"Arlo's first camera without a hub is cheaper, but is it worth it?"
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Color night vision
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Inexpensive monthly subscription
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Glitchy app
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Blurry faces in the video
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Bad battery performance
The Arlo Essential was designed to be the answer to crappy surveillance cameras that can't "see" clearly in the dark. To achieve this, Arlo added a headlight and colored night vision to the Essential. With night time being the main time for security filming, this was a good idea and we are surprised that more outdoor video surveillance cameras are not focusing on it. It's also the company's first hub-free camera, which is especially handy for those who don't have additional Ethernet ports on their routers. Did Arlo's hub-free, night vision-oriented camera come out on top? I found the following:
installation
Because the Arlo Essential is a wireless camera, installation is quick and can be done by even the least mechanically gifted person. The app guides you through the setup step by step. You simply attach the base with three screws in the place where you want to place the camera. Flip the camera onto the base and you're done. It didn't take more than 10 minutes. Since there's no hub to connect to, you can skip this step altogether, which streamlines things a bit.
Video
The camera records with a resolution of 1080p and has a field of view of 130 degrees. This is a step back from the Arlo Pro 3, one of our most popular outdoor surveillance cameras that records 2K video (with a maximum resolution of 2560 × 1440). and the field of view (how much the lens can "see") is slightly wider at 160 degrees.
Essentials has a nice clear video during the day. The colors are vivid and there is very little distortion. The edges of the image are slightly curved but not enough to affect the clarity. However, the camera struggles to focus on faces. I noticed that they looked a bit grainy, especially further away. The camera has a 12x digital zoom so you can see unfamiliar faces better at a greater distance. However, zooming in will degrade the quality of the image even further, so it doesn't help much. The sweet spot seems to be just a foot or two from the camera for the sharpest picture. This isn't particularly helpful when you need the essential to do more than just monitor your porch.
The faces were so blurry that it is difficult to pick out features.
The biggest innovation in Arlo Essential is the built-in spotlight that allows you to watch color video at night. Is this innovative leap making waves? Not really. I found that the video quality was still not great. Just like when shooting daily footage, faces were a problem, but even more extreme. The faces were so blurry that it is difficult to pick out features. The colors and contrast looked fine, but the camera didn't seem to focus on people.
properties
What is essential is a bit of a boneless, which probably explains the name. However, there is a siren and two-way conversation. The 80dB siren can be set to go off when motion is detected, or you can set it to go off only when you manually press the alarm button. Unfortunately, 80dB isn't very loud and it's one of the quietest sirens we've seen on outdoor surveillance cameras.
Alina Bradford / Digital Trends
The two-way audio allows you to speak to people who are near your security camera. They can hear them and they can hear you – at least that's how the camera should work. I found that the Essential's two-way talk was quite loud when you're the listener outside. I could only hear mutilated sound through the app. The app stopped and buffered when I tried to use it too, which made the process even more frustrating.
An important missing feature on other Arlo cameras is the privacy setting: this feature allows you to control which areas of your garden the camera can record. For example, with the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight camera, if you don't want to capture part of your garden, the camera will zoom in to avoid it. This feature is useful when, for example, you don't want to record your hot tub area or when your kids are playing.
Battery life
One of my biggest complaints about the Arlo Essential was the battery. In less than a week the load was full. One of the main reasons for this is that there are two very limited ways to regulate the sensitivity of the motion detector. The constantly triggered sensors mean the camera is recording all the time – and wasting the battery.
In less than a week the load was full.
One way is to set up an activity area through the app, a point that the motion sensors focus on so that the camera doesn't detect activity on a busy sidewalk, for example. Another way to reduce the number of triggered sensors is to focus them only on detecting people or boxes and not animals or vehicles. Other cameras may reduce the sensitivity and / or the area in which the sensors can detect movement.
On a slow day, the battery used around 11% of its charge. If the sensors only trigger occasionally, you will still need to charge the camera every nine or ten days. This is not very long and would be a pain in the end.
Alina Bradford / Digital Trends
Worse still, the camera doesn't have a removable battery like the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight does. This means you have to take the camera off its mount (you have to unscrew it, which takes a minute) and then put it in to charge. You can buy a solar panel attachment for the camera to solve the problem of it constantly charging. However, I am concerned that the Essential is using more energy than the solar panel could produce.
App
Although the Arlo app is easy to navigate, I've found it to be quite buggy. For example, it froze when trying to set up the activity zone function. If this was a one-off fritz, no problem, but I kept having these moments trying to use the app. If you tap on the full screen view from the mini screen in the dashboard, the app is also buffered for a few seconds. This can be frustrating when trying to use the two way feature to communicate with a person at your door, or just want to take a closer look at one person. At times, I found that the app was even buffering just trying to display live video on the miniscreen.
The app isn't all bad, however. One useful feature that you won't find in most cameras is lock screen notifications, which you can get here. So you can see who is at your door without opening the app. That can save you time! Just look at your phone and you will know exactly how to do it.
There are two security features that I also like. By connecting your carbon monoxide detector or fire alarm to Arlo Essential, you can be notified when these alarms go off. Tapping the 911 button on the app will call 911 (as long as you live in the US) and automatically show the location of your home.
While you don't need a subscription to use Arlo Essential and its app, the camera is almost unusable without one. The A.I. The subscription-based service Arlo Smart gives you access to activity zones, e911 services, 30 days of cloud storage and advanced object recognition that allow you to tell the difference between a person, a vehicle, an animal and a package. You get a three month trial which then costs $ 3 per month, which is really affordable. This price is for one camera. However, if you have more, there's a package that covers up to five cameras for $ 10.
Our opinion
The Arlo Essential just doesn't hit the mark in terms of video clarity, features, or the app. There are outdoor surveillance cameras with much better video quality for less than $ 130 and apps that work far better. I expected more from Arlo because the company's other cameras are rated highly here at Digital Trends. It's possible that Arlo hasn't fully perfected the camera without a hub and needs to resolve the issues.
Is there a better alternative?
Yes. Our list of the best security cameras has some really good options, models that are cheaper and work better – although they may not have a built-in light. If you want a good floodlight camera, go for the Arlo Pro 3 floodlight: the light is brighter, the siren is louder, and it has a lot more features for around $ 120 more. On the other end of the spectrum, the Wyze outdoor camera offers a whole host of features for much less – this camera is only $ 50!
Will it take?
The camera seems sturdy and well made, but I have serious concerns. Since you have to unscrew it from the mount every time you need to charge the Essential, I'm concerned that the threads will come off quickly and you will no longer be able to mount the camera. The hardware has a limited one-year warranty and operates in temperatures from minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit to 113 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 degrees Celsius to 45 degrees Celsius). However, these are real concerns.
Should you buy it?
No. There are just too many other inexpensive outdoor surveillance cameras on the market that work better and have more features.
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