Great product, easy to use and instal, delivered on time and in good condition. Good to do business with you

I’ve never been satisfied with Arlo camera wake-up and record time, until now. Had I known how slow Arlo cameras are to wake up I would not have bought several of them, however this new Essential camera is the mutt’s nuts

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.

If you want the easiest to install CCTV system and don’t mind paying a subscription fee then this is a really good set. You can use these without the subscription but it’s pretty useless as a security system without it as you need the cloud recording for motion events.

Installation wise, you can’t get much simpler, install the mounts where you want the cameras and simply screw the camera on and you are good to go. It’s just a matter of connecting the camera through the app on your phone. Video quality is very good during the day and at night using the IR night vision, these camera’s have a built in spotlight for colour night vision but it’s not very useful unless you’re using it cover an entrance gate or something like that, it’s simply not powerful enough for anything larger than that. The IR night vision thankfully works pretty well.

The camera comes with 3 months of free subscription when you get it and to be fair it’s been working amazingly well. The smart notifications work great and easily differentiate between people, cars and animals. It’s a really good quality camera system and the only things that you need to be aware of is the poor colour night vision and the subscription cost.

I got this Arlo Essential security system to go with the rest of my Arlo collection I currently have as I am a big fan of wireless cameras to protect my home.

This camera set works without the Arlo basestation and needs connected directly to a 2.4GHz Wi-Fit network in the Arlo app. It is easily installed by fixing the mount to the chosen surface with 3 screws and simply attaching the camera to the mount. You can use the thumbscrew to adjust the cameras angle.

It has an integrated spotlight for colour, night vision or black and white. The camera captures HD videos in 1080p providing a crisp and clear image. I can keep a careful eye on my home day or night with the 130-degree viewing angle and night vision technology. These cameras are waterproof and built to withstand any type of weather conditions.

Furthermore, it has many great features such as instant alerts sent direct to your phone via the app when a motion is detected at your property. The 2-way audio feature allows you to clearly hear and speak to guests from wherever you are. Also, a built-in siren can be remotely triggered to scare off intruders or can be set to alarm automatically.

The battery life of this camera can last up to 12 months and can be simply removed and charged with the included cable or can be paired with a solar panel for continual charging.

I am really impressed with this Arlo security camera system as they look great and always provide a high standard. The only thing that bothers me is the additional subscription fees that apply after the 3-month trial as they are not cheap.

Overall, this is an excellent camera system that links well with the rest of my Arlo products I have and is reasonably priced.

I already have a 4k Arlo system with base unit and these 1080P cameras were added to that as indoor cameras. The process took only 5 minutes to add them to my existing system and the resolution is ideal for smaller areas such as indoors. The motion detection is good and night vision adequate for small spaces, the inclusion of a spotlight and alarm means that if I catch someone via the notifications I can activate the siren and light to hopefully deter them.

I now have these monitoring my home studio, office and home. Very nice quality and so far the batteries are lasting very well.

1080p is probably just enough, but the 4k versions give more detail, though if you can’t afford it, I don’t think the 4k gives a huge amount more for the money. The picture, exposure, and “night vision” are all excellent.

The first thing to know about this camera is that it has to be connected to the mains; it’s wireless for connecting to your, er, Wireless network, but otherwise has to be plugged in to work. There are advantages to this over the literally wireless Arlo cameras that I have installed on the outside of the house, it never needs recharging of course, but it does mean that you are a little restricted in its siting and outside is definitely a no no.
The camera comes with a stand that is stable and moveable, along with a wall mount bracket.
You can connect very easily to the Arlo app, which is straightforward and easy to use. The camera’s built in microphone is very good- picking up quite quiet noises and you can talk back through the speaker- so good to use as a child monitor, I think. The camera itself is excellent, both in colour and in night mode with motio detection (and sound) very efficient.

This camera is well made was good when we put up just out of the window. We were happy as we could watch the birds and wild life in the garden worked well for a few days. After a few days we found the battery was and the WiFi were both giving a lot of problems. We could not catch the birds in the early hours on checking found the battery and the camera were not getting enough of signal and that the battery had to work harder. In our excitement we forgot to check all. We had to immediately make changes to the position and we then brought it indoors on the window sill and now got it set well. Surprisingly not only see wildlife but also managed to catch a peeping Tom thanks to this camera something we weren’t aware of. It’s very easy to set up with the app. It is a very sensitive camera for WiFi signal is concerned. After the initial battery scare now we are fine. The biggest negative is the camera has no SD slot and will have to think about the cloud rate. We will try putting it out in another month or so to see if we can work the correct position and will then review it again.

I’ve owned & reviewed quite a few Arlo cameras ranging from the underperforming & disappointing original PRO series to my current system which is ULTRA. The Ultra is by far is the best (picture quality is amazingly good in both darkness and daylight), but it’s hefty price tag (along with the need for subscription services to unlock it’s best features) means its not the best in terms of those all-important value stakes.

Enter then the Arlo Essential Spotlight XL, which after using the camera alongside my Ultras for a few weeks now my conclusion is that it represents the best value of the entire range. The key difference between the XL and the Ultra are as follows (ultra figures first)

Resolution 2160p vs 1080p
Local video storage – Micro SD vs Base station required
Field of view — 180 vs 130 degrees
Battery — removeable vs fixed
Automatic tracking – YES vs NO

Apart form the above, both have colour night vision (essential), wi-fi connectivity (the XL does NOT need a base station), two-way audio, spotlight, built in siren, Alexa compatibility and lastly of course the price with the XL coming in at well under half that of the Ultra. Both cover the essentials any good home security camera should possess the difference being that the Ultra does it with more finesses, greater clarity and more options to fine tune. With this in mind, the key considerations before deciding which one to buy are as follows.

Firstly image quality — well in test I found the XL to be good, very good indeed. Yes, had I taken the attached image with my Ultra, you’d clearly see the individual leaves in the photo, but as you can see, the image is pretty clear and even though the back gate is a good 30 ft away I can see the locks when zooming in. Secondly, the often overlooked field of view. Here, the ultra-offers up to 180 degrees meaning it is superb for wide areas such as the front or back of the house, whereas with the XL, 130 degrees is the max. For areas such as monitoring the side of a house (as in mine), 130 is more than sufficient, but camera placement is always worth considering. Thirdly storage. With the Ultra you have the choice of using either a micro SD card or the cloud, whereas the XL offers cloud storage only which after the trial period ends will require subscription. And finally the battery — with the Ultra whilst the battery life is shorter than the XL, the battery can be removed for charging & with the camera left in-situ. With the XL it is fixed, meaning you have to remove the entire device to charge — a point worth considering if you plan to install the XL 100ft high!

In the case of both, one of the most overlooked aspects of Arlo’s security is the intelligence of Arlo Smart. Smart helps to mitigate many of the overabundant notifications other cams send out due to triggers and best of all it works! Set the camera to ignore animals for example, or only sound the alarm when it detects human movement and it will, simple as that. Sadly though for both the Ultra and XL these advanced, smart features are only available with subscription, but there again it really boils down to what you want, where you will use it and what level of cover/protection you require. We are rarely at home during the day, so for me the subscription with smart features works for us and the pricing isn’t too onerous for complete piece of mind.

To conclude, the above are my key takeaways worthy of consideration before deciding which one to buy. As a good all round basic camera with better than average 1080p picture quality, class-leading battery life, great ergonomics, a good price and the option to access Arlo’s class leading smart features, the XL is a great camera that will do the job, more especially if the intended use is for hard to access areas requiring a smaller field of view. Best value in the range thus far and as such – recommended!

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.

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

It comes with a mounting bracket, screws, and a short USB cable. The camera is glossy black, LED light on the front, a microphone, and a speaker, and has a built-in battery.
The camera is small and feels robust, the picture quality is good and it was very easy to set up and install. The App is easy to use and does all that you need it to. It’s all wireless so there are no ugly, messy wires. Battery life is reasonable. You can control the camera with your Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant. However, there’s no local storage, you have to subscribe to a cloud. You can use the camera without recording if you want to watch out for the patio, garden, etc. Motion detection is very fast and notifications come in 2-3 seconds. If you try zooming in to anything though as it will pixelate. Also, the audio quality is too poor.
Overall, looks good, works well, has a tiny lag, and I find it ridiculous that it forces for a cloud subscription. There are many alternatives that have internal storage.

This camera is easy to set up using the Arlo app, which you will have to install on your phone. The camera easily connected to my wifi network. The app itself is complicated, and lets you adjust many settings. If you want recordings of what the camera detects, a monthly subscription is necessary.

There is a strong mounting bracket and screws supplied, so you can fix the camera to brickwork or woodwork. The mount lets you take off the camera, which you will need to do when it needs a recharge.

The camera is wide-angle, so objects or people more than a 2-3m away will look small on the video. The coverage is going to be OK to check who is approaching a door, but not for covering a wide area. Detection of anyone in front of the camera worked well every time, and the app gave me an alert.

Night vision was weak, illuminated by two LEDs, and anything more than about 3m away will be too dark to make out. When the LEDs come on, the camera is an obvious target, and an intruder will smash it at once.

My husband found this easy to set up onto our router part, which requires the 2g instead of 5g. Then installed on my phone. After that I was able to just tap the Arlo app on my phone and was surprised how easy it is to use. Received 3 cameras and one charging cable. Only one camera needed charging. So still to add that onto my viewing screen, when husband puts outside of front door. So have camera 1 indoors which I use to spy on the dog at the moment. Because she often decides to pull all the pillows off the sofa. When not in use I just point it away so the motion sensor doesn’t keep alerting my phone. Sound and mic work really well. Can now shout at the dog and tell the family dinner is ready whilst I’m still in the kitchen lol. Camera 2 is outside covering the garden. Nice clear picture and sound still. Can zoom in, but the further away then it starts to blur, which is expected when you have a big garden and camera is so high up anyway. Tap the corner arrow and it goes full screen on your phone. I found a delay up to 6 seconds or less on the actual live movement. Great feature is: where it points, you don’t realise it can actually see a far wider viewing screen then you imagine it would. So far battery life is excellent but time will tell. Great that you do not have to have wires connected off it. I can turn the motion sensor off when the garden is used in the day time and switch it back on at night time. Night time viewing very good as well. Have noticed some pixel mivenent and like it’s almost raining affect on the night picture viewing. Has stopped from seeing a clear enough picture though. Maybe wind hitting it? But if you snap shot it, then it doesn’t show up the slight defect movement. Which mainly on only on one part of the screen. Which also makes me think it’s the wind blowing over it from one side. Only thing I would be worried about is that they can be unscrewed and stolen. Not a problem at the moment with the camera high up and I can reach from opening the window. But outside my door most people will be able to reach the camera. Unlike me who will need the step ladder. Overall I am really pleased with it. Works great, easy for even me to use and access straight from my phone where ever I am at home or away.

This camera is so easy to set up,you can set it up in a few minutes for as longas you follow the instructions.Camera is very clear even on night mode bec. of the night light which automatically switch on when the camera detect any movement and you can switched it on remotely via phone is you want the night view to be coloured.It is also still very clear even if it is raining.Free 3 months cloud subscription is also a plus factor with this camera .As it is a wireless camera positioning it around your home is very convenient as you don’t need to drill a hole in your walls and no more messy wirings that most people don’t like on security cameras.You can also talk to the person outside your house for its two way speaker system.Sound the alarm remotely when notified and can call a friend if you need to in case of an intruder going to your house which is helpful. Love this.