The Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free is an easy to install, battery-powered, solution if you’re looking for a doorbell upgrade.
When you think about accessorizing your home, the doorbell is usually an afterthought rather than one of the first things that come to mind. However, it plays a very important role in the entire home ecosystem – especially in the work-from-home era.
The doorbell is an alert system that brings your attention to the entryway of your home informing you that your attention is needed there. A video doorbell adds an additional level of security and monitoring on top of that allows you to communicate with whoever is at the door while maintaining a safe distance as well as record whatever activities might be happening at your doorstep. The Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free does all of this quite well.
Out of the box, The Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free’s black aesthetics is sleek and modern and will look good outside most homes. It feels solid and well built and does have some weight which means that you will need to secure it with the screws provided.
While you still need to grab a drill and secure the doorbell with the wall mount screw kit provided, the Wire-Free takes away much of the hassle that comes with installing a typical doorbell. With its rechargeable battery, accessible by using the security latch release pin, you no longer need to fiddle with wires connected to your home’s power supply. You also have the option to purchase a spare battery for continuous use.
This also allows you to place the Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free in places where you might not usually have been able to. The provided angled mount gives you even more options in that aspect. Designer for external use, the doorbell is certified to withstand the heat, cold rain and sun.
Connecting the Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free is easy. If you’re familiar with Arlo products, you’ll know that they do have a Base Station that links up their cameras. However, no Base Station is required for this setup and you just need to connect the doorbell directly to your WiFi. Once you’re connected, you’ll find that it doesn’t take long for it to start getting down to work.
Almost immediately the doorbell started to send alerts to my phone that there was someone at my door. Of course, that was just me standing in front of it.
Featuring an ultra-wide, 180-degree field-of-view, the Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free captures HD quality footage in a square 1:1 aspect ratio (think Instagram video rather than YouTube), ensuring users can see a package sitting on the ground or a visitor from head to toe, giving you a good view of what’s actually happening at your door.
Once the alert is sent to your mobile, you can choose to talk to the visitor, or activate pre-recorded standard messages such as “leave it at the door”, or “coming”. You can also choose to activate a loud, annoying, siren to chase people away if that’s more your thing.
The Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free is a smart monitoring solution featuring a HD camera that gives a more complete view of your doorway without the typical hassle that comes with installation.
The video doorbell is very quick to detect packages, people, vehicles, or animals – probably even too quick. If you live in an apartment building like I do and there’s usually neighbours walking around, you can assign detection zones to avoid getting false alerts. Without setting detection zones I kept getting alerts every hour which became quite irritating.
You can set your smart home/life ecosystem to receive alerts from the video doorbell not just to your smartphone, but also to your Apple Watch, Google HomeHub and Amazon’s Alexa.
Each Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free includes a complimentary three-month Arlo Smart subscription, to provide users with a more personalised, intelligent smart home security experience. The subscription service utilises powerful AI and computer vision technology to deliver customised notifications regarding people, animal, vehicle and package detection.
These deeper insights about detected activity, enable Arlo subscribers to not only monitor, but also take swift action in urgent situations.
The Arlo Smart subscription costs $4.49 p/month for a single camera. If you choose not to continue with the subscription, then you’d probably be better off turning motion detection alerts off, unless you don’t mind receiving a false alert every time a neighbour walks past.
If you do choose to subscribe, you’ll also be able to store video (up to 4K) for 30 days.
The Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-free is an appealing option for those who are looking to upgrade their doorbell game and add another level of security to your home without much fuss. With a retail price of $329, it is currently available for purchase on Shopee Link and Lazada Link). The backup rechargeable battery is also available on Shopee and Lazada at $79.