Arlo Pro 4 vs. Arlo Ultra: Who’s for the win?

If you have decided to protect your home with video surveillance cameras, and you want to buy high-quality equipment, then the company Arlo is what you need. It produces some of the best security cameras that include high-quality night vision, uptime, and security measures. There is only one question: which model is best for me? In this article, we compare the Arlo Pro 4 with the Arlo Ultra across all criteria so you can decide for yourself which option is perfect for you.

Arlo Pro 4 vs Arlo Ultra: Price and Availability

Last year the company released a new Arlo Ultra 2 and since then you won’t find the previous Arlo Ultra model on the developer’s website anymore, the reason could be that the specifications of these cameras are almost the same. The main difference is that Arlo Ultra 2 is capable of a wider range of Wi-Fi connections. In spite of all this, Arlo Ultra is still available on other commercial websites and will be priced at around $300.

The Arlo Pro 4 is a more recent and more affordable model since it was released in 2020. Its price is equal to about $180, the camera is also sold in a kit that consists of three of these cameras and will cost you $500. Its advantage is that it doesn’t need Arlo smart hubs to connect to your network and that’s why its price is so different.

Arlo Pro 4 vs Arlo Ultra: Performance comparison

The main difference between the ultra wifi pro is the quality of video playback:

  • The picture quality of the Arlo Ultra reaches 4k and uses an 8MP image sensor to display as wide a range of pictures as possible. This feature makes it easy to recognize faces in videos
  • Video resolution on Arlo Pro 4 almost reaches 2k, which is above average because most cameras run at 1080p

And before you draw the obvious conclusions, there are a few nuances that need to be clarified. The thing is that before you buy a camera you need to consider your internet speed, because if it is not powerful enough then even 4k quality can easily turn into 1080p. Arlo Pro 4 in this regard consumes much less network and accordingly plays the picture better.

The bandwidth will also be reduced, the better the quality, the less your battery will last.

Arlo Pro 4 vs. Arlo Ultra Smart hubs and storage

Arlo Pro 4 is a more affordable security camera in every sense because unlike Arlo Ultra it is completely independent of base stations and smart hubs.

But at the same time, this drawback in the Ultra model overrides the ability to insert microSD and USB 2.0 to store all video recordings on them. So you can do without cloud storage services.  Another big advantage of Arlo Ultra is the free one-year subscription to Arlo Smart Premier. This subscription gives you benefits such as:

  • Free video storage on the cloud for 30 days
  • Use AI to distinguish people, animals, and objects in the camera range
  • Ability to trigger alerts from specific activity areas only

Arlo Pro 4 also has this subscription, but it only lasts for three months.