Arlo Essential Spotlight XL Camera

£129.99

As a homeowner, the ability to keep your home and family safe is a big concern. Thankfully, the Arlo Essential Spotlight Camera is the perfect solution for keeping your home safe, in a way that is efficient and easy to use.

Upon first look, the Arlo Essential Spotlight XL Camera appears to be a nifty little gadget. Firstly, it is incredibly easy to set up, as it is completely wireless. This is perfect for outdoor use because it means you don’t have to place it near a power source. Instead, the Arlo Essential Spotlight XL Camera is completely wireless, using batteries rather than a plug-in power source. Additionally, the battery life is six months long after a single charge, so you don’t need to worry about it dying on you.

The camera comes with a clamp that is screwed to the wall, so I found it easy and quick to install. Furthermore, the camera can swivel on the clamp, allowing for a very wide visibility field, a 130-degree viewing angle to be precise, which is double the standard angle. This is great to know, as it means that a wide range of your home is covered by just one camera. Not only does this make the Arlo Essential Spotlight XL Camera cost-effective, but it also improves the efficiency of the whole camera.

As the name suggests, the Arlo Essential Spotlight XL Camera has an integrated spotlight which allows the camera to see in colour when it’s dark, which again improves the efficiency and the useability of the device. Furthermore, a really great feature is the alarm system, so that the product goes beyond its initial use as a camera. Once the motion-activated spotlight detects something (a very loud) alarm is triggered, which will be great for deterring any unwanted guests.

The Arlo Essential Spotlight XL Camera also comes with a free downloadable app that sends you a notification when any motion is detected. Whether it be the postman or an intruder, I found this feature to be very useful. Admittedly, many security cameras on the market also have a partnering app, it’s nothing new. However, the Arlo Security App has ‘Advanced Security Monitoring’. This basically allows you to specify where you want the camera to monitor, so you’ll only be badgered by the app when it detects something in your specified zones. This feature does come as a subscription, however, you get a 90-day free trial of Advanced Security Monitoring, after which users can also sign up for Arlo’s subscription service Arlo Secure. The subscription gives users access to market-leading detection features and secure cloud storage. Once installed, when using Arlo Secure, homeowners can tailor their home security to their own needs, with customisable alerts and notifications.

Another great feature of the app is the fact that it has secure cloud storage. This means that you can watch back anything that your camera detects from the past 30 days. I was also surprised to find the picture to be clear, so instead of some grainy figure, you can actually see who it is. Finally, my favourite part of the app is the use of a two-way microphone, allowing you to talk to people on the other side. When I tested the camera, I used the microphone to tell the delivery man where to put my parcel, becoming a very simple but highly effective feature!

Overall, I would definitely recommend the Arlo Essential Spotlight XL Camera for having the very important job of keeping your home safe. Not only is it easy to set up, but it has lots of simple but well-thought-out features that allow it to have optimum efficiency, keeping your home safe 24/7.

Pros:

- 100% wireless and easy to set up.

- Six-month battery life.

- 130-degree viewing angle.

- Bright spotlight.

- Free downloadable app to watch back footage.

- Excellent image quality.

- Advanced Security Monitoring.

- Very robust.

- Reasonably priced.