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01/25/2019 Updated review: Update on my experience and decision to keep my Ultra 4-camera system
4 days into this experience and all I can say is THIS IS A JOKE! I have been a huge proponent of Arlo since the very first cams hit the market. I’m a loyal customer having owned the original cams, Pro and Pro 2. Prior to the Ultra 4 camera purchase, I had a 20 camera Pro 2 system and a Smart Elite paid subscription. I even bought a set of Arlo cameras for my mother and sister’s homes as Christmas presents 2 years ago.
Today, I feel CHEATED. These Ultra cams aren’t cheap, the accessories you get in the box seem stripped down/scaled back, the additional accessories (yet to be released) are incredibly expensive for what they are and an obvious way to generate additional revenue for Arlo as they likely cut margins in the cam itself to keep consumer costs down. In addition to Arlo cutting corners with accessories out of the box which incurs additional “hidden” costs to the consumer, there are more hidden costs to have your 4K cams actually record to the cloud in 4K. I could overlook these very disappointing facts IF THE CAMERAS ACTUALLY WORKED! Over the course of the last 4 days, it had gone from bad to worse. As I mentioned already, I’m a loyal Arlo customer, historically a major fan —- but can say I have now been let down in a big way. I feel deflated. I feel cheated. I’m going to continue to test the Ultra cams up until the end of the Best Buy return period - then I will likely return the Ultra cams to Best Buy.
I’ve already invested a ton of money for my Arlo Pro 2 system and that system works great. Why change if the Pro 2 cams worked so well? I wanted 4K, the newest camera technology from Arlo naively thinking Arlo wouldn’t let me down. Boy was I wrong.
I couldn’t have been more excited to pre order the cams and anxiously waited for the box to arrive. I was like a little kid at Christmas barely able to sleep the night before thinking about Santa dropping down the chimney with my shiny new toy. Santa (FedEx) even came early delivering the cams on Saturday in advance of the Jan 14th release date. Like a kid at Christmas, I was overly excited as I opened the box unveiling the newest Arlo technology. Just days later, I feel like someone just told me Santa wasn’t real. Why? Bait and switch - I feel lied to! In all of the pre release info, I did not see that I would have to pay nearly $100 annually for my four 4K cameras to actually record 4K to the cloud. As mentioned, I’m a paying customer with the highest priced subscription, Smart Elite. I have 15 Pro 2 cams + 5 more on a free account that I ultimately wanted to upgrade by merging into a single account now that the Smart Elite subscription allowed up to 20 cams. And ultimately, I wanted to now upgrade a majority, if not all cams, to the new Ultras. Now, it’s doubtful I will even keep the 4 Ultra cams.
SUBSCRIPTION COSTS
To have 4K cloud recordings, it is 1.99 per camera, per month. In order to have the four 4K cams I purchased to actually record to the cloud in 4K, my monthly subscription cost goes up to 34.90/mo from 14.99/mo. Really?! This is more than disappointing, however, sucked it up and paid for the 4K upgrade despite the feeling of a total bait & switch by Arlo.
As I mentioned above, I had planned to upgrade most, if not all, of my Pro 2 cams to the new Arlo Ultra. That is cost prohibitive. Let’s say I only upgrade 10 of the 20 Pro 2 cams to the new Ultra and keep my Smart Elite subscription. That’s an additional 19.99/mo totaling 238.80 in a year if you pay monthly. This is in addition to my Smart Elite subscription which is 14.99/mo totaling 180 in a year. That’s a whopping 418.80 a year, paying monthly. There’s a slight discount if you pay for the year upfront.
The additional cost is a game changer - IF I DECIDE TO KEEP THE ARLO ULTRA CAMS - I would most likely not upgrade more than the 4 Ultra cams I just purchased.
TESTING
I’ve been running my Pro2’s cams and Ultra cams virtually side by side to compare video quality, night vision, viewing angle, motion detection, sound quality, etc. As of last night, I was only slightly impressed with daytime video quality @ 4K (see comments in viewing angle), hugely disappointed in the motion detection and extremely annoyed that the signal strength isn’t as advertised and a mere fraction of all prior models. Connectivity issues are ongoing despite the firmware upgrade. I experienced pixelation issues once I upgraded to 4K. Ultra cams are slow to start up once triggered.
Motion detection is terrible, sometimes nonexistent. Even worse, I woke up this morning to check the overnight recordings only to find that all 4 of the Ultras stopped recording at 9PM last night. Only my Pro 2 cams were recording overnight. SERIOUSLY?!? This may be the straw that breaks this camel’s back with the Ultra cams.
THOUGHTS ON ACCESSORIES INCLUDED IN THE ULTRA BOX
You only get 2 magnetic mounts in a set of 4 cams where my original Arlo cam multipacks included and the same # of magnetic mounts as the # of cams in a package. Check out the cost for additional magnetic mounts - 39.99 for two. Seriously? The Ultra 4 cam system I purchased also included two Quarter Twenty Mounts which is an outdoor security mount. These mounts are worthless and cheap. Arlo should be ashamed to have included these flimsy mounts. Give me four magnetic mounts and drop the outdoor security mounts! Now onto my beef with the change to the magnetic mounting capabilities.
What I LOVED about all prior Arlo cams was the flexibility to mount cams anywhere. I have several cams attached to metal doors and metal patio furniture b/c the back of the camera is a magnet. Now that has changed. The Ultra system magnetic mounting is different than all prior cams reversing the magnet side and the metal side. Now the mount is magnetic and the camera has a metal lining to attach to the magnetic mount. All prior cameras were the reverse of this. WHY DID ARLO CHANGE THIS? I want this flexibility.
One short charging cable is included making it impossible to replace the Pro 2 cams I have plugged in. I need a longer cable. Wait, Arlo will have two options! Uh oh, price? 49.99 for a 25’ power cord! Ok, maybe the 8’ indoor cord could be utilized. That’s still 24.99! Why not sell an adapter that would convert the end of a mini USB cable into the magnetic charging cable? I have a ton of Pro 2 power cables/adapters I’d pay to buy a simple adapter for the mini USB end.
CONNECTIVITY
Signal strength is terrible and only a fraction of the advertised 300’. There were connectivity issues right out of the box that appeared to be corrected by a firmware update. I say APPEARED as I awoke today to find all four Ultra cams offline this AM. I’ve reset the base, power cycled the base, power cycled the cameras - NOTHING! Ultras remain offline. Pro 2’s are just fine!
VIEWING ANGLE
Wider viewing angle is nice to have but think it impairs clarity as objects are now, in effect, much farther away. Faces and license plates are still blurred and unclear. Why?The field of view is so wide that as soon as you get even a little bit of distance from the camera, the object such as a car or a person, now fits into a teeny-tiny portion of the recording. Zoom in on the object and the 4K view is just as blurry as my Pro 2 cams with a narrower viewing angle.
NIGHT VISION
I wanted to start off without the color night vision fearing the battery drain could be significant and current placement of Ultra cams is a high traffic area with cars, dog walkers and joggers. I have landscape lighting around my home with several spot lights pointing up the walls of my home. A little light splash. My Pro 2 cams were totally unaffected by these lights. The Ultra cams “see” the light and think it’s dusk, all night long. As a result, the Ultra cams will not changeover to night vision. Side note - none of the spotlights are directly underneath my cameras. I even moved the spotlights further away to see if I could trick the cameras into night vision to no avail. No matter the location, it’s too much light therefore I have cameras operating like it is dusk. The supposed 4K in “perma dusk” of night, is absolutely horrible! Grainy. The Pro 2 cam video quality at dusk was grainy two, as most any camera is in low light situations. At least with the Pro 2 cams, night vision would trigger at nightfall. The Ultra cams just will not change over to night vision. I am not going to trash my investment in landscape lighting not going JUST to have regular black/white night vision on my newest cams.
With standard night vision non-functional in my Ultra cams, I decided to go ahead and change the setting to add the spotlight in low light situations. I changed the setting before bed last night activating the spotlight feature, however, unable to see the outcome as the system went offline sometime after I changed the setting. The cameras remain offline now.
SOUND QUALITY
Haven’t tested as I am dealing with all of the other problems. Why bother.
MOTION DETECTION
At 100% sensitivity, the Ultra cams perform significantly worse than the Pro 2 cams set to 70-80% sensitivity.
25% of the time, the Ultra misses the motion all together where the Pro 2 camera picked up the activity without issue.
Offline this AM
Still offline
Pixelation after 4K subscription upgrade. To think I PAID for this.
Thank you for the detailed review. I am considering the Arlo pro and will take back my Ultra. Going to look for that 3 camera deal I saw over Xmas. I may add the light. I am very suspicious of this company and any recommendations to what box sets or add ons for an Arlo pro would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you recommend I go with a different company, please let me know giving this is my first camera system. I too was looking forward to this release...
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