Hive View is the second camera from the British Gas smart home brand. After a fairly generic offering with the first Hive Camera, the Hive View looks a lot better considered, bringing some unique features to your smart home.

The Hive View, firstly, has been designed to be easy to mount, with a choice of wall, shelf or magnetic, but uniquely, the camera itself can be separated from the stand, so you can temporarily place it somewhere else - with over 1 hour of battery life when away from the power cord (we're not sure if that's an hour of life, or an hour of capture, but we'll check.)

The Hive View is a motion or sound detection camera, which can be setup to exclude pets, so you're not constantly alerted when your cat walks through the room. When it does detect movement, you'll be alerted via your Hive app on your smartphone, where you can view a 1080p livestream. It has a 130-degree field of view. 

The app will give everyone access to the past 24 hours of video, but if you want to access an expanded 30 days of video, you'll need to subscribe to the Hive Video Playback Membership. This will cost you £4.99 a month. 

You'll be able to disarm the camera with a tap on the Hive app on your phone (or on a schedule) and it's also equipped with night vision, so you'll be able to view the action day or night.

Otherwise, the Hive View is a Yves Béhar design, finished in black and brushed copper (copper being totally on-trend right now) or white and champagne gold.

As it stands, at launch, the Hive View will be standalone, meaning it works in isolation from other Hive devices, but in February, Hive Actions will be launched, allowing you to forge a closer connection between your Hive devices - watch this space for all that news when it happens.

The Hive View will cost you £189 on its own or £319 for a two-pack. This is also the first Hive device that's launching into USA, Canada, Ireland and Italy, as Hive expands beyond just the UK. The Hive View is available now.