B075P84FH2

Please be VERY aware that this product (Arlo Pro 2 1080p) has a serious flaw. It will regularly and randomly go offline and only removing the battery will reset it and bring it back online. When this happens the battery depletes at approximately 10% per hour. Thus completely dead in 10 hours.

I have had an Arlo Pro 1 with five cameras for a long time without issue. But the Arlo Pro 2 has a fault and it is fundamental. A lot of people are discussing this on the Netgear community. Please be aware of the before you buy.

I added on a new Arlo Pro 2 to my existing base station and camera set-up. Visually the Pro 2 looks very similar to the original. Something I did not anticipate, however, is that a few of the features you may be buying the Pro 2 vs. the Pro for, such as activity zones (for motion detection) and CVR only work when the camera is plugged into AC power.

 There are many reviews about this item but as someone that has had multiple cameras installed around the house for years and have gone through several DVRs I may have something to offer with my review. I was skeptical at first because of the wireless problems (complains) I read about in other reviews but after using it for a week, it has been working as described so we like this system a lot mainly due to the ease of use and I have purchased a second one for my daughter’s house. The cameras were already charged to 100% out of the box and the camera I installed that covers the driveway and the front door of the house is still at 74% charge after 8 days. This camera records about 30 clips per day and every clip is about 15 seconds. What is even more amazing is that we have had cold weather in the 20s during the day and close to 0 during the night so the batteries are doing great for such harsh temperatures. Netgear also offers solar panel charging but in my case one camera does not see much of the sun during the day so I have no choice but to keep recharging

In the attached video, you can see how the notifications work on a phone and a sample of night vision. I also added a clip that was recorded in the back yard because the clouds were moving fast that day and sunlight conditions were changing often. That is a problem with the motion detection because that day it recorded over 40 clips of nothing other that sunlight intensity changes so it was wasting battery life for no reason. The bright specs during night vision are the laser Christmas lights I have projected on the house.

███ UPDATE 1/21/2018 – It has been a month now that the cameras have been operating in very cold conditions as low as -10 degrees while only being above the freezing point a couple of days during this month and the batteries are holding up better than I thought they would be. The front camera that records around 40 clips a day is at 29% of remaining battery and the rear camera that rarely records anything is at 80%. The stated operating temperature for these cameras is -4 to 113 F but this month they have been working for many hours below -4. One very cold night I got a message from the rear camera that said “Your camera needs to warm up” not allowing live view. The front camera was operating normally. If I get that message again, I will take a temperature reading on the camera body. What remains to be seen is if the batteries will keep performing as well over time. ███

Installation:
This camera security system is the simplest that I ever had to set up and operate. I received the package on a Thursday and since most of my camera locations are closer to the garage area and I have a CAT5 network connection in the garage, I figured I can plug the main unit in and then install the cameras the next day. The configuration of the device did not take more than 5 minutes before I was able to view both of the cameras feed on my phone and the default settings worked great so I did not have to tweak them other than letting the cameras send me notifications on my phone and stopping them from sending me notifications via email. Here are the steps needed:
-Download the application to your phone.
-Plug the main unit with the included wire to your modem/router. The main unit needs to be plugged in and you cannot use your WiFi to connect it.
-Plug the main unit to the power outlet and power it on.
-Follow the steps on your phone to create a username and password by providing an email address and add the device to your account (takes about 2 minutes)
-Put the batteries in the cameras.
-Sync the cameras to the main unit by pressing and holding the sync button for about 3 seconds.
-You are done! You can now see the cameras on your phone or can go to arlo.netgear.com and access everything there.
-I used 2 mounts (Wall Mount Outdoor Indoor For Arlo)) for the cameras and if you have a screw gun or screw driver, it will not take more than 5 minutes per camera because they are magnetic and you can adjust them easily.
-I had a portable 250GB hard drive that I was not using and plugged it in one of the USB ports. It recognized it immediately, asked me to format it and that was it. Now recordings are saved at Netgear’s website but also locally if the Internet service is out. But that is not so user friendly (see Cons below)

Pros:
-They are wireless and depending on the traffic that you are recording, you may not need to charge the batteries more than once a month.
-Cameras have both a magnetic and a 1/4 screw mount option which makes them easy to mount almost anywhere.
-Recordings are saved on Netgear’s website so you do not worry that a thief will also take your DVR with the recordings.
-You get a notification on your phone as soon as motion is detected.
-Cameras record sound and you can also talk through the camera build in speaker by using your phone or computer.
-Cameras can be set up for motion detection on a specific region of the viewing area or you can use the default setting. I found that the default setting works well because it does not get triggered by street traffic that is caught at the upper 5% of the viewing frame on mine. Yet if someone enters the driveway, I get a notification.
-You can add multiple users by just inviting them and after they download the app and create a Netgear account, they can see the cameras you have allowed them to see. You can also add multiple camera security systems from various locations to your Netgear account and be able to manage them all from the app.
-The app is very well made and maintained and you can do everything from it. If you prefer to use a browser, you can do so but it needs Flash so you will be better off using Internet Explorer

Cons:
-They have a very wide viewing angle (130 degrees) and that is borderline to a fish-eye lens which makes detail hard to view even though they are 1080P. If Netgear offered versions of the cameras with 60 or 80 degree lenses, I would love to have a couple of those cameras too in order to easily identify license plates and faces at greater distance. Also the 130 degree angle gives a curved image at the edges and that means that you may not have useful footage unless you overlap 2 cameras by about 15% and a less wide angle may have been more useful anyway.
-They only record a short clip when motion is detected. This means that if you come in and out of the frame within a few seconds, it creates 2 recordings instead of one. For example, If I get in my car in the morning put on my seat belt and then realized I forgot something take of my seat belt immediately and get out of the car, the cameras will record 2 separate clips. One of me getting to the car and one getting out of the car.
-Because the recordings stop immediately after motion has stopped, also means that you get many notifications on your phone or email for the same event and that is annoying.
-The fact that you need to charge them every month means that you will want to install them low so you don’t have to get a ladder every time you need to charge them. Installing them low means that anyone wearing a mask can steel these expensive cameras.
-You can download the clips from the website or in your phone but there is no video time stamp so handing them over to the police like I had to do many times with my old cameras, will not be very helpful for their case if timing is critical. The only time stamp you get is when you are viewing the clips directly from their website or in the app. Once downloaded, that information is nowhere to be found.
-Although you can easily install a USB hard drive and set it up to keep recording by deleting old recordings when full, the recordings in the hard drive will not be synchronized with Netgear’s website if there is an Internet Service interruption. This is a pain because the app does not give you the means to view footage from the hard drive and you will have to disconnect it and connect it to a computer to see what is recorded. All the app can tell you is how much space is remaining.
-There is a siren feature that is fairly useless because it only generates an alarm sound from the main unit and not from the camera’s speakers. A thief will be more amused than scared when he/she hears the faint alarm sound coming from a locked house. If the thief has already entered your home or business, you would call the police and not want to warn him/her that they are coming by sounding off an alarm.

In conclusion, this may be a four or five star item for people that have never had cameras before but I give it 3 stars for the fact that it is recording very short clips and does not have the time and date stamp in the video frame which is very important especially if you need to “stitch” some of these clips together to show a sequence of events. I do understand that it records very short clips to preserve battery but I think that there should be an option to select how many seconds it should keep recording after motion is no longer detected.

 # Things I like ##########

Setup (9.5)

Setup was very easy. If you know how to install an app on your phone, you can set up these cameras. I was up and running with two cameras in less than 10 minutes. I’ve read that other camera systems have complex setup procedures. This is not the case with the Arlo.

Ease of Use (9.0)

I love the fact that within minutes of opening the box, I had a cloud based security camera system up and running. I was able to put the cameras anywhere in my house, connect AC power, and view streaming video on my phone and on my computer.

Video quality (8.5)

One of the reasons why I didn’t buy the original Arlo Pro is that people complained about the video quality. With the Arlo Pro 2, I believe the 1080p video quality is pretty good. I do wish, however, that a higher resolution Arlo camera was available, even if the higher resolution required local storage.

Software (9.0):

The mobile app and the website are both very easy to use and navigate. With other camera systems, I’ve read that the companion apps were subpar. I don’t think people will have any complaints with the Arlo app.

Cloud Recording (9.0):

The free 7-day cloud recording plan is awesome. I think the $99/year 30-day plan is reasonable. I’m even ok with the cost of the continuous recording plan. No long term contract is required which is also awesome.

# Things I didn’t like ##########

Expensive. While I accept that a quality security camera system won’t cost under $100 (like many systems on Amazon), I can’t help but feel that this unit costs too much. Perhaps the counter argument would be that the free 7-day cloud recording mitigates the cost over time.

I wish there was a button on the main page of the app and website that allowed you to toggle all cameras on and off. An even better option would be to define camera groups that can be toggled on and off.

You will still experience delayed recording unless your cameras are plugged into a power outlet.

I wish the Arlo had better support for local recording. I’d like the ability to couple the free 7-day cloud recording plan with a local, continuous recording solution. I’d also like NAS support and the ability to host my own app locally.

Branded accessories are overpriced.

# Other Stuff ##########

Night vision works, although I seem to get a better picture on one of the two cameras. I’ll post an update after doing some more tests.

I haven’t tested the audio yet. I’ll post an update soon.

# Bottom Line ##########
I really like the Arlo Pro 2 system so far. I like the free cloud recording, easy setup, easy to use app, and video quality. It’s expensive, but if you can make do with the free cloud recording and USB storage backup, perhaps the cost is mitigated over time. The cloud storage will come in handy should a burglar attempt to steal or destroy your locally stored video.

The increased video quality and the elimination of the delayed recording (when AC powered) makes the Arlo Pro 2 a better option than the original Arlo Pro.

I think this is one of the best wireless consumer camera systems available. However, I still deducted one star. I want to see the local storage options improved upon. For instance, I’d like to see NAS support, an app I can host on a local server, continuous local recording, etc. I also want a higher resolution camera, even if the high-res videos can only be saved locally.

I’ll post an update to the review after I’ve tested the system a little more. So far so good.

# Tips ##########

If the power cord is getting in the way of your mount, consider using the camera upside down, then correct the image by rotating it in your camera’s video settings.

If you only need one camera, consider buying an Arlo Pro 2 camera and the old base unit separately.