Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a long review, but since I had to do a lot of research, I wanted to share as much as I could with those thinking about purchasing these. If I don't answer your questions in this review, leave a comment and I'll try to help when I can. Background: I started out with the original Arlo camera systems, and still have 5 bases running in various locations with about 30 cameras total. I'm going to assume most folks reading this are familiar with Arlo in general, so I'll skip a detailed report on the older systems other than to say that while they were a good replacement for traditional wired cameras, I do have some connectivity issues at times, and the batteries don't last nearly as long as I had hoped. All my references to older models are the originals. I have no experience with the Pro or Q systems. Now enter the Arlo Go Mobile version with cellular connectivity. This is what I've been waiting for, a camera you can place anywhere. After reading all the frustrations of folks having issues getting them activated (mostly self-inflicted, it seems), I took the plunge. Sourcing: The only place online I could find the AT&T model was CDW. However, I reached out directly to AT&T and was able to order a couple of cameras and have them sent to my local retail unit. They arrived in about a week, and when I went to pick them up, they had already activated them. All I had to do was link them to one of our existing accounts and away I went. Our company has several data plans already in place that I put them on. More on that later. Setup: The use I had in mind for these puts them inside buildings with a lot of metal and electronics in the environment, so I had to make sure they would still have good connectivity. As it so happens, my office gets the worst cell reception in the building, so it's the perfect place to test them. Set up is simple. I already had the app on my phone, so I went through the add camera steps, pressed a button on the camera (after putting in SD Card and battery, which was 100% charged when received), and pointed the camera at the QR code on my phone. Boom, it's done. From what I understand, if the camera is tripped, but connectivity is lost, it will record to the SD card. I plan on testing this shortly. First Impression: I initially had a few issues with losing connection (first day only, remove battery to reconnect), and was thinking maybe these weren't so wonderful, but then decided to link them while in an area with actual decent cell service. Since I did this, I haven't lost connection yet (7 days), even though phones regularly drop calls in the locations I've put them in. Battery: I've had both cameras in service for a week now. Camera 1 is at 88% battery life. I have it set to record 20 second clips and send notifications when triggered by audio or motion. It goes off about 15-20 times a day. Camera 2 is at 85% battery life. It is set the same as 1, but records for 2 minutes, and is tripped about 10-12 times a day. In their final setup I will have them plugged in, but I want to see how long the batteries last over a couple of charge cycles. Performance: The biggest gripe I had with the older cameras was the delay between detection and recording. The camera I had on my front porch would trip when the postman came around, but by the time it started recording I could only tell what happened by the mail sticking out of the top of the mailbox...lol. Perhaps it's because of a wider angle of view on the Go Mobile cameras, but the delay is almost imperceptible. I do get more of a delay in getting the notification to my phone (about 5 seconds compared to <1 for the older models), but that's not an issue as it records what's important. The resolution and clarity of these are great. You can definitely identify people from a distance of at least 30 feet with normal lighting. The night mode is very good as well. The audio seems to work fine, and the siren is a nice feature. It won't get the cops rolling, but it definitely scared the cr@p out of my wife (slept on the couch that night, let me tell ya). Software: For those familiar with the app, it's the same. Very easy to configure a schedule just how you want it. I was thrown off for a moment when programming them because you can't link the cameras like you can on the systems connected to a common base station. Again, not a deal-breaker for me since the detection is so much better and the fact that these will be going in solo to their respective locations. You can easily tweak settings from a phone or PC. When starting up the app, these cameras came on line much, much quicker than previous version, almost instantly. I also get much better playback with no stuttering or digital artifacts. Cost: Obviously these are not cheap. Besides the initial price, you still have recurring data costs. As I mentioned above, my job includes managing our data accounts. The way AT&T sets up their plans is you sign up for whatever level based on your anticipated usage. The one I have the cameras on is $80/mo. for 25GB. I can put up to 25 devices on this plan, and I am charged $10, $15, or $20 per device depending on whether it's a phone or tablet, an air card for a laptop, or a mifi/media-bridge type device. With the number of cameras I am planning on adding along with the other devices already on this plan, my estimated cost per month is $19 per camera. Other notes: These are big honkers, twice the bulk or more than the original model. Because of their total independence from wires or cables though, they are still pretty easy to hide and cover what you want. I plan on using these for intrusion detection at locations where the power could be cut. My plan is to keep them plugged in so the battery stays full (won't hurt the battery with these), then if the power and internet are cut, they will still transmit to the cloud. Even if the camera is stolen or destroyed, they will have done their job. Planning to buy? The biggest issue I read about before buying was the problems folks were having trying to get them activated by their mobile provider. 1) Decide who you want to give your money to each month, AT&T, Verizon, or Netgear (which I understand runs off the AT&T infrastructure). 2) Buy the proper model: AT&T - VML4030-100NAS Verizon - VML4030-1VZNAS Netgear - VML4030-200NAS As of writing this, the AT&T model is available at CDW or through AT&T (make sure they know you're looking for the Go model as this is fairly new to them too). The Arlo website offers only the Netgear and Verizon models. Amazon offers only the Verizon model. TL/DR: Highly Recommended. Anywho... I hope this helps if you are looking for information on this camera. As a disclaimer, I will state that I paid full retail for everything mentioned in this review. I wrote this review only to benefit those looking to purchase. If, in the future, any company wants to send me free stuff, I will gladly give my opinion on it (just don't expect me to skew it in any way because you gave me something). As always, this has been my 2c worth...YMMV... **** UPDATE **** 10/18/17 - I have had my 2 test cameras online for just over 5 weeks now. Camera 1 is at 36% battery, and Camera 2 got down to 3% yesterday, so I plugged it in. The settings for each are outlined above. Other observations: Connectivity - I placed both cameras in rooms with very poor cell reception. They generally show just 1 bar of signal. Other than what I noted above while setting them up, neither has gone offline once, as far as I've noticed. I tried to simulate the environment they are intended for. One thing that has greatly improved is the time it takes to connect to the camera from an app or the web portal. Even with the worst cell signal I can find, the live-view and recorded videos load up quickly. Motion Detection sensitivity/delay - I have both cameras set on 50. These do seem to be noticeably better than previous models I've used. When I view events, the people are much closer to the edge of the range, coming into view than before. With the older models, as often as not, I'd just see the back of them walking out of view. As with all of them, the picture is pretty darn good quality. Miscellaneous - My 2 test cameras have worked out better than I had hoped or expected. I took delivery of 12 more this past Monday and set them up for deployment to their intended destinations. The initial setup on these is extremely quick and easy. It literally took me longer to get them out of the packaging than it did to get them online. The whole process from start to finish for 12 cameras was about 30 minutes. A note on cloud storage...If you don't want to pay for cloud services, you can set up a free Arlo account with limited storage of I believe 1GB. It retains video for a rolling 7 days, and you can only connect 5 cameras. In my case, I will be attaching each individual camera to a different email address for access by different folks, but because these are cellular, there is a little trick you can use. I activated all 14 (total) cameras under 1 account.The 12 new ones were done in batches of 3. I kept the 2 test ones online the whole time, but once you have linked a camera to an account, you can deactivate it. You can then shuffle them around activating them at will, as long as you have no more than 5 active at the same time. This may not help everybody, but say you have 2 houses and want to keep an eye on the one you're not living in at the moment. You could put 5 cameras in each one and only activate the ones at the house that's vacant. At the moment, I have 2 set up and 10 sitting in a row on my desk. I have been switching them on and off with no issues. They activate quickly and consistently. Just remember that if deactivated, they still are on and using the battery, but they are not monitoring anything. Not being able to "link" the cameras together has also turned out to be an advantage. While you can't have one camera trigger another to record, you can set a different time schedule for each one. With the older systems, they all run on one set of time rules, although they can be set to behave differently during those periods. With the Arlo Go, you can set the behaviors just as before, but have them all on their own schedule. I will try to continue updating as time goes on, but since my testing time is over and they will be going into service, I will only report problems or issues from the field.