This Indoor Security Camera is Great, But I Ended Up Needing the Subscription (2024)

The Arlo Essential Indoor Camera (2nd Generation) provides a solid entry-level security camera experience. While less mobile than some security cameras near its price point, it offers a privacy shield alongside many other staple features.

With the Arlo Secure app and a subscription, its range of compatibilities expands and provides an easy learning curve for those looking to build a security system. While the subscription-heavy features may not appeal to all, it's a solid, low-space camera to try out or use for select monitoring.

Arlo Essential Indoor Camera (2nd Generation)

8/ 10

The Arlo Essential Indoor Camera (2nd Generation) comes in at different price points with an HD or 2K variation available that can be picked between for the needs of your home and network speed. Beyond affordability, the indoor camera offers a 12x digital zoom and B&W night vision to help you see what you need in its 130-degree diagonal FOV. Beyond staying informed via your smart device via notifications, two-way audio, and a live stream view, an automated privacy shield can be activated when the camera isn't needed.

Pros

• Automated privacy shield
• High-quality 2K video
• Works with most smart home devices
• Geofencing and other security customization possibilities
• Night vision, digital zoom, and 2-way audio

Cons

• No local storage option
• Subscription is necessary for many features
• Minor app hiccups on select phones

$80 at AmazonSee at Arlo

Price and Availability

The Arlo Essential Indoor Camera (2nd Generation) continues Arlo's essential line-up with a few different price points based on resolution and camera quantity to get you started on your home security set-up.

The uniform-colored white indoor camera can be purchased for $39.99 for the HD variety and the 2K variation can be purchased for $79.99. Multi-camera bundles can be purchased from either Arlo directly or via Amazon.

Setting Up Your New Camera

Out of the box, this indoor camera aims for a quick set-up without any of the frustrations of pairing with a required separate base station. After tapping the plus button with the Arlo Secure app, an illustrative process within the app guides you through identifying and locating the pairing button to begin the initial set-up.

Once recognized, the connection to a Wi-Fi network (2.4 GHz only) comes with further in-app prompts to ensure you select a strong network before naming the camera, updating its firmware, and optimizing your camera placement.

After being nudged in the direction of a potential subscription choice, an app-guided product tour will guide new users through the main features of the camera.

Flexible Camera Placement Potential

While a strictly indoor camera, there's a decision to be made about its placement. This indoor camera features a lengthy hardwired USB-C cable that plugs into the included USB-A power adapter. Combined with the swivel adjustable base stand, the camera can be tweaked to any suited angle and placed at a moderate height relative to its cord length.

For those looking to affix the camera indoors, a wall mount and basic screw kit is included, but you'll need to source the remaining installation tools yourself for the installation procedure and make use of the threaded mounting hole at the back of the camera.

As a rather small camera that's just shy of four-inches tall and two-inches wide, it can also be tucked away discreetly in many places. Just be mindful when looking through glass or plastic, that the camera's motion sensor may decrease in performance. Depending on placement, the built-in siren and speaker's volume can also be adjusted to your exact needs.

Using the Arlo Secure App

While the indoor camera can be priced more conservatively for your resolution needs, a downside is that the camera heavily needs a plan for many optimal use cases. Without a subscription, you can still receive notifications and view live video, but if you aren't timely, it's easy to miss essential incidents in the camera's range. Beyond this, the privacy shield and siren provide a balance of protection and privacy, but many users will find themselves wanting more consistently.

To help you decide on some features, the camera does come with a trial of the Secure plan. But when you realize there's no local storage nor can the camera create a manual recording without the Arlo Secure plan, you'll soon see how empty parts of the app will be. At this cheapest plan entry point, you can access the majority of features, such as 30-days of video cloud storage, interactive notifications, AI video object detection, and smart activity zones for $7.99 for a single camera or $12.99 for unlimited cameras.

Meanwhile, the Arlo Secure Plus plan ($17.99 per month) adds a 24/7 emergency response system (alongside unlimited camera support and previous features) that offers a variety of important emergency options at a button press. When subscribed and setting this up, you'll be given the option to input a variety of crucial information notes about your home while also being given the option to include other optional information fields about pets or household members in the event of an emergency. You can also upgrade further to the Safe & Secure Pro Plan for $24.99 per month which provides additional safeties when integrated with an Arlo security system.

Modes and Automated Privacy When You Need It

For those feeling unsettled by an always-on camera when at home, this indoor camera's built-in privacy shield allows for automated privacy, whether based on manual selection or preset triggers. Additionally, under standby mode, the Arlo Secure app requires your password to be inputted before the privacy shield opens and will close again once the video feed is stopped.

Overall, arm home, arm away, and standby mode offer a small preset variety to explore automated controls with your camera that's tailored to its motion and audio detection settings. Whether you're using a schedule or making use of a geofence, you can tweak your security monitoring as desired.

For further control, the camera also works with Alexa, Google Home, and IFTTT.

Testing the Picture and Video Quality

In testing, the 4-megapixel camera gets up to 2560 x1440 (2K) resolution with support for a 12X digital zoom at maximum. While the camera doesn't rotate automatically, the manually adjustable base and 130-degree field of view provide a good capture range, especially when combined with activity zones to get more tailored motion alerts.

By default, the camera will record until activity stops or up to five minutes; you can also adjust to record for a fixed length of up to 120 seconds. Both motion and audio detection can be tweaked between low, medium, and high levels, with motion detection also having an in-app test to make live fine-tuning easier. Additionally, the two-way audio quality is quite good; you can easily communicate clearly and interact via the live feed whenever necessary.

When accessing your video, whether it's via the dashboard, device list, or the video feed, it's all quite quick, and the app will quickly let you know if there's a connection issue. For those not able to capitalize fully on the 2K video, the resolution can be dropped to 1080p or 720p when necessary. Video brightness and flicker adjustment can be tweaked as well.

The 2K video quality is quite good when viewed from a mobile lens, but if you do end up downloading from your feed and blowing it up to a larger size, you'll notice some degradation. But with the low file size of the recordings, this is understandable. The use of a calendar within the app's feed also allows you to quickly access a day's worth of recordings, so you can flick through and archive anything quickly.

Should You Buy the Arlo Essential Indoor Camera (2nd Generation)?

For those looking for an affordable security camera option, the Arlo Essential Indoor Camera (2nd Generation) allows you to purchase a reliable indoor camera that's easy to use and a good introduction to the Arlo security system without a huge investment.

As a trade-off, many features are still gated to a subscription plan, and you don't get features such as color night vision, a spotlight, or a full 360-degree rotatable camera. However, a privacy shield and an integrated, customizable siren offer a different balance of features more tailored to the indoors.

Ultimately, this indoor camera won't be for everyone, and you may opt to go elsewhere if you don't want to eventually feel pressured into a plan or prefer a local video storage option. However, if you enjoy the ease of use of the Arlo Security app and are looking to build a full security sytem, it's an affordable option that can easily cover a room or allow for a quick check-in on anyone.

Arlo Essential Indoor Camera (2nd Generation)

8/ 10

The Arlo Essential Indoor Camera (2nd Generation) comes in at different price points with an HD or 2K variation available that can be picked between for the needs of your home and network speed. Beyond affordability, the indoor camera offers a 12x digital zoom and B&W night vision to help you see what you need in its 130-degree diagonal FOV. Beyond staying informed via your smart device via notifications, two-way audio, and a live stream view, an automated privacy shield can be activated when the camera isn't needed.

$80 at AmazonSee at Arlo