Customer Ratings & Reviews

I was an early adopter when Arlo first came on the scene. I was then and am now very happy with the form factor. It is very compact and unobtrusive. So, why not 5 stars? First, to get the full features you need a subscription. In this case the subscription is reasonable at (I believe) $7.99 a month for one camera. The other reason for 4 stars is that the battery is not removable so you need to take the device in to charge and be without coverage for a few hours. For me, this is not a huge issue as the area in which I live is not high crime and I could charge it while I am home. However, if you plan on using it in a hard to reach area, there is a good option but one with an additional cost. The Arlo - Mountable Solar Panel Charger, 2025 Release - White; is compatible and according to tech support, will provide battery charging essentially forever. This is the route I will take as the panel is reasonably priced in my opinion, and should make the unit completely self contained. So, for the 4 stars it did get. I gave them because setup was easy and there is no hub required. Image quality is very good. I can certainly identify the person or animal coming to the door! The two way audio also works very well and is easy for both parties to hear each other. The 30-day trial of an Arlo Secure Plan is included for premium features like 60-Day Video History, Person & Vehicle Recognition, Package & Animal Detection, Custom Detection, and Fire Detection. A very complete and easy to use package that integrates with Google Home and Alexa. At the time of this review I notice Best Buy has a good sale going. This is a good value for a decent piece of tech!!

While floodlight cameras are great for driveways and back yards, sometimes a nice compact camera is exactly what is needed for areas where appearance matters. The trick is finding a smaller device that still performs well. This Arlo - Essential 1-Camera Wireless 2K Security Camera is the best of both worlds. It’s very unobtrusive and it works perfectly for the side of my house. I didn’t need a floodlight that would annoy the neighbors, yet I wanted high resolution camera. The battery life seems to last an impressive amount of time and it doesn’t take an unreasonable amount of time to charge to full capacity. It has been up and running for a week now and still shows 70% capacity. That’s impressive for a small battery. The mount is simple with a plastic plate. The plate comes with several screw options, but it does require screws to mount it. The camera easily slides onto the mounting plate and clicks in place to secure the camera. Finally, the mobile application works very well for setting it up. The alerting sensitivity can be adjusted easily and the resolution can be changed on the fly. I was able to easily attach the camera to vinyl siding by attaching a square plate to the siding.

My neighbors on both sides had their catalytic converters stolen off their motorhomes so I figured I better get a real cam since my fake ones didn’t deter. I got this cute little camera- every thing seemed easy to use so I figured it would be perfect for a non-tech-savvy person. Eventually got it out of the box- packed very tight- and charged it up as the instructions say. Turned it on once charged I think because there is no light to say it’s fully charged. Anyway, easily turned on and any movement close up turned on a blinding light. I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off! Eventually I found in the app to turn off the spotlight. So, it has a great view- color looks accurate, has a couple of seconds delay but that’s fine. It had night vision which is a very important feature. Sound works good as well. I plan to place it in a window looking on the driveway so sound function won’t be used, and I have it set to turn on at 8:30pm- oh wait-I don’t. I had it set and saved but it’s not. The more I dug into this the more it became non- user friendly for me. Too many options, I thought I was saving settings and they did not. So, frustrating and useless for me. I tried and invested a few hours on the app and just not for me. I’ll keep it set in the window and hope…ug

Arlo - Essential 1-Camera Wireless 2K Security Camera (3rd Gen) Battery Powered is a solid security camera. It has many great features; however, the one caveat to having anything that is battery powered is that either, you buy a solar charger or you have a plan for changing out the battery. Due to me already having several Arlo cameras, adding this one to my collection was rather easy. However, even if this is the first time owning an Arlo camera, the setup is still simple. Create the account, add the camera allow it to connect to the correct network and let the camera update the firmware. Now, why four stars instead of five? Well, the mounting kind of stinks with it being a wireless camera. So again, buy the solar charger and it will not be a problem. The mounting plate (Bracket) is very easy to install, but and all, but you have to pull your camera off every time for it to charge. The application on the phone is very easy to use. Setup is a breeze, the video quality is great, and I can determine whether or not I want specific notifications.

Before attempting to install the camera fully charge it. After fully charging the battery should last up to 8 months. 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) The camera supports digital zoom up to 12X. The quality of the video is spot on. Even in the dark it’s like looking at a black and white photo. While you don’t realize it there is a lag between the camera and the application. This lag is noticeable when using the talk feature. 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; The 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.

I’ve had a chance to try different security systems, and they all come with their pros and cons. Overall, I am happy with this 3rd Gen Arlo security camera. The resolution is more than you need (2k), I’ve had a 4k camera and it doesn’t ever really look like 4k resolution, so this is enough. The field of view is nice and wide to capture everything you want to capture. I have this outside in Colorado weather, and although it has not been through a winter season, I am not worried about any battery issues. There are two things that do worry me about the camera. First, the color is pure white and having this outside in the sun for a long-time will get sun burn and the white will get yellowish. I wish there was some type of protection so this doesn’t happen, but I guess time will tell. Another thing is these subscriptions to get the best features for a camera! Why does one need to pay a monthly fee to fully benefit from the features in the camera. I dislike that everyone now offers a subscription literally for everything, so I wish Arlo would just provide all the features without additional fees.

Having used Arlo security cameras for a while now, several of my originals are giving out and/or obsolete. The Essential line of Arlo cameras are advertised as the "do it all" of the Arlo family. I was concerned that this was going to be the basic of cameras, but boy was I wrong. Now don't get me wrong, Arlo has high end, 4K cameras for a nice price. But the Essential line is more about being all together with simplicity. It can be used stand alone, but I just added it to my existing base. Having other cameras to compare it to, this Essential Arlo is pretty large as opposed to other Arlos. It also has a fixed battery so keep this in mind where you place it as you will have to take it down to charge or supply power to it full time. All mounting parts are included and is very easy to complete. Even the Arlo app guides you in mounting and set-up. The Arlo app found the camera quickly and updated it right away. The Essential camera has 2K resolution and seems on par with my Arlo Pro 4K. Not too much of a difference. It also has a VERY bright security light and built in siren which is not too loud but easily heard throughout the yard where I mounted it. It also has 2-way communication which worked well but does have a few second lag (depending on your internet speed, I'm sure). I have been impressed with its operation so far. A lot of competitor cameras have issues being mounted outdoors, but the Arlo Essential has had no issues. So as a good overall security camera this Arlo Essential is worth the money and will not disappoint. Hope it works well for you also!

I currently own multiple Arlo’s cameras including the XL version of this Outdoor Essential 3rd Gen. Like any other Arlo’s camera the built quality is top notch. The setup is pretty simple, just scan the included QR code, which directs you to your device’s App Store to download the Arlo app. Once installed, simply create a username (if you don't have one) and follow the on-screen instructions to begin setup. The camera includes a USB-C cable and mounting screws for a simple DIY installation. Since it isn’t fully charged out of the box, I recommend fully charging it before mounting. The app makes the Wi-Fi setup process seamless, it took me about six minutes or so to name the camera’s location and get everything connected. The 2k video quality in this camera is outstanding and even more impressive is the night vision. Battery life performance is pretty good. In a course of 4 days, the battery percentage dropped about 9% which is roughly 3% higher consumption in a shorter time compared to the XL model which consumes about 6% in a week. This camera includes the smart features like its siblings, and also comes with integrated spot light, siren, and two-way talk audio communication. Overall, this is a great indoor or outdoor security camera that is well constructed and well priced. It has excellent video quality, reliable performance, smart features, and excellent battery life make this an easy 5-star product. In the box you get the camera, USB charging cable, installation kit and quick guide.

There are two different angles on which I’m going to review this camera - as a security camera, and as a part of a smart home. First off, as a security camera it does pretty well. I haven’t had any serious problems with it. I was a bit worried about a camera with a battery, but the battery has lasted a pretty long time without charging it. I’m honestly pretty happy with that, and as such would consider this a great camera for people who can’t hardwire one (such as renters). The picture quality is good - during the day, it’s pretty clear, and with night vision on it’s pretty reasonable. I’ve not yet had any false positives with motion detection (though all the motion detected has just been me). The motion detection recordings seem like they kick in a bit late, though. One serious concern that I do have is that the box says it’s an outdoor camera, but the manual says to not get it wet under any circumstances. This really limits where it can be mounted - for instance, I can put one of these on my porch under the roof; but I couldn’t put it on the side of my house to catch the driveway without risking damaging it. I don’t feel like that was a good call to make for an outdoor camera. Second, as a piece of smart home tech, I’m not super thrilled with it. I can add it to Google Home, for instance, but I’ve never been able to get Google Home to actually show a video feed (it gets stuck on “live video unavailable”). I can access it just fine in the Arlo app, meanwhile, so I know the camera itself is working just fine. It feels like it’s supposed to be a part of my smart home, and maybe do things like change the arm mode based on if people are home, but it just kind of doesn’t work properly so I don’t know. This isn’t wonderful. What’s more, you need a subscription to use features such as vehicle/person recognition and video retention; and I supposedly had one activated as soon as I registered the camera, but the Arlo app doesn’t show it and I don’t have any of the features operational. Software really makes or breaks a smart home component, and so far it’s really breaking this one for me. I would recommend this camera, as long as you’ve got a place to put it that’s safe from rain and you’re not too worried about it integrating with your smart home. If smart home integration is important to you, or you don’t have anywhere safe from the rain to install it, you may wish to consider another model.

So far, everything related to this purchase has been good.