Arlo - Wireless Home Security | Night vision, Indoor/Outdoor, HD Video, Wall Mount | Includes Cloud Storage & Required Base Station | 1-Camera System (VMS3130)

I just got this delivered today. I ordered it because of a few odd things that have happened (and to catch the unknown neighbor leaving their dog-poop bag on my lawn) and to feel a little more secure when I'm not home. It's probably a little early for me to leave a fair and impartial review, but as of right now....I love this little camera.I did a significant amount of reviewing and searching and comparing before I made my purchase. I didn't over think but I didn't impulse buy either. I wasn't looking for some god awful ugly outdoor city street intersection design, nor was I looking for the "black dome" federal building cam. I also didn't want to run power cords over the eaves, down the molding, and through the house or be stuck with the only outdoor outlet location that I have. Wireless totally caught my eye, and if the batteries last longer than a couple months, then to me that is a huge win. That plus the sleek, adorable, sexy, slim design...ohhh-la-la!I was like a kid at Christmas when I opened the box. Included in the kit was (1) camera, (4) batteries, (1) hub, (1) power cord (1) ethernet cable, (2) magnetic mounts with screws, start up directions.I am not and IT wiz, but I can hold my own. This set up was SO easy. I will say this....I had a friend here who kept my package-opening-excitement in check. He told me "follow the directions exactly as they tell you". Ok,, I could have easily jumped and gone out of order. If I did would there have been a problem? I can't say but I did read other reviews where some had difficulty. I had none. Plug in, wait for the hub to connect to the wifi, while that was happening start my online account, sync, and away we go! I have all Apple products and I did not have any download or viewing problems or any need for add on software.For now I have the default set on "optimum" to see how the battery life does with the video quality and 80% sensitivity.Video quality. Clear, true color, and bright. There is a zoom option when viewing from my phone. Yes, in zoom at the current settings it can get a bit grainy. I wouldn't be getting this to read serial numbers on dollar bills going into a cash register, but for what I was looking for, I am impressed. I tested the night vision camera going down to the basement and I think it's great. Like I said, no serial numbers on bills, but you can definitely see what it is that your looking at. (While writing this the notification banner keeps popping up. The bugs by the porch light are doing a jig triggering the camera. I will keep this in mind when I find the best mounting place.)Currently I don't have it mounted on it is on my front porch railing (don't try to come steal it, I will see you!!!). I have a porch light and front yard pole light that are on all night. I have already checked the quality of the viewing. Porch light on or off doesn't change it much. I'm thrilled.Motion detection. As mentioned, I don't have it mounted yet and it is at mid-drift level. I don't think it is at the best location to say one way or another how well the detection is. From what I can tell already is that you have to keep in mind where it is located an what you think it will trigger. From my porch to my driveway where a car would normally park is about 25 - 30 feet and about 60 feet to the road. It might not pick up the movement of a car coming in but if someone walks up the walkway it will.I ordered the "stick" mount for it. That will be here tomorrow. Once I have that I am going to take the time to test which mount I will use and the location for the best viewing and motion detection.Notifications. I have it set up for email and banner alerts. When motion is detected, a banner alert (like a text message) will pop up (settings depending on your phone). It immediately starts the camera to record. There is a red light on the camera indicating that it has been triggered. I have it set for 120 seconds of recording time. Once it is done recording it will send you an email notification which proves a link for viewing. Since this is coming from the "cloud" it takes 2 minutes recording time plus another say 30 seconds for the email. You can view real time once the banner alerts you. It seems like there is a little lag in connecting, but I was doing it all on my home wifi at the same time. It will be interesting to see if that lag goes away when I'm away from the house on 3G or other internet.I will update this in a week or so with new findings. But as of right night I AM VERY VERY PLEASED WITH MY PURCHASE. If you are looking to solve crimes or protect Fort Knox, this might not be your best choice and I'm sure there are higher priced more technical cameras out there to buy. But you you want a good quality, modern, completely wireless FREE viewing home safety/surveillance camera for added comfort, then this is a very good buy.

Stop searching for indoor/outdoor cameras, these are it and here's why!I tried 8 different camera brands and Arlo won. I wanted to make sure we got the right ones and I didn't want to pay for an expensive monthly service just to get a live view of my cameras. Arlo does not require you to pay for their monthly fee unless you want storage backup to view historical content, which is nice.The first set of cameras we tried were the Defender outdoor cameras CCTV - we had these backing up to a DVR which means that the cameras record footage 24/7 - even if internet is down. For outdoor cameras, that was an important feature for us, but if its not for you then the Arlo win hands down. When compared to Defender cameras, the Arlo have a much better picture quality, MUCH BETTER. The catch? You pay more for the Arlo. Since we got the Defender cameras first, I learned the hard way that I should have went with quality. Yeah, I saved $300 buying the Defender brand cameras the first time around, but I regreted it because when I viewed the cameras I could barely ascertain what was in the picture. In general I can see, but no details were noticable.We decided to get indoor cameras and for indoor cameras the Arlo are what we needed and more. Another thing I like is that if we ever decided to move them outdoor, they will work outdoor as well and we will not need to buy another camera. They run on rechargable batteries, so no need to run wires which is nice.The other indoor cameras we purchased the same time as the Arlo (and later returned) where as follows;Wainsview1. SereneLife Indoor Wireless IP Camera - HD 1080p - complete crap, did not even sync up to our internet. If it's a hassel to set up then I am moving on to the next camera. If you can't even make the set up process easy for the consumer, that sets the tone for everything else. No thanks.2. Amazon Cloud Cam Security Camera - I ordered this and then canceled it before it shipped, I was disspaointed when I read the reviews. I had high hopes since other Amazon products have been superior, not these cams. Sounds like they have some kinks to work out which they did not before they deployed to the user community. I think in the future these can improve, but here is a tip for Amazon Cam, go back to the table, kind the root cause of the issues, debug, UAT, deploy once you reach a level of quality. If Amazon worked out the issues that consumers are frustrated with then I would give it another try. Users want the ability to view their cameras LIVE without paying for a monthly service. Users also want the ability to store footage using their own storage devices, we don't want to pay for a monthly service (and the price always goes up for monthly service, always).3. Wansview Wireless 1080P Security Camera, WiFi - let me start off by giving this camera some credit, of all the cameras we tried, this one came the closest to the Arlo cameras (for indoor use only). What I loved about this cam was that it worked on WIFI and we had the option to hard wire to our home network. Another thing I loved was that it was like a robot and I could control if the camera moved up, down, left or right. I literallally had the ability to view every area of the living and kitchen without the need for multiple "fixed" view cameras. Sometime I have to put multiple cameras in a locatation so that I can get the entire view, this camera takes away that issue. Due to its flexability, you can put it in an open location and get the view of a general area which normally could require 3 fixed cameras just to get the full view. Another thing I loved is that I could change the lightness and contrast of the live feed whichw as awesome at different times of day and made the picture more clear. The last thing I LOVED about this camera was that I could use it as a 2 way voice, and a loudspeaker while I was away from home. You might be thinking, why do I need this feature? Believe me, I thought the exact same thing, until I needed it. Need to get your spouses or kids attention and they are not picking up their phone? Maybe you ordered pizza for them or have a package that needs a signature and you are watching your family on the camera while you are away and no matter how many times you call them to tell them to get the door, they cant hear you because their phones are on silent. That is when the 2 way audio speaker comes in handy, yell at them to get their attention to get the door, problem solved. I thought having a ring doorbell would make our lives easier, but, when someone is at the door and they press it, the only notification or sound to alert us, is sent to our phone via the Ring app, if you dont have your phone nearby, you will never hear any sounds that someone is at the door. So that was a problem. Anyways, after all the positive comments on this cam, why did the Arlo beat them? Simple, the Arlo application interface (phone app) is far superior, the ability to add multiple cameras much easier on Arlo. On the Wansview, I did love the camera, but we need multiple cameras in multiple areas of the house, it would not let us add the additional Wansview cameras we purchased (which is the review of camera #4 - Wansview Wireless Security Camera, 1080p). So we would have to open one app to view the Wansview cam and another app to view the other cameras, NOT REALISTIC. I want to view all my cameras on one application, with one click. I don't have time to look at Wansview cam and then open another app to view my other cameras. The user wants one place to view it all, not multiple, which means it is of high importance for the other Wansview cameras to sync up to the application without issue. When we got the other camera4. Wansview Wireless Security Camera, 1080p - nothing but problems trying to add them to the Wansview app. That is what blew it for Wansview. If you need just one camera, this one would work, but if you need more than one, that is the issue. Sad this one didnt work out.5. ISEEBELL Home Camera, Wi-Fi IP Indoor Security - the review for this one is more simple, Postive: Great Picture - Negative: Terrible App interface which continuously crashed and made it impossible to reply out. We returned them not because the picture quality was poor, but because the app to view the live feed completely sucked. Note to the manufacturer, the usability of the phone application which is used to view the live camera feed is just as important as the camera quality. Do not deploy your products to the market until the phone application kinks are worked out. Also, they did not offer a way to view live feeds online. When I am at work, I like to open a browser to view my life camera feed, I don't want to have to open my phone app each time when I have a desktop browser open. Many of these camera brands wont or dont have an option to do this. Guess who does? Arlo! Yes, Arlo has an awesome site, which I love, that allows me to view all my cameras from my laptop via my chrome browser. I love this feature!6. Fsmart wireless Indoor Home Camera Video - Positive: Great Picture, impressed with the picture for how cheap these are. They let you add a card to store video footage, HUGE cost savings which allows you to backup footage and doesn't require a monthly service fee (Arlo does not have this feature and that is a huge disappointment and area of improvement for Arlo to consider).7. Defender outdoor cameras - Positive: they work even when the internet is down and you can backup a month of 24/7 footage on the DVR that comes with the 8 camera package - no monthly service fees. Negative: Picture sucks bad and so does the phone app, the phone app seems like they put zero investment in improving, big let down.8. Arlo by Netgear indoor/outdoor cameras - The winner after comparing all of the above options. Why? Overall the two main important features was to have a good picture and reliable use of the phone app. The app has not crashed and is user friendly. The picture is clear and I love that. However, there is room for improvement and I hope Arlo listens to this advice. The camera market is getting competitive, so if you dont consider this advice, it might come back to bite you later on.Areas of improvement for Arlo:1. user wants the ability to insert SD card so they can backup certain amounts of footage without having to pay for your expensive monthly service2. user wants the ability to use some of the cameras as a 2 way radio - loudspeaker3. develop some cameras which have the ability to move, instead of all cams being fixed view. The user wants to have the option to at least move one camera up, down, left, right and have the camera use the same arlo application interface. Would be nice to have a camera with this option.4. Just invent an Arlo "ring" style doorbell - I will buy it. Ring irritates me bc I have to open their app and I dont want another app on my phone which is already at space capacity. Just get a doorbell and integrate that into the app interface so that when I check my house cameras I can see the front door cam. Would be nice.