Reolink Argus Pro Wire-Free Camera Review

TweakTown's Rating: 86%

The Bottom Line

With its incredible price, the Argus Pro is a fantastic entry for those wanting to add security cameras to their home without the mess of wires.

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The wire-free camera market has ramped up very quickly, and apart from Arlo that seemingly started it all, Reolink has done a marvelous job with its Argus lineup. With now three Argus models under their belt and another on the way its easily the biggest competitor in terms of quality and bang for your buck.

The Argus Pro is very similar to Argus 2 reviewed here a year ago. In fact, the only difference on paper is the CMOS sensor has been changed from the Starlight model to a standard, and the mounting is no longer magnetic. The rest of the camera all the way down to the design is the same which means we still have 1080p resolution and a 130-degree viewing angle. Night vision is listed at 33ft, and it records on motion to both onboard and cloud storage. Video format is H.264 for efficiency, and the camera has a 6x digital zoom.

Further specs include operation over 2.4GHz 802.11bgn networks, support for a 64GB microSD, 5200mah battery and it is IP65 certified. MSRP of the Reolink Argus Pro comes in at $94.99 beginning with a two-year warranty.

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Packaging too hasn't changed much since Argus 2; we still have the black box with an image of the camera centered

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The backside offers a few more details about the camera.

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Scope of delivery includes the camera and rigid mount, battery to the right along with silicone sleeve to the left. Down below we have a charge cable and reading materials.

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As discussed, the Argus Pro is working off the same form factor as Argus 2, with this, the battery used in both models is the same. Above we have the 5200mah 3.6v li-ion.

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Looking at the camera, we have the same overall body lens at the top surrounded by IR LEDs.

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On the right side, we have a silicon cover that moves out of the way to expose the microSD slot and reset button.

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On the backside, which happens to be the battery itself, we have the micro USB charge port.

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Reolink sent over their solar panel to make testing much easier.

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As is past Reolink articles, the app works with almost their entire lineup. You will need to create an account but it's quick and painless.

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Once you have your account setup and run through setup which again is very quick as you may have seen in past reviews, you can run through your cameras settings. In the Argus Pro, this includes battery life at the top followed by display settings and down below alarm and notifications. Further down you can choose to enable audio recording, IR LEDs and the blue status LED.

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This above is the default view when you load the app. Seen above we have a small viewfinder with pause, snapshot and record controls along with quality and screen size.

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So above, we have the Arlo Ultra on the top and Argus Pro on the bottom, these cameras were placed side by side on the same day and time for this image. As you can see Arlo brings in a bunch more light by default whereas Argus is an overall much darker but with deeper color.

The Argus Pro is an interesting solution, and moreover, I think it muddies the waters when looking at Reolinks lineup. With the Argus Pro and Argus 2, both cameras have the same price, warranty, and features including 1080p resolution, microSD recording, two-way audio and IP65 certification, the only real thing that sets them apart is "Starlight night vision."

With all that out of the way I can say the build quality of the Argus Pro was fantastic, the plastics all feel quite good, and apart from needing the silicon sleeve to use it outdoors in the weather, the aesthetics are just as good as any other wire-free solution. I do like Reolink offers accessories such as secondary batteries and the solar panel for those that don't want the hassle of recharging batteries manually and more importantly, they have been able to do this rather cheaply.

Streaming quality is pretty good with the Argus Pro there are random times when even at 15 feet from the router, the wireless connection will be so poor it will tell you to switch to a lower resolution and I have yet to get microSD recording to work at all, but they do offer a free cloud option.

Even with these small issues the Argus Pro and the Argus 2 for that matter are both great turnkey options for creating a web of cameras for your home or office and with pricing at $94.99 for the Pro and $104.99 for the 2 it really is hard to beat.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Prime Z370 (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: Intel Core i3 8350K (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB 4x8GB DDR4 3200 (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro H115i (buy from Amazon)
• Case: Corsair Air 540 (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Samsung 960 EVO 250GB (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)
• Wi-Fi NIC: ASUS PCE-AC88 (buy from Amazon)
• 10Gbe NIC: ASUS XG-C100C (buy from Amazon)
• Thunderbolt 3: ASUS Thunderbolt EX3 (buy from Amazon)