Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight Review: security camera with convenience

Recently, we wrote a review of the Arlo Ultra 2, which is, so to speak, the flagship of the company that brings various security cameras and video doorbells to the market. But that is a considerable investment. Fortunately, with the Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight you can get a camera system that is a tad cheaper and also very easy to use.

Like most of the company’s security cameras, the Arlo Pro 4 runs on a battery. This should last about six months according to the maker. But that depends on how often you use it. If you let it activate often in the settings of your iPhone app, then you won’t reach those six months. But if you only use it at night and it reacts to movement, it will last a long time.

Arlo Pro 4 Review

The Arlo Pro 4 is also equipped with good specifications. The image quality, for example, is excellent. With a 2K resolution you see very well who is at your door. And when it’s night, it uses a good lamp, which ensures that the area around the camera is well lit. This can also scare off people with bad intentions because the light shows that it is taking pictures. Finally, with a view of 160 degrees, it has a pretty wide viewing field and you can zoom in up to twelve times if you want to see certain things.

All is safe on the early morning (Image: Jelle van Es / OMT)

Before you get there though, you have to get it up and running. On that front, the Arlo Pro 4 really scores points. It is a camera that immediately connects to your Wifi. You open your app on the iPhone, scan the QR code on the camera and then the connection is made. So you don’t have to get started with any smarthub, which is nice. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to hang it up. Again, it’s very simple on that front. You just need to drill a hole in the wall and then place the mount there. That takes a few minutes. After that you place the camera with a magnet and it is firmly in place.

Hang and use (Image: Jelle van Es / OMT)

Once you’ve done that, you go back to your iPhone or iPad. Via the app you can set everything there. For example, it’s possible to determine what the area is within the field of view where the camera should be activated. If you live near a street, then you don’t need to activate your camera for every car that passes by and receive a notification. So you adjust the area that is important to you. You can also decide when it should kick in. You might like the camera to be activated on movement when you are away from home, measured via your geolocation. But it is also possible to have the camera activate at specific times. I usually work at home a lot, so I mainly activate it when it gets dark.

Because of the ease of use, good image quality and the app that is easy to use, the Arlo Pro 4 is a nice device. The only downside is that there is a delay between the image you see on your iPhone and what happens in real life. This makes it a bit difficult to talk to the person at the door via the app, because of the time lag. But other than that, the product does what it’s supposed to do. The Pro 4 is available now and can be scored here, among other places.

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