SmartHub VMB5000 vs VMB4540?

[mark_twain]

Understanding the pros and cons of Arlo products can be frustrating.  For SmartHubs, Arlo's website offers only the briefest of functional description and a compatibility listing.  To learn more, we have to resort to these discussion boards.

Comparing VMB5000 and VMB4540, I understand the main differences between:
1.  VMB5000 has a microSD card slot for local storage, whereas VMB4540 has a USB port.  A card slot is tidier, whereas a USB port enables flexibility to choose an external hard-drive or SSD-drive.
2.  VMB5000 has dual-band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) radios, whereas VMB4540 has only a 2.4 GHz radio.  Arlo Pro cameras have only 2.4 GHz radios.  Arlo Pro cameras are compatible with both SmartHubs, but only Arlo Ultra cameras can take advantage of the VMB5000's 5 GHz radio.

Are there any other important differences?

[Edinburgh_lad1]

It's not just about the tidiness of the SD card slot, but the speed of writing to local storage, if that's what you're going to be using the smarthub for, too. 

[StephenB]

Honestly, I don't think either the 5 ghz channel or the potential performance of the storage make any practical difference, so if those are the only factors I'd just buy the cheaper base.  

Personally I recommend using a thumb drive with the VMB4540 instead of a hard drive.  128-512 GB of storage is generally more than enough.  The hard drive is bulkier, and you'll want to power it directly from the mains since the USB 2.0 port can't deliver much power.  It's also easy to accidently disrupt the connection (and power) of a hard drive setup.  

The placement of the microSD slot (underneath the base), increases the chance that it wouldn't be noticed in a break-in.  Though many thumb drives are pretty small, so might not be noticed either.

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@mark_twain wrote:

 Arlo Pro cameras have only 2.4 GHz radios.  Arlo Pro cameras are compatible with both SmartHubs, but only Arlo Ultra cameras can take advantage of the VMB5000's 5 GHz radio.

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Pro 5s cameras are also dual band.

@Edinburgh_lad1 wrote:

It's not just about the tidiness of the SD card slot, but the speed of writing to local storage, if that's what you're going to be using the smarthub for, too. 

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Although the hardware specs indicate that the microSD card has higher throughput, there's no way to measure the actual write speeds of the two hubs.   

Since the base records real-time video streams sent from cameras, the bottleneck for writes is the delivery of the stream from the camera.  Which is only 1-3 megabits per camera (1 mbps for 720p or 1080p, 2 mbps for 2K, 3 mbps for 5K).  Write speeds for 5 simultaneous streams (the spec for both hubs) is at most 15 mbps (about 2 MB/s).  Both hubs are able to keep up with those speeds.

The bottleneck for reads is a bit different, as you are downloading the entire file to the phone before viewing.  There could be a difference in performance in the download speed if the phone has a fast connection.  But the files are pretty small, so likely makes no real difference in practice.