picked up the Tapo TC60 because I wanted something simple to keep an eye on the living room when I’m out and to check on the dog. I wasn’t looking for anything fancy, just a camera that connects reliably, records to microSD, and lets me talk through it if needed. I’ve used other cheap Wi‑Fi cameras before, and half of them ended up in a drawer after a week because the apps were awful or the motion alerts were useless. So I went into this one with pretty low expectations.

First impression: it’s small, light, and feels like a basic plastic gadget, which is fine at this price. Setup with the Tapo app took around 5–10 minutes from unboxing to seeing the live feed on my phone over Wi‑Fi. I didn’t need to mess with my router or anything, just connect to the camera’s Wi‑Fi, then to my home network. The app is fairly clear; I didn’t have to read the manual for the basics.

After a couple of weeks, I’ve used it in three ways: as a dog cam in the living room, as a basic security cam pointed at the front door, and one evening as a baby monitor at a friend’s place. In all those cases, the TC60 handled the basic stuff: live view, motion alerts, night vision, and two‑way audio. It’s not perfect, but I never felt like it was useless or a total waste of money.

If you expect top‑tier smart features or super smart AI detection, this isn’t it. But if you’re after a low‑cost camera that you can stick in a corner, plug in, and mostly forget about while it records to an SD card and sends you notifications, this one gets the job done pretty well for the price. That’s basically where it sits: not fancy, but functional.

In terms of value for money, the TC60 is hard to complain about. You’re getting a 1080p indoor camera with night vision, microSD support up to 512 GB, motion and person detection, baby cry alerts, and integration with Alexa/Google for a pretty low price. The big plus for me is that you can use it fully without paying a monthly subscription. The cloud option is there if you really want it, but the SD card recording is enough for most people. That alone makes it more attractive than some cameras that look cheap at first but become expensive once you add the subscription.

Compared to other budget brands I’ve tried from random names on Amazon, the Tapo ecosystem feels a bit more mature. The app is cleaner, firmware updates don’t break things, and you can integrate it with other Tapo devices or even a NAS using RTSP if you want to get a bit more advanced. It’s still not at the level of high‑end security systems, but for a regular user who just wants a couple of indoor cams, it hits a good balance between features and price.

There are compromises: no 2K/4K resolution, no motorised pan/tilt, plastic build, and the AI detection isn’t perfect. But you’re not paying premium prices either. If your budget is tight and you just want something that works, this is a pretty solid deal. If you’re already using other Tapo cameras, it’s a no‑brainer to add one of these as an extra indoor unit rather than mixing brands and apps.

So, from a practical standpoint, the TC60 offers good value. It’s not the best camera on the market, but for a low‑cost way to monitor a room, check on pets, or add a bit of extra security inside your home, it does enough to justify what you pay for it.

Design‑wise, the TC60 is very basic: a small plastic dome‑style camera on a little stand. It’s light (about 70 g) and doesn’t feel premium at all, but it also doesn’t feel like it’s going to fall apart if you touch it. The housing is plastic, the stand is plastic, and the whole thing is clearly built to hit a low price. If you want something that looks fancy in your living room, this probably won’t impress you. If you just want a discreet gadget in a corner, it’s fine.

The stand is simple but flexible enough. You can tilt and rotate the camera head to aim it roughly where you want, and you can either just place it on a shelf or use the included mounting base and screws to fix it to a wall or ceiling. I tried both: on a shelf in the living room and mounted high up pointing at the front door. It holds its position well; it doesn’t sag or drift after a few days. Just remember: this model doesn’t pan or tilt remotely like some pricier cams. Once it’s aimed, that’s it. If you want motorised movement, you need a different Tapo model.

There is a small LED on the front that shows the status (connected, pairing, etc.). In a bedroom at night, that tiny light can be a bit annoying if you’re sensitive to any glow, but you can tweak LED settings in the app. The night‑vision LEDs themselves are not visible in a way that bothers me; you just get the usual faint red glow if you look closely in the dark. For a baby’s room, I’d say it’s acceptable, but if you want totally no lights, you’ll need to play with the settings or tape over it.

Overall, the design is functional and discreet, not stylish. It’s small enough that visitors don’t immediately notice it unless they’re looking for it. The cable is a standard white power cable; not braided or anything fancy, but long enough for most rooms. If you’re picky about aesthetics, you might grumble a bit, but for a cheap indoor camera, this design is perfectly serviceable and doesn’t get in the way of actually using it.

Durability is always a question mark with cheap electronics. The TC60 is light and made of plastic, so it doesn’t give that rugged feeling out of the box. That said, after running it almost non‑stop for a couple of weeks, I haven’t noticed any worrying signs. It doesn’t overheat; it gets slightly warm to the touch but nothing alarming. The stand joint still feels firm and holds the angle I set. I’ve moved it between rooms several times and accidentally knocked it over once from a small shelf, and it kept working without issues.

The cable and power adapter are basic but fine. They don’t feel premium, but the connection is stable and I haven’t had any flickering or power cuts. This is a corded camera, so there’s no battery to degrade over time, which is actually a plus for long‑term use. As long as the Wi‑Fi holds up and the firmware doesn’t get messed up by some bad update, I don’t see a big reason why it wouldn’t last a few years in a normal home.

One potential weak spot is the microSD card slot. It’s on the back, and if you’re swapping cards often, you could eventually wear it out. I just leave one card in and let it overwrite old recordings, so I’m not stressing it. The camera itself is meant for indoor use only. I wouldn’t risk it in a damp garage or near a steamy kitchen area; the plastic casing doesn’t look sealed in any way. Keep it dry and away from direct heat sources and it should be okay.

Given the price, I’m not expecting tank‑like durability, but in everyday home use (on a shelf, plugged in, left alone) it feels stable enough. If you have kids or pets running around, just make sure the cable is tucked away and the camera is either mounted or placed somewhere they won’t knock it down every day. For what it costs, the durability seems reasonable, but time will tell more than a few weeks of use.

I’ve been using the TC60 daily for a couple of weeks, and the overall performance is pretty solid for the price. During the day, the 1080p image is clear enough that I can see what the dog is chewing, read labels on parcels left near the door, and recognise faces without zooming in like crazy. The stream loads in a few seconds on Wi‑Fi; on mobile data it can take a bit longer, but it still connects most of the time without drama. There is a slight delay (1–2 seconds), which is normal for this type of camera.

Night vision is where cheap cameras often struggle, but this one is decent. In a medium‑sized living room, I can see the entire area out to roughly the advertised 30 feet. Objects and people are clearly visible, just in black and white. One Amazon reviewer mentioned it even picked up a tiny spider on the lens during the night, and honestly that matches my experience: it detects small movement easily, maybe too easily sometimes. If there’s a curtain moving with a draft or a pet walking close to the camera, you’ll get a notification.

Motion and person detection are configurable. You can set activity zones to avoid alerts from, say, a hallway or a TV area. This helps a lot to cut down on spam notifications. Person detection is okay but not perfect; it sometimes flags a moving coat or a large dog as a person. Baby cry detection worked when we tried it with an actual crying baby, but it also triggered once when the TV had a loud high‑pitched sound, so it’s not bulletproof. I’d treat it as a backup, not the only thing you rely on.

The app itself is one of the better ones I’ve used for cheap cams. Playback from the SD card is straightforward: you get a timeline with coloured sections for events and can scrub through pretty easily. The connection to the camera drops occasionally if the Wi‑Fi signal is weak, but it reconnects by itself in most cases. Compared to some no‑name cameras I’ve used before, the Tapo setup feels more stable and less buggy. It’s not flawless, but for day‑to‑day monitoring, it’s reliable enough that I actually keep it on and don’t just give up after a week.

On paper, the Tapo TC60 is a 1080p indoor Wi‑Fi camera with night vision, motion and person detection, baby cry detection, two‑way talk, and support for microSD cards up to 512 GB. It also works with Alexa and Google Assistant, and you can use it as a sort of budget baby monitor or pet cam. That’s the marketing pitch. In practice, the key things that matter are: picture quality, motion alerts, reliability of the app, and storage options.

1080p sounds basic these days, but for an indoor cam it’s enough. On my phone, faces and text on packages are clear enough in daylight. At night, the infrared kicks in and you get black‑and‑white footage. I can still recognise people and see what the dog is doing, which is all I really need. It’s not super sharp like a 4K cam, but again, this sits in a budget price range, so expecting more would be unrealistic.

The other big selling point is that it doesn’t force you into a subscription. You can just put in a microSD card and let it record events locally. I used a 64 GB card, and with motion‑based recording I get several days of clips before it starts overwriting older ones. The Tapo Care cloud option exists, but I never felt pushed into it — there is a 30‑day trial, but you can happily ignore it and stick to SD. For me, that was important because I’m tired of buying cheap hardware that then locks everything behind a monthly fee.

On the smart side, it has person detection, motion zones, and baby cry detection. These are handy but not perfect. Person detection works most of the time, but it can still trigger on big shadows or the dog if he’s close enough. Baby cry detection did pick up loud crying during a test evening, but also triggered once on a noisy TV. So I’d say these are nice extras, but you shouldn’t rely on them blindly. Overall, the feature set is pretty solid for the cost, as long as you keep your expectations realistic.

I tried the TC60 in three main roles: baby monitor, pet camera, and basic indoor security camera. It does all three reasonably well, but it’s clearly not a specialised baby monitor. As a baby monitor, the main advantage is that you can use any phone or tablet as the screen, even when you’re not at home. So if you’re out and a babysitter is there, you can still peek in. The downside is that the app isn’t built for constant always‑on monitoring like dedicated baby monitors, and you rely on your Wi‑Fi and phone battery. Also, there’s a small delay in audio and video, which you don’t usually have with radio‑based baby monitors.

For pets, it’s actually very handy. I use it mostly to check what the dog is doing when I’m at work. Motion alerts tell me when he’s moving around, and the two‑way audio is good enough to shout a quick “off the sofa” if needed. To be honest, he mostly ignores my voice through the camera, but at least I can see if he’s getting into trouble. The wide field of view covers pretty much the whole living room when placed in a corner, so I don’t need multiple cameras for one room.

As a simple security camera pointing at the front door, it works fine. It records motion clips to the SD card, and I can scroll back in the app to see who came in and at what time. Person detection helps filter out some random motion, but not everything. If you want proper security with outdoor views and multiple angles, you’ll need more cameras or a different setup, but for a flat or to cover indoor access points, it’s a decent start.

In short, the TC60 is effective as a multi‑purpose indoor cam. It doesn’t excel in any one category, but it’s flexible enough that you can move it around and repurpose it easily: baby’s room one night, living room the next day, then pointed at the back door if you go on holiday. That flexibility is basically its strongest point for everyday use.