I cannot praise this product enough to do justice. I had a poor experience from the first unit purchased from a high street retailer, which was exchange but found the same issue (battery lasted a week) – Arlo support are quick to respond and very helpful. They sent a new one out which had 100% battery on install on 6th August, we are now 12th October and only 10% battery life has been spent. By my estimation, the battery will remain charged well over 12months (if required) – Set up is very easy…. pairing up with my WiFi took no more than 3 minutes – The new Unit ordered from Amazon had 67% battery level so I have now left it on charge before placement. DO NOT HESITATE to purchase this camera at this price point. Arlo is a great Company, and so is this product.

This is my second one of these which go with the four pro version and the two pro 2 versions we have and they are great apart from the battery life on the Essentials as I have to change these every couple of weeks. We live at the end of a close so I expected a lot better!

Very impressed with this camera, so impressed I’ve got 3 set up now. Installation was easy and pairing with the wifi MAKE SURE you charge the device first – as I couldn’t connect it at first but in the manual it does say to charge it.

Great footage, can’t complain. Using it for outdoor bunny shed so I can keep an eye on predators.

Subscription is optional, I don’t use it cos I don’t need the footage to be recorded and to be kept on iCloud. Long as I get notifications when motion is detected thats all I want.

So yeah overal 5* and very pleased with all 3 :))

Yep easy to install and operate however the battery life is very disappointing. Only lasts a week or so …

I don’t see how these could get any better. Especially for the money.

As I had my hands on multiple Arlo products I can now give more detailed overview of this essential Kit.

Arlo Essential set of 3 Cameras is a good beginner budget friendly security system with many good and high quality features. It’s 1080p resolution is actually better than other 1080p cameras and yes, that can happen if lenses, technology and other aspects are taken into consideration. The picture in daylight is good but keep in mind that obviously it is lowest quality and therefore you might find picture over exposed (too much light) which will lead to untrue colors or to be more precise, colors will have more yellow color in them. As daylight is mentioned it would be well worth mentioning night recording as well. Well, night recording and picture is not great. Picture will be a lot lower quality and camera simply will not be able to give you good image of any object if it is far away. When I say far away I mean more than 5m. Integrated spotlight might help, but changes are minor.

Compared to Arlo Pro 4, these cameras don’t have removable batteries, therefore you will need to take the whole camera of the camera mount and charge it indoors instead of being able to charge it directly in place with solar panel or simply replacing the battery with fully charged one. Either way, I believe major focus with all users is how long will battery last when fully charged. It is stated up to 6 months, but I have to say it is nowhere close to it. All depends on cameras setup and functionality. If you have a lot of activity happening in front of the camera it will last around 2-3 weeks. If activity is lower and you lower the settings of camera, expected duration of battery would be around a month or slightly over a month.

I will not continue deep into specifications but more what you will receive as so call it “free” of charge.

Another major thing to mention and well keep it mind are subscriptions. You will receive 30 days free subscription which will unlock full potential of the whole set. What you will receive in those 30 days are cloud storage, video history and richer notifications. Richer notifications consist of vehicle, animal and even package recognition as well as recording up to 2k or 4k resolution which is not required as these cameras support maximum of 1080p. Everything after those 30 days will need to be paid. Yes, you will have to put another monthly bill onto your list of expenses if you want all features and to get the best of these cameras.

Overall, Arlo does make high standard, quality products but with higher standards, higher expenses do come. And to be honest this is not something that everyone could afford if price of the set and monthly subscriptions are taken into consideration.

It works really well, even better than many other brands and was easy to attach to our other, Arlo outdoor cameras to view them all on the same hub in the app. It also has a privacy filter you can put up if you want to make sure you aren’t being watched while you’re home.The image quality is really good no complains about that.The only big downside is that if you want to have all functionality of this camera you gonna have to pay for a monthly subscription. 3 month trial is included, after the trial you still can use it and have functions such as receive push notifications and email when motion is detected or hear and see what is moving around and sound alarm if warranted. But on negative side live feed will be a significant delay, no capturing video automatically when motion is detected and storing it for review later.So overall nice stylish indoor camera, good image quality, but after 3 months you need to pay a monthly subscription to have full functionality. 2k plan for a single camera will cost 2.79/mo and 8.99 for unlimited cameras, 4K 12.99/mo

I have tried a number of indoor cameras over the last couple of years and I have to admit that none of them have been as good as this one, in terms of picture quality. However, there are a couple of areas where improvements could be made, but overall, it is a reasonably good camera.

I’ll start by commenting on how the options for installing the camera. The camera can either be set on a flat surface (which requires no installation, as it is free standing) or fixed to a wall (the fixings for this are provided). In an ideal scenario, I would like to fix the camera to a wall, to keep it out of the way however, the power cable is black and I know of very few people who have painted their walls black. Accordingly, it is very difficult to hide the cable when it is mounted on a wall.

Setting up the camera is reasonably straightforward and essentially involves the download of an app and following the instructions and prompts which the app provides.

As I mentioned at the very start, the quality of the images from this camera are very good (maximum quality is 1080p, or full HD) and it would be very easy to make out exactly who (or what) was in your house at any given time. In the hours of darkness, the quality is naturally slightly diminished but I was surprised by how much detail was still available in the images. There is a slight time lag between when the images are captured and when you can see them on your phone but this is only a couple of seconds, so unlikely to be that much of an issue.

The camera comes with an automatic privacy shield and this can be used to disable the camera automatically in certain circumstances e.g. it can be set so that the camera only activates when you leave the house. This is quite a beneficial feature as I’m not sure I’d want a camera recording me all the time I was in my own house (not that I’d be doing anything I shouldn’t be doing!) and so being able to set it to record only when it was most needed is a good idea.

When the camera detects motion, the default setting is that you will receive a notification on your phone (another reason not to have it active when you are in the house) albeit, these can be turned off. At this point, you can then go into the app, see what the source of the activity is and if required, you can activate a siren on the camera. The siren isn’t particularly loud and in any event, I’m not sure this would be my chosen course of action as it would certainly alert any intruder to the presence of the camera and they could easily just switch it off!

One aspect where I think the camera could be improved if it it had the ability to rotate. With this model, once the camera has been installed, you are restricted in its field of vision i.e. the direction it is pointed in is the only part of the room it will record. Some of the other models of cameras which I have tried had the ability to rotate (on command from a phone) and this made the camera significantly more flexible and useful. Perhaps this is something which will be considered by Arlo in future products.

The final comment I would make (and it is perhaps a very important one) is that in order to get the best out of this camera, there is a monthly subscription. In the absence of a subscription, you will still be able to view live (with a 2 second delay…) recordings through the app and receive notifications of activity however, none of the videos will be saved. In order to benefit from cloud storage, you will need to pay (at the time of writing) 2.99 a month for a single camera or 8.99 if you want to use an unlimited number of cameras. This increases to 12.99 a month if you want 60 days storage rather than 30 days.

In summary, this indoor camera offers very good picture quality, both during the day and at night. However, its field of vision is fixed and some of the most useful features come at an additional cost, meaning that the use of this camera could get very expensive, over time.

Could this be any simpler to set up. I just plugged it in, installed an app on my phone set a password and hey presto it was up and running. I can now keep an eye on my back passage while I’m anywhere where I can get a phone signal. The picture is nice and clear and covers a good wide angle. Even the sound is clear. I’ve tried talking to the dog through it. He looked around the first couple of times, but has now become bored with the talking black camera thing that doesn’t give treats or throw balls.

This camera comes in a box with instructions on how to install and set up, wall mount and power cable.
The camera itself is sleek with all black.

The camera is quick and easy to set up even if you are not a very technical person. There is a step by step guide in the instruction booklet which all you have to do is connect the cables and the. Download the app. Once set up it can be controlled from your phone and the camera.

Takes a few minutes to install but it is very simple. I had no problems.

The camera also has audio so you can listen as well.

This is good for your home for example a baby bedroom, pet monitor or just generally around your house if you are not in. You can feel safe with this camera as you can check in at any time.

Overall a very good camera set compared to other products and works really well and the material is very smooth and strong for long lasting and the quality is very good.

The Arlo Essential Indoor Home security camera is a small indoor security camera that can be used either on it’s own, or added to the other devices in the Arlo range to complete your security system.

The camera is nice and compact in size, measuring approximately 11cm in height (including the stand) x 6.5cm.
The front face houses the 1080P, 130 degree camera lens which also has an integrated privacy cover, along with an LED indicator light and a microphone. There is also an integrated speaker so that you can use 2-way audio.
This particular camera does not have a battery pack, so needs to be connected to the mains and is done so via the included USB mains adapter which connects to the rear of the camera.

You can easily position the camera by simply tilting it in the chosen direction and the ball/socket connector will hold it in place. You have the option of using the simple desk/surface mount and placing it on a flat surface, or you can use the included wall/ceiling mounting plate that the camera slides on to.

***** In The Box *****

1 x Arlo Essential Indoor Camera
1 x USB Mains Adapter
1 x USB Cable
1 x UK Plug
1 x EU Plug
1 x Mounting Plate
2 x Screws and wall fixings
1 x User Guide

***** Installation / Usage *****
As with all Arlo products, I have found them to be very user friendly and easy to set up.
You simply need to connect the camera to the mains and then download and create an Arlo account or log in if you already have one. Then using the “Add New Device” option choose the Essential range and follow the simple instructions. I have an existing Smart Hub, so the app gave me the option of adding the camera to the Hub, which means it uses the hub’s wireless network instead of your own home network and also lets you capture video and store it locally.
A software update was available which I applied immediately – All in all, everything was added to the app in around 5 minutes.

The app works very well and there are lots of settings that can be customised to suit. Some of these include setting activity zones so that motion is detected only within a certain area, setting smart alerts so that people, animals or vehicles can trigger alerts and you can also setup package detection so that if a parcel is left on your doorstep, you will be notified.
You can of course view live video from the cameras and if you have an active subscription you can view up to 30 days of recorded video stored on the cloud. If you have installed a Smart Hub and a MicroSD card installed, you can also view recorded video from the local storage.

***** Conclusion *****

As with the other Arlo products I have used, the video quality is very good, both during the day and at night time and the 2-way audio works well.
The build quality of the devices is very good and the app which can often be a let-down with these types of product is very good.

To get the full benefit of this “smart” system, you will also need to pay a monthly subscription. You get a 3 month trial included with your device (which is a surprisingly good length), with the full subscription for a single camera that will record video up to 2k and let you use smart notifications it will set you back 2.49 per month for 1 camera, which isn’t too bad, but will soon add up when you factor in the fairly hefty 120 for the camera. The main features (phone alerts, basic motion detection and live video) work without a subscription, but to record video to the cloud and to use the package detection, you will need to pay.

I really like having the option to connect the device to my Smart Hub to save video locally to SD Card and the built in privacy shield is a nice feature.

All in all, a nice product but a little expensive for what it is and compared to other similar devices.

Very happy with the product. Easy to install, good clear view and sounds. Amazing

I have been a fan of Arlo for a while but their Pro range can get expensive (even this Essentials range is at the high end of the market). I got this camera to replace an old ‘search company’ camera from a few years ago and have been pleased with how it has performed.

The camera is a mains only internal camera in a white plastic with black front. All the plastic is glossy so does attract dust unfortunately. To set up you just need to install the Arlo app and follow the prompts to add it to your Wi-Fi network. In the app you can also control the privacy shield (a fairly unique feature that actually slides a shutter over the lens), setup the Arlo subscription if required (you get 3 months free trial), share access to other family members, amend the camera settings and view any saved clips.

Video quality is excellent during day time and the night vision is also at the better end (although I do not use this as I point the camera out of a window and night vision IR LEDs glare). I have also found the motion detection to be very good with the notifications on Android zooming in to show the person detected when in ‘people’ mode. Other modes that can be chosen are vehicles, animals and ‘other’ with each being individually selectable – so you could have people and animals but turn off other motion for instance.

Overall this is a very good interior camera that has privacy focus at it heart with the privacy shield to protect form recording when you are in the house. It is not the cheapest (in fact as I said, it is actually one of the more expensive) but the camera build quality, performance and the app are steps ahead of the cheaper competition.

A great wifi camera that I needed for some time in front of the house for my car.
The motion sensor works well, you can adjust the sensitivity in the app, the spotlight is quite strong for night vision. The quality of the videos are really good, didn’t expect this good. Setting up is easy if you have basic technical knowledge/experience.
One thing i need to mention is that I don’t know how they calculate the 12 months battery life. I will need to contact support on that, because no way it lasts for more than 4 weeks. Of course it depends on the settings – how sensitive you want the camera to be and how often it triggers something, but still. Even with this battery life, it’s a good camera, after the trial period you will have a small monthly fee $2.99 for the storage and to have all the extra features. You can use it without the subscription fee as well, but then limited features.

This is an excellent camera, I have had it for the last few weeks and I am very happy with it. The spotlight really sets it apart from the rest giving you an extra layer of security and luminating dark zones when someone walks past. I have to in be the picture quality to be great, very sharp and clear and easy to pick out details.

One thing I like most about this is the app, which is a big part of smart devices like this. It is really easy to use and has a lot of features and settings you can customise. However, take note that some of the settings may drain the battery faster than usual. As I live on a quiet street the battery has performed well for me but the more it goes off the quicker it will deplenish.

Overall a brilliant device which gives you peace of mind, would recommend.

If you need a completely wireless, battery powered security camera then the Arlo Essentials XL spotlight camera might be for you.

The camera body is well made from a nice strong feeling plastic and is quite heavy due to its large capacity battery.

It is slightly narrower than the Ultra 2 cameras that I have, but quite a bit longer, making it a little less discrete and compact (Approximately 11.5cm x 5cm x 7.2cm (LxWxH at the widest parts)).

The front face contains the 130 degree camera lens and 1080P image sensor, an LED flood light, a speaker and microphone, as well as the infrared motion sensor.
The bottom of the camera features a button to sync the camera to the Arlo app, a MicroUSB charging port which is covered by a weatherproof rubber flap and a screw thread for mounting the camera. A second screw thread is located on the rear, enhancing installation options.

The camera stores video to the cloud (subscription required), but can be stored locally if you buy an Arlo base station or smart hub separately.

***** In The Box *****

1 x XL Essential Camera
1 x Mounting Bracket
1 x USB Charging Cable
3 x Screws and wall fixings

***** Installation / Usage *****
Installation is quite straightforward, which I have found to be the case with all Arlo products.

First task, is to charge the battery using the supplied cable (USB charger not included) and the second task is to Install the Arlo app onto your smartphone from the app store, create an account and then follow the simple instructions on screen to add the device.
Because I have an existing smart hub, the camera was added to it, but you can install the device without the hub and it will connect to your own WiFi network.
Upon adding the device, a firmware update message was displayed and installed within a minute or 2.

Once everything is connected and you are happy everything works, you can fix the camera into your chosen location. Being as this is battery powered and wireless, it is very simple to install.

The app works very well and there are lots of settings that can be changed to suit. Some of these include setting activity zones so that motion is detected only within a certain area, setting smart alerts so that people, animals or vehicles can trigger alerts and you can also setup package detection so that if a parcel is left on your doorstep, you will be notified.
You can of course view live video from the cameras and if you have an active subscription you can view up to 30 days of recorded video stored on the cloud. If you have a hub or base station, you can also view recorded video from the local storage.

***** Conclusion *****

The video quality and the ease of installation is very good, which I think are probably the main selling points of the product, so no complaints from me in this regard.

Wireless signal is as good as your existing wireless network (unless you use a hub), so if you have a mesh system, you should have no problem with coverage, even in larger houses.

As with my other Arlo cameras, battery life seems pretty good, although this will depend on if the cameras are placed in a quiet location. If the area is busy it will drain the battery a lot faster and will not last for the quoted 1 year. You can add a solar panel to keep the battery topped up, but this will add a further 50 or so. My main concern with the battery in the Essentials XL is that the battery is non removable/replaceable, so when it no longer holds a charge, you need to replace the complete camera that you’ve spend around 150 on.

To get the full benefit of this “smart” system, you will also need to pay a monthly subscription. You get a 3 month trial included with your device (which is a surprisingly good length), with the full subscription for a single camera that will record video up to 2k and let you use smart notifications it will set you back 2.49 per month for 1 camera, which isn’t too bad. The main features (phone alerts, basic motion detection and live video) work without a subscription, but to record video to the cloud and to use the package detection, you will need to pay.

So overall, I quite like the Arlo Essential XL and it is definitely worth considering if you need a battery powered camera. Although Value for money wise, I find the camera a little disappointing especially when compared to a wired setup. It will definitely not be replacing my existing wired CCTV system, but I will use it for extra video monitoring, due to the superior video quality.

A good 1080p camera that can work out of the box straight to your WIFI network and on to your phone app, alternatively, and if you’re an existing Arlo camera system owner, it can connect to an Arlo hub and be part of your camera system that connects to the app. It has an internal battery in a sealed system but can be charged. Arlo boast 1-year battery life but I would charge this if I knew I was going to be away for any length of time, and because there are power management settings within the app, I would always go for video quality over any economic use of the battery, so check your charge levels. There are so many different settings to use with this camera and the options only grow with a subscription plan, you get a 3-month trial included, but if you are getting this just as a first camera, I would not even bother with a subscription.
The image quality is very good as is the audio up to about 20ft I had no problem. At night, the IR footage is OK and as expected, but when the spot light is on and in colour mode at night the footage is not perfect, it displays some artefacts and is not as clear, I am unsure whether this is because of interference from the camera to my router or not but I have a very robust WIFI set up so I think this is what you get from a lower resolution camera at night, oh and the spot light is so strong, if this doesn’t scare a prowler, it’s going to blind them. All in all, this is a good additional camera for an already existing Arlo ecosystem or if you have an Arlo subscription plan, as a standalone camera it’s OK not the best but OK. Over all this is a great entry level camera – I am blown away that I can have this up and running in straight out of the box, no subscription no hub no wires just me my network and a smart phone, very impressive and for that you get security with 130 cover in colour or in IR at night and it works pretty dammed well and you would be hard pressed to find all this at a cheaper price.

I’m quite a big fan of the Arlo range of wireless cameras, and have a few around my property (mostly the Arlo Pro style battery powered wireless outdoor cameras, which use a base station).

If you have one of the more modern base stations (the Arlo Pro range onwards I think), then this camera can also connect via that. But it’s not essential & can cloud connect directly as a standalone device.

This one is mains powered (no battery option). I’ve noticed they have several different devices under the same listing, so the Amazon reviews get mixed together – please check which specific device is being reviewed as they’re all different in terms of use / battery vs mains / etc. This device I’ve reviewed is the Arlo Essential Indoor Camera, product code VMC2040, which was selling for around 120 when tested.

Setup was simple enough – remove from the box, plug in, connect to WiFi and away you go. The instructions aren’t bad, but it’s even easier if you watch the various videos (including one from Arlo) which you can access online.

Video quality is reasonable, especially in daylight. It’s 1080p resolution, so technically HD, and the automatic settings (colour, brightness, focus, etc) all work well.

Night vision isn’t bad – as ever this hinges hugely on how much ambient light. The camera has integrated infrared LEDs so can operate in zero light, but if you have some ambient light, the quality is significantly better.

WiFi range is reasonable also. I’ve managed to get this connected 3 rooms away (stone walls) from my WiFi router – so it’s decent enough for most domestic properties.

If you want a standalone mains powered camera, I can certainly recommend this. My more general experience of Arlo kit is positive, and on the couple of occasions I’ve had issues, I’ve had no difficulty contacting them for technical support. So overall, they’re a company I’d be comfortable to recommend.

Introduction

The ‘Essential XL’ by Arlo is a wireless smart security camera which boasts several features:
* 1080p quality footage with audio.
* LED spotlight & night-vision.
* Smart notifications.
* Two-way audio.
* Long-lasting battery.
* Access footage anywhere (providing you have an internet connection).

Set-Up

To get the ‘Essential XL’ up and running, you will need to download the ‘Arlo’ app onto your smart device and create an account.

If you have a family member who also wants to have access to the CCTV, they can technically log into your account but it will log everyone else out, so essentially, only one person can log in at one given time. The alternative, is for the other family member to create their own account and you can “grant access” to them within the settings (it’s a very easy process once you’ve found it).

Simple click on “Add New Device” and select the camera model that is relevant, which in this case would be: ‘Cameras’ – ‘Essential’ – ‘Essential Spotlight Camera & Essential XL Spotlight Camera’. From here, the app will guide you through what you need to do so the camera can link to your WiFi. There is a part within the set-up process where you need to “show” your smart device to the camera so it can read the QR code; it needs to be around 8 inches away for the camera to register it (also make sure you keep it still for a couple of seconds so it can ready it easier).

The app will tell you the strength of the signal between your router and camera; when you move to the location you desire, keep it still for a couple of seconds to estimate the strength. My router is based at the front of my house and I was able to get strong signal from my back garden (about 14m).

Included is a wall mount (screws and wall-plugs included), so some drilling will be required. I would recommend giving the camera a full charge before mounting (mine was on at 63% out of the box).

Unlike the ‘Arlo Pro Floodlight’, this model connected very quickly and without issues; though it did require several minutes to update the firmware.

At the time of review, the camera comes with a free 3-month trial and costs 2.99 per month thereafter; this I personally think is very reasonable for cloud storage (video files take up a lot of space!). If you were to add additional cameras at a later date, the cost does go up further.

Results

Once the camera is connected, as long as your smart device has an internet connection, you can access the CCTV footage; how quickly will depend on your connection and how good your WiFi is.

The picture quality is decent as you can see everything clearly; it even picks up audio very well. For low-light situations, you have the spot light which helps for colour images or night-vision for black and white; both are effective; however, I manually turned the off the spotlight for low-light situations to save on battery.

There are a lot of settings for smart notifications to tweak, so you don’t get notified for everything that moves in-front; you can also set activity zones for specific areas. Arlo’s ability to recognise the difference between a person, animal and vehicle is incredible.

The battery life per charge will depend on how much activity is in-front and how many times the spotlight comes on etc… But with the right conditions, it’s advertised as a year on a full charge which is impressive.

Final Thoughts

If you want to add some security to give yourself extra piece of mind, then the ‘Essential XL’ is definitely the right choice; it’s packed with many features, the connectivity is good (albeit slight delay which is normal) and the output quality is very decent. Would recommend.

Introduction

The ‘Essential XL’ by Arlo is a wireless smart security camera which boasts several features:
* 1080p quality footage with audio.
* LED spotlight & night-vision.
* Smart notifications.
* Two-way audio.
* Long-lasting battery.
* Access footage anywhere (providing you have an internet connection).

Set-Up

To get the ‘Essential XL’ up and running, you will need to download the ‘Arlo’ app onto your smart device and create an account.

If you have a family member who also wants to have access to the CCTV, they can technically log into your account but it will log everyone else out, so essentially, only one person can log in at one given time. The alternative, is for the other family member to create their own account and you can “grant access” to them within the settings (it’s a very easy process once you’ve found it).

Simple click on “Add New Device” and select the camera model that is relevant, which in this case would be: ‘Cameras’ – ‘Essential’ – ‘Essential Spotlight Camera & Essential XL Spotlight Camera’. From here, the app will guide you through what you need to do so the camera can link to your WiFi. There is a part within the set-up process where you need to “show” your smart device to the camera so it can read the QR code; it needs to be around 8 inches away for the camera to register it (also make sure you keep it still for a couple of seconds so it can ready it easier).

The app will tell you the strength of the signal between your router and camera; when you move to the location you desire, keep it still for a couple of seconds to estimate the strength. My router is based at the front of my house and I was able to get strong signal from my back garden (about 14m).

Included is a wall mount (screws and wall-plugs included), so some drilling will be required. I would recommend giving the camera a full charge before mounting (mine was on at 63% out of the box).

Unlike the ‘Arlo Pro Floodlight’, this model connected very quickly and without issues; though it did require several minutes to update the firmware.

At the time of review, the camera comes with a free 3-month trial and costs 2.99 per month thereafter; this I personally think is very reasonable for cloud storage (video files take up a lot of space!). If you were to add additional cameras at a later date, the cost does go up further.

Results

Once the camera is connected, as long as your smart device has an internet connection, you can access the CCTV footage; how quickly will depend on your connection and how good your WiFi is.

The picture quality is decent as you can see everything clearly; it even picks up audio very well. For low-light situations, you have the spot light which helps for colour images or night-vision for black and white; both are effective; however, I manually turned the off the spotlight for low-light situations to save on battery.

There are a lot of settings for smart notifications to tweak, so you don’t get notified for everything that moves in-front; you can also set activity zones for specific areas. Arlo’s ability to recognise the difference between a person, animal and vehicle is incredible.

The battery life per charge will depend on how much activity is in-front and how many times the spotlight comes on etc… But with the right conditions, it’s advertised as a year on a full charge which is impressive.

Final Thoughts

If you want to add some security to give yourself extra piece of mind, then the ‘Essential XL’ is definitely the right choice; it’s packed with many features, the connectivity is good (albeit slight delay which is normal) and the output quality is very decent. Would recommend.

What is it?
The Arlo Essential XL spotline is a wireless home security CCTV and this is the version with the battery that offers up to one year of life per charge.

As for the camera itself, it does 1080P HD video, 2 way audio, colour night vision, spotlight, motion activation and object detection (vehicle, person, animal, etc.).

The contents in the pack:
– Arlo camera
– Wall mount/stand & fixings
– USB cable
– Manual

How is it?
This doesn’t need an Arlo hub to install, it’s a standalone unit that’s ready to go – you hook it up to your wireless network via the Arlo app. It’s pretty simple to set up, the app takes care of everything.

As with all these cameras they need to charge out of the box, but the Arlo Essentials XL will let you know that it’s fully charged by showing a constant blue light.

Even with a very good WiFi connection there is a pretty big lag/delay from your action to the camera showing it on live view, but that’s to be expected. The App settings offer lots of tweaking to suit your ideal home setup, including spotlight on detection which I thought was pretty handy as a night vision capture as well as a deterrent. The spotlight is bright! I’m impressed from what looks to be such a tiny light.

Notifications from the app are detailed and concise which offers peace of mind when you’re out and about. Regarding video and photo resolution, 1080P is adequate but this would have to compete with many other brands offering the same HD quality at very competitive prices.

While it looks like there isn’t any local device storage (no internal camera storage, no memory card slot), Arlo offer a 3 month trial of cloud based storage to get you up and running. It does mean you’ll need to sign up to a payment plan once the 3 months are up, but a subscription service isn’t necessarily bad if it offers a number of services that benefit you.

Conclusion/Verdict?
I like the Arlo Essentials XL, the 1 year battery is impressive and the app is super intuitive so even the most novice of users can navigate around the app and access the camera when required. No memory card storage and 1080p limits the camera as we know Arlo do have 4k quality cameras, but overall this is a top notch product.

I unpacked the camera, fitted the unit in a location which would be easy for me to access but not so easy for an intruder and paired it with the WiFi. All good so far and now to check the performance over the next few days. We have NOVA WiFi mesh type extenders connecting all of our house, outbuildings and even the majority of our garden and therefore we do not find the WiFi issues that some reviewers have identified.

A couple of things we have noted already in regard to performance. We have fibre broadband, but live in a rural location with fibre to the cabinet (fttc) rather than fibre to the premises (fttp) and so our download speed at best is around 12 mbps and our upload about 0.5mbps. It really is not fast enough to transmit images at any speed to the cloud and renders the voice option redundant: not a fault of the camera itself, but one potential purchasers should be aware of, particularly as this camera relies on much faster upload speeds. We have a different re-chargeable system protecting our home and find that the combination of SD storage and only accessing WiFi to review live or recorded footage and receive notifications more flexible and significantly faster: that said the images from this system are far better than my other camera units. We have noticed though that the delay is so significant that by the time the camera starts to upload the image that the camera has missed it. I can only reiterate, that as far as we can see, it is our broadband which renders this unit less effective than it should be.

I have no negative comments to make about this camera as we struggle to test its performance properly at the moment. It has a light which is effective and when triggered enhances night vision makedly.

Unfortunately we have removed the camera as whilst I would happily keep it in place as a deterrent, as a Vine reviewer, I cannot provide an honest appraisal at this time. I have therefore installed the camera at my niece’s home and with her feedback I will provide a more accurate review.

Clear daylight pic, relatively fast alarm response on phone, battery 90% after a month

We are actually using it for the bird feeders about 40ft to nearest mesh node.

Should be straightforward to install, but we had to run the setup process many times, on several devices, before finally getting it added to our Netgear account. Once set up, though, it’s been fine – good image and audio quality, and motion detection seems very good. Having to dismount to charge with USB is a bit of a pain, but it would be the same with batteries. Overall, happy with this camera, but it could be easier to install!

This is the budget offering from Arlo and although it lacks some of the brilliant features of the Pro version (magnetic fixing/charging, offline SD cardbackup and intruder follow) it is still as exceptionally well made as its bigger brother in its identical high gloss mold. The image quality isn’t too bad either. I have some Ring products and its one of lifes mysteries that they are considered premium product. Yes, they are owned by Amazon so are more integrated into most people’s existing set up, but build wise they are absolute tat compared to Arlos range. Whereas Ring spotlights have batteries (and flimsy doors that constantly swing open, for all to tamper with) Arlos are fully integrated and literally last months (rather than weeks) between charges. They really are truely exceptional and deserve to be the market leader.

This is the budget offering from Arlo and although it lacks some of the brilliant features of the Pro version (magnetic fixing/charging, offline SD cardbackup and intruder follow) it is still as exceptionally well made as its bigger brother in its identical high gloss mold. The image quality isn’t too bad either. I have some Ring products and its one of lifes mysteries that they are considered premium product. Yes, they are owned by Amazon so are more integrated into most people’s existing set up, but build wise they are absolute tat compared to Arlos range. Whereas Ring spotlights have batteries (and flimsy doors that constantly swing open, for all to tamper with) Arlos are fully integrated and literally last months (rather than weeks) between charges. They really are truely exceptional and deserve to be the market leader.

I’ve been using various security cameras for quite some time and find them to be increasingly important in the world we’re in now.

Most of mine have either been wireless that needed power or wired. This Arlo set are the ideal replacement for them, giving me the flexibility to place them around the house. Inside or outside, mounted or not.

The set comes with all that you need. 3 cameras with mounts and screws for mounting. The cameras can be easily removed from the mounts for swapping and recharging as needed. A USB cable is included for charging.

The cameras are very easily set up via the application. It finds your wifi, you give it the password and then it presents a QR code to show to the camera. Very quickly the camera attaches to your network and is discovered from the app.

From here you can monitor your camera live and also receive notifications from the camera.

The camera can be used to monitor various types of motion including people, animals and cars. For us this will come in very handy monitoring our dog when we leave it at home (for short times) as he’ll have got used to having us around all the time during 2020.

The app is very easy to use and it’s easy to find your devices and modify there settings.

The app comes from a free trial of their smart plan. The smart plan adds remote video storage. Without it you get notifications and live video but this adds cloud storage for keeping a track of events that have triggered it.

The cameras itself has very clear sound and vision and also night vision, making it very versatile. It’s also weather proof so ideal for usage outdoors.

For me this is a really good option. The wireless coverage has been good around my house and 3 cameras allows me to cover the most vulnerable areas of my home.

For 3 cameras, ease of use, quality of equipment and experience I would say this is definitely worth the money and very good for something considered to be their essential experience.

So when you are Googling for ‘Arlo factory reset’, you know setup isn’t as simple as it should be! Took me about 3 hours to configure the cameras, having to get the password for the 2.4GHz WiFi then multiple resets of a camera which refused to be found.

Once the inevitable firmware update was out the way, setup could begin. With the pretty much essential subscription (7.99/month for up to 5 cameras) you get the cloud video recording on motion detection, alerts to phone plus parcel drop-off detection from one camera. I found the Android version of Arlo app OK to use, albeit with inconsistent user interface. One useful feature is linking ‘arming’ the motion detection to the GPS location of your phone, so cameras should auto-enable for motion detection alerts after you’re outside the GPS ‘home’ zone; I’d guess that’s 200m radius.

When you’re home, you can always open the app, connect to a camera and use the video/voice to speak to whoever is outside. Everyone says it take too long for the app to connect to a camera and start the live stream – I’d agree with that! Once connected video and voice quality on the ‘intercom’ is good. You can take picture, start recording, trigger the siren or illuminate the LED from the app too – from such as small unit, the ‘siren’ as loud as a mobile phone at top volume.

The batteries are rechargeable by USB lead, my cameras came part charged out the box. This means you need to mount the cameras where access isn’t too difficult so you can bring them down for a recharge – the guide says every 6 months but I guess that depends on using LED etc. I have seen solar panels with USB fly lead to trickle charge these units on sale on Amazon.

The cameras are sealed, but I placed under an awning, in the garage and in conservatory to give some protection from wind/rain. The USB is underneath and covered with a rubber flap. I have a D-Link DIR-655 wifi router with 3 antenna which allowed the Arlo cameras to pick up the 2.4GHz signal even outside the house.

You can link the cameras with Amazon Alexa, I guess one with a screen so you can see the video feed.

Overall Arlo is rather frustrating in that they try to ‘do an Apple’ with slick setup but it doesn’t always work, at which point you find there’s very little information to diagnose what’s wrong. For example, the camera which wouldn’t setup was ‘fixed’ by doing three factory resets. Also, if you want to get techy there’s no report on the IP address allocated to the cameras, I had to deduce that from my router.

All in all, I’d say this is still for ‘early adopters’ of the technology – expect to hit some problems along the way and work around limitations such as no 5Ghz WiFi. Also you will need to budget for the 7.99/month subscription unless you’re happy with these cameras as just video intercoms.