10 reviews for Arlo Ultra 2 Spotlight Camera – 2 Camera Security System – Wireless, 4K Video & HDR, Color Night Vision, 2 Way Audio, Wire-Free,

1. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Fletch – November 7, 2020

   Great so far with a few minor complaintsHave only had my 2 camera Ultra 2 setup active for a little over a week. Very impressed so far by camera quality and connectivity. Camera setup, image quality, motion detection, and connection range are all excellent. Given the cost of this camera setup, you’d expect them to be good and they are. I have not owned any prior Arlo cameras, so I have no way to compare these Ultra 2’s to the Pro or Essential models, but compared to other brands I’ve tried, these are significantly better across the board. Note that I can’t comment on battery life other than to say that after a week, my most distant camera is still at 96% charge.App works well, too, on mobile phone though a little clunky. Delay between trigger and notifications is a bit longer than I’d like (~5-7 seconds), but it’s not bad. I am having a minor problem with IFTTT cross-triggering, but I am confident that can be worked out.I’ve deducted a star for a combination of minor quibbles.First, the Arlo website is flashy but not particularly helpful. I’ve looked through it for an answer and real troubleshooting techniques for my triggering problem, but though there is info there, it’s not complete.Second, Two Factor Authorization (2FA) on PC is rather painful as EVERY time you log in on a computer you have to go through the authorization process. This is not OS or browser specific. If you own a PC/Mac, you are going to have to keep your mobile device handy so you can sign in on your PC. This is a known issue and Arlo says they are working on it, but I use 2FA on every other brand that supports it and this is the worst implementation I’ve ever seen. Note that the 2FA comments apply to Arlo across the board, not just the Ultra 2’s.Third, given the price of this kit, would it be too much to ask to include 2 sets of each mount type? Including one magnetic mount and one threaded mount is adequate, but come on. I’d like to also see either a battery charger or at least two charging cables. The mounts and charge cable/brick included is enough, but these are at the very top of the Arlo range and north of $500, they could be a little more generous.Fourth, there is no SmartThings integration on the Ultra/Ultra 2’s (there is on some other Arlo models). We are a Samsung house and find SmartThings works extremely well with all of our connected devices. I hope Arlo/SmartThings can get together on this at some point.Fifth is my only hardware related comment. With 180 degrees of diagonal view, these cameras show a huge area and at 4k you can zoom in 8x with clarity and with little fish-eye even at the corners. However, the compromise for all this clear and wide view is that only the bottom 2/3 of the camera’s view detects activity. If you planned to mount these cameras very high looking down, just be aware that the upper 1/3 of what the camera sees will not detect activity. My cameras are mounted about 10 feet from the ground and this is not a problem at all. In fact, on the camera facing the street I have had to lower the detection area because passing cars were being detected. I only mention this limitation for those wanting the entire camera view to be part of the activity zone.Finally, I did my homework on the plans offered by Arlo, the phasing out of the 1 year of free service offered in previous models (in favor of 3 months), and the elimination of the 7 days of free recording access, so I knew what I was buying. I could have gone with the original Ultras and gotten the one year free but chose the 2’s because of the 5ghz connectivity. However, just because I knew and accepted what I was buying, it doesn’t mean that I’m altogether happy with the choices. My frustration with the plans isn’t simply about cost. I’m more frustrated with how confusing the choices are; which plans can you use with the Ultra 2’s, how can they be mixed and matched, etc.Overall, can’t helped but be impressed with the quality of the Arlo Ultra 2’s. They are, so far, fantastic. I’ve spent more words complaining about small issues than raving about the cameras. The hardware is a solid 5 star rating and setup could not have been easier.My recommendation is that if you are looking for high quality hardware and don’t want to take a chance on something cheaper, then these are great. Just do your homework regarding the cost/quality tradeoff and the plan offerings from Arlo.

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2. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Jeff – September 27, 2022

   Good Cameras but not as advertisedIn the end these cameras worked well and had a good picture, but . . . ,1. They were very finicky to set up and it took way longer than it should have to get all the cameras to connect to the hub.2. I could not find a clear definition of usable system features for a stand alone, no cloud subscription mode. Camera access appears to be very slow if you do not have the paid cloud subscription. You also do not have the ability to use any of the basic features of the cameras without a subscription.3. They were way over priced (double that of other brands), plus the added monthly subscription cost.They did satisfy the need for fully battery powered cameras but I sure wasn’t happy to be forced to buy a subscription to make the cameras work correctly. I would not buy again

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3. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   The reviewer – July 9, 2021

   Ultra 2 – a few big pros and a lot of smaller consOne caveat that I want to start off with is that I have been using this system for about three and a half months now and have been keeping running notes of how the system functions throughout. Since I early on quit using some functions due to problems or lack of utility it is possible that some of my comments may have been fixed by software of firmware updates that I am unaware of since I no longer use certain features that were problematic at one time.ProsI think the sound quality in general is better than two other camera brands I use and the wind noise reduction feature is great.The video quality is very good and the 4K video is noticeably better than the 2k video of other cameras. However, after I take into the negatives that I’ll to shortly I think that unless you need 4K for real-time viewing it’s questionable whether the added cost of this system is worth incurring.There is a very nice low light color mode but it doesn’t work consistently during live viewing and it slow to turn on. The slow turn on means that I frequently get video of vehicles passing by that is black & white for the major of the clip. So using the color function for ID purposes is questionable. The function works pretty consistently on recorded video but not 100% of the time.The noise cancellation function is far superior to any other outdoor security camera I’ve used. I was able to listen to real-time audio in windy conditions that overwhelmed the audio on another brand of camera I was using at the same time and which faced in the same direction – in relation to the wind – as the Arlo Ultra 2.ConsInitial setup of the base station is harder than it needs to be. Like numerous other reviewers I had to contact support to have the units’ token reset. This turned out to be time consuming because we had to go through other troubleshooting first which did not get at the problem. A problem that it appears is pretty frequent so I don’t think it should be so far down the tech support problem checklist. Also I used chat to interact with tech support and the person I was working with ended up sending me a useless set of instructions after the token reset option did not work right away and then dropped off line without telling me she was going to do so or asking for confirmation that my problem had been resolved. I then ended up spending more time doing more troubleshooting of my own but was able to get the unit operational. Overall this was way too problematic.I also experienced problems with getting the base station to actually access the microSD card and show video clips. I never did figure out what the problem was but a day after installing the card the base station just started reading the memory card. I have had several instances since initial setup when the base station can’t access the memory card so I just try again later and the problem has gone away every time. Not ideal if you aren’t paying for an active cloud subscription and need to access videos on the memory card in a time sensitive situation.It is a pain to remotely view base station memory card stored video clips. This requires port forwarding and not all home routers have this capability and even though mine does it still was more work to set this up. Arlo should not be so cheap as to not offer a basic online storage option for free with a system this expensive. Such a capability would make remote viewing of video much easier.The rest of my cons either fall into the category of the App itself or the camera but some I could not figure out whether it was one or the other of those or a combination of the two so I will list them separately.App issues (I use the iOS version)When viewing video stored in the cloud the app will give a preview shot of what caused the recording event but for locally stored video you have to download each clip to the app before you can see any part of it. So if you wanted to just view clips that were of people or ones of just vehicles forget it. You will have to load every clip one at a time to the app to view them. That is a pain if you have a lot of recordings.The sensitivity for automatic video recording is really lacking with this system but I don’t know if it is due to the app, the camera or both so I’ll comment on that later. As far sensitivity and the app I like that there is an ability to select the motion sensitivity level that is supposed to trigger a video recording. The sensitivity level is set via a slider and I routinely try setting it to 100%. However, it usually jumps right back to 80% as soon as I back out of that particular setting as evidenced by my going right back to the setting after changing it to 100% and finding it now set at 80%. Even when I have been able to get it to stay at 100% after backing out of the setting and going right back to check it the setting still will not stay at 100% for long. I have seen without exception that if I go back to the setting a couple days later it has reverted to 80%. In a practical sense I don’t know that this matters because it seems to me that I miss just as many events with the setting at 100% as I do when it is set at 80%. My basis for judging this is watching real-time video and subsequently looking at what got recorded as well as reviewing video clips I have from another security camera that is looking at nearly the same viewing area as my Arlo Ultra 2. Honestly I think the sensitivity setting just gives a false sense of control.The app annoyingly gives two notifications for each activity scene. If you select the first notification is takes you to the main screen of the app only. If you select the second notification it actually plays the clip from the cloud or takes you to the local storage page if that is what you were previously when viewing previous activities. Note that this drove me to turn off notifications altogether and I have not used them for several months now so it is possible that Arlo has fixed this since I last allowed notifications.Another app shortcoming is that is does not allow you to completely turn off notifications. At least not in the iOS version. The app will let you pause notifications for up to 24 hours but if you wan to totally disable them – because they can get obnoxious in a high activity zone – you have to go the system level notification settings which is a poor design decision by the app developer.Camera issuesArlo claims that you can get 6 months operation from a single charge but I quickly discovered that I needed to buy power cords for my units because I wouldn’t anywhere close to that. I couldn’t get a month of use from a full charge. I’m sure that if I were to disable a lot of the features such as 4K, spotlight, night color vision, sensitivity and used the best battery life power management setting that the battery would last longer but why spend so much money on a camera like this if you can’t practically use those settings. For reference I get between 50-80 recording events per day and view live video a few times a day for short periods. I haven’t captured the amount of time I spend viewing live video but it undoubtedly contributes to battery usage but I struggle to think that it causes to charge time to go from six months to less than one month.Camera lens tends to fog or freeze once the temperature drops to around the freezing point. This renders the camera essentially useless at night in these conditions and I know from other brand cameras I also use that activity has gotten missed during times when the lens was coated with dew or ice.Cons that I could not definitively attribute individually to the app or the camera.As I mentioned earlier this system really suffers from poor sensitivity to motion which causes it to miss a large part of things that I want it to capture. I base this comment on my watching things happen out the window in real-time, watching them happen through live-streaming the camera itself or live-streaming from another brand camera with nearly the same viewing area as the Arlo Ultra 2. My other camera routinely triggers on people that are walking on the sidewalk on the other side of my street but the Arlo Ultra 2 absolutely never captures that. In fact the Arlo too often misses people walking on the sidewalk on my side of the street. The Arlo also misses far too many vehicles passing on the street. Even when the camera does trigger it is slow to do so and in the case of passing vehicles the best capture angles are frequently missed and I end up getting shots of the rear of a vehicle. The 4K video at this point isn’t helpful because you can’t really zoom in close enough to be of use when the vehicle has gone that far past the point when it was nearest the camera.This problem is compounded by the light that kicks on at night to enable night time color vision takes a couple seconds from when the video clip actually starts before it comes on. About the only time the night time color vision is of use for capturing a vehicle in color is when the car approaches the corner my house is on from the direction that requires a stop before proceeding. That stop usually gives enough time for the recording to start and color vision to begin. That’s if the car doesn’t do a rolling stop.It is common to get recorded video clips that have pauses and jumps in the motion. For instance a car driving down the street frequently stops moving in the video while the time counter continues to advance and then the car will jump a fair distance when the video unfreezes. This is about as poor as the slow activity recording start because you may miss important parts of the activity. These freezes occur in the cloud video and the video storage card I use (my card is a V30 version so it is very capable of being able to record motion of a vehicle that is moving at no more than 30 mph as is typical in my area.)Only getting motion triggers from about the bottom two thirds of the viewing area is an odd decision and not a welcome one. It means that the camera has to angled more toward the sky. Unless you want to watch for airplanes around your house it isn’t helpful and in my experience it just means that the camera will suffer from more direct sunlight and glare when the sun is near the horizon.Works with Apple Homekit but not Homekit Secure Video so you have no option for cloud storage other than through paying Arlo for a subscription. Is is interesting that Arlo offers 7 days of free online storage for most of their cheaper models but not for their most expensive one. I don’t know if this has anything to do with the fact that this camera can record at 4K and so takes more space than 2k video but even then they could still offer free storage of 2k video. A cheap move on their part because the Ultra 2 camera setups (camera and base station) are some of the most expensive options on the market for home security cameras.The ability to set zones didn’t provide expected results very well for me and I pretty quickly abandoned trying to use them. I routinely got notifications for activity outside the activity zone.When playing recordings from the base station the first four seconds are played while the video is somewhat darkened and if you intentionally or accidentally tap on the video while it’s playing it gets darkened for about four seconds again all while the video is still playing. It makes it harder to see what is going on in the video during these times. If you couple the fact that event recording suffers to begin with because the camera typically starts well into the activity with the fact that the first four seconds of base station video is darkened upon replay you can really end up with a significant amount of activity that is available either because it was not recorded or because it is too dark to be of much use for identifying anything specific about things in the clip. It’s interesting that video played from cloud videos – the ones from their paid subscription – don’t suffer from this darkening effect.There is no frame by frame playback option on either the base station or cloud recordings.I get too many videos that have audio but the video is either totally black or about 3/4 green and that is enough to washout the entire area where motion would be occurring.When I initially set up my system I was using the free cloud storage as well as recording locally on the basestation. I had quite a few instances where an event recorded to local storage but not to the cloud. There was no indication that my internet service was down thus preventing the cloud upload so that should not have been a factor.In the end these are really nice cameras but there are enough small and not so small detractions that I think make purchasing this system questionable unless you want/need to view 4K video in real-time. You’ll miss too many 4K recordings based on my experience.

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4. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Tresa Tong – February 3, 2023

   Great Security Camera SystemAlmost effortless security camera system! Talk about “Plug and Play”. All we had to do was install the cameras in our desired locations, plug the Hub into our internet, then follow the online instructions after signing in. The system practically sets itself up. Very pleased so far.

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5. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   Amazon Customer – May 20, 2022

   Needs real improvements to match the marketing hype.Given the explosion of wireless cameras recently in the market, I wanted to purchase a premium product to test out. This had my hopes up pretty high until I tested it out the last 3 months in an outdoor setting with some nighttime traffic. Base station indoors. Two cameras outdoors (25ft and 50ft distance to station).A few positive things to note — Easy set up- Clean user interface- Crisp daytime 4k video- Camera firmware and updates are automatic and managed seemlessly by Arlo- The AI categorization algorithm is pretty good- Probably the best wireless 4k stuff on the market todayReal challenges that need to be addressed that introduce a lot of maintenance and friction:- Stock battery life is pretty terrible. I have to charge these up every 10 days, even though I only use them for nighttime purposes in a medium traffic parking area. And you can forget any type of real distance between the camera and the base station, it kills the battery. Arlo could have packed a bigger battery into the box for the price being paid, but really cheaped out here. Instead they want you to buy a bigger battery separately. That’s bad product strategy. If you want to be the best WIRELESS camera, it starts with the battery life. It’s already one of the most expensive cameras on the market… why would you cut costs here?- Charging is absurdly slow, and the battery indicator is terribly inaccurate and a guestimate at best. It takes 8 hours or more to bring a camera up to full charge by cable… again… I ask why for such a small battery? Cellphones with bigger batteries charge in two hours or less. Yes, you can buy a separate charging station, take down the camera, pull the battery out and charge the battery in a station… but again why? This is wireless device… battery life and power management are foundational to product success… how did you mess this up Arlo? The cellphone industry already figured this out for you.- These are IoT cameras that connect to Arlo’s own servers through the smarthub that acts as a gateway. They cannot be directly connected to on your local intranet. Everything goes through Arlo’s servers and cannot be operated without passing data over the internet. The only way to access any manage the cameras is over their website. And you MUST have a good internet connection. Even the local storage in the smarthub must be accessed through the internet, or the SD card pulled and put directly into your computer. Arlo claims this is for security reasons, but I’m not 100% sold on this approach. The smarthub is just a locked down wifi router… There should be better ways to do this without requiring data to go through Arlo servers.- Motion detection is good, but more problematic, the video often cuts short of activity actually occurring- If you are expecting to capture license plates with this… not happening unless it’s pointed right at the car 10 ft away max. I believe this is because of the 180 degree ultra-wide lens on a 4k sensor. Effectively, expect the same clarity of video as a 2k 130 degree camera that just covers a lot more area.- The video CODEC used to record and store videos is proprietary, which is completely unnecessary given the widely available, open source, and free codecs that are well known and used throughout the industry. You must purchase the video coded separately for Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome, and it doesn’t even work with Mozilla Firefox. This also means you can’t share videos with others unless they buy the codec as well.- The wireless connection is still WiFi protocol and susceptible to basic WiFi jamming and interference. It really needs a different secure wireless method. (To be fair, there are not a lot of alternative wireless methods in the industry yet. Just know it’s ultimately a WiFi camera.)- Subscription is pretty much a requirement for functionality to be worth anything. Though, the price point is such that if you are forking out money for this camera, the subscription price shouldn’t be your biggest concern.All that said, this tech is far better than what was on the market just 3 years ago. Given Arlo’s apparent strategy, they are making it work and proving to be innovative. I hope Arlo rethinks it’s product strategy and continues to improve it’s products and innovate, otherwise it’s going to get killed by emerging competition with better technology and friction-less features.

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6. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   RWB – October 27, 2022

   Mounting and battery charging are disappointing – Updated Functionality issuesI have a number of Ring cameras installed and needed a hi-res camera to monitor one part of my property. I purchased a 2 camera kit with an Arlo Hub. It ships with 1 magnetic mount and 1 cheap plastic screw mount. Neither mount feels like it provides good angle flexibility. I am using one on a tree mount which solves that problem. One good thing is the camera itself can flip the image 180.Now to power. This is a real problem with Arlo Ultra 2 cameras. Using all of the good features of the camera uses a good bit of power. If the camera is placed in an area with periodic movement, the camera can drain the battery in a matter of days. The Arlo solar panel solutions are 2w chargers. Tests in an area of low activity turned out okay and the battery recharged to 100% with some shade each day. Once in a place with higher activity and little shade for the bulk of the day, the battery loses 10% to 20% each day. This camera replaced a Ring Spotlight cam with their 4w solar panel. It recharged every day to 100% even on rainy days. Why Arlo doesn’t make a solar panel to meet the needs of their camera under heavy use is a mystery.Now, to hardwiring. The Ultra 2 uses a proprietary magnetic connector for the power. It is kind of a nifty gadget, but poses a problem for camera placement in remote places. They sell a 25 foot charging cord with the plug end designed with the assumption that you have an outlet handy. I am okay with the cord length since they are probably managing voltage drop. Unfortunately, one size fits all doesn’t always cut it. Options for a straight plug or angle plug would be helpful in varying outside situations.Bottom line is that the camera is great if you want to put it on a shelf in your den. Use as an outside property surveillance camera is a real challenge. Why build the best camera if you don’t provide the accessories to use it to full potential.PS watch out for the subscription charges. Use of full camera capability can get pricey fast.Update:After getting power to this camera at its tree mount, I was at first encouraged. The field of view is wider than the previous camera. The resolution was better, but not what I had expected. The real problem turned out to be that the activity zone for this camera simply does not work. In looking at other reviews, this appears to be a known problem. In a high traffic area, this makes the camera useless, because it records every movement within the field of vision and not the designated activity zone. I have given up and put the old camera back up. While not as technologically spiffy, the Ring camera is functionally far better and the power in remote location issues were easier to overcome. I would not recommend this camera to a friend and will not buy additional Arlo products.

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7. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Greg – August 16, 2022

   Great…except.I’ve tried MANY camera systems. None have EVERYTHING going for them. This is one of the more expensive systems. The lens is fantastic and the widest angle lens I’ve found. Video quality is great and motion sensing is pretty good – even from a distance. And the app is great. The biggest downfall – and it’s a big one – is proximity to the hub. I’m using this in a small, 1250 sq ft, wood-frame condo and there’s no way to get a solid connection to the front AND back cameras no matter where I put the hub – despite a straight line of sight. I found other systems easily connected to the hub without having to fiddle w the location. It’s a huge shortcoming of this camera.

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8. 

   Rated 1 out of 5

   Ed Zapf – January 23, 2021

   WARNING: You May Not Enjoy All the Features That Make Arlo Systems So ExpensiveThe good:1. Good video quality.2. Easy mounting and setup.3. Notification includes snapshot of what triggered motion sensor sent directly to my Apple watch.4. Color night vision (only when spotlight is on) is very nice.The bad:1. Quite expensive compared to alternatives.2. Although video quality is good, I can’t believe it’s 4k. I don’t have anything to compare it too, so maybe it is 4k. I just expected great, not good.3. Battery definitely does NOT last 6 months as advertised! Both cameras were down to about 50% in one week. I bought Wasserstein solar panels to keep the cameras charged. ($69 for pack of 2 vs. ~$100 each for Arlo solar panels)4. Paid subscription required for saving video to cloud ($15/month for 30 days 4k cloud recording or 10/month for 2k cloud recording. By comparison, Wyze gives you 14 days cloud recording for free).5. Beware the 3 month trial subscription that comes with it. Nowhere does it say “free.” I discovered that it is a 3 month trial – that you pay for! and at the end of 3 months, apparently, I guess, you get to decide if you want to CONTINUE paying? I’m only 3 weeks in now, so I’m a little curious what will happen at the end of three months. I suspect they just keep charging you. [UPDATE: Reading other reviews, it seems that the 3 month trial service is free? Not sure why they charged me, but I am done fighting with them and I will just cancel]7. Apparently, if you have an Arlo Video doorbell as well, the doorbell must be connected to the Arlo hub or base station, not directly to Wi-Fi, for the doorbell to ring a conventional chime. [UPDATE: this is not true. The doorbell will ring the chime connected to either Wi-Fi or base station. I discovered my doorbell transformer was under-rated for this application, which caused my original problem] And that leads me to customer service..6. Customer service is horrendous!!! Can’t stress this enough. Here is what I am currently going through:I ordered this 2 camera system and an Arlo doorbell at the same time. The doorbell arrived first, so I installed it. Worked great. A few days later the 2 camera system arrived, so I installed it too. Worked great too.A few days later, I discovered that the doorbell was no longer ringing the mechanical chime. Doorbell worked fine when it was the only Arlo device and it was connected to Wi-Fi. After using it for a few days, I added an Arlo base station with 2 cameras. The doorbell was still connected to Wi-Fi and it stopped ringing the mechanical chime.I read somewhere, I though in one of Arlo’s documents but maybe not, that if a system has a base station, the doorbell must be connected through the base station or it will not ring a chime. Well, that’s annoying! So, I deleted the doorbell from the Wi-Fi and added it to the base station as directed. It still did not ring the chime. So, I deleted it and tried to add again but I can’t. Now I am unable to add it to the hub and I am unable to add it directly to Wi-Fi. The doorbell is not discoverable, as if it’s already connected to some system but it’s not.So I went from having a working video doorbell to a doorbell that would not ring the chime after I installed the base station and 2 cameras to a doorbell that does nothing. I feel like I’m of average intelligence and somewhat tech savvy. I can usually get most things working. Why can’t I figure this out??I went to Arlo support for help. I searched all Arlo’s relevant documents. I searched google for any assistance. I tried all the troubleshooting tips and tricks I could find. No luck. I want to call someone and start shouting. There is no phone number to call; there is no email address to ask a question; you have to submit a trouble ticket from the Arlo app. So, I did.After 3 days, I received a response from Arlo suggesting that I try some of the troubleshooting aids that I had already tried. I am losing faith in this company very quickly. The response also asked for lots of information including proof of purchase, screen shot of internet upload/download speed, and screen shot that the device really is not installed on my account. I answered all the questions and provided all the information requested. The app only allows 1 attachment, so I attached my sales receipt and had to send the screen shots separately. Odd, why would they tell me to attach 3 things but only allow one attachment? I am questioning my own sanity in purchasing this company’s product. I pressed save, and the app crashed. I lost all the information I typed in. I am now losing my will to live. So I redid it all, saved it to a Word document, pressed save, and the app crashed again. Third try: I copied my information from Word, pasted into Arlo support, pressed save – success! Hooray! Small victory in actually sending my request for service.I am now waiting 3 days for a reply that I expect to be totally useless and unhelpful. Wait, there’s a weekend included, so maybe I’m waiting 5 days. Either I will get this stupid doorbell working in the next week or I will return everything and buy something else.Update to follow.UPDATE: I have now been in contact with Arlo 5 times over the last 3 weeks. They have been sending me very similar messages with minor additions or deletions to the troubleshooting tips and tricks. I have dutifully complied with all suggestions. I never got the doorbell connected to the base station, but it did finally connect to Wi-Fi again after about 30-40 tries, no exaggeration, just doing the same thing over and over. Also, I discovered that my doorbell transformer was under-rated for the Arlo video doorbell, which caused the original problem of not ringing the chime. It needs to be 16-30V. Mine read 15.6V – I assume just enough to ring the chime when I first installed the doorbell, but not enough to sustain. So, I replaced the transformer and now I’ve got a working video doorbell again. However, it is connected to Wi-Fi, not to the base station. I really would like to connect to the base station to record to an SD card and to eliminate the bandwidth used on Wi-Fi. My fifth and latest message to Arlo included the question, “I am reluctant to delete the doorbell from the Wi-Fi to attempt connecting to the base station again because of all the trouble I had connecting it at all. It honestly took about 30-40 tries.So, if I do disconnect from the wi-fi and can never get it connected again, what recourse will I have?” Awaiting response.UPDATE-2: After about one month and eight replies to-from Arlo support, video doorbell still cannot connect to Arlo Base Station. Arlo support’s final determination is that my internet service is too slow to connect the doorbell to the base station. They want me to upgrade my internet service and try again. I’m not sure I believe that. If it is the case, then I don’t understand why I wasn’t told that one month and seven replies ago when I sent my first internet speed screen shot – could have avoided 20-30 frustrating hours of failed attempts to connect the doorbell to the base station. Also, based on their numbers, my other cameras would not work, but they do. Why would my internet connection prevent a low bandwidth video doorbell to connect when two higher bandwidth cameras work with no trouble?I am not in a position to upgrade my internet connection at this time, especially not as a troubleshooting aid that may not help. I prefer to cut costs, not take on extra costs. Following that intent, I will now cancel my Arlo subscription. Anticipating any potential future problems will not be supported, I have no reason to continue subscribing to any Arlo service.So, my goal here is to warn everyone to do your research thoroughly. Otherwise, you may not enjoy all the benefits that make Arlo systems so expensive. I now know that I am not knowledgeable enough to have asked the right questions or to have conducted the proper research to ensure that an Arlo system fits my need. I could have saved hundreds of dollars by purchasing a competitor’s system that would have given me the same reduced features that I get from my current Arlo system.Also, beware Amazon and other places advertise Arlo as compatible with Alexa. From what I can tell, it is NOT! There is no Arlo app for Kindle Fire. There once was but it is now defunct.In all, this was a very expensive, time consuming, frustrating learning process.

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9. 

   Rated 2 out of 5

   Amanda S – February 13, 2022

   My Feb 2022 review of the Arlo Ultra 2 Wireless Security Camera (and comparison to Arlo 1).*(This was written by my husband, Chris)My Feb 2022 review of the Arlo Ultra 2 Wireless Security Camera (and comparison to Arlo 1).This diatribe is worth reading before you buy.Purchased the Arlo 1 back in 2013 and now own the Arlo Ultra 2. The 10 SECOND SUMMARY: Overall, the performance of the Arlo 1 camera is good, but not great; the Arlo Ultra 2 could be the best quality camera system currently on the market; Arlo desperately needs to correct their customer service.Arlo 1: The video quality is a little grainy and colors get washed out easily. Also noticed a lag when activating the live view (ranged from 10-30 seconds). Proximity didn’t seem to be the issue, as the camera was close enough to the router. Even so, I loved the free 7 days of cloud storage (huge value add)ed.Cameras in the system are now failing one-by-one but served a life expectancy apparently beyond their years – of five purchased, three remain functional after about 8 years.Out with the old and on to the new:Arlo Ultra 2: After reviewing Blink, Nest, SimpliSafe and many others, my conclusion is that the Arlo Ultra 2 with 4k video could be the best quality camera system on the market.The good: Best resolution night and day I have seen. New features such as spotlight, siren, package alerts, etc. set a new bar in the camera systems of tomorrow.With cloud storage, emergency response, vehicle, animal, and package detection you may have found the way ahead for your family. This comes at a cost and quite frankly if your budget supports this business model, you should buy it – again, only if you are not weak-hearted in the installation process.The bad: No ability to transfer data to a thumb drive. To be fair, it does have a mini-SD card slot that reads 2 terabytes of storage as that is what I installed; no local storage SD card provided in any sales package combo I could find.The claim is the battery expectancy is up to six months depending on traffic. So far after installation, the life of the batteries is 30 days at best, some only 30 minutes (return these). I noticed this early in installation and opted to hard-wire the system – it is likely the great resolution that drains batteries so quickly – doesn’t matter, does not perform as indicated, hard-wire this system or return it as I almost did.Their little 8 foot Arlo cable is not long enough for solar panels / electrical outlets in my home – Wasserstein (a company that produces after-market accessories specifically for Arlo products) https://wasserstein-home.com/collections/arlo-ultra was able to supply 25 foot cables and I also purchased USB extenders online, making it 35 feet should you need this – they worked for me.Battery life: Arlo chat experts have suggested the resolution be changed to save battery life – I wanted the 4K with no compromise (hard wire is the answer) – for the price, it should work as advertised with no modifications.When syncing the base station to the cameras, it relates the connection is poor even when 3 feet away – doesn’t seem to matter as they did sync and are performing – again, this system is not for the weak-hearted.A WIFI extender was not necessary in my case as a 2000 sf, 2 story home was easily covered despite the base station providing a false poor connection reading during the synch process.Customer Service: The new business plan for Arlo is in many ways its only downfall. This camera system with all its abilities is not for the weak-hearted when it comes to installation and customer support and many of the upgrades require a monthly plan even if you choose local storage.Arlo’s customer service is apparently so poor that other websites are now charging for answers to client questions. An Arlo troubleshooter, in my experience, just can’t be reached by phone (oddly, there are phone numbers available for other countries). Even when you find a number to speak with a human, it directs you to a chat where they redirect you to an “Expert” on chat. Arlo Support: https://www.arlo.com/en-us/support/, good luck!After two and a half hours on a chat, their only answer was to reinstall the base station on down to the cameras. If you need an expert in the end, return this camera system; sadly, it’s not for you.Despite my ridiculous, inadequate customer support experience, I persevered (no thanks to the Arlo support team) and prevailed installing 5 cameras on my home.Moving forward: 3 of my 5 original Arlo 1 cameras still function in 720p and will be used in windows as a deterrent even they eventually fail. This camera system, along with a SimpliSafe alarm system (much easier to install), a hard-wired Ring doorbell, and locking metal storm doors on the house pretty much ensure my home is the little Ft. Knox I want it to be.I failed to mention that where others will put their security company signs in the yard, I have signs that say protected by Smith & Wesson since 1852.Thanks for taking the time to read this dissertation and stay safe.

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10. 

    Rated 2 out of 5

    JLA – February 2, 2021

    Not a great experience with Apple HomekitI was pretty enthusiastic about the recently introduced Arlo Ultra 2 Spotlight kit (2-cameras and a base). I thought this was finally going to be a security camera kit that I could comfortably use with my Apple TV 4K, iPhone, Mac and Windows computers. However, I returned the kit today after a disappointing 2-day experience with these security cameras, at least for the Apple HomeKit environment (which is why I bought them in the 1st place).Pros* 180-degree field-of-view is really marvelous (great color); fish eye correction is well done.* Night vision is really good (but resolution is a problem, see Cons)* Automated Spotlight for night vision motion triggers really helps – it triggers color to also be captured on recordings* Can be powered by battery for a while or with full-time wall power. My one camera went from 100% to 85% after two days of testing (my only data point there).* Can record locally to a SD-card* Relatively easy to mount / install* Web access to home cameras via Arlo login account is great (nearly real-time views, just a few seconds delay)* Camera and base setup can in theory be done from the Arlo website (once registered)* Snap on magnetic power connector is great (very secure and easy to attach to the bottom of the camera)Cons* Advertises as 4K pixel resolution, but I am nearly certain Arlo must be compressing the video so much that it looks *no better* than 1080P resolution (cannot clearly see faces or license plates that are 20′ away from the camera)* Uncertain about how well the wireless works to the cameras; before I mounted my 1st camera, I found the video got unacceptably jerky on the recordings / Arlo website when I was only 25-30 feet away from the base unit (not anywhere close to the suggested 300 feet in their marketing materials). It seems to me in my limited experience, one might need a separate base unit for each camera (my application was one for front yard, and a second for the back yard)* Relatively weak documentation on how to setup the system (surprisingly). Some pictures were not as clear as they should have been (like where the “Sync” buttons are on the base and camera units)* Could not get one camera to pair *at all* with the Arlo base unit (after 5-visits to tech support, no luck). Tech support was not very helpful (perhaps 4+ hours spent on the phone with them). I suggested they send me a replacement camera, but they didn’t want to do that (so their “boss” said)* After setting up zones to not trigger cars passing by the front of my house, or people walking by on the near-by sidewalk, I still got numerous warnings on my Apple Watch and iPhone (via Homekit). When I went to review the recorded videos, there were none! I suspect (?) Homekit alerts aren’t being filtered by Arlo in their software as it was seemingly doing the right thing for not capturing video for people on the sidewalk or cars passing by, but my guess is that the zone marked motion alerts were still being passed on to Homekit (and thus to me). This happened many times during the 2-days I used the one camera that was working. Too many false-positives means no trust basically…* I seriously doubt the cameras running on battery would last the advertised “six months”. I would guess no more than 10-20 days max based upon my limited experience. Make sure you get the 25′ charging cable to charge your cameras; the included short power cable wouldn’t have worked for me (and I suspect most people).* The kit I got included a magnetic base attachment unit for mounting the camera and a different unit for screwing the camera firmly into the mounting bracket (very stable). For mounting cameras outside, Arlo recommends the cameras be used with the mounting hardware that allows the camera to be firmly attached (screwed in) to the mounting base. The magnetic base is only usable IMO if the camera is over soft materials like a couch or carpeted areas as I almost dropped the camera off of the base (not very secure when holding on via magnets). I would have had to purchase another mounting bracket for outside *if* I had got the 2nd camera working (I never did).* I could not get any alerts on my Apple TV from the one camera that did work (I assumed alerts should have been displayed there). Never got far enough to get this resolved either. Maybe this is an Apple problem (not sure to be fair).* Unclear how secure the video streams at Arlo are (never got that far in my analysis). Arlo does not advertise if the video is encrypted or not (I assume it is not and would therefore not be considered private IMO)* Pay for recordings I recall was $9.99 per camera (not a very good price IMO after spending nearly $650 for the kit)* A post online reviewing the Arlo Ultra cameras suggested that if you disabled the pay for storage subscription on the Arlo website and opted to use local video storage to SD-card in the base, you wouldn’t get any Apple Homekit alerts. If true, that would also be a deal breaker for me (what kind of security would that be without any motion alerts)?So, maybe for those that don’t care about HomeKit, this might be a pretty good solution for home security, but for me, the negatives far outweighed the positives!

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