Arlo Pro 6 review: top quality video and AI smarts, but it's going to cost you

Any discussion about the best security cameras has to at least mention Arlo in passing at some point, and the purveyor of premium cameras now offers a sixth generation version of its Pro camera, with 2K HDR video footage and plenty of bells and whistles to mention.

I've always been impressed by Arlo cameras as you can see in my Arlo Essential 2K review, so I was looking forward to giving this latest model a try. I've been using it regularly for a couple of weeks and testing it around the clock, and you read all my findings below.

This is the direct successor to the Arlo Pro 5, which earned plenty of praise in its own review. The video resolution is the same, but the newer model brings with it a boost in battery life, USB-C charging, and some additional AI features you can make use of.

Arlo Pro 6 review: price and availability

The Arlo Pro 6 is available to buy now, and at the time of writing, it will set you back £169.99 / $124.99 for a single camera without a subscription (though check the widgets embedded on this page for the most up-to-date pricing and the best deals).

If you're buying this in the UK, you can get it from retailers including Amazon, as well as directly from Arlo.

Arlo Pro 6 review: design and setup

At this point, the bulbous, white plastic look of the Arlo cameras is a familiar one, and the Arlo Pro 6 sticks to the traditional aesthetics of the video camera series. It measures 87.1 mm x 52 mm x 78.6 mm (about the size of two packs of cards stacked together) and weighs 197 grams, and I'd say it's definitely one of the better-looking security cameras out there – if appearance matters to you.

Everything you need is in the box, including a wall-mounting kit, some screws, and a USB charging cable. You can just place the camera on a flat surface if you prefer, though this may leave it vulnerable to being knocked over by strong gusts of wind – this is a camera designed for the outdoors, offering an IP65 rating that should mean it can survive whatever rain and snow comes its way. You can use it indoors too, if you'd like to.

Setup is a breeze once you've got the Arlo app installed on your phone, and you should be done in minutes (excluding the time taken to mount the camera and get it into position). The app guides you through the setup process, including fitting the swappable battery: this does add an extra step to the installation process, but it does mean you can have a spare battery ready to swap in at any time (though this is an extra purchase).

As usual with Arlo, there's no local storage option unless you also buy a £110 / $99.99 Smart Hub, so if you want to keep an archive of video recordings in the cloud and access advanced features like AI recognition, you need to cough from £7.99 / $9.99 a month for Arlo Secure – though you do get a month free with the camera, so you can check out the benefits for yourself.

That's quite pricey, though the subscription covers up to 20 cameras, and you can get a discount if you pay annually.

Arlo Pro 6 review: video and features

The Arlo Pro 6 keeps the same 2K, HDR-enabled video quality as its predecessor, so your clips can get up to 2560 x 1440 pixels resolution. You can dial this down if you want to save on battery life – and there's a low power mode too, just like on your phone. Arlo estimates 8 months of battery life per charge, which fits with what I saw in my testing (a drop of just a few percentage points per week).

There's a generous 160-degree (diagonal) field of view here, so you get plenty in the frame, and there are two night vision modes: colour (which needs the integrated spotlight to be lit) and black and white (which can use infrared detectors). You get a better picture with colour, but I tend to prefer black and white, as it means the camera isn't constantly shining a light into the area it's monitoring.

Otherwise, you get pretty much all the features that a modern home security camera should have: two-way audio, a built-in siren for scaring off would-be burglars, that previously mentioned spotlight, and the ability to set up 'activity zones' where motion detection is enabled (so if there's part of the video frame where motion doesn't matter, you can configure this easily).

I must say the video footage you get from the Arlo Pro 6 is very good, even if it's not the top-tier 4K offered by some Arlo models. Whether in daylight or at night, the clips are crisp and clear, and you're going to get a great look at anything that's happening. I really like the 12x zoom with auto-tracking, which can zoom in on faces or other moving objects, and follow them across a space even while the camera stays still.

If you pay for a subscription, you can take advantage of AI recognition to distinguish between people, pets, vehicles, packages, and more. I wasn't able to tick off every single item the Arlo Pro 6 could recognise, but the ones I did test were correctly identified. It means you can customize your alerts more specifically, and reduce the number of pings on your phone.

With the help of various moving objects and people, I was able to determine that the motion sensing works very well, as you would expect from all the years of expertise that Arlo has built up. You can adjust the motion detection sensitivity too, one of many settings available in the accompanying mobile app.

Digging through the app, it's all superbly polished and straightforward. Reviewing motion events captured by the camera is simple, as is changing everything from the position of your activity zones to the length of time the siren sounds for, when activated. It's reassuring to have this many options to play around with – though you can just use it out of the box in its default state, if you prefer.

There's dual-band Wi-Fi support here, so the camera will work across 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands – not always a given on smart home kit, and ensuring broad compatibility with a variety of routers, mesh systems, and Wi-Fi scenarios. You can also plug this into Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, and Samsung SmartThings smart home networks, so you've got plenty of flexibility there too.

Arlo Pro 6 review: verdict

If you're in the market for a home security camera system at the moment, there's no doubt that the Arlo Pro 6 is one of the very best devices you can get right now – though whether it's definitely the best for you is a different matter. This is a camera for those who are able to pay the top prices (both up front and as part of an ongoing subscription), and who expect top level video quality and features in return.

During my time with the Arlo Pro 6, I was impressed with just about every aspect of it: the quality of the video and audio footage, the ease with which I could set it up, and the number of different options and features there are to play around with. It's also nicely designed and feels solidly constructed.

There's the issue of the rather expensive cloud storage subscription, as there is with every Arlo camera (and a number of Arlo's competitors). It's a shame that the advanced AI recognition features are included in the subscription too, and a local storage option would be welcome (besides the separate Smart Hub), but it is possible to use the camera without a monthly fee – you just can't get at your video archives.

It's also worth mentioning that this isn't a huge upgrade over the Arlo Pro 5, especially in terms of video quality – though that extra battery life is nice. I don't think anyone is going to be disappointed by what the Arlo Pro 6 brings with it, but it's a question of whether it fits your budget and how the rest of your smart home is set up.

Arlo Pro 6 review: alternatives to consider

If you like the Arlo brand but need something that's a little bit more versatile, then you can consider the Arlo Essential 3 2K Pan-Tilt Security Camera. As the name gives away, it can pan and tilt to cover a wider space, and as it's a wired camera you don't need to worry about battery life either. However, the same caveats about Arlo Secure apply.

I also recently tried the Eufy Security eufyCam C35, which does give you a local storage option – so you don't have to necessarily pay for a cloud subscription. You also get a couple of cameras and a hub for not much more than a single Arlo Pro 6 camera, so it's worth checking out if you've got less to spend.