Arlo Ultra
A high–quality smart camera, but with some caveats
From $399 From Arlo, arlo.com
Features 4K HDR, 180° field of view, color night vision, auto–zoom and tracking, smart object detection, 12x digital zoom, dual noise–cancelling mics, built–in siren, UV and weather resistant
Smart home security just got a serious upgrade with the release of the new Arlo Ultra. The totally wireless security camera boasts 4K HDR image quality, along with a host of top–notch features, such as smart object detection and a security spotlight.
The basic starter kit gets you a single Arlo Ultra camera and SmartHub that allows you to connect to your camera over your Wi–Fi network. You also get a single battery, specific charging cable, and a magnetic wall mount.
Installing the Ultra is easy — just drill a hole in your external wall and, using the supplied wall plug and screw, attach the magnetic mount. The Ultra snaps to the mount securely, and thanks to its multi–axis design, can be rotated to the desired position. As it’s battery powered and uses Wi–Fi to relay video, there are no cables to bother with.
Adding the camera within the Arlo app is quick, and if you’re an existing Arlo customer you’ll be able to see all your different cameras here. You can quickly swap between camera modes on the Ultra, turn it on or off, and there’s the option of setting a schedule or using geofencing, so it’s only active when you’re away.
Fans of the Home app in iOS will be disappointed to hear that the Ultra doesn’t come with HomeKit support… yet. So, for the time being at least, you won’t be able to control the camera within the Home app, or set up any neat event triggers, such as your smart lights turning on when motion is detected. The camera does, however, support Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so there are some smarts to be had.
The 4K HDR really does make a difference. The image is incredibly crisp, as you might expect at 3840x2160 pixels, and when you want to zoom in on something, such as a number plate or face, there’s plenty of detail. The Ultra’s 180° field of view also offers a super–wide viewing angle without any noticeable lens distortion. And though not entirely essential, the auto HDR function works well to balance lighting on days when there’s a lot of contrast.
Is 4K really worth It?
While the promise of 4K footage is great, the Arlo doesn’t totally deliver on that. For one, you can’t live–stream 4K away from home, which is odd as that’s probably where you’ll be accessing it, and if you want to record 4K to the cloud, you need to pay for a bolt–on plan. So, in reality, you may not get the benefit from the enhanced visuals all that often, which is a shame.
Nighttime performance is excellent, and the integrated security spotlight, which admittedly isn’t all that bright, does help to capture color images at night. It’s also a bit of a theft and nuisance deterrent, activating only when motion is detected — or you can turn it on manually using the app.
Additional security comes in the form of an alarm inside the camera, which you can activate with a tap inside the app (or with a trigger when motion or audio is detected). It’s a neat idea but not particularly loud, so your neighbors are unlikely to even notice.
The Ultra doesn’t just differentiate itself from other cameras with its impressive video–capture credentials — it also has some tricks up its sleeve which make it even more capable. The first of these is Activity Zones, which is the ability to draw an area (on the camera view in the app)
that you wish to capture motion in. Anything outside of the zone you create is ignored by the camera, so you don’t get unnecessary notifications or pointless video recorded. In theory, this is a great idea, but in practice we found that we were still getting notifications from outside of the zone, even with the sensitivity dialled down.
The camera also boasts smart object detection. The Ultra can differentiate between cars, people, animals, and even delivered packages (currently in beta); and you can choose to turn these off individually if you only want notifications for specific objects. Recorded clips found in the library handily specify the object that triggers motion, making it easy to filter them by type.
WHAT’S THE BATTERY LIKE?
With all these smart features and the ability to record in 4K HDR, you might expect the Ultra to eat battery life for breakfast, and that’s not really too far off the mark. With video set to the best quality, and motion detection activated day and night, battery life is reduced by about 6 per cent each day, so you can expect to get between two to three weeks from a charge. With the settings lowered, we’re sure that you’ll get more than that, but we’re a bit dubious about Arlo’s claim of three to six months’ battery life.
Of course, you can buy spare batteries as well as a dual charging station to keep them juiced and ready, but for a little extra money and a lot more convenience, we’d opt for the solar panel charger — this will keep the Ultra charged without having to get out the ladder every few weeks to swap the battery.
Does the Arlo Ultra live up to its promise of being the “ultimate home security camera”? Well, it’s certainly the best–quality security camera available right now. However, while a single camera system is not entirely unreasonable at $399, and includes a rolling seven days of cloud recording, to get the most from the Arlo Ultra you’ll need to consider the various subscription costs on top. You get a year’s worth of the comprehensive Smart Premier plan included but, thereafter, it’s $2.99 a month per camera for the Smart plan, which includes smart motion detection. Alternatively, the Smart Premier plan ($9.99 per month) covers up to 10 cameras and adds 30–day cloud recording, and we reckon most security cam buyers would want that longer window.
On top of this, if you want to record 4K video to the cloud (Arlo Ultra records 1080p by default; you can only watch 4K on a live stream locally) you’ll need the Premium Video Recording plan, which is an additional $1.99 a month per camera.
THE BOTTOM LINE. Video quality is great, but there are some minor issues (and it’s very pricey).