Customer Ratings & Reviews

Overall I like the performance. Picture much clearer than arlo pro 2. I like the magnetic mount on the old arlo better and getting a subscription for arlo 4K is more expensive but I need the motion detection ability that comes with subscription.

Purchased 7 Arlo Cameras and 2 Base Stations. Constant issue with one base station losing connection with Very Strong Signal. Tedious, maze-like Support through automated chat and eventual text. No guidance on returning malfunctioning base station - only go through same “fix” loop that works briefly then fails.

I love this purchase. We had older models and they were great too. The subscription isn’t worth it but you still have some cloud space to save videos and an alarm that notifies your phone.

The features that the equipment brings are very useful, the only situation is that when you go to subscribe to a service plan to be able to use these features, they indicate that in Puerto Rico these subscriptions are not available, which ceases to be an intelligent camera system Well, you can only see them without being able to record outside the perimeter. this is something that store associates either don't know or don't tell you at the time of ordering. hence the one star rating

I upgraded from Arlo Pro to Arlo Ultra. I like that the smart hub is a bit smaller. The cameras are a little bigger than the pro series. As for picture quality... the jury is still out. I love the spotlight feature, the ability to change viewing area and the color viewing.

It should be illegal for me not to have access to MY videos that i record on MY system ! Ill never buy arlo again !

A lot functions not working if you don’t subscribe cloud monitor

The Arlo Ultra 2 is my second Arlo security system and has a very user friendly interface and ecosystem once you learn it. The Ultra 2 is Arlo’s latest 4K video monitoring system which builds on the release of the Ultra last year. IN THE BOX: • 2 x Cameras • VMB5000 SmartHub (Also Works with some other Smarthubs on 2.4Ghz Wifi) • 2 x Rechargeable Batteries • 1 x Magnetic Charging Cable (2.5 feet) • 1 x Ethernet Cable • 1 x Screw Mount • 1 x Magnet Mount • Video Monitoring Decal • Owner's manual SETUP: Setting up the Ultra 2 is fairly simple. If you are adding these to an exists Smarthub then it’s a breeze but even from scratch it’s very simple. Step 1: Connect the Smarthub to power and your router. Step 2: Download the Arlo app and follow the instructions to create account and begin to pair cameras. Step 3: Pair cameras by pressing “sync” button inside the camera housing. Battery must be installed. Step 4: Mount cameras in desired locations after fully charged. Adjust base station/camera location for optimal connection strength. Done! BUILD QUALITY: The Ultra 2 carries on the last generation of cameras build quality which is quite good. Having used the Pro 3 cameras for a year, I can say they hold up very well to outdoor use under soffits on houses or under some sort of “shelter” out of the direct effects of the elements. The cameras are water resistant so should they be exposed it shouldn’t harm but I wouldn’t place them in direct line of fire all the time. The magnetic and threaded mounts both work well but I still wish one of each was included with each camera as they are a little pricey to buy. Both mounts work well overall but I think I prefer the threaded one just a little more. FEATURES/VIDEO QUALITY: The Ultra 2 is a 4K system which is the top of the line for Arlo camera quality. The 8-megapixel, ½” sensor is double “pixels” of the 2K systems so it provides the best Arlo has to offer. The quality is a very noticeable jump from the 2K Pro 3 system I have used this past year and a welcome one at that. The 2K quality is the bare minimum I would have for an outdoor system that may need to track finer details at some distance. The 4K only helps cameras catch better details at distance. The LED spotlight is slightly brighter than the one found on the Pro 3 so if you want the most light from the internal camera the Ultra is the way to go. The Ultra 2 has a 20 degree wider field of view which only helps if you put these cameras in a place without corners, gutters, etc. Personally I could have done without the extra field of view but you can crop the image down inside the app if needed but since its just a digital crop, the items inside the FOV can still hinder the image capture (Reflections, Exposure at Night, etc). Just something to note with the Ultra which can be a positive or negative depending on where you mount them. The audio works well but I didn’t see any huge difference between the Pro 3 and Ultra 2. Both have 2 way communication so you can talk with someone at the door or outside your home. One item in regards to the base station is it uses a Micro SD card to capture local video files instead of a USB port like the Pro 3’s base station did. Since the files (even at 4K) are relatively small (generally 3-6 MB each) this isn’t a huge deal but a USB port allows more types of storage devices to be used. Lastly, the Ultra 2 camera and Smarthub have Dual Band Wifi with 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ Wifi which can mean faster connection speeds but I found the range to be diminished with the Ultra’s Smarthub because 5GHZ Wifi does not travel though objects, walls, etc as well. This was particularly noticed with our one camera which is well within the range of the system but travels through a couple brick walls. This brick greatly diminishes the signal strength of the camera which I believe is due to the 5GHZ Wifi connection as our Pro 3 had much better connection in this location. APP: After using the Arlo App for over a year I still have to say I think it needs more work. The app is buggy at times when you are trying to connect to a camera after you have already selected a live view on another. Sometimes this requires you to exit the app and load it again in which is usually work fine. The features within the app are pretty good with lots of customization which can be done through the website as well. Scheduling is a little tricky because you have to do each day separate so if you want to schedule it overnight you need to stop one day at 11:59PM and resume the next day at 12:00AM. Something that took me a few minutes to figure out. The live view picture quality is pretty good but not full resolution. My family has a few “allowed” users under the main account and one thing I wish the secondary users had access to is the local file storage that is stored on the Base station. Only the main account holder seems to have access to this feature. You must pay after the trial period to have videos stored in the Cloud and even then they are not stored at full resolution unless you opt for the more expensive plan. This is why I wish all users of a system could have access to the local file storage. DISLIKES/PROBLEMS: Over the last year I haven’t been overly impressed with the Pro 3 system in the way it captures motion and sets record times around this motion. Sometimes a person will be clearly in front of the camera and it will stop recording for a few seconds and start again and stay on unnecessarily and other times it starts recording for motion and stays on for minutes for no reason. I think the motion detection aspect of the cameras need to be worked on and hopefully the Ultra 2 works better overall. I can’t say for sure whether this is the case yet. I think the record time based around motion could be improved so no few seconds (or longer) is lost by splitting up clips of the same event. One other complaint I have is the price of Arlo’s accessories and subscription plans. The cost to buy accessories for the cameras is pretty high. $50 for a 25-foot charging cable or $40 for two magnetic mounts is ridiculous to me. Thankfully third parties have come to the rescue and offered reasonable priced options. The subscription plans are required for full use of the cameras software features which isn’t surprising anymore but with the cost of the system, one would think they would offer more plan options to lower the cost not just monthly plans. Just budget for the smart plan because the cloud storage and the motion detection features are almost a must on these systems. It’s just unfortunate to pay well over $100 a year to use all the features of the cameras. OVERALL: I have enjoyed using the Arlo Ultra 2 and its counterpart’s but I believe there are still some quirks to work out. It’s a great DIY security system that can help you protect your house and investments but it’s not perfect and can make false detections or miss detections entirely. Let’s just say its not 100% accurate but it’s much better than nothing at all. I would definitely recommend the Ultra 2 if the extra resolution will be needed in your situation (outdoors) or if the most detail is needed in general. The Pro 3 is a solid option too for a little cost savings and works well overall too. The smart integration with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or one of the others is great for use with Smart Homes. Just keep in mind the extra cost for adding cameras, accessories, or the subscription service to get all the features for these systems.

Just spent $1000 on this & can't get it to work. Very frustrating trying to connect to wifi.

This security system is overpriced to begin with and then you have to subscribe to the Arlo Smart plan which starts at 9.99 a month in order to be able to see motions. The battery does not last 6 months, the front only last about a month and the back battery only last a week with not a lot of activity and at times it will give us an alert with nothing there. This review is in no way meant to be toward Best Buy just Arlo.

I have an enormous amount of important recordings that are missing. Christmas Eve or Christmas day my gate was damaged and my cameras were charged but there were no recording to review. The same thing happened when I noticed dog poop in front of my door a couple of days ago. My doorbell camera doesn't need charging. I had a conversation with a contractor in front of my house and wanted to verify our conversation and it wasn't available; my doorbell camera doesn't need charging. My Arlo cameras don't recorded valuable information.

I needed an easy way watch my dogs and my shop. these cameras work great. Very easy to setup and use the app. I love them and I am going to add on some more cameras. Great product!

After the cloud free period, I switched to recording to an SD card which worked initially. At some point it stopped recording and we had a car theft. There is no recordings. Camera system turned out to be useless.

It has been difficult getting help in learning the system. Appointments have been missed, I get the run around on the phone when i call the Geek Squad and I just get really bad customer service. When a tech does come to my house, they are nice. But I may return the product because it is hard yo get assistance. I was very surprised by this b/c of the Best Buy/Geek Squad name.

I’ve been a long-time owner of Arlo cameras. I started with the Pro 2, added on the Pro 3, and now am adding the Ultra 2s into the mix. // 4K Resolution The 4K video that the Ultra 3 provides is a noticeable difference from 1080p, and even the 2K from the Pro 3. 4K video may seem like overkill for a security camera, but if you want more detail with far away objects, I'd highly recommend it. // Ultra-wide View The ability to have 180 degrees(!!) field of view is absolutely amazing. This is by far one of my favorite things about the Ultra 2 vs the previous generation models that I own. // Spotlight One of my favorite features of the Ultra 2 (as well as the Pro 3) is the motion-activated spotlight. This is incredibly convenient when I arrive home at night, providing plenty of light, but I also like the fact that it can alert possible intruders that there’s a security camera in place. The light is VERY bright - much brighter than what I would expect out of a unit this small. // Night Vision Another nice feature for nighttime is the enhanced night vision which is kind of amazing for consumer-level technology, however I didn’t notice much difference viewing it with color or without. // People, Animal, and Package Recognition The Ultra 2 has the ability to detect people, animals, and packages and it’s very good at being able to distinguish between each of them. This is super useful for making sure that I retrieve packages as quickly as possible to avoid those pesky porch-pirates. // 2-Way Audio I wasn’t a fan of the audio quality from the previous generation Arlo devices that I own, but the audio quality seems to have greatly improved with the Ultra 2. The audio is much clearer and there is very little delay with the Ultra 2. // Base Station The Ultra 2 also has an improved range over previous generations using it’s smart hub that requires an ethernet connection. With a mesh wifi network, I am able to place cameras far away from the base station and connectivity never seems to be an issue. Although this package comes with the base station, the Ultra 2 cameras are compatible with the base station that comes with the Pro 3. I had zero issues connecting the Ultra 2 cameras with the base station from the Pro 3. // Battery Life I haven't had the Ultra 2 long enough to test out the claim of up to 6 months of battery life, but with the Pro 3, which they advertise a battery life of 3 to 6 months, as an outdoor camera using the motion-activated spotlight, I was getting more like 2 months out of it. Although I hope to see improvements with the Ultra 2, 2 months really is still very good for all the features that it has. I’m pretty darn stoked about the Ultra 2 system. It’s great on it’s own and I appreciated that it integrated easily with the previous generation Arlo devices I already own, so it’s not like I had to get a completely new system. Highly recommended!

Summary: Easy to use, easy to set up and great quality video. Being wireless it is not as quick to pick up video as a wired camera might as it is usually in a sort of “standby” state until it detects something worth recording. There are lots of extra features in the base unit from alarms and local storage. Pros: • Good looks • Easy setup • Local storage (if desired) • Alarm built into base unit • Very high-quality video • App integrates into smart assistants • Six-month battery life • Versatile mounts • Night color recordings • Weather resistant Cons: • Subscription required for full functionality • Slow to detect due to “standby” state when not recording • Strange mix of mounts included • Proprietary charging adaptor Unboxing: The box will contain two cameras, a few sets of screws, documentation, a “magnetic” mount, a screw-based mount, charging adaptor, two batteries. Set up: Download the Arlo app, pair it with the base adapter, this works best via ethernet but can be set up via wifi. The base unit has a Micro SD slot for local storage if desired. When you pair the base unit and connect it to your internet, you will be able to set up each camera. The cameras will pair to the base unit so you will not have a bunch of extra Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections to worry about. It is actually much easier to set up than I describe. The device came with a 30-day trial of Arlo smart (more on that later) for added functionality. Use: After mounting one on my front yard and one in the back yard, I tested the picture quality which is good! 4k video is present here. At nighttime you will get high resolution and color pictures, though a little degraded due to loss of light of course. When away from the home I received notifications (on my apple watch with photo!) when a person was detected. Also, you can set it up to only turn on when you are away from home to save battery life while at home. Arlo Smart is their subscription service which is optional. If you subscribe, you will get 30 days of cloud recording and better object detection, so you don’t get so many false alarms. You will also get alerts when packages are delivered and the ability to set up activity zones to limit alerts. If there is an emergency and you see someone break into your home, you can have an alarm go off and have e911 functionality or have it call a friend if there is an issue. A handy feature is to share access to cameras to a spouse or friend and allow them to monitor your cameras as needed.

They work perfectly. Sound and images are clear. Definitely would recommend this item.

I still haven't gotten it all installed. tomorrow khopefully they will finish the installing. No one's fault. my home was too big and we couldn't get the signal. I was told I needed a mesh router and a nother hub. then they will teach me how to use it. can't answer the questions until finished.

I installed all three cameras indoors and the batteries only last for 2 to 3 days at best . I've gotten in touch with the technical help Department three times and so far nothing has been settled I think they're all going back

Terrific camera system. The videos are eye popping. The color and resolution are professional grade.