Arlo Essential 3 2K Pan-Tilt Security Camera review: well priced camera with useful AI smarts

Home security cameras have gone from a “nice-to-have gadget” to something a lot of us genuinely rely on. Not that long ago, the idea of checking your driveway from your phone felt a bit sci-fi, but now, it’s about as normal as checking your banking app.

As the tech has improved and prices have dropped, decent cameras have become much more accessible to the everyman – not just people with big detached homes and full alarm systems, but renters in flats, terraced houses on busy streets and anyone who’s fed up of trying to get to the bottom of where that missing parcel has got to.

Dropcam pioneered the idea of Wi-Fi video streaming cameras in the early 2010s, allowing people to view live feeds through a cloud-based service. But for a lot of people, it was Google’s Nest cam that popularised the concept of DIY, app-controlled home security for everyday consumers - mostly thanks to its easy plug-and-play setup. Then Ring rocked up and properly blew the doors off, turning video doorbells and outdoor cams into the norm with versatile options.

These days you can’t walk down the street without feeling like you’re being watched. Arlo is one of the bigger rivals snapping at Ring’s marketshare and the firm’s latest release, the Essential 3 2K Pan-Tilt Security Camera, is the brand’s first attempt at this more flexible auto pan-tilt design, which replaces a fixed view, meaning less need for multiple cameras to cover a range of angles. It also boasts 2K video, colour night vision, a built in spotlight and AI powered alerts, all at a decent price.

I’ve had it watching over my outdoor space for the past month to see how it fares, if it actually gives Ring a run for its money – and whether Arlo’s latest cam is worth adding to your own set up.

ARLO ESSENTIAL 3 2K PAN-TILT SECURITY CAMERA REVIEW: PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

The 2K Pan-Tilt Security Camera sits in Arlo’s more wallet-friendly Essential 3 range, which is available to buy now in the UK and Europe. Prices for the wider family start at around £79.99 / €99 for the basic indoor models, with the outdoor pan-tilt options naturally costing a bit more.

In the UK, the Essential 3 2K Pan-Tilt comes in at £129.99 for the camera on its own, bought direct from Arlo. For what it offers, I’d say that’s a fairly sensible price, especially if you’ve got a tricky area to cover that would otherwise need two or three fixed cams.

However, it’s worth noting there doesn’t seem to be an exact like-for-like version of this camera in the US. Instead, Americans get the Arlo Essential Pan Tilt (2025 Release), which looks similar on paper (boasting the same 2K video recording, 360-degree pan, 180-degree tilt, colour night vision, etc) but at a much much cheaper price of $59.99 RRP. It seems it’s the same family, named a bit differently, and also with a very similar model number, but it’s not the exact same product, so the features and firmware may differ slightly between regions.

Then there’s the bit Arlo doesn’t shout quite as loudly about – the subscription. In the UK, the firm’s Secure AI will set you back £16.99 a month (first month free) or £169.90 a year, and that covers up to 20 cameras with cloud video storage, advanced AI to recognise familiar people and vehicles, fire detection, package detection, activity zones and even stolen camera replacement. That’s still pretty spenny when you consider that Ring’s standard subscription is only.£7.99/month or £79.99/year for the support of multiple devices.

In the US, Arlo’s Secure plans are, again, much cheaper – starting at around $7.99 a month for a single camera, with higher tiers if you want more devices and features bundled in.

There’s also no microSD slot or local recording option on this model, and it doesn’t hook into Arlo’s older SmartHubs for storage either. So if you don’t fancy paying a monthly fee, you’re essentially limited to live view and very basic alerts. If you’re already invested in Arlo’s ecosystem, though, that might feel like a fair trade. But if you’re a subscription-averse person, it’s not the best of news.

ARLO ESSENTIAL 3 2K PAN-TILT SECURITY CAMERA REVIEW: DESIGN

Design-wise, I can’t quite decide if the Essential 3 2K Pan-Tilt Security Camera fits more into the cute-looking desk gadget category, or looks like a proper bit of security kit. In all honesty, it’s probably a mixture of both. It sports a rather cheap-feeling plastic cylinder design with a matte white base and a glossy black camera module sitting in the middle, which rotates smoothly in all directions.

The camera stands at around 15cm tall, with a base that’s roughly the size of a fizzy drink can, so it doesn’t take up much space if you use it freestanding indoors. For outdoor use, Arlo includes brackets in the box so you can mount it on a wall or under an eave. The mounting hardware is simple but sturdy enough, and once it’s up, the camera feels secure. I found it didn’t wobble about every time the wind picked up anyway. That said, it doesn’t feel very secure the way it attaches to the mount. There doesn’t seem to eb any lock – anyone could just simply snap it off if they wanted to.

Despite this, it mostly feels pretty robust. Arlo calls it “weather-resistant” rather than shouting about an IP rating, which is slightly vague (and worrying), but in practice it coped fine with drizzle and cold evenings. I’m just not sure how confident I feel in the device being fully exposed on a storm-battered wall with no shelter.

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Nevertheless, the pan-tilt mechanism is the star of the show here and works beautifully. The camera can rotate a full 360 degrees horizontally and tilt vertically up and down, so you can cover a wide area from a single mounting point. However, the same can’t be said for that “180-degree tilt” claim, which feels a bit optimistic after seeing it in action. The cam can’t quite look fully straight up and fully straight down, which is something to bear in mind if you’re hoping for absolute top-to-bottom coverage in tighter spaces. Still, compared to most fixed cams, it’s way more flexible.

Around the back, you’ll find a USB-C port for power. There’s no battery inside, and no option to add one, which means this camera lives and dies by its cable. The good news is that Arlo includes a generously long cable in the box, which makes placement easier than it could’ve been. The bad news is you’ll still need a nearby socket, and there’s no magnetic base for quick repositioning – once you decide where it’s going, it’s more or less staying there.

Overall, it’s a clean, modern-looking camera that blends in nicely enough. There’s no physical privacy shutter like you get on some indoor-only rivals, which some people will miss, but you can disable audio and video in the app if you want a bit of digital privacy instead.

ARLO ESSENTIAL 3 2K PAN-TILT SECURITY CAMERA REVIEW: PERFORMANCE

Performance is where this camera really shines. The set-up process is mostly painless – just plug it in, open the Arlo Secure app, add a new device and follow the on-screen prompts. The camera connects over Bluetooth initially, then hops onto your Wi-Fi. The app even checks your signal strength so you can avoid mounting it in a signal dead zone.

Once up and running, the first thing you’ll notice is how smooth the cam’s tilt and pan movements are. Swiping around in the app moves the camera almost in real time, with only a slight delay. There’s a virtual joystick-style control for manual panning and tilting, and while it’s not quite “gaming level” responsive, it’s more than good enough for checking out corners, driveways and back gates without feeling like you’re wrestling with it.

The auto-tracking feature is probably one of the camera’s most impressive. With motion tracking enabled, the camera locks onto people or cars and follows them across the frame, rather than letting them wander in and out of shot. It can feel a bit creepy at times when walking past it in the garden, but the good news is that it works really well for capturing movement when it matters. It rarely overshoots or loses the subject completely, for example, and if it does, it quickly returns to its “home” position so it’s ready for the next thing that moves.

Video quality is very good for an entry level cam like this. Thanks to being able to record in a 2K resolution, footage is generally crisp and detailed enough to make out faces and other useful details from further away. Colours also look pretty natural rather than overly saturated. At night, you get both IR black-and-white night vision and a small integrated spotlight which can kick in when motion is detected, giving you colour night footage when it’s really dark. It’s especially handy if you want to see what colour hoodie someone’s wearing, or something like that.

On the smart side, Arlo’s AI tech does a good job of telling the difference between people, vehicles, animals and general background faff, well, as long as you’re paying for Arlo Secure. Alerts land on your phone within a few seconds of motion, and the app captions events with simple descriptions like “Person detected in garden” so you don’t have to scrub through every clip to see what’s going on. You can also set activity zones to reduce false alerts from neighbours pets, for instance.

As with most smart home devices, I do, of course, have a couple of niggles. Beyond the 180-degree tilt feeling a little more limited than Arlo claims, there’s also the occasional bit of lag when you move the camera manually very quickly. While the motors generally keep up, the live video feed sometimes pauses for a moment before catching up. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s noticeable if you’re trying to follow fast-moving action.

And then there’s that subscription issue again. Without Arlo Secure, you lose cloud recording, smart detection, activity zones and a lot of what makes the camera feel “smart”. You still get live viewing and basic motion alerts, but it feels like you’re only using half of what the hardware can actually do.

It’s a shame that a lot of smart home tech is like this these days - it’s somehow become the norm to hold back key features unless customers stump up extra for a monthly plan. Arlo is very much following suit here, and while it’s not alone, it does leave a bit of a sour taste. It’s an industry-wide problem that we really need to do something about – especially when the hardware itself is clearly capable of more than you get out of the box.

ARLO ESSENTIAL 3 2K PAN-TILT SECURITY CAMERA REVIEW: VERDICT

If you have awkward blind spots outside your home you’d like to monitor – or you just want to cover as much as possible with a single camera – the Essential 3 2K Pan-Tilt Security Camera is a good option for the money. The 360-degree pan, flexible tilt and 2K video make it a bit of a coverage powerhouse, and the motion tracking plus AI alerts do make day-to-day monitoring much easier, without needing multiple cameras.

It’s not perfect, however. The wired-only design limits where you can put it, the tilt claims are slightly exaggerated, and the fact that so many features sit behind an Arlo Secure paywall at almost £20 per month will certainly irk anyone who hates paying for subscriptions on top of initial purchases.

That said, if you’re happy to plug it in, sign up for Arlo Secure and want a single camera that can pretty much see everything (apart from around corners), this is a very capable pan-tilt cam that punches above its price bracket.