Arlo Ultra vs Alro Pro 2

[Mikey2Bats]

So my little kid side has that itch to go out and buy an Arlo Ultra system and add my Arlo Pro 2 cams to the new smart hub and run both cameras. I have read alot of the reviews online and on this forum. My question is this would it beneficial to do that now or continue to wait for any bugd to be worked out. I don't want to go satisfy my itch because I can't wait only to fight with the new system to get my cameras up and running when I already have a current running system. I see what all the reviews say but I want true feedback from people who actually use the system everyday not some periodical looking to sell their articles or someone looking to sell a product based on a skewed review. Any and all recommendations are appreciated as well as feedback. Appreciate you and your time

[TomMac]

First , do you have one of the systems that support the 4 K viewing?

read these and added memos at bottom of support article, https://kb.arlo.com/000062127/How-do-I-stream-in-4K-with-my-Arlo-Ultra-camera

Also to record 4K to cloud it's an extra fee so it can be viewed remotely

Second, after  all above, will say that yes, the Ultra cams are better, view is great, it is another step up .... But still needs a small amount of tweaking; i.e. like zones working 100%

[catemp]

I reget purchasing the Ultra system. 

I had Pro's that worked just fine.  When you get the Ultra system you lose the free cloud recording plan you had with the Pro's.  The motion activity seems to work just fine for me, but others seem to have issues.  It generally seems late.  For whatever reason the 3 days Arlo was able to activate PVR on my accout the recordings seemed to begin earlier.  If you get the PVR plan you have to deal with HEVC file format.

The battery life is definately a step backwards compared to the Pro's.  The Ultra's stay plugged in and charging but once a month for whatever reason they stop charging so I have to unplug, pull the battery and put it back together.  To enable 4K cloud recordings it's $19 year per camera, on top of the $99 Premier plan, and CVR is another hundred a year per cam.  It adds up quickly.  Color night vision is only enabled with the spot light turned on.   Your not going to find a set of keys in the dark with the spotlight either.

Homekit support is still missing, smart home features are still missing, and you definately cannot read a license plate with the Ultra's.  All the reasons to upgrade aren't enabled and the cameras seem to have some issues they are still working on.   I should have bought Pro 2's to justify my upgrade itch not the Ultra's. 

[Mjbeuke]

I was thinking the same thing @Mikey2Bats - but I currently have a Pro 2 system and the base station keeps freezing and going offline (there is a 500+ post thread un Pro 2 about it)....

I've lost all faith in Arlo and decided against it to give this terrible company no more of my hard-earned money. I just spent $1k on the Pro 2 5 cam system at Costco - and after the most recent firmware update its literally completely unusable and  waste of time and money.

Save yourself the money and agony of this awful company and their complete lack of customer support and look for a totally different brand man.

[catemp]

@Mjbeuke if it makes you feel better I was able to contact a receptionist at Arlo corporate.  She gave me a canned email address to send the specific issues I was having to and she would send to the appropiate party at corporate for follow-up.  I did and I still haven't heard back, not even a whoops we'll address it with the agents.  You have to wonder about a company that hides 100% behind out-sourced customer service and refuses to interface with the folks paying for their product.  You have to wonder about a corporate culture that deletes customers posts off it's message boards.  I've had at least one post deleted.....

If I wasn't so heavily invested in Ultra's and Pro 1's I'd switch right now, as it stands I'll ride out my year and then switch to a company that values it's customers.  Call Ring support sometime or Ecobee support and then call Arlo.  It's night and day.  When Netgear had Arlo, the Pro's and Q's worked pretty good.  Since spinning Arlo off, it's been on disaster after another with product launches, firmware, support, etc.  But then again I never knew how good or bad Netgear support was because their stuff worked and I didn't need support......