Today, I’ll be showing you the Arlo Security Light. A wire free battery powered smart light. I am going to do the unboxing, review of the features, setup and settings, installation, testing it out, integrating the light with my Arlo Pro 2 cameras and also setting it up with Amazon Alexa. At the end, we will try answering the question.. is it worth it?
So, let’s check out the features…
BTW this is an expensive security light – $150 bucks for 1 light; 250 for 2 lights…
This is 100% Wire Free Battery powered smart light.
It is weather resistant with an IP65 rating.
It uses a rechargeable battery – it is the same battery that is used in the Arlo Pro 2.
It is a smart light which uses the Arlo app to manage and automate your light from anywhere.
It uses PIR motion sensor that can detect movement up to 23 feet.
You will get instant push notifications to your smart phone or in your email.
It is a multi colored LED light so you can select from millions of colors and the white light can have up to 400 lumens which I was really hoping that it was brighter.
The lights are customizable..you can change colors, adjust intensity or make it flash.
It has a scheduling feature and can work with your Arlo cameras like to record when the light detects motion.
It work with both Amazon Alexa and IFTTT integration.
So, let’s open up the box..
We have a window sticker
We have a quick start guide
micro USB charging cable
A rechargeable battery
An all metal mount
A power adapter
The Arlo light itself.
Build quality is pretty good…
In the front we have the LED lights, we have the sensor on the bottom part.
At the back is the screw mount and above that is the battery compartment.
Lastly, we have the Arlo Bridge to extend the Wifi signal.
Now, let’s set it up.
Download or open up the app and click on “add device”
Scroll down and click on “Arlo Security Light”
Now, I’m going to pause this video here for a while to show you that this part is a bit confusing. You have 3 options on how to setup the light. I bought the light kit with the Arlo bridge so, normally you will pick the top option but when I did that to mine, it guided me to setup the bridge first..then that’s it. No prompt to tell me to setup the light or to sync it to the light…so basically it is the same setup if you chose “Arlo bridge” at the bottom…I still have to manually go back to this page and click “setup security light” to sync my light to the Arlo bridge.
So, I clicked the top option… and make sure your bluetooth is turned on..
Using your phone’s camera, scan the QR code on the back of the Arlo bridge.
Then, plug in the bridge to an electrical outlet.
Wait for a minute until the light changes to blinking amber…
Press and hold the sync button for 5 seconds until the LED changes to blinking blue…
Select your WiFi network and type in your password.
Update the firmware when prompted…
This is where it stops and the bridge should be installed when you end up on the main app page. Now, it doesn’t prompt you to install the light…
So, you have to go back to the setup page and select ” Arlo Security Light”
which will prompt you again on checking updates…click continue..
Scan the QR code of the light now which is inside the battery compartment.
Put in the battery and click continue…push the sync button for 5 seconds and wait for the blinking blue light… then both the bridge and the Arlo light should be syncing which can take a while…
Name the light and you should be done…
An on and off toggle switch should now appear on the main app page…
More than half of this video is just for setting up this light..and that is with speeding up on the video editing…it took me around 15 to 20 minutes to initally set this up which includes updating the firmware and trying to figure out the sequence of steps…which can be confusing…
Now, let’s turn it on… pretty decent light but it is only 400 lumens…I have a feeling this is not enough light to change the Arlo Camera’s mode to color which I’m hoping this light will do… we will see later on.
Now, let’s check the settings… click the gear icon to go to the light settings…which shows the name, battery and connection..
We can change the brightness, the color…which we can also select single color or multi color… and we can edit and choose a color on a color pallette which basically you can change it to any color that you want…
If you choose multicolor, let’s see what it will look like…
Cool… so it will toggle between different colors… Nice but why would I do that for a security light…to make the bad guy, stop and stare in amazement? hmmm… anyways…
So, we have the “flash” option which you can choose between slow or fast flashes.. let’s check out the fast one… cool… I thought it would be more of a strobe like…
Then we have the light duration which you can set how long the light will turn on… from 5 minutes to always on… remember guys this is battery powered…so the shorter the better…
Then we have motion detection test.. you can set the sensitivity of the PIR motion sensor just like the cameras..
And also a range finder test…so that you can find the best placement for the light and the bridge and making sure they have a strong connection.
If you go to “mode” on the bottom, you can change the mode of the light..you can arm, disarm, schedule and also there is geofencing options. On the armed mode, you can change the settings… by clicking on the little pencil icon..
You can set it to send you an alert and turn on the light when it senses motion…
If you have the Arlo cameras, you can add them to the rule settings like if you want it to record also when the light senses motion… this is a nice feature and you can customize the cameras to record even if they were not triggered.
You can change the recording rule to record until the motion stops or specify how many seconds to record when triggered by the light.
Setting up with Amazon Alexa is pretty easy. Just go to the alexa app, choose skills and search for Arlo..
Click enable and you have to link up your Arlo account with Amazon alexa… so type in your email and password..
Click “allow” and you need to search for new devices and the Arlo light and cameras should show up…
Which you should be able to control the Arlo light from the Alexa app… or you can use voice control…
Time for installation which is pretty quick and easy.. You can install the light with the included mount either in a wall or a ceiling…
Now, it is time to test the light’s features and also will test the video footage with the lights on with my Arlo Pro 2 camera. We will check first how bright the light is but it will not be really accurate because my video camera will compensate and it will show that it will be brighter than what it really is… it does ok but I wish it could have been brighter.
Now, let’s see how the motion detection works.. I’ll be walking in front of the Arlo light around 10 feet from it.
It works pretty good…just like any other motion activated light out there..
Now, let’s see the difference on the footage of Arlo Pro 2 without the light and with the light on…
With the light on..it is much clearer… and by the way this is a 150 dollar light… the Arlo Pro’s 2 night vision is pretty good but if the difference by adding 150 dollars to the video quality is this… I’ll probably pass…
What if the video footage would be like this?…this one is with my 1500 lumen floodlight on which turned off my Arlo Pro 2’s night vision and it is in full color… this is what I expected this 150 dollar light will do… but it didn’t…
Lastly, I will show you a glimpse of the Reolink Argus 2 which I’ll be comparing with the Arlo Pro 2 on my next video…I set the argus to color mode and with the Arlo Light on…
So, what do you think guys?
s the Arlo Security Light worth it? Well, there are way cheaper battery powered and motion activated lights out there. It does help with the black and white night vision quality but it should be better if the footage is in color… So, comment down below what you all think? Reolink should release their own battery powered security lights because the Argus footage looked pretty good with the 400 lumen Arlo light…
Arlo Security Light – amzn.to/2IMOp6P Arlo Pro 2 Wireless Camera – amzn.to/2LwM25V Reolink Argus 2 – shrsl.com/xtz8