Arlo – Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free – White

The Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free is a pretty darn good doorbell camera. It has some nice features and is a nice addition to our home automation.
Build quality on the Arlo doorbell is very nice. It is plastic, however, it is solid. It has already been through one snow storm and is holding up very well with no issues. The camera is a 180 degree camera that has excellent video quality. One thing I would like to see done differently is USB-C charging. These days I feel that this should be standard for charging.
Installation and setup is a breeze on this unit. This is a wire-free unit and can be used with a rechargeable battery, but can also be installed hardwired if desired. The battery does hold a charge for a long time, but if you chose to hardwire it, you can have the hardwired connection set to keep your battery charged. I do have to say that installation was a breeze. This does come with an angled installation plate so if you need it you can adjust the angle of the camera mount. I didn’t need this for my installation, however, it is a great part if needed. This does come with screws to mount and anchors if needed. Two screws, plug in the battery, snap onto the base and your done. Then the set up comes into play. It was very easy to follow the instructions to get it connected to wifi and on my home network. It’s at this point that if you don’t have an Arlo account, you will need to create one.
The video quality on the Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free is very good. It has a very clear 180 degree image, night vision, package detection, Smart siren for alarms, video calling, and a great feature where someone can leave you a voice message if you’re not able to answer and you can listen when you’re free to. I have to say I was very impressed with how clear the daytime and night vision quality are. When something or someone enters the detection zone, I get a push notification to my phone.
Overall, I would say that this is a fantastic camera doorbell for anyone looking for a great quality wire free option that is easy to install and set up. The one thing that is taking it down to 4 stars for me is that there is no option for onboard storage. You have to subscribe to their service in order to get access to the recordings. These days, another subscription service can be a pain point. I would love to just be able to pop in a memory card and access recordings if I need to and have an actual physical copy.

Full Disclosure: I received this product through Best Buy’s Tech Insider Network in exchange for an honest evaluation and an unbiased review.
My family has wanted a video doorbell for several years and we’re thrilled to finally get one.

However, during installation and setup for this doorbell and its associated mobile phone apps I was immediately disquieted to read that my smartphone must be connected to my home’s Wi-Fi using the same 2.4GHz channel that the doorbell uses to connect to my home’s Wi-Fi. I was suspicious that this was not possible. I checked my Galaxy S20 and my daughter’s iPhone 11 and there is simply no way to specify or force either phone to connect to just the home Wi-Fi’s 2.4GHz channel or for that matter its 5GHz channel. There’s just no distinction anymore.
This derailed my setup for several hours while I researched this issue. What I discovered was that it’s been many years since we had to setup a router’s Wi-Fi with separate SSIDs for each frequency channel (e.g. SMITH24 and SMITH50). As router software got smarter, the need for this distinction quietly went away leaving us to have just one SSID like SMITH. I truly never even noticed.
Now, when we buy and setup a new phone we select our Wi-Fi SSID name SMITH, enter the passphrase, then the phone connects and we never have to concern ourselves with it again. That’s progress and that’s as it should be.
Finally, on my router manufacturer’s website I found a tech support article that basically stated that when faced with this situation, just plow forward with the installation and in most cases everything will be fine. It stated that my router system will take care of the inner workings to make sure the legacy device (i.e. doorbell) will be able to communicate with my smartphone no matter how it connects to the Wi-Fi. And it did. I would recommend that Arlo expand their explanation of this topic in their installation instructions. It would’ve prevented me some consternation.
Because of the December cold weather I took the easy route and installed the Arlo video doorbell with an exterior-grade, double-sided, mounting tape. Next spring, I will wire the Arlo doorbell in place of my existing wired doorbell button. This will eliminate the need to remove, recharge, and reinstall the doorbell battery. When wired into your existing 24vdc doorbell system, the Arlo battery is constantly charging and doesn’t have to be removed for recharging. Also, when wired, the Arlo doorbell button will ring your existing wired doorbell chime in addition to notifying your smartphone.
On your smartphone a push of the Arlo doorbell button results in an instant, incoming call to your phone. You then accept or decline the notification.
We installed the Arlo app on two Android phones and two iPhones. So far we’re loving it. I didn’t receive the doorbell until a couple days before Christmas so we haven’t had many deliveries since installing it. Did have two Fedex deliveries where the delivery guy rang the doorbell, but left immediately. It’s nice to see our postal mail when its being delivered to the porch mailbox, but there’s normally no need for our carrier to ring the bell.
With no visitors due to the pandemic, the only conversations we’ve had through the doorbell have been with our 9-year old granddaughter who likes to talk with someone when she takes her dog out on a leash. With those exchanges the audio is very clear and plenty loud if you don’t lower the volume.
Both the camera’s daylight vision and night vision are excellent (see my day/night images). Motion detection even triggers on a 12 pound dog heading out the door. Reviewing captured videos in the Arlo Cloud through the phone apps and on my desktop PC are pretty straightforward. Downloading a video from the Cloud and saving it just takes a couple clicks. It’s all very easy. I included a screenshot from the Arlo Cloud of a typical day’s collection of videos taken at our front door.
I wish we could’ve received this video doorbell a few weeks earlier as two Christmas boxes whose tracking show as being delivered at the same time, never arrived. Don’t know if we have “porch pirates” in the area or a mis-delivery to a dishonest neighbor. Lord knows we’ve carried enough mis-delivered boxes to our neighbors over the years. So we’re thinking its a porch pirate as it was just a couple weeks before Christmas.
The round, fisheye-style lens gives the camera a wide field of view that covers my entire 100′ front yard from the driveway on the south to the neighbor’s yard on the north. This morning, I found a cool use for it when, without leaving my warm bed, I was able to use my phone to view the doorbell in live video mode to verify my son-in-law put the trash carts out to the curb as he left for work. Confident he didn’t forget, I got an extra 30 minutes sleep. Being retired is pretty nice.
I also like to use the doorbell’s live camera mode to watch the other dog when she’s let out front with no leash. Beats having a bitter north wind blowing in my face when peering out a partially opened front door to keep an eye on her.
This doorbell has many features and some we haven’t had the opportunity to use yet since we’ve only had it less than a week. Over time we will. But, the basics we have used and all work very well. Both the Android app and the iPhone app are quality software and once installed none of us have encountered any problems. It’s what we in the software development world call “mature software”. Meaning all the bugs and kinks have been worked out.
In summary, I would like to see Arlo clarify the installation documentation issue I mentioned earlier. But even with that hiccup, I can enthusiastically recommend this Arlo Video Doorbell to anyone looking for a good quality video doorbell. So go ahead and get it because you won’t be disappointed in any way. As a further endorsement, I’ve already decided to buy one for my daughter who lives in another state and has had problems with deliveries.

The Arlo video doorbell was just what we were looking for. We have another camera system in place but the video quality is not great especially at night. This solves that issue at our front door. This was a very easy install as it came with all the hardware that we needed. Simply took it out of the box and let it charge to full which took two or three hours. Once charged you need to figure out if you want a flat mount or slightly angled mount. There is a mount to give it a slight angle if needed. We went with the flat mount due to the wide field of view.
Simply screw in the mount and attach the camera and you are up and running.
Overall use is simple. In settings you can choose your active areas that will trigger the camera when it senses motion. For us, we choose our property so passing cars would not trigger motion which would trigger alerts all day and is not necessary.
It takes 2 to 3 seconds to start live view if you want to take a peek outside but really isn’t necessary as anything you need to see will alert you as it happens.
Overall image quality is excellent both and day and night. You will not see to far at night but we can see our property which is all we are concerned with.
Overall this is a great video doorbell and we are considering a second for the back door.
Battery based on current usage should last a few months with no issues. You won’t go wrong with this choice.

Out of the box, the Arlo wireless video doorbell looks and feels like a high quality device.
Included with the doorbell is the rechargeable battery with usb cable, flat and angled mounting brackets, wire extensions (should you chooses to wire the device), screws and anchors, a release pin and a quick start guide.
The rechargeable battery has a red indicator light when it needs charging and it turns green when it is fully charged. My unit came with the battery in need of a charge which took 2-3 hours using a standard usb outlet.
While the battery is charging you can download the Arlo app which will walk you through setup and installation. The app is excellent and the installation is quick and easy. The doorbell setup will only work on a 2.4ghz wifi. So make sure to turn your phone on to a 2.4ghz network for setup. After setup you can put your phone back on 5ghz.
If you go to settings in the app you can customize the doorbell by choosing resolution, activity zone, motion detection sensitivity, speaker settings and more.
When the doorbell detects motion the led light surrounding the button turns on, making it highly visible to the person approaching in any lighting condition. You will also receive a notification on your phone and you can check to see a video capture of the motion or a live picture through the camera.
When someone rings the doorbell you receive a phone call which opens up the app and allows you to see and speak to the person at the door. There is almost no delay at all between the doorbell activation and the call you receive. Also, the audio is very natural with no delay between both ends of the conversation.
The speaker quality is excellent and volume can be controlled within the app.
I have been using the doorbell for 10 days and I have found it to be 100% reliable.
One of the best features of the Arlo doorbell is the 180 degree diagonal picture with a 1:1 aspect ratio.
This allows you to see a person from head to toe and you can even see packages on the ground next to your door. In addition, the video has minimal fisheye effect, far less than other video doorbells I have used. The video is crisp and clear in all lighting conditions.
Some other features include 8x digital zoom on live and recorded video, built in siren, quick reply messages and ability to call 911.
So why only 4 stars? Well, there is one definite issue and one possible issue to be aware of.
On the Arlo website it states that this doorbell works “with seamless integration the Google Home Hub” and has “total compatibility”. Well, that is not completely true.
You can add the Arlo doorbell to Google Home. However, when the doorbell rings, the Google Home Hub will announce that someone is at your “Front Door” or whatever you named your doorbell. But it will not show any video and will not allow you to speak to the person through the Hub. You still have to answer the call through your phone. In addition, if you ask Google to show you the “Front Door” it will display a message that the video cannot be streamed. The only way around this is to lower the resolution in the doorbell to it’s lowest setting, which is 720×720. This will allow you to ask Google to show you a live stream from the doorbell, and it will, however it will still only tell when someone is at the door and not show you video until you ask for it. And it still won’t allow you to speak to them through the Hub screen. By the time you go through all of this you could have answered through your phone much quicker. Also, there is a negative trade off of lowering the resolution. You will lose the 1:1 aspect ratio with the 180 degree diagonal picture on your recorded video. The live stream will still have a full picture but any recorded video will only record the upper half of a person’s body.
So the integration is definitely not seamless.
As I mentioned, I have been using this doorbell for 10 days and it is showing 51% battery remaining.
Arlo sates that the battery should last up to 6 months, but at this rate it would only last about 3 weeks.
If that ends up being the case, that would be completely unacceptable and I would lower my rating.
However, I have been trying out all of the features of the doorbell over these 10 days so maybe the battery life will improve as I transition to normal use.
Finally, this device does not have any local storage. You must subscribe to an Arlo subscription service which gives you 30 days of storage, as well as advanced object detection( cars, people, etc.), and up to 4k video. Packages vary in price but start at only $2.99/mo. However, some people may object to paying a subscription fee and it would be nice if Arlo offered a local storage option.
In the end, this is an excellent video doorbell that is easy to install, intuitive to use, with excellent video and audio quality, and a comprehensive Arlo app. I hope that Arlo and Google can fine tune the integration of the doorbell and I hope and expect that the battery life will improve.