Arlo Ultra 3 4K Review

Introduction

The Arlo Ultra was the first 4K security camera that I remember reviewing. Now we’re onto the 3^rd generation of product with the Arlo Ultra 3. Offering better battery life than the previous generation, along with better range, this new version is more of a tweak than a revamped camera. 

Launching in a world with more competition and where 2K footage is pretty standard, does the Arlo Ultra 3 4K do enough to stand out? Read on for my verdict.

Design and Installation

• USB charging
• New high-density battery
• Needs a SmartHub to work

Externally, the Arlo Ultra 3 looks very much like all of the other wireless cameras in Arlo’s line-up. In fact, the casing and mounting options are the same for this camera as the Arlo Pro 6. And, the mounting options go a few generations back.

That’s actually handy, as I could swap out an older Arlo camera for the new one without having to change the mount, as the same one is provided with the Ultra 3.

This mount is a decent one, offering a good degree of movement, so it’s easy to line the camera up with the area that you want to watch.

One big change from the Arlo Ultra 3 and the previous version, the Arlo Ultra 2 is that this newer version is charged via USB-C, rather than the old proprietary magnetic connector.

There’s a flap under the camera to access this slot, and any USB-C cable can be used, which makes charging easier, and means no hunting for that proprietary cable.

Inside the camera is the new higher-density battery, which has 15% more power than with the previous model.

As with all Ultra cameras I’ve reviewed, the Ultra 3 4K has to connect via the Smarthub VM5000. If you’ve got one already, you can just buy the camera only (£259.99); you have to buy the Ultra 3 in at least a two-pack with the Smarthub (from £529.99). That makes this system very expensive.

As well as providing the connection, the Smarthub has a microSD card slot underneath, which you can use for offline recording. Just be aware that doing this cuts out many of the more advanced features that you only get by subscribing to Arlo Secure.

I think that this camera is best with a cloud subscription. If you don’t want to pay for cloud storage, then buy the EufyCam S4 instead.

Features

• Requires an expensive subscription for the main features
• Excellent list of object detection
• Custom AI detection

As with Arlo’s other cameras, the Ultra 3 is controlled via the excellent and flexible Arlo app. If you have storage inserted into the Smarthub, you can record video offline, but you miss out on all of the detection features. 

For all practical purposes, you need to have an Arlo Secure plan, and the only way to record 4K footage to the cloud is to buy the most expensive plan, Arlo Secure Plus. For £19.99 a month (£219.99 a year) you get 14 days of history and a lot of clever AI features.

That is a very expensive subscription, particularly as the recording history is so short. Buy the 4K Ring Outdoor Cam Pro, and you can get cloud storage from £4.99 a month.

Expensive as it may be, the overall Arlo experience is one of the best. From the main screen I can choose which cameras I want to see by adding widgets. Widgets let me jump into a camera’s live feed, and see what’s going on, turning on two-way talk if needed. You do need to enable local 4K streaming if you want the best quality.

This home page also gives quick access to the three modes: Arm Away, Arm Home, and Standby. Similar to the modes in an alarm system, I can configure what cameras do in each mode. I tend to have indoor cameras off for the Home and Standby modes, and on for Away; outdoor cameras are on unless the system is in Standby. Modes can be scheduled or automated via your location.

With the recommended Arlo Secure Plus subscription, the level of control over motion detection is incredible. I could set motion zones and then choose to record and get alerts about my choice of people, animals and vehicles.

This high-level package also adds in-person recognition, which can be trained by uploading photos of people you know, and then refined in-app. And, there’s also vehicle recognition, which is similar but designed to spot cars that you know.

Oddly, the vehicle recognition is available on all cameras connected to your account, but the person recognition can only be implemented on a single camera.

Custom Detection is a brand new feature, with up to three custom detection events available per camera. Give the system a before and after screenshot, say showing a gate closed and open, and the system looks for the change.

Notifications can then be given based when motion is detected, at a set time or when the mode changes. For example, I can tell the system to tell me if the back door is open when I change the mode to Arm Away.

It’s a very flexible system that makes Arlo more powerful than its competition, but it is an expensive choice. And, Custom Detection, in my experience, needs to look for a big enough change to work properly. Trying to get the system to recognise when my glass kitchen door was open, proved hard.

Video is recorded to the cloud, and is available in the Feed section, which is organised by day. Events can be filtered by date, camera and event type, the latter of which has too many choices to list. What I can say is that it’s remarkably easy to find an event, although I would like the option of an AI search, as you get with the high-end Ring plan.

Performance

• Sharp video
• Not a huge step up from 2K
• Clean full-colour night vision

When the Arlo Ultra came out, it was a huge step up from the 1080p video cameras that were around. Today, a lot of cameras have a 2K resolution. While 4K has 66% more pixels than 2K, the Arlo Ultra 3 records at the same bitrate as the Arlo Pro 6 (55kbit/s), so there’s more compression going on with the 4K camera.

During the day, the Arlo Ultra 3 does look great. The image is very sharp, with detail right to the back of the frame. Is it that much better than the footage shot on the Arlo Pro 6? No. There’s a definite improvement with having 4K, but not by as much as you’d expect. The main difference is that the Arlo Ultra 3 has wider 180° field of view (the Arlo Pro 6 has a 160° field of view).

With a spotlight, the Ultra 3 can shoot full colour nighttime footage. As the light turns on, it takes a second or so for the image to stabilise before it settles down and delivers the full-colour image.

Moving images blur more than during the day, and the overall image is a touch softer, but I could always find a frame or two where faces were in detail. If anything, the gap between the Pro 6 and Ultra 3 is narrower here; the 4K camera is better, but only by a little.

Arlo says that the Ultra 3 can last up to six months on a charge, although that does depend on how many times the camera is triggered per day. In my garden, I’d say that four months plus seems more realistic for me.

Should you buy it?