我在陰暗天氣下測試 Arlo Essential Solar Security Camera，看看它能否充電

Tyler Lacoma/CNET Art

Arlo Essential Solar Security Camera

8.5

Pros & Cons

• Compact, flat design with built-in solar panel
• Very efficient battery use with multiple power management settings
• Solar panel helps battery slowly recharge with only periodic light
• Many options for various object and state detection
• Privacy and activity zones
• Reasonably affordable
• Built-in spotlight and siren

• Cam is a little heavy for the mount
• You'll have to pay a $10 subscription for any AI features or cloud storage
• Doesn't play well with squirrels or snowfall

Solar panel features help solve the decades-old question about wireless security cameras — how hard is it to keep the battery charged? These little panels are made to help charge up batteries when they get full sun exposure in good weather, but what happens when the seasons get dark and rainy? So when Arlo announced its new compact solar camera this fall, I knew I had the perfect chance to test out the home camera in downright bad conditions.

Arlo’s great design quality and wide-ranging suite of smart features remain for the flat Arlo Essential Solar Security Camera ($100), but it’s the power management features and solar performance that really won me over. Yes, the cam can charge up on surprisingly little sunlight each day, especially if you use detection settings and motion zones to record only what you want. I don’t know if the battery’s going to last all winter, but this is an excellent start.

One of the most compact solar cams I’ve tried

Many solar home security cameras use separate solar panels that you can attach to the cam or put a couple of feet away. A few, like Arlo’s new model, have a solar panel built right into the frame to save on space and management. This version, with a 14,790-mAh battery, is one of the most compact I’ve tried, although certain Eufy models offer steep competition here.

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What can’t be compared is Arlo’s design quality, which remains the best I’ve tested and one of the reasons Arlo cams are my top picks in certain security fields. This 2K-video camera is sturdy, easy to charge up for use and comes with a 12x zoom, LED spotlight, and siren, a particularly complete setup. There’s reliable color night vision, too.

My only gripe here is that the small screw-in mounting base is a bit too small for this rather heavy camera, which weighs around one pound. Also, I needed to jump up three drill bit sizes beyond what the instructions recommended for large enough anchor holes in wood, so keep that in mind if you have to drill during installation. However, once finished, I do like how I could swerve the camera in one direction or another, ideal for peeking around corners and catching more light.

All physical features performed reliably and well. I did notice a couple of seconds of lag to reach full resolution on the live view, which is something I’ll talk about later with power management settings.

Solar settings under tough conditions

I blithely disobeyed all of Arlo’s in-app installation instructions and instead installed this solar cam in one of the worst spots possible in my yard. After all, we can’t always choose the best sunlight location when there’s a specific part of the property we really need to watch. So, I placed the camera under a large tree where branches create frequent shade.

The Arlo app will signal when the camera is getting enough sunlight to charge, but it’s very picky about it. Even in my review photos, where you can see the sun shining fully on the solar panel, Arlo insisted it was not lit up. Then I made matters even worse by testing during a week of only occasional sunshine, but lots of cloudy October weather and rain showers. After all, if a solar camera can’t last through gloomy months, that means a lot of manual charging, contrary to expectations.

Arlo promises its solar panel is 33% more powerful than the competitor version, and that a fully charged battery can last six months without sunlight, long enough for the cold months if necessary. That will take time to test, but I certainly came away impressed with how much the solar cam did with so little.

After setup, the battery settled at 97% (measured via app readings), which seemed to be about a full charge for my model. As I tested motion detection, person recognition and more, the solar panel appeared to keep its end of the bargain. Even in the limited light through tree branches, maybe an hour or so of direct exposure a day, allowed the battery to keep at 97%.

During the overcast and rainy days, I pushed the battery harder with extended live view sessions and other recordings, but it only dropped a couple of percentage points after multiple tests, which means in the right conditions, the camera could conceivably last several months without needing a charge. Another day of intermittent sun helped gain back a percentage point or two of battery life as well. It’s slow, but it works.

One last note: Don’t put this solar camera near a bird feeder or similar active spot. The neighborhood squirrels quickly found a way to use mine as a jumping platform and hoist for the feeder, casting the cam askew so it didn’t get any sunlight until I moved food sources away and re-adjusted. Nearby birds, especially in a tree overhead, will also poop on the panel, creating a separate problem. A heavy snowfall is likely to block the horizontal solar panel too, so you’ll want to clear it off (especially before it melts into runoff that could harm the camera).

A word about power management settings

Arlo has included very useful power settings for this solar camera, so you can adjust how the camera records to save as much juice as possible. I spent most of my testing time in Optimized, the middle ground, with the good results I mentioned above.

There’s also a Best Video setting that enhances video results, which I used to run the battery down faster, as well as a Best Battery Life mode, and finally a Lower Power mode that takes photos instead of running the video. You can also adjust an auto-low power mode option and when it triggers.

Switching to a battery saver or low-power mode during fall and winter is another good way to save power and extend battery life as long as possible, maybe even until the warmer, sunnier seasons. If you want a solar cam, make sure it has settings like these, and you’re comfortable using them when necessary.

Arlo’s all-encompassing app

Arlo’s app is a lot for newcomers, but the company does a good job of making menus intuitive and walking people through settings. Arlo does have unique labeling for some features: You’ll have to “arm” the camera to enable most alert features, and AI detection is found under the Early Warning System, but otherwise, things work as expected.

Arlo offers more AI detection options than nearly any other security company, although others are catching up now that video descriptions (or as Arlo calls them, Event Captions) and AI video search are common. But even without those advanced options, Arlo cameras can detect people, packages, vehicles, animals and fires, as well as individual people and individual vehicles. It’s also the only brand that offers a customized detection mode that you can train yourself to recognize certain states, like an open/closed garage or a tricycle left on/off the lawn.

The detection worked fairly well, including a couple of custom states I created. However, I found that I had to put packages closer to the solar cam for them to be correctly identified, and Arlo’s app didn’t notify me when I took the package away. Also, I held a lighter in front of the camera for a while to see if it detected the flame as fire, but it never did (I chose not to light an impromptu bonfire on the grass to test it further).

You can turn all these features on or off in the app settings, along with video and spotlight brightness, two-way audio volume for the mic and speaker and more. I also really like Arlo’s dual offering of both privacy and motion zones, allowing you to block windows and choose specific areas for the motion detection features to work, helping privacy while decreasing false alerts – and saving more of that battery life.

Most of these abilities, aside from general motion detection, will require a $10-per-month subscription, including cloud video storage. It’s one area where Arlo can’t match up to non-subscription cameras that save money over time if you don’t mind only the basic object detection and local video storage management.

Final thoughts on the Arlo Essential Solar Security Camera

Arlo’s design quality remains superb, although a flat cam like this may need protection against snow and squirrels. But the most impressive part is the battery life of the Arlo Essential Solar Camera. I tested under a shady tree during an often-rainy week, and the battery still managed to slowly top itself off after multiple activations.

Your mileage will vary based on how often the camera records or how much the spotlight is used, but these results are still impressive. Add in the multiple power management features to save more battery life as needed, and this looks like an excellent choice for avoiding manual recharging as long as possible through the darker months.

The various Arlo AI detection modes also work if you want more detailed information or alerts about specific objects and events. But keep in mind, you’ll have to pay for all this, as well as cloud video storage, starting at $10 per month, but with a free trial to check out how they work. Some setups do allow for local video storage using other Arlo devices.

Overall, the cam is a strong argument for the viability of solar cameras in most homes, and like the rest of Arlo’s Essential line, it’s available at a fairly reasonable price, too.

Tyler Lacoma

Senior Editor / Home Security and Smart Home

Tyler has worked on, lived with and tested all types of smart home and security technology for over a dozen years, explaining the latest features, privacy tricks and top recommendations. With degrees in business management, literature and technical writing, Tyler takes every opportunity to play with the latest AI technology, push smart devices to their limits and occasionally throw cameras off his roof, all to find the best devices to trust in your life. He always checks with the renters (and pets) in his life to see what smart products can work for everyone, in every living situation. Living in beautiful Bend, Oregon, gives Tyler plenty of opportunities to test the latest tech in every kind of weather and temperature. But when not at work, he can be found hiking the trails, trying out a new food recipe for his loved ones, keeping up on his favorite reading or gaming with good friends. See full bio

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