SPYPOINT trail cameras are not new to the trail camera market, but the company has gained recent popularity due to the wide array of cameras they offer. One in particularl, the Link-Micro, is SPYPOINT’s newest 2019 cellular camera. At $150 MSRP and the size of your palm, this camera is sure to get plenty of attention. Let’s take a look at some strong points, a few places that need improvement, and gauge the overall value of the SPYPOINT Link-Micro.
The palm-size Link-Micro is incredibly packable.
Strengths
The first thing you’ll notice with the Link-Micro is the price. Wow. For $150, this may be the year you finally pull the trigger on a cellular camera. They aren’t kidding when they mean “micro”, this camera is tiny! SPYPOINT has done a great job not making the camera larger than it has to be. I have to believe the size of this camera will appeal to the public land hunter who wants to hide their camera more effectively.
Detection range and trigger speed on the Link-Micro is excellent. This camera claims to detect out to 80’, but I have had deer be detected out to nearly 100’. Trigger speed of .5 seconds is excellent and leaves no passing deer un-captured by this little camera.
Battery life on the SPYPOINT cellular cameras continue to amaze me. I have gotten 10 months out of a set of 8 lithium batteries with a Link-Evo. I expect no changes in battery life for the Micro. It is critical to note you should only use lithium batteries in cellular cameras. Alkaline batteries are weak and do not hold a consistently high charge like lithium batteries.
SPYPOINT continues to tout their intuitive two-way communication app for their cellular series. The SPYPOINT Link App is fun to use and makes changing camera settings a breeze. SPYPOINT boasts a “Buck Tracker” feature which allows you to filter out antlerless deer when scrolling photos. This technology works surprisingly well in my experience. From open box to activation, you can have the Micro running in less than two minutes. The Link-Micro settings are all changed through the mobile app.
A revamped data plan system for 2019 also puts SPYPOINT ahead of the game in terms of affordability. The moment you activate a SPYPOINT cellular camera, they give you 30 days of unlimited photos for free…yes free. Once your 30 days of unlimited photos expires, you are never forced to purchase a plan—each month you receive 100 free photos.
The Link-Micro allows for simple setup for fast and easy inventory in your favorite hunting spots.
Weaknesses
Despite all the strengths that make this camera a value, there are a few improvements that could have been made.
The quality of the photos transmitted to your phone can be suspect. The photos sent to your phone are a compressed thumbnail. At times, it can be difficult to see points on bucks’ rack. You will fail to receive quality night photos unless you position your camera with a backdrop of timber for the infrared flash to bounce off. If you have your Link Micro over large food source and deer are some distance away from the camera, you can expect the camera to send poor quality night photos if you do not have trees for the IR to reflect off. However, when you eventually pull the SD card and check photos, the full quality images are excellent quality. The Link Micro also cannot transmit video to your phone, let alone take video at all. There is no option for the camera to take video.
The Link Micro appears to be built relatively cheap compared to other cellular cameras on the market. The new antenna Spypoint implemented is rather flimsy. The case design and latch system appears to have taken a step back as in comparison to their previous cellular models. Making sure you close the latch with equal pressure on all parts of the latch looks to be important, as I can see this latch system easily breaking.
The construction and latch system of the unit seems a little weak compared to others we’ve tested. It may be one of the corners cut to get the price down on this camera.
Value and Overall Rating
Despite some build quality concerns and photo quality issues, the Link-Micro has plenty to offer, especially when it comes to a budget-priced cellular trail camera. For the price and affordable data plans (or free), the value overrides the concerns I have regarding this camera.
