Verdict
The Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell is brilliant in lots of ways. Smaller and better looking than many battery-powered rivals, it combines a wide field of view with excellent AI detection. However, you’ll need to pay extra if you want this doorbell bundled with a chime, and you’ll also need a subscription to unlock its best features. That makes it questionable value when compared to some rivals, particularly given that its video quality isn’t perfect.
Pros
- Comparatively smart and compact
- Reliable detection and notifications
- Requires little configuration
Cons
- Mixed video quality
- Best features require a subscription
-
A smart doorbell with a square outlookThis 2K doorbell produces square videos, to better capture the full height of any callers. It can be wired or battery powered, and works with the Arlo app to let you know when anyone or anything is at your door. -
AI features, but only with a subscriptionThe Arlo 2K doorbell can recognise motion, people and vehicles, creating a recording and sending you a notification – but only if you subscribe. Otherwise you just get a video call when someone presses the button.
Introduction
The Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell is an update to the Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free we reviewed a few years ago. It’s a smart looking device as far as battery powered doorbells go, managing to squeeze in up to six months of battery life without looking too big or chunky.
I’m reviewing the stand-alone version of this doorbell, but you can also buy it bundled with an Arlo chime. That’s probably the ideal way to hear it around the home, but alternatively you can use smart speakers, or the wiring and chimes from your existing bell. You’ll need to join this doorbell to your wireless network – it’s not compatible with any of Arlo’s hubs.
This doorbell shoots in an unusual square format, with a 180-degree diagonal field of view. That should mean that it can capture almost anything happening in front of it, giving good coverage of your front door. It will video call you when somebody presses the button, but if you want some of its best features, you’ll need to pay extra for a subscription.
Design and features
- Relatively compact and stylish
- Wired or battery powered
- Good app
Battery-powered doorbells are often chunky beasts, but the Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell manages to stay impressively slim. While not as svelte as a wired-only device, it’s still compact enough to fit onto a narrow door frame. It’s quite stylish, too, with a white body and black fascia. The bell button doesn’t exactly stand out, but it’s illuminated by a white ring whenever someone approaches.
Arlo supplies an angled mounting wedge to help you get the right horizontal alignment, but there’s no mounting sticker for this doorbell – you’ll need to fix it with screws. Using the app I found it easy to connect it over my 2.4GHz wireless network. I was impressed by the signal strength it reported, given that my phone barely remains connected to my Wi-Fi when I step outside my home.
According to Arlo, this doorbell’s fully charged battery is good for three-to-six months of use, after which you’ll need to use the supplied tool to remove it and recharge. It’s best to use existing bell wire if you have it, particularly as this lets you use your existing bell. However, if you have Google or Alexa speakers, you can configure them to ring when somebody’s at the door, or you can buy the version that comes with a wireless chime.
Arlo provides a decent app, designed to handle all the cameras in the company’s security ecosystem. Viewing the doorbell’s device page gives you a big picture of the most recent caller or event, with an at-a-glance view of the battery and Wi-Fi levels. Enter the settings and you can configure the video and audio options.
If you have other Arlo devices, you can add these alongside a doorbell widget on the app’s home page. You can also create routines, for example changing the behaviour of devices based on whether you’re home or away, and having the modes switch on a schedule. This doorbell also supports Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT and SmartThings, so there’s no shortage of ways you could incorporate it into a smart home setup.
Every Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell comes with a free month-long trial of the Arlo Secure subscription service. Without it, you get video calls whenever someone presses the bell, and you can view live footage whenever you want to, but that’s about it.
For a single device, Arlo’s subscription costs £4.49 per month or £45 for the year. This adds 30 days of cloud-based storage for videos recorded in response to callers or activity outside of your door. If you’ve hardwired the bell, you could pay £11 per month for the CVR plan, which continuously records and stores video in the cloud. Subscribing also qualifies you for free replacement of the doorbell if it’s stolen, although to claim you’ll need a crime number from the police.
An Arlo Secure subscription also enables this doorbell’s AI features. This allows it to recognise and notify you when humans, packages or vehicles are outside your door. You can set one or more activity zones for this, but you can’t create individual zones for each category of event. Importantly, you can configure privacy zones where the doorbell won’t record – useful if you’d otherwise be recording on someone else’s property. Unfortunately, all zones are defined only by four points, so the selections are rectangular. You can at least build up more complex areas by creating multiple zones.
Performance
- Excellent AI and filtering performance
- Mixed image quality
- Fast notifications
The Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell is the first security product I’ve tested that has coped out of the box with my city-centre home. Mounted only about five metres back from a busy road, it ignored anyone walking or driving past. Just as I began to wonder if its AI-driven alerts were even working, it notified me of a person on the driveway, then notified me that they’d rung the bell.
Unlike other doorbells I’ve tested, a push on this one’s bell button creates a video call to your smartphone, rather than sending a message. That’s great if you can’t make the door, or if you’re in the habit of screening callers, but in regular use I found it more annoying than a simple alert. Unfortunately, you can’t change the setting, so you have to decline the call while you’re on the way to the door.
One neat feature with this doorbell is that, if you can’t answer the door, callers have the option to leave a video message. This is enabled from the app but, as with the Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free, I found it could leave some callers rather confused.
This doorbell was generally very easy to live with. It typically recognised and alerted me to people before they reached the bell, even at night. However, like the TP-Link Tapo Video Doorbell Camera D235 it didn’t reliably spot vehicles leaving or parking on my drive – still, at least it didn’t raise any false alarms.
Video footage from the Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell was decent, but not perfect. With HDR enabled, the camera coped well with the deep shadows and bright sky of my north-facing door during the day. However, videos weren’t as sharp as I’d expect at this resolution.
The doorbell continued to produce reasonable, but soft, footage as the light faded into the late afternoon.
You may have noticed in these shots that lines of high contrast with the sky tended to have severe purple fringing, seen most clearly under the porch crossmember. This is usually caused when the lens doesn’t focus different wavelengths of light at the same distance – it’s unusual for it to be this obvious.
This doorbell doesn’t have a spotlight to help it shoot colour footage at night. But although it switched to infrared lighting – and black and white video – a little earlier in the day than I’d expected, it produced very impressive footage in the late evening.
Even in full night, it continued to capture all the important details around my door. At the same time, I was impressed that its exposure wasn’t thrown off by the thick porch support in the middle of its view.
Installed overlooking a busy road and pavement, I wasn’t surprised that this doorbell’s battery ran down more quickly than Arlo’s 3-6 month figure would suggest. In cool weather it lost around 3-4% of its charge per day, suggesting I’d get around a month between top-ups – I’d expect the battery to perform a little better in summer, and quite a bit better in a quieter, more rural location.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
If you don’t mind subscribing and want smart features
This is a good doorbell, provided you don’t mind paying for a subscription. It looks good, its alerts and AI features all work well, and it produces decent videos – especially at night.
If you’re on a budget
This isn’t the cheapest doorbell, and it’s at its best when you subscribe. There are better options available if you’re on a tight budget.
Final Thoughts
This is a good video doorbell, but it’s not ideal for everyone. Unless you have an existing chime and wiring from your current doorbell – or compatible smart speakers – you’ll probably want the version that’s bundled with a plug-in chime. Unfortunately, that costs a little more.
Even then, the Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell only really excels if you also subscribe to Arlo Secure, which adds a modest ongoing cost. If you’ve got a smaller budget, I’d recommend the TP-Link Tapo Video Doorbell Camera D235 instead. Although it’s not as slick, it costs less, and its best features come as standard.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every security camera we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main security camera for the review period
We test compatibility with the main smart systems (HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, SmartThings, IFTTT and more) to see how easy each camera is to automate.
We take samples during the day and night to see how clear each camera’s video is.
FAQs
It’s not compulsory: without a subscription you still get video calls when someone presses the bell, and you can view live video at any time. However, most of this doorbell’s best features require a subscription, which enables cloud-based video storage, and rich, accurate AI notifications.
The doorbell itself makes a soft sound to let callers know they’ve pressed the button. It also notifies you by placing a video call to your smartphone. To get a ring in your home you’ll either need to buy the Arlo digital chime, configure the doorbell with your smart speaker, or use your existing bell wiring and doorbell chime.
UK RRP
USA RRP
EU RRP
CA RRP
AUD RRP
Manufacturer
Quiet Mark Accredited
Size (Dimensions)
Weight
ASIN
Release Date
First Reviewed Date
Model Number
Resolution
Voice Assistant
Battery Length
Smart assistants
App Control
IFTTT
Camera Type
Mounting option
View Field
Recording option
Two-way audio
Night vision
Light
Motion detection
Object detection
Audio detection
Power source
Verdict
The Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell is brilliant in lots of ways. Smaller and better looking than many battery-powered rivals, it combines a wide field of view with excellent AI detection. However, you’ll need to pay extra if you want this doorbell bundled with a chime, and you’ll also need a subscription to unlock its best features. That makes it questionable value when compared to some rivals, particularly given that its video quality isn’t perfect.
Pros
- Comparatively smart and compact
- Reliable detection and notifications
- Requires little configuration
Cons
- Mixed video quality
- Best features require a subscription
-
A smart doorbell with a square outlookThis 2K doorbell produces square videos, to better capture the full height of any callers. It can be wired or battery powered, and works with the Arlo app to let you know when anyone or anything is at your door. -
AI features, but only with a subscriptionThe Arlo 2K doorbell can recognise motion, people and vehicles, creating a recording and sending you a notification – but only if you subscribe. Otherwise you just get a video call when someone presses the button.
Introduction
The Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell is an update to the Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free we reviewed a few years ago. It’s a smart looking device as far as battery powered doorbells go, managing to squeeze in up to six months of battery life without looking too big or chunky.
I’m reviewing the stand-alone version of this doorbell, but you can also buy it bundled with an Arlo chime. That’s probably the ideal way to hear it around the home, but alternatively you can use smart speakers, or the wiring and chimes from your existing bell. You’ll need to join this doorbell to your wireless network – it’s not compatible with any of Arlo’s hubs.
This doorbell shoots in an unusual square format, with a 180-degree diagonal field of view. That should mean that it can capture almost anything happening in front of it, giving good coverage of your front door. It will video call you when somebody presses the button, but if you want some of its best features, you’ll need to pay extra for a subscription.
Design and features
- Relatively compact and stylish
- Wired or battery powered
- Good app
Battery-powered doorbells are often chunky beasts, but the Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell manages to stay impressively slim. While not as svelte as a wired-only device, it’s still compact enough to fit onto a narrow door frame. It’s quite stylish, too, with a white body and black fascia. The bell button doesn’t exactly stand out, but it’s illuminated by a white ring whenever someone approaches.
Arlo supplies an angled mounting wedge to help you get the right horizontal alignment, but there’s no mounting sticker for this doorbell – you’ll need to fix it with screws. Using the app I found it easy to connect it over my 2.4GHz wireless network. I was impressed by the signal strength it reported, given that my phone barely remains connected to my Wi-Fi when I step outside my home.
According to Arlo, this doorbell’s fully charged battery is good for three-to-six months of use, after which you’ll need to use the supplied tool to remove it and recharge. It’s best to use existing bell wire if you have it, particularly as this lets you use your existing bell. However, if you have Google or Alexa speakers, you can configure them to ring when somebody’s at the door, or you can buy the version that comes with a wireless chime.
Arlo provides a decent app, designed to handle all the cameras in the company’s security ecosystem. Viewing the doorbell’s device page gives you a big picture of the most recent caller or event, with an at-a-glance view of the battery and Wi-Fi levels. Enter the settings and you can configure the video and audio options.
If you have other Arlo devices, you can add these alongside a doorbell widget on the app’s home page. You can also create routines, for example changing the behaviour of devices based on whether you’re home or away, and having the modes switch on a schedule. This doorbell also supports Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT and SmartThings, so there’s no shortage of ways you could incorporate it into a smart home setup.
Every Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell comes with a free month-long trial of the Arlo Secure subscription service. Without it, you get video calls whenever someone presses the bell, and you can view live footage whenever you want to, but that’s about it.
For a single device, Arlo’s subscription costs £4.49 per month or £45 for the year. This adds 30 days of cloud-based storage for videos recorded in response to callers or activity outside of your door. If you’ve hardwired the bell, you could pay £11 per month for the CVR plan, which continuously records and stores video in the cloud. Subscribing also qualifies you for free replacement of the doorbell if it’s stolen, although to claim you’ll need a crime number from the police.
An Arlo Secure subscription also enables this doorbell’s AI features. This allows it to recognise and notify you when humans, packages or vehicles are outside your door. You can set one or more activity zones for this, but you can’t create individual zones for each category of event. Importantly, you can configure privacy zones where the doorbell won’t record – useful if you’d otherwise be recording on someone else’s property. Unfortunately, all zones are defined only by four points, so the selections are rectangular. You can at least build up more complex areas by creating multiple zones.
Performance
- Excellent AI and filtering performance
- Mixed image quality
- Fast notifications
The Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell is the first security product I’ve tested that has coped out of the box with my city-centre home. Mounted only about five metres back from a busy road, it ignored anyone walking or driving past. Just as I began to wonder if its AI-driven alerts were even working, it notified me of a person on the driveway, then notified me that they’d rung the bell.
Unlike other doorbells I’ve tested, a push on this one’s bell button creates a video call to your smartphone, rather than sending a message. That’s great if you can’t make the door, or if you’re in the habit of screening callers, but in regular use I found it more annoying than a simple alert. Unfortunately, you can’t change the setting, so you have to decline the call while you’re on the way to the door.
One neat feature with this doorbell is that, if you can’t answer the door, callers have the option to leave a video message. This is enabled from the app but, as with the Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free, I found it could leave some callers rather confused.
This doorbell was generally very easy to live with. It typically recognised and alerted me to people before they reached the bell, even at night. However, like the TP-Link Tapo Video Doorbell Camera D235 it didn’t reliably spot vehicles leaving or parking on my drive – still, at least it didn’t raise any false alarms.
Video footage from the Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell was decent, but not perfect. With HDR enabled, the camera coped well with the deep shadows and bright sky of my north-facing door during the day. However, videos weren’t as sharp as I’d expect at this resolution.
The doorbell continued to produce reasonable, but soft, footage as the light faded into the late afternoon.
You may have noticed in these shots that lines of high contrast with the sky tended to have severe purple fringing, seen most clearly under the porch crossmember. This is usually caused when the lens doesn’t focus different wavelengths of light at the same distance – it’s unusual for it to be this obvious.
This doorbell doesn’t have a spotlight to help it shoot colour footage at night. But although it switched to infrared lighting – and black and white video – a little earlier in the day than I’d expected, it produced very impressive footage in the late evening.
Even in full night, it continued to capture all the important details around my door. At the same time, I was impressed that its exposure wasn’t thrown off by the thick porch support in the middle of its view.
Installed overlooking a busy road and pavement, I wasn’t surprised that this doorbell’s battery ran down more quickly than Arlo’s 3-6 month figure would suggest. In cool weather it lost around 3-4% of its charge per day, suggesting I’d get around a month between top-ups – I’d expect the battery to perform a little better in summer, and quite a bit better in a quieter, more rural location.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
If you don’t mind subscribing and want smart features
This is a good doorbell, provided you don’t mind paying for a subscription. It looks good, its alerts and AI features all work well, and it produces decent videos – especially at night.
If you’re on a budget
This isn’t the cheapest doorbell, and it’s at its best when you subscribe. There are better options available if you’re on a tight budget.
Final Thoughts
This is a good video doorbell, but it’s not ideal for everyone. Unless you have an existing chime and wiring from your current doorbell – or compatible smart speakers – you’ll probably want the version that’s bundled with a plug-in chime. Unfortunately, that costs a little more.
Even then, the Arlo 2K Wireless Video Doorbell only really excels if you also subscribe to Arlo Secure, which adds a modest ongoing cost. If you’ve got a smaller budget, I’d recommend the TP-Link Tapo Video Doorbell Camera D235 instead. Although it’s not as slick, it costs less, and its best features come as standard.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every security camera we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main security camera for the review period
We test compatibility with the main smart systems (HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, SmartThings, IFTTT and more) to see how easy each camera is to automate.
We take samples during the day and night to see how clear each camera’s video is.
FAQs
It’s not compulsory: without a subscription you still get video calls when someone presses the bell, and you can view live video at any time. However, most of this doorbell’s best features require a subscription, which enables cloud-based video storage, and rich, accurate AI notifications.
The doorbell itself makes a soft sound to let callers know they’ve pressed the button. It also notifies you by placing a video call to your smartphone. To get a ring in your home you’ll either need to buy the Arlo digital chime, configure the doorbell with your smart speaker, or use your existing bell wiring and doorbell chime.
UK RRP
USA RRP
EU RRP
CA RRP
AUD RRP
Manufacturer
Quiet Mark Accredited
Size (Dimensions)
Weight
ASIN
Release Date
First Reviewed Date
Model Number
Resolution
Voice Assistant
Battery Length
Smart assistants
App Control
IFTTT
Camera Type
Mounting option
View Field
Recording option
Two-way audio
Night vision
Light
Motion detection
Object detection
Audio detection
Power source