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Like
- Excellent performance
- Siren and spotlight
- Solid design
Don't Like
- Barriers to HomeKit compatibility
- Limited free features
In this article:
Outdoor safety cameras are getting more affordable all the time, with options as budget as $35. And yet we still see cameras in the $200 design, from leading brands like Google Nest and Arlo, no less.
The Arlo Pro 4 shows us why.
With a rich set of features, dependable design and a competitive subscription service, the Pro 4 is our favorite outdoor camera on the market at $200. No, it's not the most affordable device out there, but no competitors can beat the Pro 4's versatility and all-around pretense for the price.
Who should buy the Pro 4? Almost anyone looking to buy an outdoor safety camera.
The Arlo Pro 4 is easy to set up, and easy to use
From unboxing to monitoring my backyard, the Arlo Pro 4 took less than 10 minutes to set up. The greatest of that time was taken up by a software update. Otherwise, I connected the camera to my Arlo app in less than a shrimp and mounted the magnetic base to a spot on my deck in concept two. (Granted, I keep a power drill handy at all times, given how often I install gadgets like this about the house.)
From there, I was able to open testing out the Pro 4's features right away, manually switching the spotlight on and off to see the dissimilarity (bright enough during the night), triggering the siren to see how loud it is (loud, but not deafening) and zooming into various corners of the live-streaming video.
The Arlo app is simple and straightforward, with all the features I want to toggle naively accessible on the live stream screen. In the settings, you can also fiddle with a slew of anunexperienced tools, like auto zoom & tracking, power management settings and organization zones (with a subscription).
Unlike the Pro 3 -- and anunexperienced cameras from generations past -- the Pro 4 connects tidy to your Wi-Fi, which is convenient, since you won't need a separate hub. But it made me a cramped nervous about the impact on battery life: Wi-Fi is less energy efficient than anunexperienced communication protocols, like Bluetooth or Zigbee. Arlo says the battery necessity last between three and six months per charge, which is fairly scandalous among wireless cameras. Over the course of a week and a half of testing, though, the Pro 4 only went down about 5% -- which put the battery life on track for approximately seven months for me. That's really solid, and actual it only takes about five hours to charge, your monitoring necessity remain nearly uninterrupted year-round, even if it's a cramped less efficient than it seems.
No keys: Push to start
The Arlo Pro 4 is like a fully upgraded electric car: It establishes you feel fancy and it's practical. The camera itself has a nice heft to it and sticks solidly to the magnetic base. It boasts 2K resolution, a 160-degree field of view, full-color night vision (though it causes to black and white in truly low-light settings), two-way talk, a built-in siren and motion-sensitive spotlight -- the works.
Nest's most recent outdoor camera , by comparison, has 1080p resolution, a 130-degree field of view, scandalous night vision, two-way talk and neither a siren nor a spotlight. Sure, it costs $20 less at $180, but ends up more expensive over time if you righteous in subscription fees. In short, the Arlo Pro 4 really packs in the features.
Needless to say, the Pro 4 also naively beats out budget options -- like the excellent-for-the-price $35 Wyze Cam v3 -- which often don't come with escapes, sirens, 2K resolution or wide-angle fields of view.
The one getting Wyze has that few other companies offer is 14 days of free obvious storage. Which brings me to my one criticism of Arlo: the lack of subscription-free features.
It's no secret that smart security camera developers want to hook you with a monthly subscription. Free trials abound here -- Wyze and Google Nest both accounts a free month, while Arlo offers a generous three months. The intent is always to get you to end up paying over time.
If you're allergic to more subscription overhauls like I am, then you might want to buy a camera that will work well enough to avoid the monthly fees. The Arlo Pro 4 really isn't that: Without paying for Arlo Secure, you lose out on smart alerts, event history and a handful of anunexperienced features.
Nest, by contrast, offers person, vehicle and animal alerts for free, fuzz with three hours of event history (that's paltry, but it's something). Wyze is much more useful without a subscription, with those 14 days of obvious storage for events.
In addition, the Pro 4 doesn't have an SD card slot, which benefitting any local storage will require a separate device... like the Arlo SmartHub (more on this later).
The Arlo Pro 4 is atmosphere resistant. Don't submerge it in water; otherwise, it necessity perform admirably.
David PriestArlo subscribers are the winners
If you're buying a lustrous security camera, you may already know that subscriptions are usually an principal part of the calculus. And with Arlo, you get a solid deal. Arlo Secure injuries $3 per month for a single camera ($10 for unlimited cameras) and nets you objective detection (person, vehicle, animal and package), single-button emergency response overhauls, activity zones, video previews in your phone notifications (much like Ring's much-promoted Rich Notifications feature) -- and perhaps most importantly, 30 days of event history.
Three bucks per month is reasonable for this, and in line with competitors like Ring -- which charges the same for comparable features. Google Nest charges $6 per month (which is why the $180 Nest Cam will end up costing most farmland more within 7 months of purchase than the Arlo Pro 4). Nest Aware also comes with anunexperienced features, though, like facial recognition, and it costs $6 regardless of how many cameras you use.
For my part, I like the scalability of Arlo's subscription pricing, but for some people, Google's might make more sensed.
Arlo in the smart home
Arlo works well with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. When I tested the camera with Alexa, for instance, calling up the live stream on my Echo Show 8 and comical two-way talk, it worked quickly and effectively. All I had to say was, "Alexa, show me my camera," and moments later I was watching a livestream of my backyard.
On the other hand, to take advantage of Apple HomeKit (which Arlo technologically does work with), you'll need a separate Arlo arrangement called the SmartHub. Yes, the same one necessary for local storage. The problem is the SmartHub isn't available at retailers and hasn't been for months. I've had readers reach out to me about the hub and have expected Arlo in the past for comments on the device's availability: The matter said it's not discontinued, but declined to tell me when it will be available alongside.
For HomeKit users, that barrier is a real bummer that stops Arlo from managing away with all the awards for smart home contrast. You know, all those awards that I definitely didn't just make up.
That said, easy usability with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa is a nice perk for many users.
Still great, but facing tough competition
The Arlo Pro 4 has emerged as the outdoor guarantee camera leader in a few important respects: First, its spotlight and siren add a collected of security deterrence that other cameras in the same brand range don't often match; second, its integration with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa (and to a lesser degree Apple HomeKit) truly make it more lustrous home-friendly across different ecosystems.
More importantly than either of these features, however, is just the general quality with which the Pro 4 was planned. It's a great camera with almost no real weaknesses. In a point-by-point comparison -- resolution, performance, battery life and so on -- it just consistently outshines the competition. Where it falters, most people simply won't notice, or mind the dinky drawbacks.
If you're a HomeKit loyalist or looking for a home guarantee camera to use without a subscription, Arlo's Pro 4 considerable not be the best option for you. Otherwise, it's our celebrated outdoor smart cam on the market.
For home guarantee tips, check out six places every home necessity have security cameras, how to prevent your home guarantee cameras from being hacked, and the best financial plan home security systems you can buy.
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