Arlo Pro3 smart home security CCTV camera system review 2020

Arlo Pro3 smart home security CCTV camera system has zoom in on objects and you can see clearer details and colors in 2K HDR. It has wire-free and weather-resistant design, works with Alexa and Google Assistant, and includes 3 months of Arlo smart service with rolling 30 day cloud recordings. See what’s lurking with color night vision or black and white. Battery life – 3-6 months. Charge time to full (via camera) – 3.5 hours. Charge time to Full (via charger accessory)- 2.9 hours. Find more in Arlo Pro3 smart home security CCTV camera system review 2020.

Pros & Cons – Arlo Pro3 smart home security CCTV camera system

What We Like

• Video: The Arlo Pro 3 goes above and beyond the industry standard of 1080p HD with 2K, HDR video.
• Night vision: With a spotlight, the Arlo Pro 3 has both color as well as infrared night vision.
• Smart platform integrations: Whether you have Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple Watch, the Arlo Pro 3 will integrate nicely into your larger smart home.

However, nothing is perfect and the Arlo Pro 3 is no exception, as it lacks:

What We Don’t Like

• Free person detection: Although the Arlo Pro 3 comes with three months of Arlo Smart which includes person detection, beyond that, you’re going to have to pay.
• Battery life: The Arlo Pro 3 only has a battery life of three to six months, while I’ve seen cameras that can last up to a year without needing a replacement or recharge.
• Arlo SmartHub: If you don’t already have the Arlo SmartHub, this is an added expense that you may not want to pay.

Arlo Pro3 smart home security CCTV camera system (review) specs

Camera

• Max Video Resolution 2560×1440 resolution
• Image Sensor 4 megapixels
• Video Modes 2k, 1080p, 720p
• Video Features Auto Track and Zoom, HDR, H.264 and H.265 Encoding
• Lens Field of View 160 degree diagonal
• Sensor Size 1/3″
• Spotlight 6500K, 42Lux @1M
• Motion Detection Single Motion Detector, 130 degree horizontal
• Night Vision high powered Infrared LEDs (850nm) with IR Cut Filter
• AC Adapter Output 5V 2A
• AC Adapter Input 100-240V AC, 50/60Hz
• Indoor/Outdoor Both – outdoor UV and weather-resistant
• Digital Zoom 12x
• Microphone Single Microphone with noise and echo cancellation
• Audio Full Duplex 2 way Audio
• Status Lights 2x LEDs (blue and amber)
• Networking 802.11 b/g/n
• Compliant Standards 128-bit SSL, AES-128, TSL, 2 factor authentication
• Battery Life 3-6 months
• Charge Time to Full (via camera) 3.5 hrs
• Charge time to Full (via charger accessory) 2.9 hrs
• Operating Temperature -20 to 45 degree Celsius
• Connectivity Wi-Fi Connection. Working broadband connection with at least 2Mbps upload speed
• USB requirements USB 2.0 compliant devices
• Min home upload speed 2-4Mbps; optimized for 2 simultaneous 2k streams

Certifications

• Regulatory FCC, CE, IC, EU RoHS compliant, EU-REACH compliant, EuP1275 compliant, WERCS

Dimensions

• Camera 316g; 89mm x 52mm x 78.4mm

Warranty

• 1 year warranty www.arlo.com/warranty

Price

The Arlo Pro 3 starter kit start, with two cameras and a base station, costs $500. You can also buy kits with more cameras—a three-camera kit is priced at $650, which will save you about $50 over buying the two pack and adding a third camera later. The Arlo Pro 3 camera is also compatible with most of the older Arlo SmartHubs, so if you’re already an Arlo user, you can purchase Arlo Pro 3 cameras for $200 each (you can read about SmartHub compatibility on Arlo’s website). This is one of absolute the best indoor/outdoor security cameras you can buy.

Arlo Pro3 smart home security CCTV camera system (review) comparison

Arlo Pro3 smart home security CCTV camera system review 2020

Design

The camera itself maintains the same basic design as its predecessors. It has a white enclosure with a black face, and at 3.5 by 2.0 by 3.0 inches (HWD), it’s the same size as the Arlo Ultra camera. The enclosure can be removed by pressing a button on the bottom that sits alongside the power connector. Once the enclosure is off, you can remove the rechargeable battery pack which is rated to last anywhere from three to six months between charges depending on usage and weather conditions (batteries tend to drain faster in colder temperatures). As with the Ultra camera, there’s a mounting hole on the back for use with the screw-in mounting bracket, or you can use the magnetic mount.

Hub

The kit comes with a VMB4540 SmartHub. The hub measures 6.0 by 5.5 by 2.0 inches and contains 802.11n Wi-Fi and Arlo RF circuitry. Around back are a LAN port, a power jack, a Sync button, and a USB 2.0 port so you can connect external storage to store recorded video locally.

Sensor

The Pro 3 uses a 4-megapixel sensor and HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology to capture video at 2K (2,560 by 1,440) resolution. It has a 12X digital zoom and a 160-degree field of view, and it uses two infrared LEDs for black-and-white night vision. 

Field of view

By default, the Arlo Pro 3 is set to a 160-degree field of view. You can reduce this in the camera settings to a 125-degree Standard view or a 110-degree Full view. I found the narrower angles better when I wanted to monitor my front porch for package deliveries, and the wider views more accommodating for viewing activity around my driveway.

Setup

The Arlo Pro 3 uses the same magnetic mount introduced with the Ultra, which installs with a single screw. A security mount that locks onto the camera to prevent theft is also included. add the SmartHub in the Arlo app, plug in its power cord, and then connect it to an ethernet port on your router. Next, you add each camera, following the in-app prompts. As part of the installation, the app allows you view the Wi-Fi signal strength as you position the camera.

App feature – Arlo Pro3 review 2020

The Arlo app got an overhaul with the Ultra, and the new interface has been carried over here. You access each camera’s live feed, controls, and settings menu right from the devices screen. That makes it much easier to toggle between different camera views, since you don’t need to open a separate page for each Arlo. To expand any camera’s live stream to full screen, just tap the enlarging arrows in the top right of the thumbnail video.

Besides viewing the camera’s feed on your phone, you can use Alexa or Google Assistant to stream it on smart displays based on those platforms. The Arlo Pro 3 is also compatible with Apple HomeKit (although not HomeKit Secure video) when used with Arlo’s VMB4540 SmartHub.

4 modes

The Arlo’s four operational modes have been a fixture since the first camera and they are unchanged here. In Armed mode, the Arlo Pro 3 will record video when motion is detected and alert you via push notification. You can modify these rules, adding audio detection, charging the duration of the video clips, or triggering the base station’s on-board siren when movement is detected. Schedule mode automatically arms the camera at certain times and Geofencing mode arms it only when you’re away from home. Disarm turns off motion detection, but not the camera.

Siren

With the Ultra, Arlo moved the system’s siren from the base station to the camera itself, and that’s where it’s located on the Arlo Pro 3 as well. You can opt to have it sound off when motion is detected, and at 100 decibels, it’s guaranteed to scare the bejeezus out of anyone within earshot.

Spotlight

The Pro 3’s built-in spotlight also successfully illuminated when it detected motion, making it even easier to see what was happening. This doubles as a security feature, since it could scare away a potential intruder just like any motion-activated spotlight. 

Smart alerts

Push and email alerts arrived immediately after a motion or sound event, and Smart alerts did a great job of identifying people, cars, and animals. Two-way audio sounded clean on both ends and the siren is loud enough to ward off unwanted trespassers.

Smart Home integration

The Pro 3 works with Alexa and Google Assistant. View your camera’s live feed on Alexa- and Google-Assistant-enabled smart displays.  Siri support is forthcoming. With HomeKit, you should be able to view the live feed in the Home app for iOS. Apple hasn’t yet released HomeKit Secure Video, an upcoming feature that’s supposed to analyze your security camera’s video footage locally on your Apple TV, iPad or HomePod and store 10 days of video clips. Logitech, Netatmo and Eufy are the initial partners for HomeKit Secure Video, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Arlo ended up joining in at some point.

Battery

Arlo says the cameras battery will last three to six months on a single charge, depending on usage. You can enable continuous charging by connecting the camera to Arlo’s Solar Panel Charger, which is sold separately for $80.

Arlo Pro3 smart home security CCTV camera system customer review 2020

Good performance for my first security camera

This is my first security camera setup. I really just wanted a camera for basic alerts and to make the potential thief think twice before stopping at my home. Similar to a yard sign indicating an alarm system, sometimes just the appearance of extra security is enough to make most bad guys move on. Installation, mounting, and charging up the camera was painless and I had everything up and running in no time. It took about 30 minutes to create an account and set up the camera and base station.

Charging the camera to full capacity took about 2 to 3 hours. My goal was to set up a security camera for the Thanksgiving holiday since I was planning on going out of town for the week and Arlo did not disappoint. I promptly received alerts from someone leaving flyers on the front door and I even got a few notices of a cat that apparently likes to roam in front of the house late at night.

The cat looked surprised by the motion light when it came on as it walked by. Most impressive of all, the camera battery only went down by 3% during the entire week so I can tell that it will easily last for most of the month or longer before I need to recharge it. The only negative that I did notice was a slight delay between the camera recording and the event taking place. It seemed like it may have been a 1 to 3 second delay. This could be a concern to other potential buyers because a lot can happen in a few seconds when you are talking about criminal mischief. I wasn’t as concerned about it because as I mentioned earlier I mainly wanted basic event alerts and the appearance of security. That’s enough to scare off 99% of most thieves. For that remaining 1% of criminals no security camera or alarm system will deter them so for me the arlo pro 3 met my needs. I am definitely considering a second camera to monitor the back yard or inside of my house in the near future.

By Amazon Reviewer

Subscription plan – Arlo Pro3 smart home security CCTV camera system

When it comes to backing up your security camera’s footage, I recommend doing it in two different ways, both on cloud and local storage. That way, if one method fails, you still have a backup. Fortunately, Arlo has it’s own cloud storage, and gives you 30 days if you sign up for Arlo Smart (keep in mind that buying the Arlo Pro 3 gets you a free three-month trial). But after that trial is over, you’ll have to pay to get 30 or 60 days of cloud storage. There’s also local storage if you connect a USB port to the Arlo base. Although I wish that Arlo still gave all of its cameras a week of cloud storage, both local and cloud storage are available with the Arlo Pro 3, so I’m going to give it full marks for this category.

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