Ultra 2 and Ultra (3rd Gen – 2025 Release)

[nmjones]

I have 3 Ultra 2 cameras. I am considering getting a few more Ultra 2 cameras but I see that there has been an update since I purchased my cameras in early 2024. What is the difference between the Ultra 2 and the Ultra (3rd Gen - 2025 Release ?

[RichWood]

Stephen you seem fine. I have no problems with you. Your desire to help others is noble. Just the last thing you want to do with people pissed off with Arlo is be an Arlo fan boy. I really appreciate your desire to help other people. It's a rare quality these days. 

[StephenB]

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@RichWood wrote:

I noticed this when I purchased the Orbi 870's. Netgear took away the function to limit Transmit Power controls. On a mesh system that is extremely important.

I agree, and I wish they'd put that back.  Transmit power management is really important for both AP and mesh.

I was told it was a chipset limitation, but I have no way to verify that.  And Netgear chooses the chipsets they use, so that really isn't a satisfactory reason.  They have the feature in their APs after all.

It'd also be nice if I could turn the wireless backhaul off, and just use ethernet.   Even if you connect ethernet backhaul, the mesh doesn't always use it.

I have sometimes wondered about just deploying enterprise-grade APs.  My house is wired for ethernet and I have  PoE switches, so I don't really need a wireless backhaul.  But I'd rather not have cloud-managed APs, which I think rules out a lot of possibilities there.

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@RichWood wrote:

 Arlo, owned by Netgear, 

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Actually not.  They fully divested Arlo in 2018.  Their Arlo stock from the IPO was all redistributed to Netgear shareholders.  So by Jan 2019 Netgear had no stock and no controlling interest in Arlo.  At the time, Netgear put a press release that communicated that.

You can see Arlo's institutional investors here (among other places)

• https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/ARLO/institutional-ownership/

Netgear is not listed.

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@RichWood wrote:

So it's just strange moves like this that makes me think they are now launching products far before they are ready for public consumption. Arlo, owned by Netgear, did the very same with the Pan & Tilt camera. It is a product that is a disaster at the moment. 

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Mine seems to be ok, but it is inside a garage with the home position aimed through the garage door (normally open), so the amount the camera moves is pretty limited.  It's one of several cameras covering the driveway/garage, so I could also be missing some misbehavior.  Unfortunately, Arlo doesn't give us access to logs, which makes it easy to miss short-term dropouts.

I'm not saying it's perfect - I do see room for improvement with mine, and it is clear from posts here (including yours) that others are running into off-line issues, and other significant problems. 

As far as the 870 goes, my experience with it was pretty rocky early on, and I almost gave up on it.  But I think I am past those issues now.  

Both Arlo and Netgear (and I think lots of other companies) need do a better job on quality - both at release, and later on.  That said, I think most consumer electronic companies have a Q4 market window that they have to hit one way or another in order to get the sales volume they need.  So a lot of companies gamble that they can push software fixes before a lot of people deploy, and that often doesn't go well.

[RichWood]

ASUS makes the best mesh now. But my situation is different because I use Firewalla. But I will say the Orbi 870 did play great with my Arlo equipment, just not everything else. When I had the Orbi 960 on 6E, it sucked with Arlo. I have a theory that 6E and Arlo have complications. I would tell everyone, go wifi 7 only with Arlo. 

But I'm glad the 870 is working out for you. And I admire you all in here for helping. You all jump on issues so fast it's impressive. Arlo has just you and the authentication Indians who love to say 3-5 minutes. You all are caring people. I respect that. Even if I disagree with your approach, it's the true sign of a good person. Helping others.

I didn't know Arlo and Netgear split. But they must have the same board of directors or something because their decision making is so polar opposite of what they both used to be as of late. 

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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FWIW, I am surprised that they didn't support home wifi connections with the Ultra 3 (as they have on Pro line).  I think that was a miss on their part.

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I'd say that's because Ultra cameras have been positioned as "requiring smarthub", but then since smarthub does not touch home wifi .... it's all getting "wrong" now.  sigh. 

I don't think I'd put a mesh network capability in the bases.  That's not really Arlo's expertise, and as @RichWood points out there are drawbacks to having competing WiFi networks in your home.   I think they would be better off slowly transitioning to home-wifi connected setups.

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Agree it's not a good idea putting a mesh network in the base.  As 1 of the client of the home router, the smarthub (can't comment on 4000 series base) can already enjoy comms with cameras over any mesh service available from router, so long as cameras are also connected to the home WIFI system (say my ASUS router + 2 mesh nodes).

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I would also have ensured that their PoE adapter worked with all USB-C cameras and not just Essentials (providing both power and network to the Pro 6, Ultra 3, and the PT essentials).   PoE can't be jammed and is not subject to other interference that can impair WiFi.  So I think that was another miss.

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Not quite familiar with the situations with Essentials, USB-C and PoE here. Could you explain more?  (I just know that my ultra 2s only run wireless and must be cable-chared regularly)

Alex

[alex_loo]

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@RichWood wrote:

Arlo, owned by Netgear, did the very same with the Pan & Tilt camera. It is a product that is a disaster at the moment.

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So what's the story with Pan & Tilt?   Just know that they are new products.

Alex

[RichWood]

It's a great camera when it works. I really like it. But it freezes up and goes unresponsive on its own. You have to unplug/replug. I think it's the circuit board. On 2.4 GHz it seems to last longer than 5 GHz. But I can see exactly when it stops talking back to Arlo servers and it still shows connectivity. Think something internal in the board comes to a bottleneck. But when it works, the camera is amazing. 

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:
Not quite familiar with the situations with Essentials, USB-C and PoE here. Could you explain more?  (I just know that my ultra 2s only run wireless and must be cable-chared regularly)

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There are several advantages to PoE, though of course you need to run a suitable ethernet cable to the camera.

This is the accessory I am talking about:

• https://us.arlo.com/collections/accessories/products/vma3900-10000s?variant=50731194384703

It's possible it would charge the Ultra 3, Pro 6 and maybe the PT cameras.  But I'm told those cameras won't switch over to ethernet with those adapters.   Unfortunate miss IMO.

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

This is the accessory I am talking about:

• https://us.arlo.com/collections/accessories/products/vma3900-10000s?variant=50731194384703

It's possible it would charge the Ultra 3, Pro 6 and maybe the PT cameras.  But I'm told those cameras won't switch over to ethernet with those adapters.   Unfortunate miss IMO.

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Not sure I understand here.   Are you referring to (not) switching over to ethernet network?  That would surprise me if so.  None of the (at least latest model) ARLO cameras has network capability over network cable.  They all run over WIFI.  There is no way any of them can, all of a sudden, read network over a physical cable.

So, I see this accessory another option of (ONLY!) providing power to cameras.  No over-expectation here.

And then on the other hand, since this accessory eventually offers a USB-C power, it should be good for, say, Ultra 3, which now gets charged via USB-C.  I don't quite understand why Ultra 3 is NOT within the compatibility list there.

Alex

[StephenB]

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@alex_loo wrote:
None of the (at least latest model) ARLO cameras has network capability over network cable. 

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The accessory changes that for the compatible cameras.  It will power the camera, and the camera will get its network through its USB-C connector.  As the descriptions at arlo.com and amazon.com say:

Simply connect your device to the adapter and the adapter to your PoE switch for direct, reliable, and continuous power and internet.

Keep compatible Arlo devices powered and connected to the internet. The PoE adapter provides a direct, reliable, hardwired connection for continous power and internet.  Requires: IEEE802.3af compatible power sourcing equipment to transmit, electric power and data to your compatible Arlo device.

I don't happen to have the adapter, so I haven't tried it myself. 

[alex_loo]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@alex_loo wrote:
None of the (at least latest model) ARLO cameras has network capability over network cable. 

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The accessory changes that for the compatible cameras.  It will power the camera, and the camera will get its network through its USB-C connector.  As the descriptions at arlo.com and amazon.com say:

Simply connect your device to the adapter and the adapter to your PoE switch for direct, reliable, and continuous power and internet.

Keep compatible Arlo devices powered and connected to the internet. The PoE adapter provides a direct, reliable, hardwired connection for continous power and internet.  Requires: IEEE802.3af compatible power sourcing equipment to transmit, electric power and data to your compatible Arlo device.

I don't happen to have the adapter, so I haven't tried it myself. 

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I see.  Thanks for pointing that out.  That means the compatible cameras have "network over usb-C" capability --- from hardware perspective.  Also meaning that if ultra 3's usb-c is for power only, it won't still be able to use the network side of PoE.

Which I kind of understand --- Essentials are all wire-powered, by product positioning, right?

Alex