Arlo Ultra 2 Spotlight Camera 4K HDR (Camera only, SmartHub Sold Separately & is Required to Operate | Wireless Home Security Camera | Color Night Vision, Motion Sensor, 180º View, 2-Way Audio, Black

I just received my new Ultra 2 cameras and added them to my app and current hub that they work with. All easy firmware update and install. Also ordered the solar panels; which is what I had before. All super easy and can I say just WOW! I love the super wide angle. My Pro2 would only catch the door. This camera picks up both sides extending out. Thinking of getting rid of my 2k flood light and replacing with one of these, but I’ll see how it goes for a week or so. Love this product!

I have had this system for 5 years and it has worked perfectly time. After 5 years, the hub went out and strted malfunctioning. So I ordered this system to replace one camara and my hub. I have been using it for 4 months and it works great. The value for the money for such good quality and serviceability is worth it. Product detects and has good night vision. I am thankful to the seller for this affordable price for such a high quality camara system that really works and stands to the weather.

The good:1. Good video quality.2. Easy mounting and setup.3. Notification includes snapshot of what triggered motion sensor sent directly to my Apple watch.4. Color night vision (only when spotlight is on) is very nice.The bad:1. Quite expensive compared to alternatives.2. Although video quality is good, I can't believe it's 4k. I don't have anything to compare it too, so maybe it is 4k. I just expected great, not good.3. Battery definitely does NOT last 6 months as advertised! Both cameras were down to about 50% in one week. I bought Wasserstein solar panels to keep the cameras charged. ($69 for pack of 2 vs. ~$100 each for Arlo solar panels)4. Paid subscription required for saving video to cloud ($15/month for 30 days 4k cloud recording or 10/month for 2k cloud recording. By comparison, Wyze gives you 14 days cloud recording for free).5. Beware the 3 month trial subscription that comes with it. Nowhere does it say "free." I discovered that it is a 3 month trial - that you pay for! and at the end of 3 months, apparently, I guess, you get to decide if you want to CONTINUE paying? I'm only 3 weeks in now, so I'm a little curious what will happen at the end of three months. I suspect they just keep charging you. [UPDATE: Reading other reviews, it seems that the 3 month trial service is free? Not sure why they charged me, but I am done fighting with them and I will just cancel]7. Apparently, if you have an Arlo Video doorbell as well, the doorbell must be connected to the Arlo hub or base station, not directly to Wi-Fi, for the doorbell to ring a conventional chime. [UPDATE: this is not true. The doorbell will ring the chime connected to either Wi-Fi or base station. I discovered my doorbell transformer was under-rated for this application, which caused my original problem] And that leads me to customer service..6. Customer service is horrendous!!! Can't stress this enough. Here is what I am currently going through:I ordered this 2 camera system and an Arlo doorbell at the same time. The doorbell arrived first, so I installed it. Worked great. A few days later the 2 camera system arrived, so I installed it too. Worked great too.A few days later, I discovered that the doorbell was no longer ringing the mechanical chime. Doorbell worked fine when it was the only Arlo device and it was connected to Wi-Fi. After using it for a few days, I added an Arlo base station with 2 cameras. The doorbell was still connected to Wi-Fi and it stopped ringing the mechanical chime.I read somewhere, I though in one of Arlo's documents but maybe not, that if a system has a base station, the doorbell must be connected through the base station or it will not ring a chime. Well, that's annoying! So, I deleted the doorbell from the Wi-Fi and added it to the base station as directed. It still did not ring the chime. So, I deleted it and tried to add again but I can't. Now I am unable to add it to the hub and I am unable to add it directly to Wi-Fi. The doorbell is not discoverable, as if it's already connected to some system but it's not.So I went from having a working video doorbell to a doorbell that would not ring the chime after I installed the base station and 2 cameras to a doorbell that does nothing. I feel like I'm of average intelligence and somewhat tech savvy. I can usually get most things working. Why can't I figure this out??I went to Arlo support for help. I searched all Arlo's relevant documents. I searched google for any assistance. I tried all the troubleshooting tips and tricks I could find. No luck. I want to call someone and start shouting. There is no phone number to call; there is no email address to ask a question; you have to submit a trouble ticket from the Arlo app. So, I did.After 3 days, I received a response from Arlo suggesting that I try some of the troubleshooting aids that I had already tried. I am losing faith in this company very quickly. The response also asked for lots of information including proof of purchase, screen shot of internet upload/download speed, and screen shot that the device really is not installed on my account. I answered all the questions and provided all the information requested. The app only allows 1 attachment, so I attached my sales receipt and had to send the screen shots separately. Odd, why would they tell me to attach 3 things but only allow one attachment? I am questioning my own sanity in purchasing this company's product. I pressed save, and the app crashed. I lost all the information I typed in. I am now losing my will to live. So I redid it all, saved it to a Word document, pressed save, and the app crashed again. Third try: I copied my information from Word, pasted into Arlo support, pressed save - success! Hooray! Small victory in actually sending my request for service.I am now waiting 3 days for a reply that I expect to be totally useless and unhelpful. Wait, there's a weekend included, so maybe I'm waiting 5 days. Either I will get this stupid doorbell working in the next week or I will return everything and buy something else.Update to follow.UPDATE: I have now been in contact with Arlo 5 times over the last 3 weeks. They have been sending me very similar messages with minor additions or deletions to the troubleshooting tips and tricks. I have dutifully complied with all suggestions. I never got the doorbell connected to the base station, but it did finally connect to Wi-Fi again after about 30-40 tries, no exaggeration, just doing the same thing over and over. Also, I discovered that my doorbell transformer was under-rated for the Arlo video doorbell, which caused the original problem of not ringing the chime. It needs to be 16-30V. Mine read 15.6V - I assume just enough to ring the chime when I first installed the doorbell, but not enough to sustain. So, I replaced the transformer and now I've got a working video doorbell again. However, it is connected to Wi-Fi, not to the base station. I really would like to connect to the base station to record to an SD card and to eliminate the bandwidth used on Wi-Fi. My fifth and latest message to Arlo included the question, "I am reluctant to delete the doorbell from the Wi-Fi to attempt connecting to the base station again because of all the trouble I had connecting it at all. It honestly took about 30-40 tries.So, if I do disconnect from the wi-fi and can never get it connected again, what recourse will I have?" Awaiting response.UPDATE-2: After about one month and eight replies to-from Arlo support, video doorbell still cannot connect to Arlo Base Station. Arlo support’s final determination is that my internet service is too slow to connect the doorbell to the base station. They want me to upgrade my internet service and try again. I’m not sure I believe that. If it is the case, then I don't understand why I wasn't told that one month and seven replies ago when I sent my first internet speed screen shot - could have avoided 20-30 frustrating hours of failed attempts to connect the doorbell to the base station. Also, based on their numbers, my other cameras would not work, but they do. Why would my internet connection prevent a low bandwidth video doorbell to connect when two higher bandwidth cameras work with no trouble?I am not in a position to upgrade my internet connection at this time, especially not as a troubleshooting aid that may not help. I prefer to cut costs, not take on extra costs. Following that intent, I will now cancel my Arlo subscription. Anticipating any potential future problems will not be supported, I have no reason to continue subscribing to any Arlo service.So, my goal here is to warn everyone to do your research thoroughly. Otherwise, you may not enjoy all the benefits that make Arlo systems so expensive. I now know that I am not knowledgeable enough to have asked the right questions or to have conducted the proper research to ensure that an Arlo system fits my need. I could have saved hundreds of dollars by purchasing a competitor's system that would have given me the same reduced features that I get from my current Arlo system.Also, beware Amazon and other places advertise Arlo as compatible with Alexa. From what I can tell, it is NOT! There is no Arlo app for Kindle Fire. There once was but it is now defunct.In all, this was a very expensive, time consuming, frustrating learning process.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:I replaced our original Arlo magnets these fit perfectly on our cameras and we’re easy to hang up

Have only had my 2 camera Ultra 2 setup active for a little over a week. Very impressed so far by camera quality and connectivity. Camera setup, image quality, motion detection, and connection range are all excellent. Given the cost of this camera setup, you'd expect them to be good and they are. I have not owned any prior Arlo cameras, so I have no way to compare these Ultra 2's to the Pro or Essential models, but compared to other brands I've tried, these are significantly better across the board. Note that I can't comment on battery life other than to say that after a week, my most distant camera is still at 96% charge.App works well, too, on mobile phone though a little clunky. Delay between trigger and notifications is a bit longer than I'd like (~5-7 seconds), but it's not bad. I am having a minor problem with IFTTT cross-triggering, but I am confident that can be worked out.I've deducted a star for a combination of minor quibbles.First, the Arlo website is flashy but not particularly helpful. I've looked through it for an answer and real troubleshooting techniques for my triggering problem, but though there is info there, it's not complete.Second, Two Factor Authorization (2FA) on PC is rather painful as EVERY time you log in on a computer you have to go through the authorization process. This is not OS or browser specific. If you own a PC/Mac, you are going to have to keep your mobile device handy so you can sign in on your PC. This is a known issue and Arlo says they are working on it, but I use 2FA on every other brand that supports it and this is the worst implementation I've ever seen. Note that the 2FA comments apply to Arlo across the board, not just the Ultra 2's.Third, given the price of this kit, would it be too much to ask to include 2 sets of each mount type? Including one magnetic mount and one threaded mount is adequate, but come on. I'd like to also see either a battery charger or at least two charging cables. The mounts and charge cable/brick included is enough, but these are at the very top of the Arlo range and north of $500, they could be a little more generous.Fourth, there is no SmartThings integration on the Ultra/Ultra 2's (there is on some other Arlo models). We are a Samsung house and find SmartThings works extremely well with all of our connected devices. I hope Arlo/SmartThings can get together on this at some point.Fifth is my only hardware related comment. With 180 degrees of diagonal view, these cameras show a huge area and at 4k you can zoom in 8x with clarity and with little fish-eye even at the corners. However, the compromise for all this clear and wide view is that only the bottom 2/3 of the camera's view detects activity. If you planned to mount these cameras very high looking down, just be aware that the upper 1/3 of what the camera sees will not detect activity. My cameras are mounted about 10 feet from the ground and this is not a problem at all. In fact, on the camera facing the street I have had to lower the detection area because passing cars were being detected. I only mention this limitation for those wanting the entire camera view to be part of the activity zone.Finally, I did my homework on the plans offered by Arlo, the phasing out of the 1 year of free service offered in previous models (in favor of 3 months), and the elimination of the 7 days of free recording access, so I knew what I was buying. I could have gone with the original Ultras and gotten the one year free but chose the 2's because of the 5ghz connectivity. However, just because I knew and accepted what I was buying, it doesn't mean that I'm altogether happy with the choices. My frustration with the plans isn't simply about cost. I'm more frustrated with how confusing the choices are; which plans can you use with the Ultra 2's, how can they be mixed and matched, etc.Overall, can't helped but be impressed with the quality of the Arlo Ultra 2's. They are, so far, fantastic. I've spent more words complaining about small issues than raving about the cameras. The hardware is a solid 5 star rating and setup could not have been easier.My recommendation is that if you are looking for high quality hardware and don't want to take a chance on something cheaper, then these are great. Just do your homework regarding the cost/quality tradeoff and the plan offerings from Arlo.