Arlo Pro (Open Box)

When I received this wireless camera system and began unboxing, my initial impression was good. Attractive styling and the base unit was a bit smaller than I expected based on the photos I had seen. It can be placed just about anywhere with it’s small footprint and contemporary styling. After unpacking all parts I feel a second AC adapter or charging block would be a welcome addition. More about that later. Both batteries ship fully charged so you can plug in the base station, run through the setup and begin using the system in about 15-30 minutes. The Arlo app, downloadable from the AppStore is well designed and makes setup quick and easy. This was a pleasant surprise due to my less than exemplary experience with previous router setup apps from Netgear. There are four aspects that I feel warrant significant improvement: First is the Web interface. Overall, the interface is well laid out and easy to navigate. The features available on the free plan are sufficient for just about everyones needs. But the Achilles heel is that fact that they are still using flash to display the videos. FLASH IS DEAD folks! Even Adobe says so. I don’t typically have it installed since it has a long history of issues with stability and security. Ironic for a security camera interface?!?! Fortunately, I am able to fire up Chrome and use the site. But this is a serious negative in my book. Second, the alert siren is only on the base. Sure, if you want to be alerted to an intruder detected where one of the cameras are placed this will do the job. But other systems have the ability to alarm at the camera site. I feel that this would be a better way of attempting to scare off would-be criminals from the premises. Third, as with other systems that I have tried, the app on iOS will drain your battery very quickly. There must be a way to refine the code so that it’s not so power hungry. This is the downfall of other wireless cam systems that I have tried so the Arlo is not unusual in this regard, but it is irritating. I don’t see why I can stream HD videos on my phone for hours, but can only stream on these cams for minutes. Fourth and finally, the seals on the charge ports of the cameras do not fit well. They are flimsy and on one camera will not stay in at all. This likely won’t have too much affect on my usage as they will be mounted under the eve of my home and not directly exposed to the rain/snow but if your installation is different you will want to consider this in your selection. Now for all the things that I like: Video quality is far better than other cams I have tried. There is much less of the fisheye effect and video is sharp and smooth. The motion detection works very well and is not an add on service as with their competitors. Their low light performance is above average, but you must consider your installation. In night mode, if you are trying to use it through a window, you will get a bright reflection in your image from the infrared lighting that is projected by the camera. But this is the nature of the beast, not a flaw with the camera design at all. Just consider your placement and plan before you buy. For monitoring indoor rooms or outside of your home at night, it would be a challenge to find a better cam system. The mounts are simple and easy to install. They use a magnetic ball joint connection with the camera which should allow you all the range of aiming that you need. The magnets are quite strong and I’m not at all worried about the wind ripping them off; and I live in a part of Illinois where we routinely experience 40-60 mph sustained winds. I’m in the Mt. Washington of Illinois! But with any cam that uses a magnetic mount, you have to consider carefully the placement. You not only need to choose a location that will give you a clear view of the area you wish to monitor; but you have to consider access to the cams. You have to balance your ease of access when you have to retrieve the cams to swap or charge the batteries, while still having them located out of easy reach for thieves. In my situation one will be mounted outside of a second story bedroom window. I can reach out and grab the cam easily, but it’s high enough off the ground that no one else has access without an extension ladder. But for the front of the house I will have to mount it over the garage which will required ME getting on a ladder. With an expected battery life of around 6 months this isn’t a huge deal and I may choose to just run power to the zone and keep the cam powered with electric. (which means that I’ll have to buy a second charger to charge the other cam) Barring my aversion to Flash, the web interface is so very good. You are able to adjust all of the settings just as you can with the app, view your library of events, view live streams from the cams and take snapshots. Any of the videos or stills can then be easily downloaded as mp4’s for video and jpg’s for stills. Good to see them using industry standards for compatibility. You can setup the cams to record with motion detection and more precisely with “activity zones” which I found to be much better than other systems. They will detect motion just about anywhere in the frame including the far edges. Alternately, you can set them to record at specific times. Oddly though, you must use the app and not the web interface to set recording based on geofencing. But even with this restriction, it’s a neat feature to have. Another HUGE plus with the Arlo system over competitors, is that in the “free” account you can store up to SEVEN days of events without incurring additional charges. If you are familiar with Amazon Alexa, IFTTT, SmartThings then you will be happy to know that this systems supports their use as well. But not even a mention of HomeKit. I hope that this will be an addition through an update in the future. The two-way audio is remarkably average. But you shouldn’t expect high fidelity from a speaker that small. It’s good enough for you to notify someone in the cams range and understand their response. The base station also provides a feature that most others don’t. USB ports for connecting external storage devices. You can connect a flash drive or hard drive to provide local storage of events so you wouldn’t even need to use the cloud based storage if you didn’t want to. But if you’re buying a system like this, one of the outstanding features is the remote access and storage. There are also a line of compatible accessories that are offered for the Arlo system. Several different types of mounts, solar chargers, spare batteries, charging stations (which I think should be included also—hint: netgear) and black or cams skins for making the cams less obvious. Summary: It is my opinion that the Arlo Pro 2 is one of the best, if not THE best, wireless home security camera systems available. I have tried a couple others but this one is definitely a keeper. Excellent video quality, low light quality, motion triggered events and user interface bring it out on top. With a few refinements they could easily change my review to a 5 star across the board! The price is a little higher than competitors, but the difference in performance and included storage helps to justify the cost and increase the overall value.