Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight Camera - 2 Pack - Wireless Security, 2K Video & HDR, Color Night Vision, 2 Way Audio, Wire-Free, Direct to WiFi No Hub Needed, Black - VMC4250B

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.

After all the great CNET and other reviews, I thought I'd try a couple - been a Nest user for yrs, but was attracted to the picture quality of the Arlo, and I had two Nest outdoor cameras I thought could use replacing. IT'S ALMOST CRIMINAL WHAT ISN'T SHARED WITH YOU ABOUT OPERATING ARLO CAMERAS!! I NEVER would have bought these. ALL of you potential buyers out there, beware, they may very well not work for your needs, as we have all been spoiled at how other similar security operating systems work. Shame on CNET and others for missing this HUGE difference between Arlo and nearly ALL OTHER similar security cameras, or not stating these issues if they had discovered them. At home, in my office, I have 4 8inchSamsung tablets placed on a vertical holding stand on my dest. I have 4 outdoor NEST cameras situated such that I can live-monitor events occuring around my home (I live on a corner), like where the kids are playing, cars driving up and down my street, when someone parks in front of the house or driveway for a visit, package delivery, etc. Each tablet streams in a feed from one of the different 4 Nest cameras, so simultaneously I get a nice large outdoor picture from almost all the way around my home. I bought two Arlo Pro 4s, replaced 2 of the Nest cameras, and set up the first camera. Picture is nice, it streams well. HOWEVER, I placed it such that as a car is driving down the street - or people are walking down the sidewalk - when the Nest camera loses footage because the people walk out of the picture range of view, the Arlo picks them up as they walk into the next stage of sidewalk. As they move out of the Arlo range of view, by camera placement the group is picked up by the next Nest camera. Now, whereas the Nest cameras always smoothly and seamlessly picked up the people walking from one camera's range of view to the next camera, over the course of a very short time, the Arlo became further and further delayed in showing the people (lag). In other words, as they leave the Nest picture, they don't appear on the Arlo camera until later and later. SUCH THAT, after an hour, it became such that as the people left the Nest picture the Arlo camera didn't display them for almost 20 - 30 seconds. Heck, the walkers would leave Nest 1 live-feed picture, then I'd see nothing until they entered the third camera in line (Nest 2) The Arlo didn't show the walkers until after they were already down the street past my home! I tried several things, reducing picture quality, turning off the recording feature. Then I'd turn the camera off, then on again to reset. Initially, the camera would come on near-real-time again, but each time (and I did this multiple times)...each time the same issue took place. Longer and longer delays in picking up and displaying the event. But that's not even the worst of it - Arlo purposely designed it such that we are all unable to watch more than one camera at a time!! I even called to have them explain this to me. For example, if I have the Arlo picture up on the tablet, IF I attempt to call up the Arlo camera on my phone, it auromatically logs off of the tablet and logs me into the phone. I cannot use the phone and the tablet at the same time!! AND, I cannot stream one camera to a tablet, and a second Arlo camera to a different table to use them simultaneously. They DESIGNED IT THAT WAY! The support person stated I would (seriously, follow me on this) have to create different email accounts for each different device I would want to use. Then, go to settings and grant permission for each of those new email accounts (each different user I just invented). Each device would need to sign into Arlo with a different email account, and then THAT device can see a feed. The support person suggested I use the Arlo page which shows little (I mean little) feed shots of all the Arlo cameras at once. There is no detail in those! I would need an 80inch monitor to make out any usable details of those little feed pictures. I COULD have created multiple email accounts and then try to remember which table or phone was signed into which new fictitious email account I created, but that plus the HORRIBLE lag time is too much. I'm going to the NEST battery outdoor camera. Yes, 1080P isn't 2K or 4K, but at least there is no lag and I can use as many nest cameras on as many devices that I want. MAN, was I duped.

Se ven muy bien pero lo malo que una cámara en su 2a carga ya no carga y por lo tanto ya no sirve.

Facile à configurer

Me gusta el ángulo y la resolución. Sirven bien durante la noche también. Y las baterías se recargan bien con los paneles de solar.

Arlo ya no da los 7 dias sin costo de videos en la nube y no te deja contratar el servicio de Nube en Mexico por lo que no puedes ver los videos pasados. Con esto no vale la pena estas camaras, cuidado no compren si las van a usar en Mexico.

Es muy buena la cámara pero Arlo ha limitado el servicio de grabación de alertas de movimiento, cobrando el servicio, no disponible en México. No es posible ver en línea una alerta de movimiento, que era una de los principales funcionalidades por la que la compré.