Review: The Arlo Floodlight Camera Has My Backyard Covered, and It’s Under $100 for Black Friday

When we bought our house in late 2022, fixing the light by the back entry door was a top priority. It was an ugly bare bulb, it had come detached from the stucco and was always threatening to fall off, and it had an attached motion detector that no longer detected motion.

If you too are the owner of a fixer-upper, you’ll understand when I say that I hadn’t gotten around to actually replacing it some two years later—until I got a chance to test out a wired floodlight security light and camera from Arlo. It’s currently 33% off at Home Depot for Black Friday, bringing the price down to under $100, and I think it’s a great buy. Let me tell you why.

Who is Arlo?

Arlo may not be quite as familiar a name in the home camera business as Blink or Ring, but that’s probably because both of those devices are owned by Amazon, which has a vested interest in making sure they are prominently displayed on Amazon. But Arlo has been around quite a while too, and is actually more focused on security services than some of its competitors, and began its life as a subsidiary of Netgear before being spun off into its own company in 2018.

While Blink tends to cater to entry-level shoppers looking for cameras that integrate with their existing smart assistants, Arlo’s offerings are a bit more robust and security-focused—they market DIY whole-home security systems, including cameras, lights, alarms, and subscription monitoring services.

If you just need an outdoor light with a camera, Arlo may be a little too much for you. But if you’re looking for a solution that will add a camera, improve your lighting, and increase your peace of mind, it’s a good option.

The Arlo wired floodlight camera is an easy upgrade

Part of the reason I avoided fixing my light for two years was that I assumed I’d need to hire an electrician, but this Arlo floodlight was simple enough to handle myself. The package includes a QR code you can scan to view an installation video that walks you through connecting the wires to your existing outdoor electrical box and mounting the light, which gave me the confidence to try it out (once I was sure I’d turned off the power at the fuse box—if you aren’t sure about that part, definitely don’t try to install this or any wired fixture yourself).

If you can work a screwdriver and match wire colors, you can definitely install this yourself (provided you have the correct existing mounts) in 10 minutes or less.

Arlo wired floodlight camera: a good mix of features and price

Though I was replacing a mere naked bulb, I wanted something a bit more robust to light up my backyard, and Arlo’s floodlight camera fit my needs. It has two bright LED lights that are powerful enough to light up the entire space (granted, I live in Brooklyn, so my backyard isn’t exactly huge, but it extends a good 45 feet from the back door), including a sandbox and swing set when my kid and his friends from the block like to play—often, in the later months of the year, after it’s pretty dark.

The floodlight does the job—the 2,000 lumens beams light up the space well without being blinding, and you can dial their intensity up or down via the app (more on that shortly).

The motion detection is adjustable, if you’d prefer not to receive alerts every time a squirrel wanders through the yard, and I found it worked well to detect movement in the yard in the most well-lit areas, though sometimes if the kids were way in back near the swing (about 35 feet from the camera), it could be hit or miss.

The 2K camera also works very well. It has a 160º field of view and, like the lights, is easy to position to give you the best view of the space you’re monitoring. You can view what the camera sees at any time from the app, and the camera will also record videos whenever it detects movement and deliver them to your phone.

Video quality is pretty excellent—you can pinch and zoom to see details. One evening I walked to my garage to get something and noticed a big critter scurry away before I could see what it was. I checked the camera’s recording (which switched on when I walked into the yard), and was able to determine what it was—a cat, if you’re curious. I was worried it was a possum, or even a big rat (hey, it’s Brooklyn).

The camera works day and night, and I found the night vision to be fairly impressive, especially nearer to the camera (25 feet or so)—rather than the greenish hue from some cameras, this one uses invisible infrared LEDs to produce a color image.

A full-featured (but slightly confusing) app

The real test of any smart home device is the app you use to manage it, and Arlo’s is pretty decent. I only have the one device, but you can use the Arlo Secure app to control all of your Arlo devices at once, including switching them on and off, setting routines, and more. Once it’s installed, setting up your floodlight camera is as simple as pairing it with the app (make sure you have a good wifi signal to your yard—I had to add a wifi range extender in the kitchen to get mine to reliably connect).

It’s worth noting that to get the most out of the floodlight camera, you’ll need to pay for a monthly subscription, starting at around $7 per month. Without a paid plan, the camera offers motion detection and live monitoring via the app, but few other bells and whistles. The floodlight comes with a free 30-day trial, so you can familiarize yourself with what it includes and decide if it’s worth paying for, and at what level:

• Basic ($6.67/month for a single camera) offers 30-day video history, motion detection (people/vehicles/animals) and smart activity zones.

• Plus ($15/month for unlimited cameras) adds package detection, facial and vehicle recognition that can ID familiar people and cars, and audio monitoring.

• Premium ($20.83/month) adds professional 24/7 live monitoring and emergency response, as well as a possible discount on your homeowners insurance.

Set motion zones and configure notifications

You’ll use the app to customize your settings and configure your alerts. For example, you can adjust the intensity of the floodlight, set motion zones if the camera covers areas you don’t want to monitor, and configure alerts to determine with notifications will actually make it to your phone (maybe you want to know if the camera spots a person, but you don’t need to know there’s a cat in the yard).

Credit: Screenshot by Joel Cunningham

Speaking of which, the camera is able to differentiate what kind of motion it’s detecting, and it will be specific when it sends you an alert. Different modes of detection include people, vehicles, animals, packages. The Feed tab shows an archive of everything the camera has recorded for the past month (provided you have a subscription plan). Videos load fairly quickly and are sorted by date and type of motion, making it easy to find the one you want.

You can set routines to determine when the camera will be monitoring, and choose from three settings (Standby, Arm Home, and Arm Away) to control how it behaves based on whether you’re home or not. You can also set emergency alerts, including whether the light will sound a siren when it detects motion.

Credit: Screenshot by Joel Cunningham

You can also contact emergency services via the app. When you trigger one of the alerts (via tapping in the Emergency tab) an Arlo Emergency Alert will contact first responders. It’s not quite live security monitoring, but it’s a nice-to-have if you’re thinking of this floodlight as a component of your home security system.

The bottom line

If you’re just looking for a basic light with a camera, the Arlo is probably overkill—though it will certainly do the job, to get the most out of it (and to justify the $150 list price), it’s probably best to think of it more as a home security device that requires a monthly subscription.

On that score, it performs well, capturing and storing clear, detailed video and offering accurate, sensitive motion detection. I was pleased enough that after my free 30-day trial of Arlo Secure elapsed, I re-upped for a monthly subscription, which is the best endorsement you’re going to get from me, a legendary tightwad.