Last year, Netgear released the Arlo Pro cameras, which has actually been the world's top selling
consumer security camera system.
And if you're unfamiliar with Arlo, it's a smart security camera system that features
100% wire free HD weatherproof cameras.
These cameras have been really popular with people who either can't or don't want to run
wires around their house for a traditional security camera system.
A couple of months ago, Netgear actually released the Arlo Pro 2, which is an updated version
of the Arlo Pro cameras that adds more features and addresses some of the concerns that people
had about the original Arlo Pro.
Just like the Pro, the Pro 2 comes with the same base station, which appears to be unchanged.
The cameras are still completely wireless even though the base station does require
a wired connection to your router.
The base station still has the 100 decibel siren and USB ports so you can connect a hard
drive for local storage if you want.
The overall design of the cameras has remained pretty much the same as well.
Physically they look nearly identical with the only real difference being a slight change
to the face of the camera and metallic lettering for the logo.
They still take the same 2,400 milliamp hour battery, the same mounts, skins, and they're
fully backward compatible with the Arlo Pro base station, so if you already have the Pro
system, you can keep the base station and just buy the cameras separately if you want.
Here with me today I have the two camera system.
In the box you're gonna get the base station, power adapter for the base station, Ethernet
cable that connects to your router, two cameras, USB cables and adapters for each camera, the
magnetic camera mount, and the mounting screws.
These cameras are really easy to set up and install.
You simply open the camera, insert the battery, press the sync button on the camera, then
press the sync button on top of the base station.
Then you can just take the included metal wall mount, screw it wherever you want, and
the camera has a really strong magnet that connects directly to the mount and allows
you to position it however you want.
You can also purchase the fixed mount that works really well outdoors if you need something
more secure than a magnet.
So, what are the differences between the Arlo Pro 2 and the original Arlo Pro?
Aside from a few extra features that I'll get to a little bit later, the major different
between these cameras is the resolution.
If you saw my Arlo Pro review, I was a bit underwhelmed by the video quality of the cameras.
They claim to be 720p, but the heavy video compression crushed the detail and the video
looked pretty blurry in some cases.
The Arlo Pro 2 cameras are 1080p, so they're noticeably sharper and retain more detail
than the Arlo Pro cameras.
Considering they still have to stream the video back to the base station then out to
the cloud, the video quality isn't gonna compare to something like 1080p POE cameras, but considering
the benefits of not having to run cables everywhere the quality is pretty good.
As far as frame rate goes, the cameras record up to about 24 frames per second when there's
enough light, and they drop down to around 15 frames per second in a dark environment.
Even thought Netgear claims that both the Pro and the Pro 2 cameras have 130 degree
field of view, the Pro 2 does seem to have a slightly wider angle than the pro.
As far as recording speed goes, the Pro 2 appears to have the same recording speed as
the Pro.
Within about a second or two of an object coming into the frame the recording starts.
Now, it could be a little bit faster, but it does work well in most cases.
To address people's concerns about recording speed, Netgear added a new feature called
lookback.
Whenever the camera is plugged into external power, you can enable the lookback feature.
The lookback feature allows the cameras to record a few seconds prior to when the motion
was sensed.
This means you don't have anymore issues with missing the first second or two before the
recording started.
This is definitely a nice feature and directly addresses some of the concerns that consumers
had about recording speed.
Another feature that's available when the camera is plugged into external power is motion
activity zones.
This allows you to get an instant alert whenever motion is sensed in a specific area of the
video frame.
My only gripe with this is that it can only be enabled when the camera is plugged in.
I'm not sure exactly why it would require external power, but it definitely would have
been nice to use on battery power.
Another feature that's enabled when you're plugged in is continuous video recording or
CVR.
This allows your cameras to record video 24x7.
Now, it does require you to purchase one of their paid plans, but it's nice to have the
option.
As I said earlier, the Arlo Pro and Pro 2 camera systems come with free seven day cloud
storage.
This means that you get free access to a full week of all of the recordings from up to five
cameras, so as long as the video you want to watch was within the past seven days, you
can go back and view or download it without paying any additional fees.
This is definitely a great deal and something that's hard to find from any other smart cameras
out there.
The base station can actually handle up to 15 cameras, do if you want more than 5, you'll
need to choose one of the corresponding service plans that can handle more cameras.
Now, on to one of the most controversial topics when it comes to wire free cameras, which
is battery life.
If you're unfamiliar with how these cameras work, they sit in standby mode waiting to
be triggered by motion or an event.
Once it's triggered it streams the video to the base station via WiFi, then the bast station
pushes the video to the cloud.
This means that the more motion you have the more battery power you're gonna use, and considering
the small size of the camera and the battery, the battery life is going to be limited.
Netgear does claim that you can get several months out of a single charge, but with the
camera mounted over my driveway, it did seem to lose about two to three percent per day.
I would expect maybe a little over a month out of the battery before it needs to be recharged.
To address customers' concerns about battery life, Arlo did release a solar panel.
It is a bit pricey at $80, but if you want to put your camera outdoors and you don't
want to be forced to go outside to recharge the batteries on a regular basis, then the
solar panel is definitely the way to go.
It actually looks like pretty good quality, and it does come with a sturdy fixed mount
and a USB cable that's made specifically for the Arlo Pro and Pro 2 that looks to be weather
resistant.
The solar panel pretty much makes the camera worry free since in theory you'd never have
to take it down to charge it.
Now, on to the app, which is one of my favorite things about the Arlo system.
The cameras are driven by modes, and the modes can be changed manually or they can arm automatically
whenever you leave the house using geofencing, they can be set by a schedule, or by a smart
home device like Smart Things of the IFTTT app.
I personally think the app is what sets the Arlo system apart from other security cameras.
It's really simple to navigate, and even though there are a lot of options, it doesn't seem
to overwhelming.
You can use the app to view a live feed of up to five cameras simultaneously, and you
can change a ton of camera settings including motion sensitivity, notifications, audio/video
settings, and you're triggering methods.
Now, by default the cameras will record as long as it senses motion for a maximum of
five minutes, and you can change the video quality settings as well.
My cameras were set to the highest quality by default, which I do recommend, but you
can lower the video quality if you need to squeeze a bit more battery life out of them.
One of the things that sets the Arlo cameras apart from other security cameras is the ability
to link with several smart home devices and apps like Smart things, IFTTT, and Amazon
devices.
This allows you to do really cool things like automate the cameras using smart home sensors
with Smart Things, or you can do cool stuff like this.
Alexa, show the driveway camera on Fire TV.
Okay.
The Amazon voice feature works on most Amazon Fire TV devices as well as the Echo Show.
If you saw my Arlo Pro review, you might remember that one of my biggest concerns was the price.
Now, it seems that the pricing structure has pretty much remained the same with these cameras.
At $480 for a two camera kit or $800 for a four camera kit, these cameras are definitely
not cheap.
Again, you're paying for convenience, and where you save money on professional installation
you end up putting it out on the system itself.
That being said, with the added features and the better video resolution, I do think it's
a better deal now, especially if you can't run wires.
But it will certainly benefit from a lower price.
Of course, they did address the video quality issues since the Arlo Pro 2 cameras are now
1080p.
Now, some people have reported issues with the Arlo Pro 2 cameras randomly going offline,
but I personally haven't had this issue, so it may have been addressed in a recent firmware
update.
Overall, I have to say that I'm impressed with the Arlo Pro 2 cameras.
I personally love the app, and I think they did a great job making the setup and the functionality
as simple as possible while still retaining a bunch of options within the app.
And I expect that with even more future over the air updates, the system is only gonna
get better and remain one of the top selling security camera systems.
All right guys.
That's gonna do it for this video.
I would like to hear your thoughts about these cameras.
Tell me what you think.
Go ahead and post your comments and questions in the comments section.
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