Product test

Arlo Pro 4 in the test: These surveillance cameras are NSA-ready

7.11.2022

Translation: machine translated

Autumn is the season for burglars. To protect myself from dark figures, I bought a set of surveillance cameras - and since then I feel like the employee of a security service.

Now nothing escapes me. The robotic mower gets going? The mailman brings a Galaxus package? The neighbor's cat is creeping through the garden? I see almost everything. Thanks to my three Arlo cameras, which I have distributed around the house. One monitors the front entrance, two others the garden.

Network camera

Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight VMC4350P-100EUS Set of 3

2688 x 1520 pixels

I am basically not a fearful person or blue-eyed. Anyway, I don't fear burglars, not least because the number of burglaries has been falling for years. On the other hand, there's not much to get from me. But I get too easily excited by supposed home improvements. And so I simply had to try out the set of three Arlo Pro cameras that the manufacturer provided to the editorial team for testing.

Quick and easy installation

Installing the Pro cameras has become even easier in the fourth generation. In contrast to the previous model, I now don't even need a separate base station to get the cameras into the WLAN. I can integrate them into the existing network in just a few steps via the Arlo app. The identification happens when I hold a QR code on the iPhone in front of the camera lens.

There's a battery in the camera. You don't even have to plug in the charging cable, it holds magnetically and power flows through a USB-C connector. Once charged, the battery lasts for at least three months and up to half a year. Cold temperatures and frequent activation of the camera reduce the runtime.

The charged hardware is easy to attach. In the set there are magnetic holders for the cameras. This is convenient because you can easily take them off for charging and don't have to unscrew them. I mount one holder to a wooden slat with screws, for the second I use a metal brace on the conservatory and get by without screws. The third camera I mount on the downspout. For this I need accessories.

Network camera accessories

CHF13.–

Dahua PFA152-E

Mounting kit

On the metal plate with pre-drilled holes holds the magnetic mount from Arlo. I align the camera so that it has a good view of the desired area. To do this, I use the smartphone, which shows me an updated image of the camera's viewing angle with a small delay of about two seconds. It captures everything at an angle of 160 degrees. This way, nothing escapes my surveillance. Alternatively, I can set a viewing angle of just 125 or 110 degrees.

Functions that would also make the NSA happy

The only problem is: from now on, I'll constantly receive messages from the Arlo Secure app, even at a smaller angle. Push messages fill my homescreen: a person detected in the front entrance area, vehicle detected in the west garden area, motion detected in the conservatory area. I see why on the videos Arlo saves to the cloud library about the events. The camera also detects the neighbor leaving the garage with the car in the courtyard in front of the house entrance. And in the area of the garden, it also detects people and cars on a small access road. I can avoid messages about this by defining the camera's coverage area more precisely. To do this, I draw a polygon in the app or in Arlo's portal so that only the area where I want to receive suspicious activity reports is within its lines. It looks like this, for example.

Without defined zones, the camera turns on and sends a message as soon as it detects motion anywhere in the field of view, so for example also on the driveway on the right side of the image.

Here I have marked the zone to be monitored. Passers-by on the path above will now remain unaffected by my monitoring.

I can additionally set from which object size the camera becomes active, i.e. sends me a message and saves a video. This way I can prevent that a crow hopping in the garden is mistaken for an intruder. What I find really useful is that I can set up a schedule. If the family leaves the house in the morning headed for school and work, that leaves the camera cold.

Alternatively, I can enable the cameras if I allow a connection to my iPhone's location services. Now, as soon as I leave the defined circle around the house, the surveillance turns on and turns off accordingly when I get home.

It is also possible to pair the cameras with Alexa, Amazon's digital voice assistant. Then the Alexa speaker tells me when something is happening outside. However, I quickly turned that off again, because the push to my smartphone is enough for me. The Arlo cameras integrate with all major smarthome systems - including Google Assistant, IFTTT, and Samsung Bixby. If you want to integrate them into the Apple Home Kit, however, you'll also need an Arlo base station.

Network camera accessories

CHF131.–

Arlo Ultra SmartHub

If you're a busy online shopper, you might be interested in package detection. If the letter carrier puts a package in front of the front door, the AI recognizes it and reports the find on the video image. Only in the milk crate the delivery remains undetected. That's where I rely on the person recognition. On the recording I see the postman in his uniform. Usually even faster than I get the delivery confirmation as an e-mail.

How much surveillance is needed and allowed?

I can monitor my house entrance and garden seamlessly with my set of three cameras. I would not even be unaware of who from our neighborhood is taking a walk or who puts the advertising leaflets in our mailbox. Do we need to know all this? Certainly not. And from a purely legal point of view I am only allowed to film the common inner courtyard if the neighbors have agreed to it. I am not allowed to film what happens outside my property on the public footpath. I must inform people about the filming on my own property. A notice in the form of a sign is sufficient. Conveniently, there is a sticker in the Arlo set, which I place in the area of the house entrance.

Presumably, this very sticker is part of the protection against burglary. Perhaps a burglar will desist from his nefarious deeds when he applies the crowbar in front of our door and realizes in the corner of his eye that he is now being filmed. Or I manage to chase him away with an alarm sound triggered by an app or a dazzling beam of light from the camera. Otherwise, I could also go to the extreme of using the camera as a speaker via app to let the criminal know that I see him. With these additional features, the Arlo Pro 4 is not only a surveillance system, but also a bit of an alarm system.

The video snippets that my cameras provide me are so well resolved at 2K that I would recognize a filmed person in real life later. Even in the dark, the Arlo Pro 4 delivers a decent black and white image, and even in color with the spotlight beam turned on.

If the burglar didn't care about my cameras, at least I'd have footage of him afterwards. However, the police in the canton of Zurich cannot tell me on request how many cases such video material has already helped to solve burglaries. Such data is not collected. Nor are there any statistics that would clearly prove that surveillance cameras reduce the risk of burglary. There are also no clear statements on the effectiveness of cameras in crime prevention research. Often, thieves and burglars would either be unaware of the existence of camera surveillance or assume that the footage obtained would not identify them, as is stated here in a project report by prevention researchers.

So would it possibly even be enough to install dummy cameras to deter burglars? Probably not, because some criminals may well be able to recognize fake cameras. A study by the University of North Carolina is also interesting in this regard. Here, 400 convicted criminals were surveyed. 80 percent of them stated that they had checked the property for warning signs about security measures before a burglary, for example. In such a case, half would abandon the attempted burglary. A similar result was provided by a survey conducted by a British insurance company. According to the survey, surveillance cameras were the most common reason for abandoning the misdeed. Even before barking dogs.

Is the Arlo Secure subscription worth it?

For some of the features I've introduced you to this point, you'll need an Arlo subscription. By the way, Arlo calls the subscription a "membership" because it's probably meant to emphasize the benefits more than the cost. Regardless of subscription or membership: 3.49 Swiss francs are due per camera and month (as of November 2022). An unlimited number of cameras costs 11.49 francs. After installing the cameras, you can use the subscription services free of charge for three months. In the euro zone, it's three or ten euros. The Swiss surcharge is thus kept within limits.

After the trial period, the only services left without a subscription are live videos and motion detection. So if you are actually burgled, you won't have any stored video recordings. This makes the subscription almost a must if you buy the cameras, so that you can at least identify the perpetrator in the event of a break-in. If you regularly pay the fee for the "membership", the video files remain stored in your cloud for 60 days. In addition, you can then store an emergency contact who will be called if anything suspicious happens in the viewing area of your cameras. This could be someone in the neighborhood, for example.

The screenshot from the surveillance video shows a cat on a nightly patrol. The spotlight was not activated here because I classified the cat as too small and harmless object in the control system.

Conclusion: safety and gimmick.

How much the security of your home is worth to you is up to you to decide. Arlo cameras are certainly no bargain, but they offer a lot in return. They are solidly built, easy to install, last a long time and offer numerous functions - provided you have an subscription. Smarthome enthusiasts will be just as happy here as prevented NSA agents. If you're a control freak, you could use the Arlo Pro 4 to watch the goings-on in your backyard in real time. No matter if you keep a flock of chickens there that fear the fox. Or watching your cat hunt for birds at night.

I've been using the camera for about four months now. I also still get excited when I get a push because my Galaxus delivery has been delivered. Need it? Of course not. Wouldn't I also know that the robotic lawnmower is out to mow thanks to another app? Sure. But the cat that occasionally sleeps on our garden lounge at night and leaves hair behind, I wouldn't have uncovered without a security system. She's gray at night. Like all cats.

I know I could see burglars, too. Still, I would gladly continue to do without this experience. Let the cameras continue to keep the dark figures away.

Note (March 13, 2023): An earlier version of this post stated that the Arlo Pro 4 offers 4K resolution. That was incorrect. The Pro 4 only offers 2K resolution. 4K resolutions are only possible with Arlo's Ultra series.

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Martin Jungfer

Head of Content

Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.

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Arlo Pro 4 in the test: These surveillance cameras are NSA-ready

Quick and easy installation

Functions that would also make the NSA happy

How much surveillance is needed and allowed?

Is the Arlo Secure subscription worth it?

Conclusion: safety and gimmick.

These articles might also interest you

TP-Link’s security camera is good and affordable

Philips Hue Secure: easy to install, loads of possibilities – but expensive

SpotCam HD Pro: surveillance vs. data protection and security

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