ZDNET's key takeaways

• It offers one of the easiest setups you'll ever find for such a device, making it ideal for first-time smart home users.
  
• The lens does have a fisheye effect, but that's to be expected.

My wife and I switched from Ring to Nest doorbells about a year ago, and we haven't regretted the decision since. What I didn't like about Ring doorbells was that the image quality wasn't all that great, and they weren't exactly reliable. You never knew if someone pressed the doorbell if the chime would actually sound off.

Although we really like the Nest doorbells (much better picture quality and reliability), the setup can be a bit frustrating.

So, when Arlo sent me its 2K Video Doorbell, I was pretty excited to compare it to both Ring and Nest options. Although I'd never used products from the company, I came away surprised at how well the device functioned.

The specs

As with most doorbells, you have the option to go with a free or paid feature plan. If you opt to go with the free plan, you can still use the video doorbell, but you won't be able to save video recordings, which is the main appeal of the paid plan. This is fairly standard for video doorbell services, regardless of the manufacturer. 

Should you pay more, the premium plan adds 30-day video cloud storage, people/package/vehicle detection, 24/7 emergency response, and other small but practical benefits. My suggestion is to start with the free plan to see if you need the extra features, then try the trial plan and cancel it at any time. You can read more about the Arlo Secure Plan to determine if it's what you need.

My experience

My immediate take on the Arlo Video Doorbell is that it's far easier to set up than the competition. Within 10 minutes, I had it up and running. The only reason it took that long was because there was a firmware update on the initial boot. Otherwise, you could have cut that setup time down to less than 5 minutes, with most of the labor involved with screwing in the camera.

As far as the video quality is concerned, as I said, it's an improvement over my previous Ring. Don't expect high-definition playback -- this is a 2K video doorbell and not a 4K one -- and the output will appear with the fish-eye effect. That means the sides of the video will be warped out so as to display more of your surroundings. See below for an example.

Even so, the quality is surprisingly clear. You can change the resolution between 1944 x 1944, 1536 x 1536, and 1080 x 1080. You can also enable or disable Auto HDR, adjust the brightness, and flicker from the phone app. Anyone who likes to tweak settings will find the Arlo to be very accommodating.

To further test, I rang the doorbell through a few trials and came away with the following opinions:

• The audio volume is on par with most traditional doorbells.
• Video is better than Ring, but not quite as good as Nest.
  
• Setup is the easiest I've experienced for any video doorbell.
  

One other quality that I really appreciate about this video doorbell is that you don't have to purchase different units for either battery or wired power. If you want to use the battery, just charge it up and mount it. If you want to use it wired, connect the included wires, and you're good to go. This is a great option for anyone who's not sure how they plan on powering the doorbell.

ZDNET's buying advice

If you need a video doorbell and aren't sure if you want to go with battery or wired power, you can't go wrong with the Arlo 2K Video Doorbell. Given that the video and audio quality are on par with the competition, and the price is right at $129, this is a nice option.

Just remember, if you opt-in for the trial period, make sure to cancel it when it's over (unless you want to go ahead and pay for one of the plans, which will run you $7.99/month (Secure), $17.99/month (Secure Plus), or $24.99/month (Safe & Secure Pro).