Arlo - Ultra 4-Camera Indoor/Outdoor Wire-Free 4K HDR Security Camera System - Black

I have been a Arlo user for couple of years I bought the Arlo Pro 2 6 camera pack they were good But the ULTRAS have several significant upgrades like the wider field of view the audio is quite a improvement And the color Night vision

The new Arlo Ultra Security Camera and Hub are nice improvements from the previous Pro 2 series, adding 4K video, enhanced hub, spot light and an update mobile app along with other excellent features. Setup was rather smooth with the mobile Arlo App, had my system up and running within an hour. The app walks you step by step through the whole process, from setting up the network connection to adding and placing cameras. Covers all the bases in a security camera system. Clear crisp video monitoring and recording. Love the fact you can zoom the camera to read a license plate in the driveway. For me it is great for keeping an eye on the kid and Beagle on our football field size front and rear yards. We live on the edge of the city with ten acres, three acres being in yard and seven acres in woods, it is a big plus to have an excellent view of our surroundings. Features that make the Arlo a leading security cameras system: - “Noise-cancelling microphones that reduces distracting background noises like wind, rain and street activity, providing you clearer distortion-free sound.” - Two-way microphones and speakers for clear conversation, fun when your friend watches your house for you! - One-year Arlo smart 30 days of cloud storage. - e911 service which will send police to your home with a touch of a button. - Weather resistant in all seasons. - Color night vision. - Spotlight built into the camera. - SD Storage. - Good documentation (download). - 180-degree view. Have mixture Arlo Ultra and Pro2 cameras in my system, which work seamlessly together connected to the Arlo Ultra Hub. The hub is backward compatible with all Arlo wire-less cameras. I keep my cameras plugged in so that I do not have to charge them weekly, so I have not tested the battery charge life. What I do like about the wire-less nature of the cameras is that it is simple to unplug them from the charging cable and place them in temporary locations. Arlo is still using Adobe Flash; I believe they need make the move on to html for smoother operations on the PC. On a Windows 10 PC with Chrome you must enable Flash in Chrome and each time you want to view a camera feed must re-allow Flash Player within the interface to run. The mobile app does not require that extra exercise to view the camera feed. Coupled with our home/garage security system the Arlo Ultra gives us an extra security layer that keeps us feeling comfortable at home and away.

This so called 4k system has such low video quality that when you try to zoom in on a face from less than 15 feet away it looks like a tv show where they purposely blurred out of the face. I really don’t know how they claim this is 4K when it’s not even 480p Totally unusable footage if zoomed at all. Also, when it gets a little foggy or it rains they cloud up & are even more useless. I did also buy a high speed sd card for it because it was supposed to have better video quality with it but it didn’t improve at all. Also if you plan on having the cameras further than 20 feet away they have a Posterous amount of lag time & audio cut out. Even when right next to the base station they have tons of lag time. It’s not my internet, modem or router either. I have a very high end gaming setup. Also, they start recording when motion is detected but they take a few seconds to start recording so whomever or whatever set off the camera is often left the view of the camera before it starts recording. Horrible... The batteries only last about a week if your lucky,so you go buy the solar panels for them adding an additional $250 to the cost of the system. Only to have to return it all upon finding out that the video quality was so horrible. By the time I was done buying the entire system I was over $1350.00 in. After I returned everything I did my research and found “backstreet surveillance” cameras that have actual 4K video & optical zoom lenses for just a couple hundred dollars more. Best Buy should look into carrying their products.

I’ve had a few recent security cameras that were total dogs. These weren’t cheap no-name cameras. A few have retail prices of several hundred dollars and were made by major, well-established manufacturers. With the exception of two brands, every other security camera I’ve tried has been a total failure. The biggest common problem was connectivity. Most of the dog cameras failed to maintain connectivity. They’d work fine for a little while but eventually lost connectivity during the day. That’s a dealbreaker. I’m not even a demanding user. Other than our doorbell camera, we only need camera coverage when we’re away. I don’t need to see my home when I’m there. Therefore, I need rock-solid reliable remote connectivity. This Arlo camera has so far proven to be very reliable as far as connectivity. I believe the included hub is a major reason. So far, I’ve had no issues connecting, even if it sometimes takes a minute or so to connect to live footage. The Arlo camera was easy to set up, configure, place and use. The included magnetic camera mounts are very strong and can be installed pretty much anywhere. An Arlo account is mandatory but easy to create. The camera can either work off of battery or ac power (with optional additional equipment). The user-replaceable battery can be charged without removing it from the camera using the included magnetic USB charging cable and AC adapter. Battery life depends on usage. I typically get a full day or two of use per charge. This is for an 8-10 hour period, not 24 continuous hours. Video quality is very good but not what I would consider spectacular, even in 4K. With 4K enabled, it’s about on par with the HD quality of my other reliable cameras, particularly the one that rhymes with “west”. The Arlo can capture up to a wide 180 degree area. The one and seemingly only area of weakness that I’ve noticed is backlighting. If there are any bright light sources like windows or lighting in the frame, they blow out the exposure of the immediate surrounding area. I even get overexposure from windows on somewhat bright overcast days. I tried adjusting brightness but it only marginally improved the overexposure and is the only setting available to do so. I attached photos of the same area recorded on the Arlo camera and photographed with my smartphone. The properly exposed photo is the cell phone. I did not make any exposure settings. That’s fully automatic exposure. The two overexposed photos are the Arlo camera. One is before and one after adjusting brightness. Low light and night vision recordings are very good and the camera has a motion triggered light for full color recording when triggered. Motion detection is good as well. If something passes in front of the camera, it gets recorded. As good as my doorbell camera is, there are occasional times where it will inexplicably miss motion triggered events. The app is very good with alerts and notifications of triggered events. The camera also does a good job of detection people in a scene, even if they face away from the camera and stay on the fringe edges of the recorded area. The camera also supports two-way conversations and can sound a loud alarm on demand. The app is easy to use and a full year premium subscription trial is included. The premium subscription includes up to 10 cameras, 30 days of video playback, activity zones, person detection and e911. The camera also supports an external USB for constant video recording. An optional CVR subscription is required for that feature. The live viewing, activity history and playback all work very well on the app, even remotely. The app also supports fingerprint login. I am satisfied with the Arlo cam. I like the reliability, ease of use, recording quality and even the added bonus features. It’s not the cheapest option but the premium is worth it, especially with far inferior cameras out there selling for similar or higher prices.

I got this camera for security at my front door. We don't really have any crime where I live. I have a sheriff's deputy next door and a detective across the street. However, we have had a few instances of some kids ringing our doorbell and running off at 2:00-3:00 am. This prompted me to want to get a camera to find out exactly who is doing it. They haven't been back since I installed the camera. I unpacked everything and decided where I wanted to install the camera. I chose the front corner column of my front porch facing the front door. This keeps the camera from being easily seen from the front yard. With the camera being white and my column/house being white, it is hard to notice unless you are looking for it. Installation was simple. The mount and the camera have a very strong magnet. The mount is concave and the back of the camera is a rounded shape. This allows you to install the mount and then adjust the camera without changing the mount position. It is a simple one screw installation. Just install the screw and slide the mount onto it. Installation and getting the camera adjusted to point exactly where I wanted it to took less than three minutes. The Arlo app is simple to use and set up. Just download it and follow the instructions. I have the hub close to the router and the camera is directly in line with my router, with only the outside wall between the camera and router. I haven't had any issues with connection as others have stated. I have a new tri-band gaming router that has a large range. Perhaps others have a lower end router and/or more walls between the two. In setting up the camera, there are many options. You can set dead zones that will not trigger the camera. This is great if your camera's view sees a road, or trees that could set it off in the wind. I have a small section in frame that catches the road, so I have set that corner as a dead zone to eliminate false alerts. You have different options as far as when it is armed. You can set it to capture video and audio and to set off the alarm. I prefer to leave the alarm off because I don't want it to go off every time someone delivers a package. I have it set to alert me any time there is movement in the "alert" area. The options for motion alert include people, vehicles, animals and other motion. I have mine set to record people and all other motion. This should, in theory not alert if a dog walks up to the door for example. I haven't had this happen, so I can't speak to how well it works.I have had several incidences of a carpenter bee and wasp setting off the camera. However, they were within inches and even crawling on the lens, so I would expect that. This being a 4K camera with HDR, the resolution is perfect. You can see everything in detail. You can even zoom in on the live image up to 12X. At night, the images are perfectly clear as well. If you want to see it in color, you can turn on the spotlight (which is quite bright) and the image will be in color. The wide angle lens captures everything in a 180-degree field of view. You can have the camera automatically zoom and track movement. I personally leave this feature off as you lose some video quality with this option and my area that I'm covering is small enough that I don't need it. The battery life is great. They state a 3-6 month battery life with the standard battery and normal usage. Of course, the more you view the camera, the more battery usage will occur. I installed this camera a couple of weeks ago and the battery level is at 88% and I have been viewing the camera a lot and turning the lights on and off a lot since it is new. I fully believe that they are accurate in their battery life estimate. They do have an optional solar charger that you can get so that you never have to charge the battery. Charging is magnetic as well. Simply remove the camera from the mount, attach the charger and hang the camera back up when it's done. You have the ability to speak to people through the camera, or set off an alarm. I tried the alarm this morning through the app. The app warned me that the alarm was extremely loud. However, I was standing in my bedroom about 20 feet away when I set the alarm off and I could barely hear it. I even opened the front door where the camera is at, and although it was loud enough to scare someone off, I don't believe that my neighbors could hear it, so it's not very loud at all. There is also an option for e911. You set your address and if necessary, you can press the e911 button to alert police. You can do this from anywhere in the world and it will use the address of the camera, not where you are, to alert the police. There are a couple of drawbacks with this camera. First, the alert is about a three second delay for me and my setup. While this is kind of expected due to the transmission from the camera, to the router, and finally to my phone, the theory of catching a package theif in the act is a little unreasonable. Anyone could walk up, grab your package and be gone before you are even alerted. Therefore, being able to get the alert, bring the app up and tell them to leave your package alone will never happen. Although you will have a crystal clear video of them doing it to turn over to the police. Also, while the mount is secured with a screw, the camera is only held in place with a magnet. This means that anyone could just grab it and run off with it. They do have an optional mount that screws into the camera, and this would make it a little more secure and harder to remove. I believe this mount should be included with the camera also at this price point. Overall, this is a great camera with many features. I am probably going to get a second camera to mount by the garage to oversee it and the driveway. I highly recommend this camera. I would even suggest getting this setup with multiple cameras. Believe me, once you see it, you will want more cameras. I have included two pictures. Both at night. One is with the spotlight off, and the other with the spotlight on, which gives you full color.