Reolink Argus PT Pro Smart 2K 4MP Pan & Tilt Wire-Free Camera review

REVIEW – As a techie nerd, it was a foregone conclusion that once I purchased a house it would be a technical maze of gadgets that would attempt to or would automate as many tasks and conveniences as possible. One such category is security cameras and I seem to be so obsessed with them that I decided that there would not be any blind spots around my home. While I have almost accomplished this task, I still have a couple of blind spots that need to be addressed, and this Reolink Argus PT Pro Smart 2K 4MP Pan & Tilt Wire-Free Camera should get me one step closer.

What is it?

The Reolink Argus PT Pro Smart 2K 4MP Pan & Tilt Wire-Free Camera is fully equipped, small, and smart. It is battery powered and with the solar-powered option, it remains powered. It features person/vehicle detection, night vision, two-way audio, supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz (5.8 GHz), and voice control via Google Nest Hub or Chromecast-enabled TVs.  You can save your recordings locally to a Micro SD card (up to 128GB) and receive real-time alerts via an app, email, and siren.

What’s in the box

1 x Reolink Argus PT Pro Smart 2K 4MP Pan & Tilt Wire-Free Camera
1 x Mounting Bracket
1 x Mounting Template
1 x Reset Needle
1 x Strap
1 x Security Sticker
1 x Mounting Kit
1 x Quick Start Guide

1 x Solar Panel and Mounting Bracket

Design and features

Features

Specifications

The body of the camera is made of plastic and is waterproof. The lens is on the front and the connections and built-in storage option on the back. The mount for the mounting hardware is underneath. Almost the entire surface of one side of the solar panel is panels, and the attached cable and mount are on the opposite side.

Performance

The first important step to setting up the Reolink Argus PT Pro camera is to fully charge the battery. There is a red/green indicator to confirm the charge level.

Once the camera was charged, I mounted it to the side of my garage and the solar panel to the back of the garage where it would get full sun. Here are my installation steps. (Ignore the white camera base to the left. That is from a previous camera that failed)









Once I installed the camera, it was easy to connect to the app in order to set up and manipulate the camera:

The image quality of the Reolink Argus PT Pro camera is great and the pan and tilt work well. The solar panel keeps the battery charged which makes this camera truly wireless. The person recognition works well but it does pick up movement other than people that includes squirrels and when the cover on the canopy on my deck is moving a lot because of the wind.

Here are some screenshots:
Night:

Day:

Another angle using the pan/tilt:

Overall, the Reolink Argus PT Pro is a really good home security camera that so far has withstood the New York sun, rain, snow, and freezing cold temps.

What I like

• Build quality
• Dual-band frequency
• Great Pan and tilt feature
• It is truly waterproof
• Great image quality and fluid video

What I’d change

• Maybe just a better way for the solar panel wire to be routed from the camera through the mount

Final thoughts

There are a huge number of companies that produce security cameras, and most of them boast similar features. However, not all of them are created equal. I really like this Reolink camera. Connection to my network was easy and it has worked flawlessly. I have never had it disconnect from my network which is remarkable since I have other cameras installed from some major brands and they do disconnect from time to time. The image quality on this camera is great and it sits out in the sun and rain and cold with no issues. I would buy another one without hesitation. I give it a well done and two thumbs up!!

Price: $159.99
Where to buy: Reolink website and you can also find many of their cameras on Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Reolink