Reolink Altas

Introduction

Having moved on from being a budget security camera manufacturer, Reolink has levelled up and is now producing some feature-packed, high quality models, such as the Reolink Altas that I have on review.

Playing second-fiddle to the bigger, bulkier Altas PT Ultra, think of the Altas as the Argus 4 Pro’s close sibling, but with a battery nearly four times the size, and the same impressive ColorX night vision tech onboard.

It’s built for constant recording, runs on Wi-Fi 6, and plays nice with both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks and costs less than £150.

Design and installation

• Huge range of mounting options
• Integrated battery
• Connects via Wi-Fi

Design-wise, it ditches some of Reolink’s rougher industrial vibes, although that chunky external antenna still feels like a throwback. The rest of the hardware looks far more modern: white bullet-style casing, large lens in a glossy black faceplate, and compact enough at 126 x 78 x 76mm to blend in outdoors or even inside if you want.

The front hosts the lens, PIR motion sensor, mic, ambient light sensor, spotlights, and status LED; all neatly arranged. That lone antenna may feel like a blast from the past, but it’s fully adjustable to help you get the best possible signal over dual-band Wi-Fi 6.

Mounting options are typical Reolink: flexible and generous. There’s a ball-joint wall/ceiling bracket in the box, plus a couple of straps if you want to fix it to a drainpipe or fence post.

Underneath the unit sits a protected USB-C port and microSD card slot (up to 512GB). It’s solidly built and IP66 rated so can handle pretty much any weather conditions that are thrown at it.

Unlike the Argus Track, there’s no security screw for the microSD card slot, so a thief could, in theory, take both the footage away as he escapes the scene.

Features, app, and setting up

• Simple to connect
• Slightly confusing motion settings

Getting the Altas paired with the Reolink app is straightforward: power it up, wait for it to talk to you and just scan the QR code and you’re off.

You don’t even need to create an account unless you want cloud features or Alexa/Google Home integration.

A big draw with the Altas, and with all Reolink cameras, is local storage. Reolink doesn’t force cloud plans on you, and all core features work subscription-free. If you do want cloud, there’s a basic free tier and paid plans that are way cheaper than Ring or Nest; but again, that’s all totally optional.

Battery-wise, there are a lot of options to get your head around, in terms of what affects the life before a charge is needed.

You can stick to motion-triggered clips, turn on continuous recording, or mix in the new Pre-Recording mode, which buffers 2–10 seconds of footage before an event. But anything beyond the basics will eat into your battery, so tweaking those settings matters.

One of the Altas’s headline tricks is continuous recording, but keeping that on all the time will hammer the battery – although you can set schedules for when you want it to be switched on.

As mentioned, the Altas also supports pre-recording (up to 10 seconds before motion triggers), with frame rates from 1 to 5fps. Again, more features equals faster battery drain, but at least you have the choice.

This flexibility is a theme. The Reolink app lets you fine-tune almost everything: alerts based on people, animals, vehicles; custom schedules; size thresholds for detected objects; privacy zones; alert methods (push/email); and more. It’s pretty much unmatched in terms of user control, but also a bit of a labyrinth.

First-time users might find the settings menus overwhelming, especially when it comes to fine-tuning motion zones, notifications, and detection types.

The timeline view is genuinely useful, with clear thumbnails and filtering options to help you find specific clips. You may want to tweak the download settings though, the default is a lower-res ‘fluent’ option, not full 2K.

Alerts can get noisy if left unchecked, but there’s detailed filtering available. You can limit alerts to people or cars (or animals), set time-based schedules, and adjust detection areas. The app also lets you create privacy zones and set size thresholds for object and people detection.

There’s two-way talk, a siren (which you can customise with your own audio), and light-based alarms too. It’s surprisingly full-featured for a cam that doesn’t cost the earth.

And crucially, nothing is hidden behind a paywall. MicroSD storage covers your needs unless you want cloud backup and there’s also an FTP option too.

However, if the camera is stolen, so is your footage, unless you use a Reolink hub.

Solar panel and battery performance

• Solar panel
• Up to 540 days of battery

The Altas promises 540 days of battery life… but only if you strip it down to minimal settings and limit recordings. With everything turned on – continuous recording, pre-roll, spotlights etc. – you’re realistically looking at one to two weeks of juice.

Thankfully, Reolink includes a 6W solar panel in the box. I tested it during a very British summer (clouds, drizzle, occasional sunny days), and with pre-recording on and continuous recording off, the battery never dipped below 85%. On fully sunny days, it actually charged up.

When I turned on continuous recording though, I did encounter a more significant drain. Cloudy weather knocked around 20% off the battery each day, while sunnier stretches kept the level stable or slightly rising. So the battery life really does depend on what features you want to use and also your geography.

The bottom line is though, if you live somewhere reasonably sunny and manage your settings sensibly, the solar panel can keep things topped up indefinitely.

The 4m cable gives you good flexibility for mounting the panel in a sunny spot. Just don’t try mixing and matching with old Reolink solar gear. I tested an older panel and it bizarrely knocked the Altas offline, but the included one worked fine.

Visuals and night vision

• Excellent colour night vision
• No IR

Reolink’s ColorX night vision is seriously impressive. With its f/1.0 aperture and 1/1.8” sensor (the same as the top-tier Altas PT Ultra) it captures full-colour footage even in low-light environments without needing infrared or blinding spotlights.

That said, there’s no IR fallback, so you’ll want some ambient light nearby or keep the spotlights set to auto. Even without them, my test shots under a nearby streetlamp came out clean and colourful.

Daylight performance is excellent too, with detailed 2K video at 15fps and sharp motion capture. The pre-record parts of the clips are lower quality, but that’s expected given the frame rate trade-off.

The field of view is solid: 110° diagonal, 90° horizontal, 50° vertical, so more than enough to monitor a wide area without fisheye distortion.

Combined with motion detection smarts, it easily covers an average yard or driveway.