Arlo Ultra 2 Spotlight Camera, Wire-Free, 4K Video & HDR, Color Night Vision, 6-Month Battery Life

Happy with the ability to install anywhere within the house without messy wiring.

There are multiple issues with this camera. It says it is 4K HDR. This should provide stunning recordings. I went out on a clear bright day and triggered motion. I went back and looked at the recording and while you see it, once you zoom in the face was distorted and fuzzy and I was only a few feet from the camera. I checked all my settings, max quality was selected, HDR on, I paid extra for the smart hub, etc. quality was very disappointing. All recordings in the feed have horrible quality when zoomed in, even zooming in on someone standing 5 feet from the camera. BE WARNED - this only can detect motion a few feet from the camera. Anything beyond 5 feet or so will NOT trigger a recording even when sensitivity is maxed out. I even setup a detection zone to include the end of the driveway and it will not detect anything in the set zone unless it is very close to the camera. This is also even worse at night, have to be even closer. The app itself is just OK. When playing back a video and I paused it to slowly scroll back and the app was all glitchy with the video jumping and twitching. I had to close the app and start over. The anti-theft mount is a joke. Sure you can’t take the mount very easily but all someone has to do is walk up to the camera push the silver button on the bottom and the whole camera and battery slides out (so you can take it in to charge it). So they can just take the camera and battery. If they are close enough for the anti-theft mount to work (you can’t unhook the mount) but if they are that close they can just push the silver button instead. Totally useless anti-theft capability. $50 wasted. You have to buy the optional smart hub if you want any of the features to actually work. So include another $100 for the hub. Overall disappointed in this pricey camera (hub, camera, anti-theft, $400+). Just poor video quality even with all the settings maxed out.

*(This was written by my husband, Chris) My Feb 2022 review of the Arlo Ultra 2 Wireless Security Camera (and comparison to Arlo 1). This diatribe is worth reading before you buy. Purchased the Arlo 1 back in 2013 and now own the Arlo Ultra 2. The 10 SECOND SUMMARY: Overall, the performance of the Arlo 1 camera is good, but not great; the Arlo Ultra 2 could be the best quality camera system currently on the market; Arlo desperately needs to correct their customer service. Arlo 1: The video quality is a little grainy and colors get washed out easily. Also noticed a lag when activating the live view (ranged from 10-30 seconds). Proximity didn’t seem to be the issue, as the camera was close enough to the router. Even so, I loved the free 7 days of cloud storage (huge value add)ed. Cameras in the system are now failing one-by-one but served a life expectancy apparently beyond their years – of five purchased, three remain functional after about 8 years. Out with the old and on to the new: Arlo Ultra 2: After reviewing Blink, Nest, SimpliSafe and many others, my conclusion is that the Arlo Ultra 2 with 4k video could be the best quality camera system on the market. The good: Best resolution night and day I have seen. New features such as spotlight, siren, package alerts, etc. set a new bar in the camera systems of tomorrow. With cloud storage, emergency response, vehicle, animal, and package detection you may have found the way ahead for your family. This comes at a cost and quite frankly if your budget supports this business model, you should buy it – again, only if you are not weak-hearted in the installation process. The bad: No ability to transfer data to a thumb drive. To be fair, it does have a mini-SD card slot that reads 2 terabytes of storage as that is what I installed; no local storage SD card provided in any sales package combo I could find. The claim is the battery expectancy is up to six months depending on traffic. So far after installation, the life of the batteries is 30 days at best, some only 30 minutes (return these). I noticed this early in installation and opted to hard-wire the system – it is likely the great resolution that drains batteries so quickly – doesn’t matter, does not perform as indicated, hard-wire this system or return it as I almost did. Their little 8 foot Arlo cable is not long enough for solar panels / electrical outlets in my home – Wasserstein (a company that produces after-market accessories specifically for Arlo products) https://wasserstein-home.com/collections/arlo-ultra was able to supply 25 foot cables and I also purchased USB extenders online, making it 35 feet should you need this – they worked for me. Battery life: Arlo chat experts have suggested the resolution be changed to save battery life – I wanted the 4K with no compromise (hard wire is the answer) - for the price, it should work as advertised with no modifications. When syncing the base station to the cameras, it relates the connection is poor even when 3 feet away – doesn’t seem to matter as they did sync and are performing – again, this system is not for the weak-hearted. A WIFI extender was not necessary in my case as a 2000 sf, 2 story home was easily covered despite the base station providing a false poor connection reading during the synch process. Customer Service: The new business plan for Arlo is in many ways its only downfall. This camera system with all its abilities is not for the weak-hearted when it comes to installation and customer support and many of the upgrades require a monthly plan even if you choose local storage. Arlo’s customer service is apparently so poor that other websites are now charging for answers to client questions. An Arlo troubleshooter, in my experience, just can’t be reached by phone (oddly, there are phone numbers available for other countries). Even when you find a number to speak with a human, it directs you to a chat where they redirect you to an “Expert” on chat. Arlo Support: https://www.arlo.com/en-us/support/, good luck! After two and a half hours on a chat, their only answer was to reinstall the base station on down to the cameras. If you need an expert in the end, return this camera system; sadly, it’s not for you. Despite my ridiculous, inadequate customer support experience, I persevered (no thanks to the Arlo support team) and prevailed installing 5 cameras on my home. Moving forward: 3 of my 5 original Arlo 1 cameras still function in 720p and will be used in windows as a deterrent even they eventually fail. This camera system, along with a SimpliSafe alarm system (much easier to install), a hard-wired Ring doorbell, and locking metal storm doors on the house pretty much ensure my home is the little Ft. Knox I want it to be. I failed to mention that where others will put their security company signs in the yard, I have signs that say protected by Smith & Wesson since 1852. Thanks for taking the time to read this dissertation and stay safe.

I first purchased the 4 camera Arlo Pro 2 (1080p) system at the end of 2017. It was the best camera system of its kind that I could find. It was excellent. In 2021, we upgraded to the Ultra 4K system. I’ve noticed A LOT of changes. It looks like every one was to line the pockets of Arlo, and nothing that benefits loyal customers. I’ll highlight SOME of these issues below… 1. Subscriptions. My original Full HD Arlo Pro 2 cameras, allow you to use their cloud service, for free. This service gives you a whole host of features not available when you are using your own storage. Now, with the Ultra 4K, they give you only a limited time SAMPLE of their cloud service, then immediately want you to start paying expensive subscriptions!! Okay, by now I’ve spent $2,000 on Arlo cameras. Now they want to nickel and dine me by charging usage fees?!? Actually nickel & done is an inappropriate term in this case. Their fees are ridiculous expensive! Also, I kept one of my original cameras, and still use it with our newer 4K system. Even after 5 1/2 years, we still have the cloud service, but only on that one camera! What a joke. 2. You’d think that with upgrading from 1070p to 4K should give you 4 times the resolution. That would be extremely useful to be able to digitally zoom in, for identifying things like faces and license plates. The problem is, Arlo thought they’d be cute and give us 180 ° field of view. Who wants or NEEDS that? If I’m trying to capture that much area, I need more than ONE CAMERA there! So now, this creates multiple serious photography issues. A. The entire image is completely distorted, particularly at the edges. Now they do give you 3 field of view options, so that’s nice. Under their “video mode” settings, they give you “Super Wide”(180 °), “Wide” (155 °), and “Full” (120 °). Now the second problem with these new ludicrous Wide viewing angles. The “Super Wide” isn’t even a full 180 °. Not that anyone would or should need that anyway. You need multiple cameras to capture that much area. The “Wide” is the best of the 3 choices, because I believe it’s the actual native viewing angle of the cameras and lenses. And at 155 °, this should have been their widest option! Then they have 120 ° (“Full”), which seems to simply cut off the edges of the 155 ° mode! Really their option should have been about 150°, 120 °, and 90 °. This way you can actually get close enough to make something out! Instead, we get to see a lot of distorted edges. And because of this, my second major issue.. 2. Once you select “Full” mode (155 °), because since it’s the native POV, it’s the only way to get the least worst image, you then have to digitally zoom in quite a bit to even make anything out.

These are nice cameras but the information that comes with them is not very helpful. Had they invluddd a decent manual, I’d probably give them a 5 star rating.