There are a lot of different home security cameras on the market at all sorts of price ranges. Even the entry level cameras from manufactures with names I can’t even begin to pronounce can give you a decent picture and even feature basic night vision features. In my years writing I’ve tested a number of security cameras and have several brands installed on home and the home of my family. With that said, Reolink have something special on their hands with their new Argus 4 Pro (releasing July 15th) security camera. It’s on another level in terms of style, simplicity, app integration, and features that I’m ready to ditch every other camera I own.
One thing that that sets the Argus 4 Pro apart from a lot of other cameras is the fact that it’s battery powered. This means that installation is about as easy as it comes with only a couple of screws and no wires to be found. It even comes with straps to allow easy mounting to pipes, trees, and other hard-to-mount places on your property. With a 5,000mAh battery built into the very sleek and robot-head looking camera you can expect a few months of recording before needing a charge. And for those that don’t want to deal with any sort of charging Reolink includes a solar panel that keeps the camera charged and running without any intervention. The solar panel comes included with the Argus Pro+ bundle but can be purchased separately as well.
The camera itself also shines in a lot of ways. First of note is that the Argus 4 Pro features 4K video making for some of the clearest pictures and video that I’ve seen in any camera. In this modern age it’s more important than ever to have a clear picture to catch as much detail as possible in people and vehicles in order to provide a better level of safety and security. You can easily catch a license plate of any car that comes near your average suburban driveway. The dual lenses provide for an ultra-wide angle allowing for a 180 degree horizontal view and 50 degree vertical view. This means you’ll be able to capture far more than just about any other 4K security camera that we’ve seen on the market.
One feature that I really appreciate is the mask functionality that a lot of people will love because of the incredibly wide viewing angle. The Argus 4 Pro allows for activity and privacy zones to be created that allow you to block out motion detection in certain areas you select allowing you to pause alerts in high traffic areas. You can easily block detection where a dog plays, a flag that often flaps in the wind, public spaces that you might live near and more. And if you want more protection for certain areas of your camera’s view you can add black boxes to certain segments as to not record a neighbors backyard or pool. I know cameras can feel like an invasion of property, especially for those mounted in backyards, so being able to show your neighbor that you aren’t capturing them in their spaces will make for much happier living experience.
Reolink also has included a pretty amazing AI-powered object detection system that you can tweak to fit your home needs. You can select an object and tell the Argus 4 Pro to alert you when certain detection of that kind happen. If you live in a high traffic area you might want to ignore cars passing by so as not to get an alert every few seconds. You can select a human being on camera and tell the Argus 4 Pro to ignore anything larger. In my case I live in a low traffic area and want to be alerted of any car vehicle coming by for added security. That’s the great thing about the Argus 4 Pro, the ability to finely tune how you want the camera to work for you and easily make changes when your needs change.
And the last major camera feature comes in the form of Reolink’s ColorX technology that the Argus 4 Pro features. This night vision technology is pretty special in that the camera uses a F1.0 super aperture with 1/1.8″ sensor that allows you to see color in the very low light and the dark, even in areas with no electric powered lighting. The ColorX inside the camera comes in at 0.0005 LUX (most security cameras feature a 1.0 LUX rating). This low rating means the Argus 4 Pro is one of the most impressive cameras when recording at night. Inside the Argus 4 Pro is an Image Signal Processing chip that allows for true color when recording at night. And while this technology is impressive on its own, it’s implementation also makes for better overall battery life, (Reolink claim 30% when compared to standard IR nigh cams) a claim other camera’s simply can’t make.
There is a whole lot to like about the Argus 4 Pro, but there always comes that one thing that usually drives people crazy, and that’s the storage. With every other security camera that I own, no matter how cheap or how expensive, the cloud storage drives me nuts. Not in the fact that it exists as It’s a fine enough feature, but in how every company tries to up-sell their cloud storage every single time I open their dedicated app. Each of these various security cameras allow for local storage through a microSD card but even with one installed many features are either blocked or they ask to subscribe to their cloud storage making accessing your content a pain and hassle every time.
Reolink doesn’t do this and won’t try to up-sell you on their $6.99 (for their standard) a month cloud subscription service. You can instead load up a 128GB microSD card and keep everything offline without any pressure to subscribe to a service. Reolink even go as far as offering a Home Hub (for an additional cost) to expand local storage via additional micoSD slots, FTP upload, and NAS support that allows you to easily backup all your footage allowing for nearly unlimited storage depending on your setup without input or interference from Reolink.
When you sit back and start comparing features you quickly realize that Reolink has a product that’s really hard to beat. The Argus 4 Pro has enough features for even the most serious of security-focused homeowners while allowing you to easily control your own content without reliance on any sort of subscription model. You can currently pre-order the Argus Pro 4 for yourself ahead of its official launch on July 15th at a pretty nice discount, so if you are looking to upgrade or even begin your home security journey, there is no better time than right now!
*A product was provided for this review with no editorial oversight prior to posting*
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