Customer Ratings & Reviews

This camera has a field of view of 160 degrees. This camera is powered by plugging it into a power source. The power adapter has a long cord to reach the camera from the plug. After downloading the Arlo Secure application, you can begin to install it following the on-screen directions. The application supports up to 15 total cameras, or you can do 5 at the Arlo web site. (my.arlo.com) A nice feature of the camera is its digital zoom of up to 12X. While you don’t realize it the is a lag between the camera and the application. This lag is noticeable when using the talk feature. The quality of the picture is outstanding, and in night mode it’s just as clear and appears like a black and white photo. I was completely surprised by the range of Wi-Fi. The camera is located about 125 feet inside a shed. I set up the camera inside the house and installed it in the shed, when house is covered with red brick still got a great signal. The camera does not have local file storage, if you want to store the video you have to purchase the upgrade. The upgrade is either monthly or yearly. The camera comes with a 30-day free trial offer. I like mostly everything about the camera except the lag.

This camera lives up to its name as being essential because it’s an indoor camera and you do need some indoor cameras. This one is plug-in and not battery powered and is very easy to set up by the app and puts out a very good picture. I’ve had Arlo cameras since the first generation and they continue to get better with each review unsurprisingly. I would like to see the ability to use as an IP camera, which would make it more useful personally for me because then I would record the output to my NAS and save all the cloud fees. Right now, Arlo’s main monthly cost covers cloud storage and a few AI features. I personally would like to see monthly fees, go away, as I will never pay for a subscription to view my cameras in the cloud. The build quality is on par with some of the other cameras I’ve reviewed. It’s fine. It will probably survive a drop or two, but let’s face it, these cameras are meant to last a couple of years max as the next best thing is right around the corner and we’re all guilty of succumbing to the temptation of the next. But until the next one, this is a great solution.

I am sure it can be pretty difficult to navigate through a number of security camera offerings as our market is pretty flooded with different brands and options. Arlo has been in business of offering security devices as well as networking products and I must say they have established themselves as one of the reliable players. If you have some type of an Arlo product, you may know that their ecosystem keeps growing. I picked up Arlo Essential 2K security camera to add to my current family of Arlo products, as I am pretty familiar with their apps and implementation. This camera is a wired one which I placed it outside of our sunroom. The installation was as always straightforward and when you fire up the app (Arlo Secure app), it will walk you through each step and help you get it connected to your Wi-Fi network. One thing to remember, since it is a wired camera, you may need to think about its location and how close it is located to your nearest outlet (it is supplied with the 16 ft power cable). Video quality is actually pretty impressive, you get clear 2K video with wide 130 degree "Field of View" which is a great way to keep an eye on things in your front driveway or your back yard. The night vision is also well polished and you get color with it as well. I found its alerts and notifications to work nice and not be bothersome and you also have ways to dial in more specifics with it. With smart detection for various subjects (people, packages, pets, etc) you will promptly get notified when your wife's car pulls up, or your Dash delivery arrives with dinner at the door. Now as always, you have to pay up for extra features and 30 day video history as well as other advanced features. Arlo offers you a month to try all of its best features for free. Unfortunately, I did not see a monthly way to pay as you will be billed annually (comes to as low as $7.99 a month). All in all, I would recommend this camera if you are already invested in Arlo ecosystem or this is your very first camera. This has been a reliable brand for me, which provides security and enhancement updates as well.

I got this camera to pair with the other pan and tilt one. What I liked about it was the ecosystem and how well it works together. With that being said, I keep having issues with connectivity after a couple of days of continued use and the issue is not fixed until the unit has been fully reset. I ended up connecting it to a wifi switch and cycling it automatically every 24 hours, and I have had no issues since. My other concern is that it is just a drop-in camera with only cloud features and you are very limited once the trial is over. I would love for there to be some onboard recording, but this feels like a bit of a money grab. I get that companies are out here to make money, but I would like the hardware to meet the software at least somewhere in the middle. I do not like having to use a third-party solution to fix something that should not have been an issue in the first place. As far as camera quality, I cannot complain at all. When you check the feed, it looks clear and you can see the subject very well. The night vision mode turns on automatically and the spotlight is bright. You can see about 15 to 20 feet from the camera’s main point of view. Would I recommend it? Not likely. Not to anyone I know who is trying to actually secure something valuable. maybe they can use it as a pet cam or nanny cam. I know it sounds like I'm complaining but I am not happy with this. I've used my fair share of pay to use cameras with much better reliability. If you're going to pay for the subscription, then maybe I'd recommend it but the reliability issue has me on the fence pretty hard.

The Arlo - Essential 1-Camera Wireless 2K Security Camera, Plug-In Powered is a great device for those who are looking for outside protection or surveillance without the need of having to replace batteries. If you have a plug-in source, this is a great camera for you. If you do not have a way to plug in this camera or not willing to install an outlet then this camera is not for you. I would have to say I was hoping that it came with some type of solution to protect the accessibility of so easily being able to unplugged this camera in my preference I would rather have battery operated cameras that I recharge or put a new batteries over a plug-in, simply for the fact that anyone can just come up and unplug this and I’m not gonna be installing outlets on the eve of my house. This camera would be better if I had a way to use a junction box if it came with an adapter instead of an outlet so you can hardwired in now one can probably already do this and cut the wire up, but most likely that would void the warranty. Also, there’s no protection on the actual power cable. I wish the power cable maybe was a little bit more protected either it came with plastic housing, which you can buy yourself for protection, but anyone can just come up and pull this camera straight down from any level because of the cable just wish it came with some type of solution to help even steel threaded sleeve around the power cable would help. Another great place that this camera actually might work would be inside a garage where you can mount this camera on the wall and have it plugged in or maybe outside by a pool or your outside oasis this might be a better solution for those type of needs. On a positive note, expect the great quality of Arlo with the app. Everything runs efficiently, smoothly and reliable. The camera is 2K quality so you have no issues there. This does come equipped with Arlo’s night vision color technology so night time viewing is optimal. It can work in super low to high temperatures from like -4 to over 110°F. The lens is wide angle at 130° not ultra wide angle at 180 but it’s sufficient at getting those angle views. It even has a spotlight which goes in hand with the ability to plug in so one won’t have to recharge if they use that feature often. You won’t go wrong if you just a need a plugged in power sourced. All the same Arlo features we know, love with quality wrapped in. Just make sure you have a way to plug in this camera and a solution to hide or protect the power cord.

This 2K indoor/outdoor camera is an economical way to add coverage to your home security environment. This unit has plug-in power so you will not need to recharge the device. I have a mix of rechargeable and plug-in units. This unit allows me to place it in a location that would be difficult to access if I had to recharge it. The Arlo app will integrate all your cameras including this one easily into an organized list of devices. Tip of the cap to the Arlo engineers both for this camera and their app as well. I found that the signal strength reception was outstanding using either 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz access points. The image is not as robust as the 4K cameras, however the image was clear and had color images both during the day and at night. It does utilize WiFi for signal connectivity. You will need to utilize subscription based cloud storage if you want to save videos. This camera has 2-way audio which I found to be very clear though sometimes there was a delay (which could be my network being slow). A siren is included as well. This combination gives me a full slate of the things I need a security camera to do in a nice weatherproof package at a low price point. I put this camera high up on the back of my house. The initial power connection was a bit more work than a rechargeable camera, but once installed I don’t have to do anything about charging the camera. I highly recommend this more basic unit for some of the areas as I mentioned where it is a great choice for home security.

Arlo has finally gone with the times and added USB-c connections to its cameras. This was really a must for Arlo's camera systems. If you owned, or own, an Arlo camera, you know the pains of dealing with their mini usb connectos. Well...the new Arlo - Essential 1-Camera 2K Security Camera, Wired Plug-In now has a USB-C connector which was a much needed upgrade. I needed a camera for the inside of my home, and I knew that I did not want something that was battery operated. So, the Arlo - Essential 1-Camera 2K Security Camera, Wired Plug-In camera was the perfect choice. I already had Arlo cameras around my home, so this was the right choice. Although the Arlo - Essential 1-Camera is only a 2k camera, the video quality is more than enough for inside of my home. I am now able to keep my home completely secure and monitored from anywhere. I can also keep an eye out on my pets to make sure that they are good whenever we are away. The camera comes with a very sturdy mount. Which is no longer a magnetic mount. Has lots of adjustability as well. I would highly recommend the Arlo - Essential 1-Camera 2K Security Camera, Wired Plug-In if you are looking for a security camera.

I'll front load this review and say my biggest issue with the Arlo ecosystem is being hit over the head at every turn inside the app with advertisements to buy more and subscribe. The cameras work well and are easy to setup. Just their business practices in the app you need to use to control the device you just bought feels so icky. Setup was simple enough. The biggest problem I had was it didn't appear to have any way to connect to an existing Arlo smart hub. So I had to connect to my own wifi. This could actually be good for you if you're planning on having this camera closer to your router than the smart hub normally is. Could be bad if you don't have good wifi coverage, though. The camera quality is pretty good. It's not as crisp but really isn't too bad next to my Arlo 4K cameras. HomeKit is easy enough to set up so you can view your camera straight from Home in iOS (I'm not sure about Android support). No HomeKit Secure Video support, though, so you'll need to navigate the Arlo app to access your recorded clips. And there's the app. While the setup process in the app is pretty nice as it takes your through the process step by step. Using the app (especially without a subscription) is kind of painful. Before I activated my trial subscription, there were ads EVERYWHERE in the app. A huge banner ads just always on the top of the app. Banner ads while scrolling through events. Large square ads wherever they could squeeze them. Just constantly being yelled at to buy more stuff or subscribe. It just made me feel icky using the app. Navigating the app was also not super intuitive and just not a fun experience in general. Speaking of the subscriptions, there's two main flavors you can purchase (which do get rid of the ads in the app). $30/mo and $20/mo. The extra $10 gets your 24/7 home monitoring and emergency services as well as their Arlo Safe Family app subscription. Both subscriptions do cover unlimited devices which is nice and give you a bunch of AI detection features as well as expanded cloud storage for your clips. But if you're looking for continuous 24/7 recording... That'll cost you! Only another $15/mo... PER CAMERA! Everything about these business practices just made me feel gross. Bottom line, these cameras are good enough for most people. They aren't going to blow your mind or anything. They're easy enough to set up and they do their job pretty well. But all of the shady upselling just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If you're fine with this, maybe consider these cameras. But I think I'd recommend at least shopping around a little bit first.

Buying a security camera these days is like buying a “Free” system from one of the big monitoring companies. You can get something nice, but expect to pay for it over time. Arlo’s latest generation essential wired camera delivers a clear view anywhere. The mount is flexible enough to attach to a wall, a bookcase, or the ceiling. It comes with a long wire which plugs into the camera using a USB-C plug. This means easy access to an extension cord or the option to use another power source. The app is easy to use and configure. It shows all your Arlo cameras of all generations. It’s compatible with home hubs and doorbells so all your devices can be in one place. Your clips may not have the same luck. Arlo no longer supports home hubs. If you have a hub from when Arlo was selling them previously, it will not work with the current generation of cameras. These cameras only support the cloud subscription service Arlo sells. While there were some lag issues with the home hub, Arlo has done away with the free option even if it wasn’t ideal. Notifications will also only be sent if you subscribe to one of Arlo’s monitoring plans. There are plans which include all cameras in the cloud, which is nice if you happen to have several as I do. However, it’s nearly the same cost to get cloud storage for a single camera as it is to get it for the whole house. Cameras from Euffy and Wyze have micro SD card slots which allow for local storage and playback over the web. While their picture quality isn’t as sharp and the streaming is slower, those other brands will save you on monthly costs.

My existing home security setup is all Power-over-Ethernet so I was interested to see how wireless cameras would compare. This is the first Arlo camera system I have tried and after some time with the system I came away with mixed feelings. On the hardware side of the device, the physical construction of the device is mostly plastic. This camera requires mounting as there is no base mounting bracket to just sit the device down. The power connection is on the bottom center which also makes fit an eyesore when installing. I don’t understand why the power connection wasn’t placed on the rear of the unit so it could be hidden from view when mounted. On paper the specs of the camera are exceptional for this price category. The camera is 2K resolution with 12X digital zoom. The device includes 2-way audio and echo cancellation and even a siren to scare people to death. For daily operation you’ll be relying on the SmartPhone app. This is the first wireless camera I’ve tried as I prefer POE but that is not an option for this camera. The camera supports 802.11n for 2Ghz and 5Ghz and I’m using Wifi 7 AP’s on a Internet connection of 1.5GB download/ 350MB Upload. I was surprised at how slowly the video operations work within the app compared with my wired cameras. As an aside, I have remote controlled robot vacuum cleaners on the same wifi and their controls respond instantly so whatever software controls are being triggered they are just not useful for anything more than frustration. And the final thing to note is that this camera has no local storage and no ability to switch to local video storage which means you’ll be paying for a monthly subscription ranging from $7.99 a month for a single camera up to $24.99 a month depending on the specific features you need. The camera comes with a 30 day free-trial period so you can experiment.