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So as I mentioned in my original review (you can scroll down to read it), I mentioned how that was just a temporary review. That I would return to write a full review. Well here I am. Now, my original review, is still very accurate. I've just now have had this product for just a tad bit over a month. I'm still loving this system. In the month I've had this, I had a couple of hiccups. Mainly they were just two times when the camera wasn't connecting to the Arlo Base. I'm not sure why exactly. The first time was most likely because the base station was a little far and kind of out of view, but that original spot was never meant to be a permanent area for it. I was going to move the Arlo base station to the kitchen, on top of the cabinets. Which basically puts it central to our apartment, in terms of location. That increased the signal nicely, but the second time the camera was having an issue connecting to the base, I'm not exactly sure why. But all I did to fix it was to resync the camera to the base and it worked fine.
I can manually record a live stream just fine. I can snap a photo just fine. I'm able to download videos to my device just fine. I'm able to access the camera from my desktop just fine. Mind you, I still have the original set up for the camera. Which is i used gorilla tape that can hold up to 30 pounds to the wall frame just adjacent to my apartment door, which is aluminum. I used the magnetic knob that comes with the arlo camera system so that I can easily remove the camera so that I can charge it when it needs to be charged.
Now that brings me to the battery usage. I'm not really in a high traffic area, i think. I live on the fifth floor in a Queens NYC apartment building. I have one neighbor that lives adjacent to our apartment. So the camera faces away from our door towards the stairwell. So obviously it would catch recordings when they enter and leave their apartment, when i and my husband enter and leave the apartment and if anyone uses the stairwell which really isnt all that much. So in the month i've had this camera, it caught a lot of us and our neighbors entering and exiting our apartments. I'm not sure if thats really a whole lot, but the cameras battery only lasted a month. The setting i had it on was prioritize the battery and pretty much record in low quality. The quality recorded looked like dvd quality so i was happy with that. As long as i can see faces, i'm good, so i was happy with the setting i chose because i wanted to prioritize the battery life. Even choosing that setting, the battery did not last the 6 months it was advertised as on the website. Now, is this an issue? Personally no, because the last security camera i had wouldn't even give me 3 weeks, let alone a full month. Would I have liked a full 6 months out of the battery? sure! Will others have issues with the battery life? most likely. I dont have a setup where i could leave the camera plugged into an outlet, so i have to remove the camera each time i need to charge the battery. Since i'm in an apt, it's not a big issue for me personally. Also, if your gonna charge the battery and remove it from whatever setup you have, your gonna have to go into the settings and literally turn off the camera before starting your charging. since if it remains on, it'll take forever and a year to really charge. So make a note, turn off the camera and charge it up!
Thats all I've used the camera for really. Just to monitor who's in front of our apt. It's worked just fine so far. I really do recommend this for apartment dwellers. I know that my sister who owns a home on Long Island has a 5 camera system and she has had no issues either with her setup. But if you feel you need that extra layer of security, I highly recommend this one camera system. Don't bother leveling up the paid services. I still use the free 7 day cloud service. It records to the cloud easily, and as long as i can review the videos within the 7 day period, I'm good to go. Remember, you can also connect a portable hard drive to the back of the arlo base to keep all the videos your camera records, so if you have like a small portable 1 terabyte harddrive connected to it, you really would't need to pay for any subscription service. This really is recommended for apartment dwellers, my suggestion. if you live in a home and depending on the setup, you may need to pay for some sort of service, but I sure dont and am happy with the free cloud service and the great option to plug in my own external drive to save all the videos. I think thats all for me now. If i see i need to make another update, i will.
Original review August 24th 2018 below:
The reason for my headline is because i've only had this product for about a day now. I just wanted to let you all know how this product is doing after just the first day. The setup was extremely simple. Unbox everything, connect the base station to your router via ethernet cable in a central location to where you will be placing your cameras, connect the power adaptor to the base station, install rechargeable battery into the camera (battery is already pre-charged for you before it leaves the factory), wait till you see the two left green lights on the base station, install the arlo app onto your mobile device, hit sync on the base station and arlo camera, and after a couple of updates, one for the station, and one for the cameras...your all set!
this process took about 10 minutes or less.
now, my personal reason for buying this one camera system is because i live in new york city and obviously i rent an apartment. i've had some issues with people leaving trash in front of my apartment door, and stealing my doormat. so i went around looking for a camera system that could work well with someone like me who lives in an apartment. a rental no less. i did find one other camera but due to an upgrade in software, it rendered it useless, so i had to return it for a refund. so i was on the search for something else i can use.
this arlo pro camera system beat out a lot of the security cameras out there that pretty much are more for homes then apartments. i say this because the other cameras out there require a hardwire line to power said camera. since i live in a rental apartment, i can't go drilling holes in the door or wall. so i needed something that worked via a rechargeable battery that i can pull out and charge away from the camera. this particular setup comes with a magnetic base where the camera can attach to easily. now the base is why i chose this particular security camera, you can either install the base to the wall via screws, which i can't cuz i'd be damaging my rental...OR if you use heavy duty gorilla double sided tape that can hold items that are at least 6 pounds or greater on the wall, you can use the gorilla tape to attach the magnetic small base to the wall and than attach the camera.
this was a huge game changer with security camera's available that can do those. like i said, most need to be wired, while just a select few of other cameras just need a magnetic base, but dont come with the same features like what arlo packs in.
so now we're here with my setup, and once again i'll update this fully after i've installed it exactly where i wanted to. because i'm still waiting on my gorilla tape to arrive so i haven't as of yet attached it to the outside door frame of my apartment. but what i did learn is that i can have the camera pretty far from the base station. according to the manual, each camera you sync can not be more than 300 feet away from the base station, otherwise it wont connect. which means no feed cuz its too far from the base station. my apartment has a pretty crappy issue with wifi, but this base station allowed me to place the arlo pro camera two rooms away from it and still get a great feed! mind you i live in a two bedroom apartment with the base station in the living room which is the room closest to the apartment door but furthers from the other two bedrooms.
i was very pleased with the connectivity it was able to reach. so basically, the cameras only connect to the arlo base station, NOT to your home wifi, thats why arlo has you connect the base station to your router wired. so if your router is too far from where you'd need to place the base station, i suggest getting a long ethernet cable so you can place the base station in a central location with ease.
now since my setup isn't complete, i did leave the arlo pro camera in my living room on a shelf just so i can test the notifications i get and live feed and the event history of videos that are stored. i haven't subscribed to any of the paid tiers available, heres why. according to arlo, the free cloud service is probably fine for someone like me who lives in an apartment. it stores videos it's recorded to the cloud for the last 7 days, which is about 1 gig of storage your allotted to have free.
that amount of storage is completely fine, because as it stated, i'm allowed to download any of the videos its recorded over the course of 7 days, i can share said videos to anyone as well. BUT there's another bonus for those who dont upgrade to the paid tiers, you can attach to the base station any usb external drive and tell arlo to write to the external drive you connect! i haven't had a chance to test it out, but i will do so this weekend by first simply connecting a 16GB usb stick. in the settings you have the option to allow all the videos to be recorded onto the usb stick and after it fills up, you can choose to have the base station start overwriting from the oldest video. i'll write more on this after i've had a chance to really test it out. but that feature kind of makes some of the paid tier levels moot. especially for us apartment dwellers. i mean sure some of the paid levels have some features like smart notifications and emergency 911, but with the free level, if you see someone trying to break in, you can hit the alarm which will sound a 100 decibal alarm, which i hear is very loud. may make the robbers back away, but could potentially give you enough time to call 911 on your own.
of course for the camera features, there's a two way mic, so you can talk to the person on the other side. the only downside is that once you start speaking, you need to quickly toggle off the button so you can hear the other person talking....at least thats how it is on my testing. like i said i haven't been able to really test this fully. so when i make a new review i'll be sure to let you all know. i did learn that the motion sensors work the best when they pick up motion on the periphery of the sensors. rather then being activated as someone is coming head on to the camera, they work best if they see motion come from the sides of the camera. thats something i noticed that i'm sure will help some of you properly set up the camera.
all in all, i'm getting the notifications nicely and so far no issues, but i'll definitely update this down the road with more details!
