If the camera is permanent, wire it. Wireless earns its place only where a cable physically can't go — a far gate, a detached shop, a rental you can't drill. That's the whole answer; the rest of this post is why Central Texas conditions make it more true here than most places.
What summer does to battery cameras
Battery and solar wireless cams are rated to operate up to around 113°F — and a camera in direct sun on a south-facing wall in August is living at the top of that range daily. Heat degrades lithium batteries fast, so the "six month" battery life you saw in the ad becomes six weeks by July, and the camera quietly stops recording between charges. The failure mode isn't dramatic; it's that the one night something happens is the night the battery was dead.
Wired PoE cameras take power over the same cable that carries footage. No batteries to cook, continuous 24/7 recording instead of motion clips, and the NVR keeps weeks of footage locally — no monthly cloud fee to rent your own video back.
The WiFi problem nobody mentions
Wireless cameras still need strong WiFi at the camera's location, which is exactly where WiFi is weakest — exterior corners, behind limestone and masonry walls that eat 5GHz signal for breakfast. Around the lake we constantly meet camera systems that "worked for a while": every neighbor's router competing on the same channels, a smart TV between the camera and the access point, and footage that stutters or drops precisely when motion (and interference) peaks.
A wire doesn't care about any of that.
Where wireless genuinely wins
We're not purists — we install point-to-point wireless links all the time for driveway gates a quarter mile out, boat docks, detached workshops on rocky grade where trenching costs more than the building. The difference is those are engineered links with dedicated radios and line-of-sight, not a battery cam praying to a distant router. And renters or short-term situations where drilling isn't allowed? Battery cams are the right honest answer there.
The hybrid most homes actually get
Our standard install around here: wired PoE at the house — doors, driveway, back approach — recording continuously to a local NVR, plus an engineered wireless bridge for anything detached. You get reliability where it matters and flexibility where it's needed. Ask for a camera walkthrough and we'll map your actual sight lines, free.