Customers are delighted by the Essential XL 1-Camera Outdoor Wireless 2K Security Camera for its impressive picture quality, long battery life, and user-friendly app. Customers rave about the camera's ability to capture clear and colorful images, with one customer even saying, "The quality is very good, great quality picture/video." The extended battery life is another highlight, with users appreciating the convenience of not having to recharge the camera frequently. The easy-to-use app also receives praise for its intuitive interface and seamless functionality.
This summary was generated by AI based on customer reviews.
The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.
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Pros mentioned:
Battery life, Camera quality, Ease of use
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Excellent quality, not sure about battery life yet
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Posted . Owned for 3 weeks when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I bought these to replace a 1st generation outdoor nest cam. I only needed one, but there was a sale on the 3 pack and it was the same price as a single camera. The video quality is crystal clear and I like that it shines a light when recording movement in the dark. Installation is a breeze through the app and I like that they don' have to be plugged in. Ive only had them a month and the batteries are at 37%, 58%, 88%. High traffic areas like a driveway will trigger a lot of recordings and drain the battery. I have yet to recharge them, so i will wait to see how much of a pain it is since they require ladders to take them down in my installation.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I originally got an Arlo system about 6 years ago, but wasn’t impressed with the non-rechargeable battery and slow motion detection. 6 years later I decided to try again with the Essential XL 3 camera pack. I’m glad I did. I’ve had them about two weeks and the battery levels have only dropped 5%-7% with moderate usage. The advertised 12-16 months battery life is probably optimistic, but either way I can take them all down at once and recharge when necessary. The app works well and I like the routines I can set up for each camera. Even though I don’t need an Arlo hub, I’m still trying to decide it that would bring any additional functionality (other than local storage which sounds difficult to retrieve).
I had the Blink cameras which worked well for the price, but having to replace the batteries and low resolution (1080 at best) made me start looking for a replacement. Probably the only, and biggest, advantage to the Blink camera system was the ability to have local storage and not required to pay for a cloud subscription. This is probably the biggest downfall with Arlo cameras is the requirement to purchase a cloud subscription to get the most out of the system. I already knew that when I bought it, but that is the reason for the 4 stars, rather than 5.
I’d still recommend the Arlo cameras as they give me a sense of security that I can view motion alerts and a view of my house. Just be prepared to pay for a cloud subscription, which appears to keep going up in price.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Best picture quality and set up easy. Great price, I have a ring doorbell about to switch over to a Arlo doorbell because of emergency push button cops,firefighters, ambulance with be there in minutes with a push of a button from your phone.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
When it comes to home surveillance, nothing compares. Just caught/deterred a potential grand theft auto in my front yard and could see these people as clear as day...at 4am. Can't complain on a great deal and a peace of mind. Thanks.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
This is my first door camera. The app for the camera is easy to use. The quality is very good, live feed option, and alerts for motion & person detection. Fees are low, I pay $8.
I would recommend this to a friend
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Worth it
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Posted . Owned for less than 1 week when reviewed.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Working great catching so many videos of wild life around the ranch plus caught four robbers
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
TLDR; 2K resolution, 130 degree FOV, 4x Battery Life (up to one year without a charge), 2-way audio. Color night vision, Integrated Spotlight, Siren. Arlo Secure required for cloud-stored recordings. Very good at capturing events from the moment they start. Live feed latency is still prominent. Arlo Secure App or the Arlo Web Portal for viewing live feeds and recordings.
Arlo cameras were my first venture into home security way back when they released their first Arlo Wire-Free cameras. It was revolutionary for me for one simple reason: I didn’t have to hardwire the cameras. After a few iterations of their wire-free solutions, I moved on to other camera security solutions. Revisiting Arlo and their latest Essential XL cameras are both familiar and surprising. Their camera technology has come a long, long way and they are affordable.
The design of the Arlo camera hasn’t changed. The Essential XL shares the same cues of the legacy cameras, and it’s a very distinct and recognizable brand of camera. For me, it was very surprising to feel the size and heft of the XL. It’s a beast of a camera with solid construction. A lot of that weight is attributed to the large battery it’s packing. Arlo claims that it holds 4x the battery life of its Essential counterpart. This means that under normal use, I could presumably run these cams for about a year before I have to go and recharge the battery. Installation of the Essential XLs are a bit different from what I remember. The old Arlos attached with a magnetic base. These new XLs use a low profile screw mount system that can still be adjusted, and be easily removed when a charge is needed. The included shallow mounts need to be affixed to a wall with two included screws.
The biggest change from what I remember is the move from using an Arlo base station to direct connection to your WiFi network. This is a plus because in today’s homes a mesh network covers the entire house, and you can now mount your cameras most anywhere you have WiFi coverage available. The base station limited that flexibility, and I remember how I could only affix cameras to my front yard, but not the backyard.
Some new features that I didn’t have in the past Arlos are the inclusion of an LED light and a siren. The LED light softly illuminates when movement is detected. It isn’t a blinding light by any means, but it does light up an area well enough for the camera sensor to capture a much clearer feed. The siren can be triggered automatically or manually depending on app configuration using the Arlo Secure App. Another cool feature using the Arlo Secure app is the inclusion of local fire, law enforcement and medical agencies at the slide of a button. This is especially handy because you’ll need assistance at your place of residence. If you’re away from home and try to call 911, you’ll end up getting help relative to where you are…not where your Arlos are.
Performance-wise, I’d say that the Arlo has come a long way in capturing detections across the board. I used to subscribe to Arlo Secure in the past, and it was able to distinguish people and vehicles (and even animals), and the XL does a stellar job at it. The one huge, huge improvement that I can see is the ability for the camera to cache enough video to capture movement moments before it happens. In the past, the motion sensor would be triggered, but the recording ends up being movement already halfway or past halfway into its actual start. It’s a big reason why I moved on from Arlo, but it looks like Arlo has since improved on this greatly! Recordings can go as high as 5 minutes just as long as there is movement to be seen. Recordings are run until movement stops. With the inclusion of the LED light, recordings are much clearer at night if you much prefer true color recordings instead of the night vision. LEDs are low power so I don’t think it will impact battery life.
Just talking about the Arlo Secure app, it provides a dashboard to your individual cameras and their respective events captured, and a timeline showing all recorded events on a single page. You can set up camera behaviors for when you’re in Away, Home and Standby modes. What’s cool is that each camera on the dashboard will show a still of the very last event recording. You can go back and replay all events, or even have a live stream of each camera, although I remember this being the biggest reason why my camera life was shortened. Only live stream if you have to, in my opinion. There are a number of tuning knobs for each camera, especially setting up detection zones as well as detection sensitivity and detection quality. It is worth noting that there is an equivalent Arlo Web Portal to perform any action that can be done in the Arlo Secure App.
My ONLY gripe with Arlo is camera latency, which is still evident during my testing of camera live streams. There’s a 5-10 second latency to get the live stream going up on your phone, and then another 2-3 seconds of live stream latency itself. In other words, your view of the live feed is 2-3 seconds behind from real-time. Now imagine that in a real world situation; you get notified that there is someone approaching your front door, and you want to pull up the live feed to see if anything suspicious is going to happen. Before you know it, that person could have walked up, taken something from your front door and back even before your feed starts rolling. I don’t know if this is just a thing for the Essential cams, but regardless, it’s been years since my last Arlo and these cams still have the same latency. I took a star off for that. That being said, this is only an issue during live streaming and timeliness; playing back recorded events is not an issue at all.
The last thing I want to talk about is Arlo Secure, and it’s not a free service. As a matter of fact, you will not have any free storage for recording and you’ll only be able to view a live feed of your cameras. You’ll still get motion detection notifications, but only simple “motion detected” notifications. So it’s worth noting that there are other systems out there that offer free cloud recordings, but even now I feel like those are far fewer nowadays. Arlo Secure comes in three tiers: (1) Secure, (2) Secure Plus and (3) Safe and Secure Pro. The main difference between (1) and (2) is that (2) provides that agency contact over (1). The main differences from (2) and (3) is that (3) provides 24/7 professional monitoring and Arlo Safe features over (2). All Secure tiers provide 30 days of up to 4K recording. So the bottom line is that you can expect to spend a little extra over the course of a year on top of the cost of the cameras.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Cloud recording expensive 29.00 per month.
One camera wentnout want hild charge, I have them both
On solar panels and front camera want connect
It keep saying battery too low to connect however, i charge over night and retried same message.
Thank you for your review. For help troubleshooting Arlo Solar Panel issues, please read the following article: https://kb.arlo.com/000045870. For further assistance, please navigate to Settings > Support in the Arlo App for service options available to you.
We appreciate your patience and understanding.
Best Regards, Arlo Team
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
ARLO camera all the way!!!!
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I've been arlo user since 2019. I've these at home and at our main Office. I'ts a must have smart camera device.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
The Arlo Essential XL 3 camera bundle is a nice addition to my home for keeping an eye on things.
The Essential XL cameras that come with this bundle are fantastic for placing in multiple spots around my property. 3 cameras in this pack helpt to give me a more complete overall view to be in the know at all times. These cameras offer a 2K view to help get clear pics and video of people or objects on camera. The battery life is where this camera truly shines. I have had Arlo cameras in the past and this one is similar in size, but houses a much larger battery. This will prove to be helpful for the long term since I don't have to top off the charge as frequently. The color night vision is a nice feature on this lineup of cameras since it helps to capture a more accurate visual of who or what is on camera even in low light hours. I have my cameras outdoors and indoors, which is great since these are useful in many situations. I like the adjustable base of the cameras when wall mounted so I can maneuver and position them at my desired viewing area. As expected on a camera like this you can easily do 2 way audio with your party on camera. Activate the siren if needed via the app. There is also a bright spotlight built in that can be turned on manually, or be set to activate with motion as it occurs. There is a pretty wide 130 degree field of view that makes things easy to spot on camera to be alerted to anything that could be of concern. One feature I liked was that this camera has a flat base to it so it can rest on its own on a flat surface so you may not have to wall mount it depending on your circumstances and location. All the components are included in the box to mount this to a wall, along with 3 charging cables. The cameras will all run off of battery power and wifi. Easy to setup and install. This camera system is limited to 2.4Ghz wifi so it'll be important to have a strong connection to make the most out of video capability and wifi strength.
Arlo has the Arlo Secure app that guides you through the process of installation for the wall mount and easily connecting the camera to the app via bluetooth. The camera shines even more with the featured service from Arlo, which comes at a charge. You'll get the video clips, and ability to have professional monitoring. This is a good camera set to purchase if you plan on paying for a subscription based monitoring service via Arlo. You'll get a free 30 day sample with your new setup, but required to pay afterwards.
If your home is already using a smart assistant speaker, you'll be in luck with this Arlo Essential XL 3 camera bundle. This works with Google Home, Alexa, and IFTTT. Overall a good value to get multiple cameras with 2K capability to monitor and protect your home and loved ones.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I've been an Alro fan for years. I have many cameras - ranging from Arlo 1, ArloQ, Pro3, Pro4, Pro5, Arlo Floodlight and now Arlo Essential XL Gen 2! With the addition of these 3 XL Gen 2 cameras, I'm retiring my legacy Arlo 1 with the CR123 batteries - YEAH!
I'm currently happy with these Essential XL Gen2 cameras - and have had them mounted and running for about a week now. Batteries still show at 100%, image and video quality is good and although a bit large, I'm excited to see how well the battery lasts through our cold MN winters (they claim 4x life).
The only drawback I see is that they ship with a "screw-on" mount versus my other Alro's that came with a magnetic mount. Perhaps the larger battery makes it too heavy or bulking for a magnetic mount - but I really did like the flexibility and ease of using a magnetic mount with my previous Arlo versions.
My cameras are the 2k resolution (better than the HD version) and sport a 130 degree field of vision. The integrated spotlight is awesome and makes it possible for color night vision. Of course 2 way audio is included - but I really don't use that feature. It's important to note these cameras DO NOT require a hub or base station - they simply connect to your WiFi.
Overall - very satisfied and may switch more of my older cameras to these!
Great build quality long batteries, very sensitive
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I have mixed feelings about the Arlo - Essential XL 3-Camera Outdoor Wireless 2K Security Camera (2nd Generation) with Color Night Vision - White that I received. 1st things is the camera quality is excellent, the sensitivity is great, they were super easy to install, the app works great, getting them connected via Wifi and linking them to my account etc were all easy and painless. The problems I started having werre 30 seconds after I had them set up I already had 10 notifications. I live 2 houses in from a major city street that has hundreds of cars per minute drive by, and the cameras let me know about every one of them... I was able to go into the app and adjust the coverage area of each camera so it was supposed to only notify me if those areas were disturbed, but ignore the busy street down the road. Unfortunately that didn't help very much. The first hour I got over 400 notifications. I ended up turning off notifications for these on my phone because one of the options to respond to the notifications is weather to sound a siren, or call the police. I didn't want to do either of those by accident and I was afraid that that might happen with my phone in my pocket with an accidental unwanted touch etc... SO back into the app I went, and there is options to turn down the sensitivity of the cameras, which I did, then I did again, and again and even lower... yet the cameras are sticll picking up cars driving a block away... only now they completely miss delivery drivers, actual people on my porch, my own car driving in or out of my driveway etc... I'm still getting around 100 notifications a day, 95% of them are cars driving by. I found a setting on the app to ignore cars, but now it is triggering on the motion, or calling a car driving by an animal. The few people walking by or people that come on my porch to deliver things don't even get recorded until they're halfway on my porch and are about to leave, so I don't get a clear view of their face even though the camera is pointed directly at the stairs. I also didn't like that there are no side or angle mounts included for the cameras. The mounts that are included are great, but they limit the adjustability of the camera. I mounted one of my cameras onto the side of my house to cover the driveway, and it's mostly looking at my neighbors house and only the edge of the camera captures my driveway because I couldn't adjust it over that far. Overall these work a little to good when they're set to full sensitivity, but the low sensitivity mode doesn't work very well at all. If you live in a quiet area, with nice long driveways and a lot of property, I would recommend these. But if you live in the City, or on a busy road, these have way to many false triggers. I can say that the battery life is great on these as well. Even with all of the false triggers mine have had, I still haven't had to recharge any of the cameras yet, and you can also see how much battery life each camera has left in the app as well. Maybe Arlo will fix the false trigger glitches with a firmware update or something in the future, if they did that and included 45 and 90 degree offset mounts I think these would then be a 5 star product, but for now I can only halfway recommend them.
Thank you for sharing your experience. If you are getting notifications for all motion, we suggest either reducing motion sensitivity or creating activity zones. Please read this article :https://kb.arlo.com/1001908. Please read following article for details on troubleshooting long delays: https://kb.arlo.com/000062742.
For further help, navigate to Settings > Support in the Arlo App for service options.
We appreciate your support.
Best regards, Arlo Team
Pros mentioned:
Battery life, Camera quality, Night vision
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
A great system if you're okay with subscription
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This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
It’s easy to recommend this wireless system if you’re okay with a subscription plan. Most of the features works out of the box and installation is easy enough.
The system comes with three cameras that are solidly built. Connecting the camera to wifi is easy once we’ve installed the Arlo app. There’s a firmware update to run and camera response somehow feels quite sluggish in the first day of use. Arlo offers subscription to the Arlo Secure Plan, which is pretty much quite mandatory if you want to really make use of the cameras. Without the subscription, only live viewing is available. Arlo gives you a one-month trial, which has been working really well. With the subscription, you can access video and event history for rolling 30 days.
The camera itself has all the great features you would want in a security camera. The camera records 2K video and the quality is good: video looks sharp and audio feed is also clear enough. You can listen and talk through the camera. Even night vision also looks good. There’s an integrated spotlight and sirene function, which are quite cool. The battery is very nice, 5 days and 80% juice is left. That comes down to charging the camera in about every 3 weeks, which is good. Arlo gives you three charging cables so you can charge all cameras simultaneously, however the package doesn’t come with the charger so you need to use your own charger.
The iOS app is quite responsive as well and it is well polished. You can set a different scenario and establish different set of rules for arm away, arm home and standby. Setting automation for these routines are easy and simple enough.
There’s a set of great features that comes standard with most camera security system nowadays: cloud video recording, zoning system and of course app notifications. The default setting is quite noisy, there’s just too much notifications coming to my phone. There are two steps to make the adjustments just right: Firstly, by establishing the zone in which the camera’s sensor should supposedly react to the movement confined within the zone. I tried that but it doesn’t seem to be working really well. So, I adjust the movement sensor sensitivity and finally the camera notification system works to my liking.
Finally, is this a good camera system? Yes. However, the zoning doesn’t seem to work well. Also, I don’t like a subscription model that kind of force people to buy the plan. Because without the subscription, the camera system is basically so crippled as only live views are available thus no video history is available in the cloud. If you’re okay with the subscription, this camera gives you a great security solution for your home.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I installed these cameras above my garage door (to watch my driveway) and at the back of my house (covering the backdoor and yard). I already have an Arlo doorbell camera and a wired indoor camera (both work great), but initially bought some cheap battery powered cameras (not Arlo) to cover these locations. Getting the ladder out every few weeks to swap batteries was a real pain, so I was excited that Arlo offers these with an extended battery life, and I can use all my cameras in one app. I am very impressed with the quick setup time (from unboxing to the cameras being live in the app) and the image quality.
----Pros----
1. Cameras were already 100% charged straight out the box. So that was a welcomed surprise. Usually, rechargeable devices need to be charged before use.
2. Installation instructions in the app were straightforward. I selected Add Device and simply followed the steps to setup. It only took me 5-10 minutes per camera to mount.
3. All the hardware (anchors and screws) to mount cameras were included. The install only required basic hand tools and a drill.
4. The app is user friendly. It’s cool that you can choose which devices are active and which ones are on standby. You can also setup widgets for each camera for easy access on the screen. Like my Arlo doorbell, the smart alerts and timeline are great to review multiple events.
5. Picture quality is great! Images are clear with a wide field of view. The second day of owning them, I actually saw a small garter snake moving in the camera footage through my backyard. Night mode images are also clear, with only a small amount of noise and the built-in spotlight works well to illuminate the immediate area around the camera.
6. I have only had them install a few days, but so far battery life is great (using a little less than 1% per day).
---Things to Consider---
1. The batteries on these cameras are integrated. To recharge them you have to unscrew the camera from the mount and take it inside to charge it (Arlo offers an outdoor safe cable if you want to charge them while mounted).
2. After the free trail expires, there is a fee to view recorded events and some of the smart features (basic notifications and live view are free). I love the cloud video storage and smart features, but it does add to the overall cost of ownership. The current fees are reasonable to me, but you can check the pricing for different plans on Arlo’s website.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
When it comes to security cameras it is important to choose well which devices we acquire because what is at stake is the security of our home and therefore that of our family. From the outset I can say that this Arlo - Essential XL 3-Camera Outdoor set has what it takes to carry out this task, although in some areas it leaves a little to be desired.
The cameras come well packaged and protected in its box, inside we also find what we need for installation such as anchors, screws, wall plates and some documentation. The first thing to do is to charge the cameras using their USB-A or USB-C charger cable, the wall charger is not included. While charging the cameras is complete you can start downloading the Arlo Secure app which will do the setup and create an account. No instructions on how to perform the installation are included in the box, this information is displayed in the app while the cameras are being configured. Once the cameras are fully charged you can start connecting to the app and to the wifi in order to connect them to the home network. The configuration is a bit tedious since you have to connect one by one and then one by one the firmware is updated.
The cameras include a plate that is screwed to the wall which is where the camera is secured with its screwed base, you need a screwdriver to connect the base to the cameras, this must be done to if because the cameras are a little heavy for the size they are. Once secured the cameras can be positioned at the desired angle, just apply a little force to adjust them.
The three cameras are identical and have the same functions, such as an LED light at the bottom of the camera lens, speaker and microphone, night mode, 2k image quality, motion detection and of course they are wireless. Within the app you can configure other more specific functions of the cameras and that depend on our needs, such as the brightness of the video image, the intensity of the LED light, set the night mode as you can activate the function of color night mode that actually requires that the LED light is activated to display the color image, or simply in black and white where the light does not need to be on. You can also customize the security level modes, these same modes on the home screen are three I think are very helpful, it is as simple as opening the app and disarm the cameras to not receive unnecessary notifications when we are already at home or on the contrary, when leaving home press a button to arm the cameras and activate the security functions preconfigured and receive notifications of all events.
In practice the cameras fulfill their purpose quite well, I have had the opportunity to test different security cameras and I must say that these respond effectively, likewise the battery lasts a good time and are made of good material with a good design.
The issues that do not please me at all are, mainly that you need to pay a subscription to have important functions that other devices in a similar price range offer as basic and free, a simple example: recording events. This means that despite the cost of the devices you will have to pay month to month a subscription, where the only thing that seems worthwhile is that the app connects with the police in case of an emergency or that you request them yourself, from there on it is basically offering you to buy what the cameras could well bring by default. In addition to this, and precisely because of this type of service, the notifications as well as the live view have a delay of 2 to 4 seconds, something considerable since we are talking about the security of our homes.
In conclusion this set Arlo - Essential XL 3-Camera Outdoor Wireless 2K Security Camera has the necessary functions to protect the home, they are completely wireless, good quality video and audio, and have an app that offers customization of devices and security to taste, so if paying a subscription is not inconvenient for you, I consider it a good choice.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
Arlo has been a standard in wireless security systems for a long time, being copied by many other brands. I have tested many camera systems over the past 6 years and I also come back to Arlo. Adding to my already large Arlo setup is the Essential XL 2K Outdoor Wireless Camera powerhouse. Why is it a "powerhouse" you ponder? The Battery life is INSANE! I have it on constant motion record, 24/7, and the battery has only lost 7% in a week. My normal Arlo cameras are down to 75% or so in the same time period. So, now that we got the battery life out of the way, on to the rest.
The Arlo Secure app on Android has been tweaked over the years and now it just works. In the past 2 years I can say I have only had a handful of times where the app had a loading issue that a quick app kill and reopen fixes it. The layout makes adding and setting up your new or existing Arlo devices the easiest experience, takes minutes to setup a new account and add cameras, less than a minute to add new to an existing account. They home screen is so easy to scroll through and see all your cameras in one easy page and can see the last live movement and hit play. The app is great, so many scheduling features and more, but on to the XL Camera Review.
The Arlo Essential XL Camera is a great piece of hardware. The size is still within the realm small form factor and the weight is still very light that full movement wall mounts hold them with ease.
The LED light is bright at night making your subject easily seen within about 15 feet but you can still get a great picture up to about 35 feet at night. The picture quality is what you should expect and can be zoomed in about 3x before plates become unreadable at 50 feet, there is a maximum with 2K on zooming.
Motion sensing is great, they start recording within a half second every time a car, person, or animal enters the area. The quality of the motion sensing is by far the best I have tested. Compared to 3 other brands I am still using today to compare, the Arlo only misses maybe 1 out of 200 cars, the rest are about 50 to 70 percent of cars at best, great job Arlo!!
Charging is quick as well. I used my old Arlo charging blocks and they are charged up within a few hours to remount. I may add the solar panels to them at some point since they are mounted up high. If they add solar panels to their XL cameras in the future, game changing!
I currently have an Arlo Home Base with a 2TB memory stick for local recording and have the monthly cloud service as well for faster loading when in mobile data areas. The monthly fee is a bit high in my eyes, I would like to see Arlo add a tier for people that locally save so we only need the past 72 hours on the cloud, I would be happy with that at $5 a month for unlimited cameras. But, I highly recommend you buy an Arlo Home Base kit so you can locally record as well. Someone could easily cut the data line to your home and nothing is saved. I would love to see Arlo add internal SD slots to a series of camera to enjoy at camera local recording so they could be added to section of the property that have no signal or low signal.
Pros:
Long Life Battery
Picture quality is mid to top tier 2k
Bright LED
Good Zoom
App
Light Weight
Works with many mounts
Fast Charging
Cons:
Monthly Fee unless you have local storage on a hub
I highly recommend these cameras, Arlo really just keeps getting better and better.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
I’ve been a happy Arlo customer for over six years now, with a few Arlo cameras and lights scattered around the perimeter of my home. Over the years I’ve found Arlo to be a premium brand that provides high-end cameras, an easy to use app, and dependable home security services. It’s been about four years since I’ve added any new cameras to my setup so when I saw the new Arlo Essential XL camera, with its extra large battery life, I knew it was exactly the upgrade I’ve been needing for the high traffic areas around my house.
This set of three cameras comes securely packaged in a compact box with almost all cardboard packaging for easy recycling. Included in the box is a small 4 page set up guide to help you to get started. The first thing you’ll need to do is charge the batteries. They do come with a partial charge but due to shipping regulations they cannot be shipped while fully charged since they are so large. Arlo provides three USB-C to USB-C charging cables, but no charging cubes. For some people, this might be a let down, but I have plenty of USB-C charging cubes, power strips and wall outlets, so I’m fine without one. I’m not sure exactly how long it takes for the cameras to charge, I plugged mine in and forgot about them for more than a few hours, which brought them to a full charge with a blue light indicator.
Once the camera’s are charged the next step is to download the Arlo app if you are a new user or update the app if this is your first Gen 2 Arlo product, which was my situation. Updating the app did take a few minutes but it went smoothly without any issues. After the app is installed and/or updated you simply connect it to your Wi-Fi network and use it to add each of your new cameras, one by one. When you add the cameras the app will alert you to a firmware update which takes approximately 5 minutes to complete for each camera. After getting the camera connected, you find somewhere to mount it that has a good Wi-Fi connection, which can be tested through the app. I like the way these cameras attach to the mount, versus the magnetic mounts. These cameras screw onto the mount which can be rotated and pivoted to reach most angles. The mounts were easy to install, just a couple screws to attach the small circular mount plate to the wall and then slide the mount over the plate to attach the camera to the wall. It’s really simple and takes very little time.
I’ve been using these for well over a week now and the battery life is even better than I was expecting. I mounted two of them in high traffic areas at the front and back doors to my home, and they both have only lost about 5% of their battery life. While my old cameras would likely have already lost nearly 20% of their battery life. I do have extra batteries for my older cameras though, and an additional charger that allows me to have charged batteries ready for a quick swap out. You can’t do that with these, although you can attach a solar panel for a continuous charge. I use solar panels for my Arlo lights and they work very well. I imagine the same would be true if I buy a solar panel from the Arlo website for the Essential 2nd Gen cameras.
The live 2k video quality looks really great. It’s sharp, vibrant and the 2K resolution makes it easy to identify objects. You can zoom-in and pan the video from the app to see small objects or creatures and things or people that are further away. The spotlight is a great feature and it really makes a huge difference at night, allowing for full color night vision. It’s also great to illuminate the yard for my dogs when I let them go outside, or to illuminate the side walkway area of my home where the garbage is kept. You can customize the brightness, sensitivity, length of time it’s on, turn it off and on and more customization all through the app. Another great feature that works really well is the noise-canceling audio which allows you to use the camera as a 2-way audio device to speak to visitors and easily understand what they are saying by filtering out the extra noise and focusing on the voices. I’ve tried it with a package delivery person and found it to be quickly responsive and easy for both of us to understand each other.
As mentioned earlier, I’ve been an Arlo customer now for over six years. I’m not somebody who would continue to use a company for that long if I wasn’t happy with their products and service. I love trying new things and even though I have tested a few other wireless security camera brands, Arlo is the best in my opinion. They provide the best technology, quality equipment, an app packed with features and customizations and superior service through the Arlo Secure plan, which I highly recommend trying. Arlo camera’s work with Alexa or Google and can even work with IFTTT, if you know how to use it to maximize the potential of your Arlo security network.
I love these new cameras and I highly recommend them to anyone who wants a top of the line wireless security camera that holds a charge for a very long time. You’ll love the Arlo brand, the app and the functionality & features they provide to keep you and your family safe.
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
It all started when I was working overnights and the spouse was home alone at night! I wanted to be able to pop in and make sure the house was locked up and safe! It started with one camera and now I have 12 Arlo cameras two of those are the Arlo doorbells. To be frank…it is overkill but once you have the ability to pop in and check the garage, front and back yard from multiple angles, common household areas like the living room and guest hallway…Not having a well rounded view of your house is just not an option!
Why I’m all in on Arlo: I have experimented with other brands until I landed on Arlo and although the other brands can all give you a picture…Arlo is really killing it with their new app AND an amazing picture and video quality especially with the XL 2K. The AI that can tell a person from an animal or vehicle is spot on and sends me a message on my phone. I know immediately when a delivery arrives or the trash trucks come or even when “bob” from down the street takes his dog for a walk in front of my house. I can also set the senor area that trips the notification. I can set through the app to “arm” the house as “away” when My spouse and I leave our house automatically and disarm to “home” when either one of us arrives. I never have to even think about it. Once it arms to “home” the interior cameras in the shared spaces of the house go to standby as far as notifications I receive but the outside cameras are always searching for who or whatever strolls around the perimeter of the house and lets me know about it…such peace of mind The app is the lynch pin in the total home picture for security and knowledge of what’s going on and Arlo did not just focus on making amazing cameras (which they are)…they also matched the hardware with equally amazing software!!! So key!! Just the deterrence of people seeing the multiple cameras around my house is huge! Maybe they think twice before stealing a package off the front door or letting their dog do it’s business on my front lawn!!! lol
The Arlo XL 2K (2nd gen) is the capstone of my security and surveillance. I put one up on the back line of my fence in the backyard and have a whole picture of the back of my house. Super awesome! Gotta have petty good wi-fi for that one though. The night vision is phenomenal in black or white or color and set up could not be any easier. The 2nd gen mounting hardware is different that the previous versions… they do not lend themselves well for a top mounted into metal sofit of a roofline though. Mainly because the camera is so heavy and the camera housing is vertically inclined and it buts up to the roof the way the mount is designed. The old XL where longer and not as vertically allighend which lent them to be top mounted better just fyi.
NOTE: If you want to mount it to the bottom of soffit lining along a roof line and the soffit is metal…you might want to go with a lighter Arlo camera with a solar panel and the older style mounting hardware from gen 1. You can use the old mounting style with the XL 2nd Gen…its just they are very heavy. The weight is because of the 4x longer battery life which is awesome and well worth the trade off of the weight especially if you mount directly onto a wall. I mounted my new XL’s onto drywall in my garage and the new mounting system is superb for that!!! I freaked out a bit on the mounting software when I opened it because it looked like it was at a fixed angle…don’t worry….once you screw the mount into the camera it easily can be moved to what ever angle you want. The last camera I mounted onto my fence and it’s rock solid!
Overall I can’t recommend Arlo XL 2K second gen high enough…I hate sounding like a “fanboy” but a great product is a great product and Arlo is the best in the business!!! I have been using Arlo for years and I love the app and the security subscription is well worth the service and peace of mind you get from Arlo! So many tools from top notch video and app plus the ability to sound an alarm and talk to people, no wires…just an amazing ecosystem that keeps me and my family safe, informed and sometimes entertained with wacky animals we see on our Arlo cameras!!! Can’t go wrong with Arlo!