A good security camera can deter would-be intruders and thieves, and help you keep an eye on your property from anywhere. The Arlo Pro 5S, on sale for $85 (down from $180), isn’t just a good security camera; it’s my pick of the best outdoor security cameras you can buy right now. The Arlo Pro 5S ticks every box, with crisp 2K video, a wide 160-degree field of view, two-way audio, and a direct Wi-Fi connection. It is battery-powered, so there’s no need to run cables, offers two-way audio and a siren to scare intruders, and reliably detects people and notifies you.
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Video quality is obviously paramount for a security camera, and Arlo’s Pro 5S records at up to 2K resolution. The inclusion of HDR ensures your video doesn’t look blown out when there’s a light source in frame. The wide 160-degree field of view takes in the whole scene. When darkness falls, you have a choice of color night vision or a motion-activated spotlight.
One of the main reasons I like the Arlo Pro 5S so much is the swift-loading Arlo app. It delivers rich notifications, showing a few frames with the subject highlighted right there in the notification on your phone or smartwatch. It also supports two-factor authentication, so you can log in with your fingerprint or face, phone permitting.
You can filter motion alerts by people, animals, vehicles, and packages, and the camera is pretty accurate at correctly identifying subjects. You can also set up privacy zones very easily in the app. The wide smart home support makes it easy to call up your camera feed on your preferred smart displays.
The big catch with Arlo systems is that you need an Arlo Secure plan ($10 per month or $96 a year for a single camera, $20 per month or $216 a year for unlimited cameras) to access the best features, but it also gets you 30 days of cloud video history.
I have been using this camera for a couple of years now, and it still functions perfectly, alerts correctly every time, and delivers some of the best quality video. I still prefer it to some of Arlo’s newer cameras, and, provided you don’t mind the subscription on top, this is a great buy for the money. While it has dropped to $100 pretty frequently, I’ve never seen it this low.
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