With the Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free, Arlo revisits its first Video Doorbell by adding a battery. It can therefore operate wirelessly and is more suitable for homes without an electrical installation for a doorbell.
The Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free is an interesting doorbell. More flexible in installation than its predecessor thanks to its battery, it produces videos in square format which not only allow visitors to be seen from head to toe, but also the packages left in front of the door. The latter can even be recognized but, as always with Arlo, you have to extend the currency to take advantage of the most advanced functions, and even functions as basic as recording.
Strong points
- Wireless or wired installation.
- Good daytime image quality.
- Very effective motion detection.
- Detection of people, vehicles and packages.
- Cloud or local storage (with base).
Weak points
- Many options reserved for Arlo Secure subscribers.
- App a little difficult to understand.
- Sound a little weak with the microphone and speaker.
- Chime optional.
NB: The reported price drop is calculated by comparing the lowest price of the day with the average of the lowest prices charged by all merchants for the product last month, with security rules to exclude the prices of stores whose the VAT policy is not clear (so-called “gray” stores, typically in the case of imports from China).
Alternatively
With features that are as relevant as they are effective, but also free, the Nest Doorbell (battery) makes an excellent connected doorbell. The possibility of using it on battery or wired is another nice plus, as is the possibility of transforming Nest speakers and screens (or those integrating Google Assistant) into 2.0 chimes. It’s a shame, however, that in the absence of a microSD port you still have to pay to enjoy more than 3 hours of video history. As for the image quality, it remains a notch below that of the best models in our comparison.