Arlo Essential 3 2K Indoor Camera review: Mini, mighty, but needs a subscription

With today’s outdoor security cameras packing so many features – plus they’re usually wireless and battery-powered for increased flexibility – the humble indoor camera can easily be overlooked.

But I’ve just spent a few weeks with the new, third-generation Arlo Essential 2K indoor camera, and I’m pleased to say it exceeded all of my expectations. From the hardware and video quality, to response time, reliability and software features, this is a well-rounded package that offers lots of functionality without being overwhelming.

For those reasons, it should appeal to anyone who wants an indoor security camera but doesn’t want to get bogged down in endless pages of settings and customisation. All of the key features are there – privacy and activity zones, night vision, a siren, even AI-powered person recognition – but in a way that’s easy to use.

Is this the right indoor security camera for you? Read on to find out.

Arlo Essential 3 2K Indoor Camera review: Price and availability

The Arlo Essential 3 2K Indoor Camera costs £89.99 on its own, which feels like quite a lot for an indoor camera. But you can also get a twin pack from Arlo for £129.99, which is obviously a much better deal and feels like strong value.

Since this camera uses the cloud instead of local storage, you’ll have to pay for an Arlo Secure subscription if you want to save any footage. This costs from £5.49 a month or £119.90 a year at the time of writing, with various deals offering one, two or even three months free. The subscription also includes advanced people, vehicle, animal and package detection, customisable alerts and theft protection, where Arlo will replace eligible stolen devices.

Arlo Essential 3 2K Indoor Camera review: Design

Small, simple and somewhat elegant is how I’d describe this camera. It’s hard to make devices like this look anything more than functional, but Arlo has done a nice job of adding some softness to the design of the Essential 3 2K.

Given this will live indoors, and likely be seen by visitors, a rounded, friendly design helps make the camera feel less like a prying surveillance tool and more like a handy household gadget. This is aided by the privacy shutter, which slides over the lens when the camera isn’t in use. That way, you can have the camera clearly obscured during the day, or when you’re home, then open only when your home needs protection.

The camera is mounted to a removable base with a ball-and-socket joint that holds it stable and allows for plenty of adjustability. It can easily be tilted up or down to get the perfect view, and there’s both a tripod-style screw hole on the back of the camera, and a mount on the base of the stand for wall or ceiling mounting.

Small enough to fit discreetly on a shelf or wall-mount facing a door, the camera measures 5.3 x 11 x 5.3 cm and weighs a little over 100 g.

Arlo Essential 3 2K Indoor Camera review: Performance

I’ve been very impressed with this little camera. The setup process through Arlo’s smartphone app was quick and easy, and both the software and hardware have performed well ever since.

I was especially pleased with how quickly the camera reacted to motion, and how it operates using a time buffer. This means it saves footage taken before motion was detected – so, for example, if monitoring a door, the video will include a couple of seconds from before the door opens and the person walks into shot.

Also impressive is how quickly notifications are sent to the phone app, and how fast the app is to open and play recordings. It’s much quicker over Wi-Fi than when connecting over 4G/5G while away from home, but it’s still reliable and entirely usable.

The 2K footage is bright and sharp, the infrared night vision works well, and even the audio quality is perfectly acceptable.

There are activity zones and privacy zones for blocking out anything you don’t want recorded, plus AI-powered facial recognition that can be trained on photos of members of your household, and a siren that acts as a burglar alarm. It'll also alert you when it hears a smoke alarm, or spots a fire.

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Arlo Essential 3 2K Indoor Camera review: Verdict

I’ve enjoyed using this Arlo camera more than I thought I would. Yes, it’s just a simple indoor camera, but the app is full of features that help justify a price that’s a little higher than some of the competition. Video quality is excellent, day and night, while features like privacy and activity zones, AI-powered object recognition, and real-time alerts all work very well.

The app is one of the best I’ve used in this product category. Notifications arrive quickly and both live and recorded video stream to the app smoothly, reliably and with minimal delay.

I’d prefer to see the option for local storage, either as part of the camera or via an SD card slot. But Arlo’s cloud storage service works well, and is priced fairly at between £5.49 and £16.99 a month depending on how many cameras you want to use.