Arlo unveils wireless Ultra security cam with 4K resolution & 180-degree view
Arlo on Friday announced its latest iPhone-connected security camera, the Ultra, an upcoming wireless model distinguished by features like a 4K image sensor, HDR, and a 180-degree field of view.
The camera is designed to be used both indoors and outdoors, and comes with a magnetic mount as well as a weather-resistant magnetic charging cable. The outdoor focus also shows up in features such as an LED spotlight and a siren, the latter of which can be triggered manually or by rules for motion or sound detection.
Arlo is bundling the Ultra with a peripheral called the SmartHub, which serves as both a Wi-Fi extender for Arlo cameras and a way of recording footage to a microSD card. While locally-saved footage can be recorded at maxmium resolution, the Ultra will ship with a one-year Arlo Smart Premier cloud subscription, which normally only records 1080p highlight clips for up to 30 days -- 4K will be a paid upgrade.
Smart Premier costs $9.99 per month after the free period, and additionally offers support for motion zones, person detection, more detailed notifications, and up to 10 cameras. In the U.S. the plan comes with "e911," which can be used to guide police to your home instead of your iPhone.
People can also downgrade to cheaper Arlo Smart plan which costs $2.99 per month, but covers just a single camera while dropping e911 and reducing cloud storage to 7 days. A default free plan also offers 7 days, sacrificing motion zones, person detection, and enhanced notifications.
The Ultra should ship sometime in the first quarter of 2019. Arlo has yet to announce pricing, or even smarthome platform compatibility -- it's unlikely to support Apple's HomeKit however, since Apple currently doesn't allow on the technology on fully wireless cameras. The only Arlo with HomeKit is the Arlo Baby.
The camera is designed to be used both indoors and outdoors, and comes with a magnetic mount as well as a weather-resistant magnetic charging cable. The outdoor focus also shows up in features such as an LED spotlight and a siren, the latter of which can be triggered manually or by rules for motion or sound detection.
Arlo is bundling the Ultra with a peripheral called the SmartHub, which serves as both a Wi-Fi extender for Arlo cameras and a way of recording footage to a microSD card. While locally-saved footage can be recorded at maxmium resolution, the Ultra will ship with a one-year Arlo Smart Premier cloud subscription, which normally only records 1080p highlight clips for up to 30 days -- 4K will be a paid upgrade.
Smart Premier costs $9.99 per month after the free period, and additionally offers support for motion zones, person detection, more detailed notifications, and up to 10 cameras. In the U.S. the plan comes with "e911," which can be used to guide police to your home instead of your iPhone.
People can also downgrade to cheaper Arlo Smart plan which costs $2.99 per month, but covers just a single camera while dropping e911 and reducing cloud storage to 7 days. A default free plan also offers 7 days, sacrificing motion zones, person detection, and enhanced notifications.
The Ultra should ship sometime in the first quarter of 2019. Arlo has yet to announce pricing, or even smarthome platform compatibility -- it's unlikely to support Apple's HomeKit however, since Apple currently doesn't allow on the technology on fully wireless cameras. The only Arlo with HomeKit is the Arlo Baby.
Comments
Canary promised but never delivered HomeKit, then also cut the cloud services promised when purchased. These companies are really not consumer friendly.
Arlo has been aweful about communicating to its users status of HomeKit support. Their forums are flossed with requests to add HomeKit but they never respond or give updates
Arlo Pro/Pro 2 cameras are *great*. They're easy to install. Easy to support. And they require no expensive/invasive/dangerous work done to your house superstructure, like many wired cameras that cost 3-5x more. They support motion detection, sound detection and HD recording. They're extremely water resistant, decently tough and can be put anywhere. Who cares if anyone can see them? A burglar is far less likely to rob your house if they know they're being recorded. By the time they walk up to one and notice it...it's too late and they've been recorded. You now have the capacity to either have them on the cloud, stored to your iPhone and the base station has ports for hard storage so you don't even have to worry about saving on the cloud (I do both).
Just put them high up so they can't be nabbed and you're all good. Or buy them with gilly/paint-matching skins, which cost 10 bucks, and you can camouflage them easily.
The skins even protect the little devices from drops. 7 days is more than enough since you only need the videos for as long as your house is not intruded. Why would you need 4 years of recordings stored in TB of cloud spacing...if you never view them?
Plus the reason that they don't add Homekit support is NOT a Netgear issue. It's an Apple issue. They made the announcement that their online services don't exist on Apple's network and Apple can't monetize their monthly cloud support so they refuse to add Homekit support. But:
A. Who cares? Homekit is only good for devices that lack good hardware. Arlos have great software.
B. Netgear isn't going to forego a revenue stream just because Apple is greedy.
Look what Apple did to Valve about the Steam Hub app. Something that was VERY consumer friendly and many people would like...and Apple killed it because "..ck you give me money...".