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Netgear Arlo Smart Home Security review: Netgear's Arlo defies typical security camera limitations

Netgear's battery-powered Arlo security camera can tackle anything from a dark basement to a torrential downpour.

Megan Wollerton Former Senior Writer/Editor
5 min read

Of the DIY security cameras we've reviewed, battery-powered models are not particularly common. That's because you usually have to give up key features like live streaming and HD video quality so you aren't constantly swapping out batteries. The trade-off, of course, is a camera that's plugged into an outlet 24/7.

7.7

Netgear Arlo Smart Home Security

The Good

Arlo's 720p video works well whether it's resting on a table near your router or hidden in a tree hundreds of feet away.

The Bad

It doesn't have any audio capabilities and the battery life will vary a lot depending on usage.

The Bottom Line

Netgear's Arlo is your answer to un-tethered indoor and outdoor DIY home security -- just make sure you have spare batteries handy.

Interestingly, Netgear didn't do away with those power-hungry options when it made its battery-only, 720p-resolution, motion-sensing, night-vision-equipped, indoor/outdoor Arlo cameras. They retain the resolution and on-demand video feed of a typically-tethered camera and add on the free-roaming flexibility of one that's battery-powered. The result is an elegant solution to a classic security camera conundrum.

Plant these beauties in and around your home for an impressively solid system that's unmoved by shifts in the weather. Just make sure you keep CR123 lithium batteries handy, as battery life will vary a lot based on usage and proximity to the included Netgear Arlo hub. Still, I recommend Arlo to anyone in need of an adaptable indoor/outdoor camera system. The two-camera kit I reviewed here costs $350, but you can also get a single-camera kit for $200 and additional cameras for $160 each. (The Arlo is slated to be available later the first quarter of this year in the UK and onverted pricing is about £233.)

In Australia you can get the two camera kit for a rather hefty AU$588. The one camera kit is AU$349 -- individual add-on cameras are AU$249. In all, this is a pricey product in Australia.

Taking Netgear's Arlo out for a stroll (pictures)

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Arlo in action

The kit I reviewed comes with two HD cameras, eight CR123 lithium batteries (four per camera, they can run with just two batteries, though), four magnetic mounts with included hardware and a hub that connects to the router. The hub and cameras are finished in glossy white plastic. The hub seems unnecessarily large and utilitarian-looking, but otherwise fine.

The palm-sized cameras are much more discreet. Each one has a 130-degree field of view and automatically-adjusting night vision. Netgear claims that Arlo cameras have an operating range of up to 300 feet from the hub and a 4 to 6-month battery life. This is where Arlo's impressive adaptability breaks down a little bit for me.

That 300-foot range appears to be true only under optimal conditions -- with few to no obstacles interfering with the signal. Also, the distance between each camera and the hub, how often you access features like live streaming and whether or not you set the cameras to "best video," "optimized" or "best battery life" mode will all influence how long the cameras last before needing new batches of CR123's.

The indoor-only Homeboy camera I recently reviewed has a rechargeable battery that's supposed to last for three months on a single charge. To achieve this long-battery-life feat, the team employed its own low-power Wi-Fi tech, a 640x480-pixel resolution and did away with live-steaming capabilities altogether.

Arlo is a battery-powered camera rated for both indoor and outdoor use. Tyler Lizenby/CNET

However, after a week of testing the Arlo cameras mainly in "best video" mode, both cameras still have a full charge. Interestingly, though, when I take the fully-charged cameras outside in the below-freezing weather, the battery status indicators drop swiftly. When I return inside, the status bars go back to their previously fully-charged setting.

Arlo's operating temperature range is 14 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (about -9 to 50 degree Celsius) -- some complaints have surfaced online showing that a cold Arlo camera could claim to have a lower battery life than it really does. Netgear says that this is a known issue that it is working to address. We aren't exactly in the arctic tundra here in Kentucky, but the winter temperatures regularly dip below freezing and 14 degrees Fahrenheit certainly isn't an impossibility. Since that's also true for a large portion of the country, I wonder about this system's outdoor reliability by season.

Even so, I was impressed by each camera's "true" range (closer to 150 feet during testing), the minimal lag time in live streaming mode, the responsive mobile alerts and email notifications, the crisp 720p resolution in day and night mode and the ability to access MP4 files of the clips from the email notifications. I would like to see a speaker and a microphone integrated into its setup, though.

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Arlo by day and by night. Screenshots by Megan Wollerton/CNET

I tested this kit out at three locations and was always surprised by how easy it was to set up.

The initial configuration took less than ten minutes and each following attempt less than five. Just connect the hub's ethernet cable and power cord to the router and download the free Android or iOS app. You can create an account on either the mobile or Web app. Then, add the batteries, sync the cameras with the hub (this requires pressing the sync button on the hub and then on each camera) and you're ready to stick your cameras wherever the hub's range will allow.

Inside the app

The app's home screen displays all of your connected cameras. The free, 7-day recording option lets you sync as many as five cameras. There's also a 30-day option that costs $10 a month and lets you sync up to 10 cameras, as well as a 60-day option that costs $15 a month and lets you sync up to 15 cameras (you will need more than one hub to accommodate this many cameras, though). Each add-on camera costs $160.

Unlike some other live-streaming interfaces, this one has play and pause buttons. This sort of forced opt-in design probably helps keep the battery life in check, but it is slightly inconvenient. Still, you can watch multiple live streams at once or watch one camera on a full-screen view. Within live stream mode, you can record or take a photo on-demand as well as adjust the brightness of the shot.

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Using the app. Screenshots by Megan Wollerton/CNET

The library section displays a calendar. Select a certain day to get access to saved clips. The mode and settings sections allow you to really customize your cameras. Mode section lets you set schedules for the motion sensor or simply turn them on or off at-a-glance. Access settings to manage your cloud storage, push notifications, video quality and more.

The app has pretty much everything you need, but it isn't the most intuitive design. For instance, I'm not sure why there's a separate mode and settings section -- it seems like that could all be condensed into one category.

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My dog needed to inspect this foreign object. Screenshot by Megan Wollerton/CNET

While the Netgear Arlo doesn't currently have an IFTTT channel or integrate with any third-party devices, these small cameras can do so much on their own that they're definitely worth consideration. We haven't reviewed any other battery-powered DIY security cameras that manage to deliver HD resolution from a significant distance -- either indoors or outdoors in either day- or night-vision modes. I'm definitely skeptical about the Arlo's ability to properly handle itself in cold temperatures and how the CR123 batteries would fair after several months, but this versatile security kit is still a win.

7.7

Netgear Arlo Smart Home Security

Score Breakdown

Features 8Usability 7Design 7Performance 9