Arlo Essential Pan Tilt Indoor Camera review – following you as you walk past, a new era in home security

Just when you think that having outdoor and indoor cameras as well as a smart video doorbell was comprehensive home security, Arlo came out with a fancy new gadget that might fit perfectly into the mix for your home – the Arlo Essential Pan Tilt indoor camera.

First and foremost, can we talk about the cracking value that this camera is – $79! – that’s amazing. Now it is, along with its bigger brother the outdoor version, a powered camera, so you need a power point for it, which removes all that security camera battery anxiety that can happen so that’s a good thing and of course that plays a huge role in keeping the cost down.

I set this up in the entryway of our home and had it set to operate only when our Arlo system was fully armed (Arm Away) which is basically overnight for us.  I’ve done this because I don’t love the idea of cameras inside the home, but think the front door is a great place for one to capture just a bit more of the intruder should they get in and past the other cameras outside.

Sitting simply near our key bowl during the day it’s in privacy mode.  Borrowing the concept from the original Arlo Essential Indoor which had a privacy shutter, this Pan Tilt camera kinda bows its head and looks down within itself while “sleeping”.

And don’t worry, you know it’s on – a blue light shines while it looks around when you’re near it and it’s armed – I noticed this because my son seems to take a liking to giving it “the bird” when he walks past it in the night.

Motion detection is excellent, though only in the 130-degree field of view of the camera, so if you have it pointing to the right of an area, it’s not going to swing to the left if motion is detected there.  I’d imagine a Pro version of this with another set of sensors to solve that issue, but in its current form – and for the outdoor version also, I’d ensure the “default view” is centre of the area so it captures best what happens in the area and can follow from there.

The movement of the camera is also quite jittery, not as it pans, but between spots – basically, it’s like watching someone control it with a joystick from another room – not utterly delayed, but instead of being a smooth follow motion, it’s like it goes from point to point every few milliseconds of detection.  I’d put this down to the software basically going “there’s a face” and the camera moving to that point, then another “there’s the face” and the next point.  Hard to describe, but you’ll see it in my example videos I think quite clearly.

Despite that, you do see what you need to see – and it’s always going for the face.

I sat this on a small table in our entryway, and it’s always looking “up” – so I’d also recommend sitting it in a higher position for the best overall results.

Image quality is excellent, because it’s powered, you get a really great response to motion, no lag in the recording, and when paired with an Arlo Secure monthly plan, you’ll also get person detection (naming the people it sees) and Event Descriptions in your video feed.

For , this thing is epic value, and a worthwhile one for your home.  Likewise, for just more, you can get the outdoor version and have that same functionality in your front or back yard!

Web: Arlo / JB HiFi