Outdoor security cameras are great, but there’s always a trade-off. On the one hand, wired cameras work year-round without your intervention, but they’re limited to areas where wires run. On the other, battery-powered options offer flexible placement, but you’ll have to take them down every few weeks or months to charge them. Then there are solar cameras, a whole category of ostensibly wire-free cameras that, ideally, give you the best of both worlds.

I’ve been putting the Arlo Essential Solar Camera through its paces. It’s a broad, flat, $100 outdoor camera with a large, square solar panel taking up most of its top side. Arlo says it can run for up to six months on battery alone and year-round on as little as two hours of direct sunlight per day. Like most battery-powered security cameras, it doesn’t record continuously; instead, it captures clips when it detects motion.

There are asterisks on its solar capability, though. Arlo acknowledges in the fine print on the Essential Solar’s product page that “battery life will vary with settings, use, activity captured, and environment,” which is true of any such device, solar or not. Still, it’s good if its solar panel means slower battery consumption, especially if you’re planning to put your camera up somewhere that requires a ladder to reach. Would I recommend the Essential Solar Camera over competing options from the likes of Eufy and Reolink? Not for most people, no, but it’s not for lack of quality. As ever, with me, it’s about the cost of a cloud-based subscription plan and poor local storage options.

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