Arlo – Ultra 2 Spotlight Camera Security Bundle – 3 Wire-Free Indoor/Outdoor 4K Security with Color Night Vision (13 pieces) – White

The Arlo Utra 2 Spotlight 2-camera system is Arlo’s updated 4K camera system bundle. The pack comes with two Ultra 2 cameras, base station, charge cable, (1) magnetic mount, and (1) threaded mount. These cameras are intended for indoor or outdoor use. I’ve had the cameras up and running for a few days now, and I have had the chance to fiddle around and get comfortable with the settings.
Setup of the Arlo system like all things nowadays is completed with their app. Download the app and add a new system. The app walks you through the entire process, step by step, and is pretty straightforward. I had no issue connecting the base station to my home network (plugged the base station into a free port on a mesh node). I had to think about where I wanted the cameras, and it just so happened that I had an access point right in between where I planned to install the cameras. I setup the cameras inside before installing them on the outside of my house. Doing so also let me mess around with some of the settings to get a feel for the system. I drilled down through the menus in the app, which helped me familiarize myself with it. I got to play with the siren, spotlight, 2 way talking, and object recognition before heading outside.

When spec’ing out a camera system you have to take into account your coverage area and what you need to monitor. This being a fully wireless system (and high resolution one at that) you will have to take into account how far away each camera is from the base station. This 2 camera bundle works well for me as an outdoor system since I have 2 entrances. Both have accessible vantages with clear views of everything I wanted to cover. This was made possible by the camera’s wide angle FOV (180°). I can see my entire driveway, front yard, front door and garage door from a single point located in the middle of my roofline. Same goes for my backyard from a single point. I entered into the Camera Positioning (Camera>Device Settings>Device Utilities>Camera Positioning) to do my setup and align my image. This menu also gives you a gauge for signal strength. Both cameras right now are rated at “Strong.” I initially didn’t use this utility but rather just used the regular live feed – don’t do it. It became annoying due to the alerts, spotlight turning on, etc. – use the positioning tool to avoid this.
I set both cameras to use the widest FOV (180° – the default setting). This gives me the widest picture possible and really takes advantage of the 4K resolution. I created several activity zones – 2 in front, and 1 in the back of my house. I customized the activities that I wanted the camera to monitor, as well as adjusted their sensitivities. When I first set it up I would get pinged about a vehicle in the camera view that just happened to be driving down my street. I was impressed that it picked that up, but I didn’t need that far of a reach. My backyard I left on motion and people detection. For the front I have motion, vehicle, package, and people. I had animal detection turned on in my backyard (trash cans and raccoons), but unfortunately I ran into some false detections. It kept picking up my wispy ornamental grass blowing in the breeze and thinking it was an animal. I mounted both of my cameras to the soffit underneath my gutters (using the short mount, and security mount I bought extra). I had to predrill the holes to use the provided screws, but they held on well (I hit a stud for at least 1 screw on each camera). Both cameras are easy to reach with a ladder but are out of reach without one. This way it should be easy for me to bring the cameras in when they need to charge, and I am confident that they can’t be swiped.
As far as detection accuracy goes the camera does a really good job. The lag from detection to my phone getting a notification is about 3 seconds, so its pretty quick. One thing to note when using the wide angle is detection becomes difficult at the extremes of the FOV – detection range is listed as 150°. My package detection picked up a box if it was set a few feet away from my door, but it didn’t recognize a box if it was right at my door (the edge of my FOV). Same goes for detecting me when I walk out the front. If I walk right along the edge I can get right underneath the camera without it sending me a notification. Once I am close enough it will recognize me, but I can walk 10-15ft in view of the camera without it triggering a recording. I can adjust my camera to see less of my driveway and more of my front porch to get around this, but just something to note when you are setting up your zones. On the Brightside the cameras were not triggered by the rain I have had the last 2 days, so that’s pretty nice.
The image quality out of the cameras is excellent. The 4K HDR image is very crisp and sharp, so even small details can be picked out. I can zoom in on a license plate that is 40ft away and read it. Daytime colors are somewhat expected to be good though. What I was most interested in was how it performed at night. The camera touts color night vision, and I have to say it works pretty well. The image certainly has its ISO turned way up, but I can see things pretty well. Once the little spotlight pops on it gets even better.
Other features of the camera system include a siren, two-way talk, spotlight, call a friend, e911, local storage, cloud storage, and up to 6-month battery life. The siren is triggered by the user in the app when there is a detection event. You get a pop-up that warns you it may be loud – its not. I laughed a bit when I did the siren because its quiet. It might be enough to deter a person in the moment, but it won’t alert anyone in your home’s vicinity that something is going on. The two-way talk isn’t too bad. There’s some lag/delay with it, so a fluid conversation isn’t somewhat tough. Your voice sounds pretty good coming out of the camera (not super loud, but just above normal conversation). The microphone on the camera and playback through the app is pretty quiet though and can make it hard to hear. The spotlight works great and casts just enough light to give a clear picture. It also acts as a warning to anyone poking around that they have been spotted. Call a friend and e911 both have to be enabled and setup in the app. These features come in to play if there is a detected event. Local storage is done on the base station with a microSD card. Arlo recommends a minimum 16GB UHS-1 rated card, but supports up to UHS-3 cards. I couldn’t find anything regarding the maximum card size. Cloud storage is initially free for the first 3 months, and then there are 2 plans you can opt into that keeps a 30 day log of you recordings. The Premier Plan is for 2K and the Elite Plan is for 4K – both charge a monthly rate. If you want to do Continuous Video Recording the camera must be connected to a power supply. As far as battery life goes the advertised 6 months is if you don’t have a ton of alerts, streaming is at a minimum, the spot light isn’t on much, and power management is set to ‘Best Battery Life.’ Right now after 5 days of use I am down to 96% on both cameras – close to 1% a day. At this rate I should get close to 3 months, and this may vary depending on how the outside temp affects the battery life.
There were a couple of things about this setup I have issues with. First being the mounts – why is there only 1 of each? The magnet mount is great for indoors, but I would be very leery using it outdoors. The opposite is true for the indoor/outdoor short mount since it seems a bit overkill for indoor usage. I ended up going to Best Buy and snagging the last (and only) Arlo mount they had in stock – the Outdoor Security Mount (VMA1000). This worked great, but it seems weird that only 1 of each mount is included at this price point. The other is the app. It just seems to run slowly and clunky. There is a noticeable amount of lag with the app. The 2-way voice is tough to use due to this. On multiple occasions the camera would freeze and I would have to jump around inside the app before it would re-establish the connection. I would say it has worked 95% of the time, but it really needs to be 100% uptime if you want to rely on this solution for security monitoring.
Overall, the camera system worked as good as I expected. I have always heard good things about the Arlo cameras, and I was happy to see that they met those expectations. There were a view issues, but they are pretty minor, and likely something that can be improved with software/firmware updates. The cameras themselves were very easy to setup and deploy, so even a tech novice could setup this security system.

I’ve always liked to keep my property safe by monitoring it with local Wi-Fi security cameras. Over the years, I’ve tried many different types and brands, but I keep coming back to Arlo. They make solid cameras with easily integrated systems. So, when Arlo released new cameras, I jumped at the chance to add them to my system. One of the best features of these cameras is that if you have an existing SmartHub, you can add up to 15 cameras to one hub. So, when these recent additions arrived, I was able to just add them to our existing hub. That said, if you are new to the Arlo ecosystem, getting started couldn’t be easier.
You plug the SmartHub into your router and power, download the app, and get your account set-up. Adding devices is quite easy as well. You simply select ‘add a new device’ at the bottom of the home screen. The SmartHub and app will automatically detect any cameras. If it doesn’t, then you can press the sync button on the bottom of the camera and then the hub will pick it up. The app will direct you to name the camera – I suggest you name it according to the location of where the camera will live once it’s installed – and then you can start viewing the video feed.
The Ultra 2 cameras feature 4K video. Before now, the highest quality security video we had was 2K. We were pretty happy with that quality, but the 4K video feed completely blows the other camera video feeds away. Even though these cameras can be used indoors or outdoors, we opted to keep them as outdoor cameras due to the spotlight feature on them. The integrated spotlight is helping to brighten our darkened patio at night and it has even captured some of our critters (possum, cats, etc.) wandering around. In fact, my fiancé took our dog outside, and right when the door from our garage opened onto the patio, the spotlight kicked on. Even if they didn’t have the spotlight feature, these cameras have color night vision, too.
The viewing angle of these cameras is also quite impressive. There is a 180-degree viewing angle which is a 20-degree increase from other Arlo cameras. With it, we can see our entire patio – from our screen door to the edge of our backyard. It’s very helpful because it allows us to see all the entry points to that area without needing multiple cameras. Another great safety feature of this camera is the custom mode option. While there are preset options for motion and audio detection (armed, disarmed, and schedule), you can also create your own modes based on your camera coverage. For example, I created a mode called ‘outdoor motion’ that includes our doorbell camera and the two outside Ultra 2 cameras. Anytime motion is detected from any of those cameras, I get a push notification from the camera. You do have the option of setting the built-in alarm siren to trigger if you wish. I’ve found that the motion detection is fairly accurate and mostly responsive. There have been times that the camera was triggered easily with a human walking through the selected area for the camera (you can map out the area in the app), but not an animal. And other times, it caught the motion from the animal just fine.
We were slightly concerned about the placement of our Ultra 2 camera because it had the potential of being in direct sunlight part of the day and in our area, it can get quite hot during the summer. Thankfully, these cameras are designed to withstand heat, cold, rain, or sun. They can handle temperatures between -4 F and 113 F. And, since they are wire-free and have an enhanced range, they are perfect to mount around your property. I love the Arlo brand so these are an awesome improvement that makes the system even better.

Great quality and durability. Also the mic anc audio is amazing.spot light is small but super bright and night vision sensor is top notch.it’s water proof and heat resistant!

Good n then not battery dies quicker then I thought it would, but honestly Arlo has always been good to us n I wouldn’t trade it for anything else