Hey, y'all, it's Rose, and today we're going to take a look at yet another indoor/outdoor
battery-powered security camera, Reolink Argus.
What's different about this guy is that at $100, it's inexpensive, but you don't have
to sacrifice a lot of features.
I do want to tell you before we get started that Reolink did send this camera to me for
free.
However, I promise that this review is going to be in my usual, objective style.
In fact, we're going to play my favorite game: Claim vs. Performance.
If you haven't played this game with me before, we're basically going to take a look at Reolink's
marketing claims and decide how true or imaginative they are.
Claim 1: Reolink Argus is the world's first wire-free, battery-powered, 1080p, waterproof,
smart camera.
What makes this statement true is that it's stuffed with five different adjectives.
Take one out, and it might not hold.
That said, the camera works alone, unlike Arlo and Blink which both require base stations.
Argus also offers a full HD picture using a 130° field of view, though it has an ever
slight fisheye effect.
My favorite thing about streaming video is that it's almost instantaneous.
You can see here how quickly Reolink wakes up to live stream as compared to Canary Flex.
Claim 2: The camera has a battery life of up to 180 days standby time or half of one
day if you're going full throttle.
Now on my 27th day of testing, I've used about 260 minutes.
I'm estimating that I've used about 30% of the battery life, which means that I might
get 2 or maybe even 3 months of battery life out of this camera.
Claim 3: Argus uses a PIR motion sensor that detects human movement and provides almost
no false alarms.
As my sprinkler and other inanimate objects triggered Argus, I'm calling this claim false.
Also, the camera doesn't have the option to adjust the retrigger time, so it does tend
to bombard you with alerts.
The other question mark about Argus' motion sensor is speed.
How quickly does it wake up to capture motion?
Here we've got the same motion event as captured by Flex, Blink XT, Argus, and Arlo Pro.
Claim 4: Argus offers two-way audio.
This claim is also true, and unlike other cameras that use a walkie talkie style, Argus
offers true two-way audio.
Unfortunately, though I was able to get this feature to work a couple of days ago, I can't
get it to work today, so I'm on the fence about how reliable the feature actually is.
Claim 5: Reolink claims a night vision range of up to 33ft at night.
And this is perhaps my most favorite feature as the night vision is bright, allowing visibility
into the treeline of my backyard, something I haven't seen while testing other cameras.
Claim 6: Motion detected is recorded, but optional.
Again, this is true.
Reolink says "optional" because the camera doesn't ship with an SD card, but you can
add one.
Sadly, the camera lacks a cloud storage option, so it's SD card or nada for now.
That said, finding recorded footage is way too difficult.
The timeline lacks polish, it's hard to navigate, and events are marked by an almost undetectable
pale, blue line.
Claim 8: The camera includes a built-in siren that will trigger when an event is detected.
This is true, but the siren is really puny which might actually be a pro if you ask your
neighbors.
Claim 9: You can control the camera from anywhere using the free mobile app.
This is also true.
You can turn motion, alerts, and the siren on and off, and you can also create a schedule.
From the app, there are several other features you can customize, and of course, you can
view your live feed as well as recorded footage.
And finally, we're going to swap from claims to one of your questions.
Al Allan wants to know how far away Reolink Argus can reliably work from the router.
So, Al, the answer is 150 feet depending on several variables.
Rapid wake up and night vision are my two favorite Reolink Argus features.
What I don't like about the camera is the lack of cloud storage, as well as the overall
feel of the app.
I've been called an app snob in the past, and that claim is absolutely true.
The app is really difficult to use in that creating timetables is really odd, as you
can see, and also setting up email alerts is a little odd.
What I see with Reolink Argus is not an anomaly, it's something I've seen before.
It's a really inexpensive piece of hardware.
And to be honest making a piece of hardware that's loaded with specs isn't that difficult.
What's expensive is creating a solid backend infrastructure, and that's something that
Reolink Argus is missing.
All that said, Reolink Argus isn't going to make my list of absolute, favorite home security
cameras, but it isn't going to make my pass list either.
If y'all can deal with the shortcomings I've presented, I do feel that it's a viable option.
But, you should know that though this camera is pretty new, there's an even newer version
coming soon.
The freshly announced Reolink Argus Pro will basically have everything you just saw, but it will also
have a rechargeable battery.
So if that's important to y'all, maybe you'll want to wait and check that out later.
I appreciate y'all spending time with me today, and I will see you soon!