Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight Camera – 3 Pack – Wireless Security, 2K Video & HDR, Color Night Vision, 2 Way Audio, Wire-Free, Direct to WiFi No Hub Needed, White – VMC4350P

I wanted to install a cameras to enhance my whole house security system. The Arlo Pro 4 cameras are a bit pricey, but I think, over-all, worth the cost. I especially like the magnetic mounts. They are very strong, easy to install, and so far, I have not had any problems with wind changing their positions. When purchasing the cameras, you have a choice of connecting them to your existing Wifi router or using a hub. Since the cameras will only connect to 2.4 G and most Wifi routes broadcasts both frequencies, my mobile device had to be connected to the 2.4 G instead of 5 G in order to set up the system. I didn’t want to go into my router and turn off 5 G … with past experience, when I do things like that, I usually cause another problem and didn’t want to risk having all the devices on my system stop working. I purchased the Arlo Hub VMB 4540. Before installation, I went on-line and downloaded the manual for the Pro 4 cameras to my computer and read through it. You first must download the Arlo Smart App to your mobile device. After you figure out how to use that, the installation of the smart hub and cameras is a breeze. Prior to installing the cameras, I tried to find the optimal place to put them by downloading a free App called the Airport Utility App. It allows you to walk around your house and scan the 2.4 G and 5 G signals from your router to see where you have the best 2.4 G signal. (You will also see the signal strengths of your neighbors as well.) You can tell that by running the utility and looking for your router channels 1 to 11 (since these are the channels that broadcast 2.4 G) and see how strong the signals are. Anything from -50 dBm to – 68 dBm is a strong signal and your cameras will work fine in that position. Keep in mind you don’t have to use this Airport Utility App. When you set up your cameras, the set-up procedure allows you to walk around the house and check your signals in the same manner for each camera you install. I installed three cameras. I just wanted to have an idea where I could place my cameras for a strong signal before installing them. My Router and Smart Hub are in the same room but about 20 feet apart to prevent signal interference. The ethernet cable that comes with the cameras is only about 4 or 5 feet long. I wanted to keep the hub much farther away from my router and wireless printer to prevent signal interference. The Smart Hub broadcasts a 2.4 G signal which travels much farther than a 5 G signal. I also purchased the Arlo Battery Charging station that allows the charging of two batteries at the same time. The batteries that came with the camera seem to be partially charged and took only about an hour to fully charge. On the other hand, I ordered three extra batteries, and those took several hours to charge to full capacity. I wanted to have a full replacement set charged, and ready to go. so that when the batteries in the camera were low, I could easily replace them all at one time. The batteries in the cameras are holding their charge well and have been in use now for three weeks or more, and all still have about an 85% charge left. It looks like we are on target for what the manufacturer says is about a 3 month window before you have to replace or recharge the camera batteries. When doing this, you don’t have to take the camera down and disturb its placement. Simply press the button on the bottom of the camera, and the camera body slips out of the housing allowing you to easily change the battery and slip it back into the housing. You don’t disturb the camera’s aim at all. Once the cameras are installed, you can play around with the activity zones in the Arlo App and set your cameras to ignore motion in certain areas and alert to motion in others. I also found that the sound pick-up by the camera’s microphone and speaker is excellent. Arlo gives you a free three-month trial subscription to their app with all the features. After three months, if you don’t subscribe, at a fee of $9.99 per month, you lose most of the features of the Arlo app. I like those features, and most likely will subscribe after the trial period. To ensure that I have a hard copy of all events monitored by the cameras, I installed a 128 GB flash drive on the Smart Hub. This way, the recorded events are not only recorded to the cloud for a period of time, but also to my flash drive. I have the recording on the flash drive set to overwrite previous recordings as it reaches its capacity. Overall, I would rate the Pro 4 camera’s 2 K resolution very good. I didn’t want to spend the extra money for 4 K resolution…. it was just too pricey. So far, I am happy with my purchase. One disappointment I had, was when I opened the three pack of cameras that I bought, they had only two magnetic mounts and an Arlo adjustable mount. Since I wanted all Arlo Magnetic mounts, I had to order a two pack (doesn’t come in a one pack) of Magnetic mounts at an additional cost. My only other disappointment is that in a 2400 square foot ranch house, I could not get signal strength strong enough with the hub to monitor my back patio and entire backyard. I had to settle for only a partial view of the backyard by mounting the third camera at the side of the house where it received a strong signal from the hub. Range extenders for the hub or purchasing another hub wasn’t a viable option that would work. A second hub would still have to be connected via ethernet cable to my Wifi router, and that would require another ethernet cable run from the Wifi router, down to the basement, and over and up through the floor to where a second hub would need to be located. It wasn’t worth the investment or the hassle.

This camera was easy to mount and connect to the Wi-Fi through the app setup. I have the magnet mount attaching it outside. We get a lot of high wind here, so I was worried about whether it would stay attached, but there have been no issues with that. The picture quality is very good for outdoors. The motion sensing seems to work well, but it will pick up movement from outside objects in the wind. There’s not much you can do about that though.The battery life is better than I expected. I’ve had it for about six weeks, and I haven’t charged it since the first day. It’s still at 67%. I bought the solar panel for it, but I haven’t hooked it up yet. We don’t have it running constantly though. It’s only recording/monitoring at night or when we leave. I really did not want a camera that I had to drill through the house and run wires. That would be significantly more complex.Overall, it seems like a solid camera. It’s a nice looking camera, small, easy to setup, and I think the app is pretty decent. It’s nice the app classifies motion as animals, people, vehicle, etc.One helpful note: there is a common complaint about the Arlo app with adding a spouse/friend to view the camera. You have to do it on a laptop browser. For some reason, it won’t work when they try to do the setup on their phone.**Update: Camera is still working great several months later. I got another one recently too. I also installed the solar panel a couple months ago. It works well and now I don’t need to charge the camera—though I only had to do it once or twice in the several months I owned it. I still highly recommend these cameras. Solar panel installs in a couple minutes (only 3 screws) and a cable attached from the solar panel to the Arlo camera.

Easy to set up. Works great.

We’ve been looking for a security camera system for awhile and after trying a few and being disappointed one of friends recommended these. These are great. The picture is clear and hold up to windy condition which is a common on a farm. So far, we’ve seen the cat going out several times during the night to perhaps do a perimeter check, who knows. We do enjoy watching what that crazy cat does while drinking our coffee in the morning. My husband installed them with no problems and we just order 4 more to install around the house. I’m not an electronic person but having the ability to keep an eye on things around our house especially when we are not there is extremely comforting.

This is the first time I installed any security camera anywhere. I picked Arlo based on my extensive research and exploration of online reviews. I wanted to have easy installation (Wi-Fi, battery instead of wired), broad angle of monitoring (Arlo has 160 degree viewing angle), high resolution and good night vision, and built-in light and siren. The package arrived within two days and installation took about 15 minutes for each camera from out of the box to onto the wall and active. It truly is very easy. The Arlo App is also straightforward. This is my first review for Arlo on day 1. Will update in a few months if issues are noticed. So far so good.