NETGEAR Arlo Review
Pros: Wireless, weatherproof
Cons: Expensive, relatively poor video quality and real time viewing, requires buying/replacing batteries
Manufacturer: NETGEAR
Our Verdict
Compare to Similar Products
![]() This Product
NETGEAR Arlo | |||||
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Awards | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | |
Price | $220 List | $300 List $229.99 at Amazon | $180 List $99.99 at Amazon | $200 List $120.48 at Amazon | $120 List Check Price at Amazon |
Overall Score ![]() |
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Star Rating | |||||
Pros | Wireless, weatherproof | Great video quality, smooth real time viewing, field leading monitoring services available, great facial recognition | Great video quality and real time viewing, user friendly app, inexpensive subscription | Great video quality, smooth real-time viewing, field leading monitoring services available | Great Video quality, good real-time viewing, relatively inexpensive |
Cons | Expensive, relatively poor video quality and real time viewing, requires buying/replacing batteries | Very limited without a subscription | Very few services offered without a subscription | Very limited without a subscription | No scheduling |
Bottom Line | Mediocre all-around performance is out of step with the high list price | The best choice if you want high quality video in conjunction with impressive facial recognition | Useless without a subscription, but for $3/month becomes a top-tier model | Perfect for looking in on pets, and a good monitoring camera if you pay for a subscription | A great camera that rivals the Nest, and really shines for those that want to use the Amazon Key service |
Rating Categories | NETGEAR Arlo | Nest Cam IQ | Ring Stick Up Cam... | Nest Cam Indoor | Amazon Cloud Cam |
Monitoring Performance (30%) | |||||
Video Quality (30%) | |||||
App Ease Of Use (25%) | |||||
Real Time Viewing (15%) | |||||
Specs | NETGEAR Arlo | Nest Cam IQ | Ring Stick Up Cam... | Nest Cam Indoor | Amazon Cloud Cam |
Maximum Resolution | 720p | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p |
Power Source | Battery | Wall Outlet | Wall Outlet | Wall Outlet | Wall Outlet |
Mounting | surface, walls | surface, walls | surface, walls | surface, walls | surface, walls |
Static Field of View (degrees) | 110 | 130 | 116 | 130 | 120 |
Free Features | Activity alerts, 7 days of cloud event recordings (up to 1GB), 5 cameras | Activity alerts, 3 hour video history, two way audio | Motion alerts, live viewing, two-way audio | Activity alerts, 3 hour video history, two way audio | Activity alerts, 24 hour history of activity clips |
Paid Subscription Features | Premier- 30 days of cloud recordings (10GB) when activity is detected, 10 cameras, unlimited support, activity zones, e911 Elite- 60 days of cloud recordings (10GB) when activity is detected, 20 cameras, unlimited support, activity zones, e911 |
5-Day- 5-day video history, 24/7 continuous recording, intelligent alerts, clips and timelapses, activity zones 10-Day- 10 day video history, 24/7 continuous recording, intelligent alerts, clips and timelapses, activity zones 30-Day- 30 day video history, 24/7 continuous recording, intelligent alerts, clips and timelapses, activity zones |
Basic- 60-day video event history, video sharing Plus- Ring Alarm professional monitoring, 60-day video event history, video sharing |
5-Day- 5-day video history, 24/7 continuous recording, intelligent alerts, clips and timelapses, activity zones 10-Day- 10 day video history, 24/7 continuous recording, intelligent alerts, clips and timelapses, activity zones 30-Day- 30 day video history, 24/7 continuous recording, intelligent alerts, clips and timelapses, activity zones |
Basic- unlimited clip downloads, person alerts, motion zones, 7 day history, supports up to 3 cameras Extended- basic plus 14 day history and supports up to 5 cameras Pro- basic plus 30 days of history and supports up to 10 cameras |
Monthly Cost (one camera) | $10- Premier $15- Elite |
$5- 5 Day $10- 10 Day $30- 30 day |
$3- Basic $10- Plus |
$5- 5 Day $10- 10 Day $30- 30 day |
$7- Basic $10- Extended $20- Pro |
Our Analysis and Test Results
Performance Comparison
Monitoring Performance
The NETGEAR Arlo was the worst performer in this metric, earning a 4 out of 10, ar off the top score of 8.
Monitoring Services With/Without a Subscription
NETGEAR actually provides a fair amount of video history without a subscription. For free you get one week or one gigabyte of activity clip history (the video files tend to be small, making it unlikely you'll reach that gigabyte limit within a week). For $10 a month that activity history is extended to 30 days or 10GB, and for $15 you'll get a 60-day history, but still with the 10GB cap.
Poor Video recording
The Arlo's bad score in this metric is partially due to the fact that, during our testing, recording wasn't always continuous. The camera often stopped recording in the middle of continuous activity and then started up again a bit later, causing us to miss some of the action.
Audio Quality
The Arlo does not capture any sound with its video, only producing silent movies.
Video Quality
The Arlo scored decently well in our video quality testing earning a 6 out of 10. This was an average score in a metric where scores ranged from 3 to 8. Its 720p resolution is noticeably fuzzier than the 1080p models we tested, but still produces a reasonable picture. The videos it saved were also often choppy, making it more difficult to recognize faces of people walking by the camera. It also has a relatively narrow 110˚ field of view.
App Ease of Use
The NETGEAR app is thoughtfully designed and earned a score of 8 out of 10 in our testing. This put it right near the top of a metric where scores ranged from 5 to 9. We found navigating the app to be quite intuitive. We were always able to easily find the setting we wanted to change or the video clip we wanted to view. However, doing these things felt just a bit more pleasant on the top scoring Nest app, which kept the NETGEAR app from taking home the top score.
Real Time Viewing
The Arlo earned a 6 out of 10 in our real-time viewing testing, putting it towards the bottom of a metric that saw scores between 5 and 8. It performed very well in our latency test with the video feed lagging only 5 seconds behind the real world action. However, the stream kept pausing to refresh while we were watching it, causing us to miss a good amount of what was happening in front of the camera. To get the best outdoor real-time viewing check out the Nest Cam Outdoor.
Installation Notes
The Arlo is completely wireless and runs off of Cr123 lithium batteries that must be replaced periodically. Battery life will vary depending on a number of conditions, but we got 3 weeks out of a battery when we put our Arlo outside in the winter cold. The Arlo mounts onto its base with a magnet, which makes adjusting it to the exact angle you want quite simple. The base must be mounted to a vertical surface and installs with one screw. The camera comes with a base station that must be plugged into a standard outlet.
Value
The Arlo's list price of $220 makes it one of the most expensive models we tested. Unfortunately, it just did not perform well enough in our testing to back up that high price, thus we feel the Aro is a poor value.
Conclusion
The Arlo is a relatively expensive outdoor camera that did not wow us in any of our tests. If you like the idea of a wireless outdoor camera, we would suggest looking at the Canary Flex.
— Max Mutter and Steven Tata