MAY 2020 T3 67Arlo Pro 3
That motion detection is a key part
of Arlo’s appeal – it’s packed with
clever detection, options and ways to
use them smartly. It can differentiate
between humans, animals, general
motion and it can even spot packages.
This all proved fairly accurate in our
time with the cameras. You can also
set motion zones, so that if your front
camera is facing a public place, you
can exclude that from the detection,
and only get notifications if people
come into your garden, say.
There’s a huge amount of power
to customise how you want these
cameras to operate within the app,
which is both the Arlo’s strength and
a slight weakness. It’s extremely easy
to set them up (we actually had a
glitch during setup, but it all fixed
itself without any intervention), and
then set simple modes such as arming
for motion detection when you’re
away from home, and turning off
when you’re back. But we created a
system where even at home, we still
got notifications of people coming to
our front door, so we wouldn’t miss
packages during isolation. It worked
great... but we had to google how to do
it, because we wouldn’t have guessed
how it worked in the app alone.
When you know what you’re doing,
the possibilities are glorious... but
there’s a learning curve to things
beyond the more basic.
Making full use of smart features
also requires an Arlo subscription,
though this is about £3 per month,
which is not unreasonable. It comes
with a three-month trial, which is
also pretty good.Scrub the hub?
A key part of the Arlo system is the
hub, which the cameras connect to,
rather than your Wi-Fi. The hub
plugs into your router, and handles
multi-camera management and cloud
connectivity, and in this version
enables Apple HomeKit support.
It does its job well, but it adds
expense, and does have a downside:
the Arlo camera we put at the back of
the house had a limited connection to
the hub – it worked, but was slower to
respond. But we have a big mesh
Wi-Fi network – if it had been on the
Wi-Fi instead of its own connection,
this wouldn’t have been the case.
Everything else the cameras
promised proved to work well, too –they have an integrated spotlight that
gives out a good blast, the colour
night vision adds a useful level of
extra fidelity, the two-way talk is
distinctly clearer for telling couriers
where to drop your parcels, and the
promised battery life of three to six
months looks right based on our few
weeks with it. The 160-degree field of
view was more than enough for us,
but whether you need more is an
individual thing.
But a two-camera plus hub set is
£549! A single camera is £279! A Blink
XT 2 wireless cam is slightly less
advanced, but costs £179 for two
cameras. The Arlo Pro 3 is truly
excellent, but you need to really want
the power and flexibility it offers.WE’RE IMPRESSED Excellent
image quality; smart motion
features; tons of clever options;
two-way talk; battery life.
WE’D IMPROVE Hub isn’t
always the best option; hard to
make use of all its power options;
really expensive.
THE LAST WORD Really, most
of the Arlo Pro 3’s faults are that
it might just be too much camera
for you. But that’s a real concern –
it’s great, but you may not need it.VERDICT
Attractive features
include night vision
in colourTHE ALTERNATIVES
See all the best smart security
cameras: bit.ly/t3smartsecARLO ULTRA
Want to get even more serious?
This setup offers the same
features as the Pro 3, but adds
4K HDR video,
and a wider
180-degree lens
to the cameras.
From £449,
arlo.com/ukBLINK XT2
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motion detection with activity zones, two-year
battery life, multi-cam
support, two-way talk,
this offers a cheaper
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From £99,
amazon.co.uk