When it comes to protecting your home and loved ones, investing in a reliable security camera system is a must in today‘s world. And with so many options on the market, it can be overwhelming to decide which brand and model will best suit your needs and budget.
One standout contender that deserves a closer look is the Arlo Essential camera system. Arlo has quickly become a top name in the smart home security space thanks to its impressive lineup of high-quality, feature-packed cameras for both indoor and outdoor monitoring.
Whether you‘re looking to keep an eye on your front door with a smart doorbell camera, or you want a comprehensive surveillance setup covering every angle of your property, Arlo likely has a configuration to meet your needs. Here are 10 compelling reasons why an Arlo Essential camera setup may be the ideal security solution for your home:
1. Seamless Smart Home Integration
One of the biggest selling points of Arlo Essential cameras is how well they play with popular smart home platforms. Arlo offers native integration with Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Samsung SmartThings, and IFTTT.
This means you can easily view live camera feeds, receive motion alerts, and control your cameras using voice commands through a smart speaker or display. You can also set up automations to have your cameras work in tandem with other smart devices, such as turning on lights when motion is detected.
Arlo‘s broad smart home compatibility ensures a cohesive and convenient security setup, no matter which ecosystem you prefer. I personally use Apple HomeKit to manage my smart home, so Arlo‘s support for HomeKit Secure Video is a major plus compared to some other camera brands.
2. Fully Wireless for Flexible Placement
Arlo Essential cameras are completely wire-free, running on rechargeable batteries. This allows you to install them virtually anywhere, even in spots far from a power outlet. The compact design also makes them more discreet and less of an eyesore compared to wired cameras.
The latest Arlo Essential models boast an impressive battery life of up to 6 months on a single charge, minimizing maintenance hassles. When the battery does run low, you‘ll get an alert through the app and can easily snap the camera off its magnetic mount for recharging.
Arlo also offers a solar panel accessory for continuous charging, making battery life a non-issue. The wire-free, weather-resistant design provides a ton of flexibility for placing cameras in optimal viewing positions around your home‘s exterior.
3. Brilliant 2K HDR Video Quality
Many Arlo Essential cameras, including the popular Video Doorbell, capture video in crisp 2K HDR resolution. This means you‘ll get a clear, detailed picture with better dynamic range to handle tricky lighting conditions.
Arlo‘s cameras also have color night vision thanks to a built-in spotlight, so you can make out crucial details like facial features and clothing colors even in the dark. Higher-end models add on Black & White night vision with infrared LEDs for enhanced low-light performance.
Having high-res, full-color video is invaluable for both real-time monitoring and reviewing footage after an incident. Whether you‘re trying to identify a suspicious person at your door or investigating a property crime, Arlo‘s superb video quality ensures you‘ll have usable evidence.
4. Smart Alerts and Object Detection
All Arlo Essential cameras come equipped with advanced object detection to intelligently identify people, vehicles, animals, and packages within their field of view. This allows you to receive more relevant, actionable notifications and reduces false alerts triggered by things like swaying branches or scurrying critters.
You can customize the alert sensitivity and choose which types of detection you want to be notified about in the Arlo app. For example, you may only care about people and vehicle alerts for your driveway camera, while package detection is handy to have enabled for your doorbell cam.
When a notable event is detected, you‘ll get a real-time alert on your phone with a thumbnail image and the ability to tap right into the live stream. Arlo‘s smart detection does an impressive job of making sure you only get pinged about important activity, keeping notification noise to a minimum.
5. Arlo Secure Subscription Benefits
To get the most out of your Arlo Essential cameras, you‘ll want to sign up for an Arlo Secure subscription plan. While the cameras will work for live viewing out of the box, a paid subscription unlocks a slew of useful capabilities:
- 30-day rolling cloud storage for video recordings
- Advanced object detection and smart alerts
- Rich notifications with preview thumbnails
- Custom activity zones to minimize false alerts
- Smoke/CO alarm detection to alert you of emergencies
- Call a Friend lets a friend temporarily view your cameras in an emergency
- 24/7 emergency response with one-tap access to fire/police/EMT dispatch
Arlo Secure plans start at $3/month per camera or $10/month for unlimited cameras, which is in line with competitors like Ring and Nest Aware. You can score big savings by paying annually, and Arlo occasionally runs promotions that include extended free trials of Arlo Secure with camera purchases.
6. Arlo‘s All-in-One Mobile App
Arlo‘s well-designed mobile app for iOS and Android makes it a breeze to access and manage all of your Essential cameras in one place. The app‘s home screen displays a scrollable carousel of your camera feeds for at-a-glance viewing.
You can tap into any camera for a full-screen live stream, complete with sound thanks to 2-way audio support. The live view offers intuitive controls for manual recording, taking snapshots, activating the siren, or calling a friend for help in an emergency.
The Library tab lets you filter and review video recordings triggered by motion, complete with handy event markers on the timeline. You can also customize all of your detection settings, configure smart alerts, share camera access with family members, and more—all from within the polished Arlo app interface.
7. Smart Deterrents Like Sirens and Spotlights
All Arlo Essential cameras come equipped with a loud siren and LED spotlight that can be manually or automatically triggered to ward off unwanted visitors. For example, you could have your floodlight camera light up and sound the alarm if a person is detected on your property late at night.
Even just the presence of Arlo cameras and their blinking LED status lights can be enough to deter would-be intruders. But the ability to proactively intervene with lights and sound when suspicious activity is detected provides valuable peace of mind and extra protection for your home.
8. Two-Way Talk with Noise Cancellation
Arlo Essential cameras feature a built-in microphone and speaker for two-way talk, allowing you to remotely communicate with visitors at your door or around your property. Whether you‘re telling a delivery person to leave a package at the side door or shouting at a potential intruder to scram, clear 2-way audio can prove invaluable.
Arlo‘s cameras use advanced noise cancellation to reduce background sounds like wind and traffic, ensuring voices come through loud and clear. The Essential Video Doorbell takes it a step further with echo cancellation, making conversations sound more natural.
9. Local Backup Storage
While cloud storage is super convenient for accessing your recordings from anywhere, some folks prefer to keep their video footage stored locally for added privacy and protection against Internet outages.
If you fall into that camp, Arlo has you covered with its Base Station and SmartHub models that include a USB port for connecting an external hard drive. Footage can be automatically synced to the drive for local backup in addition to—or instead of—being uploaded to the cloud.
That means that even if your WiFi goes down, your Arlo Essential cameras can still record footage locally until the web connection is restored. It‘s the best of both worlds for those who want the ease of cloud storage with the redundancy of local backup.
10. Expandability to Cover Every Angle
With Arlo‘s impressive range of Essential cameras, you can easily build out a comprehensive security setup to blanket your entire property:
- Essential Video Doorbell (Wired or Wire-Free) for front door monitoring
- Essential Spotlight Camera for illuminating and watching key areas
- Essential XL Spotlight Camera with extended battery life
- Essential Indoor Camera for keeping an eye on the inside of your home
As your needs grow, it‘s easy to expand your Arlo system by adding compatible cameras to cover additional zones. And with Arlo‘s multi-camera subscription plans, the more cameras you add, the better value you get.
The Bottom Line
When it comes to smart home security cameras, Arlo Essential checks all the boxes: crisp 2K video, intelligent alerts, smart home integration, easy installation, versatile power options, and an intuitive app to bring it all together.
From a single video doorbell guarding your front porch to a multi-camera setup watching over every inch of your property, Arlo has flexible, scalable solutions for every home and budget.
While an Arlo Secure subscription is essential to unlock the full potential of your cameras, the peace of mind that comes with proactive protection and 30 days of cloud recordings is well worth the reasonable monthly fee. And Arlo‘s compatibility with Apple HomeKit Secure Video offers a compelling alternative for Apple-centric homes.
If you‘re in the market for a top-notch security camera system from a trusted brand, give strong consideration to the Arlo Essential lineup. With its perfect blend of performance, features, and value, Arlo is a solid investment in your home‘s safety.
