Reolink Altas PT Ultra review: A battery behemoth

Battery-powered security cameras are a dime a dozen, but battery-powered security cameras that can last for more than a year on a single charge? Not so common. The new Reolink Altas PT Ultra is a battery beast, and paired with the included solar panel, it’s essentially immortal. Throw in pan-tilt coverage and 4K video quality and you’d be forgiven for thinking it sounds like the perfect camera on paper. But how does it fare in practice? We put it to the test.

The Reolink Altas PT Ultra cannot be described as anything other than an absolute unit. It’s positively gargantuan, a behemoth the likes of which has never been seen before. It’s just about the least subtle-looking security camera in the world, but that can be a good thing—one look at this intimidating beast and a would-be intruder might just think twice.

Before installing the camera, you’ll need to give it a good, long charge and download the Reolink app to get it set up with your Wi-Fi.

Because it is so big and heavy, installation is slightly trickier if you’re doing it without the help of someone else, but it’s still quite easy to mount and set up. As with most Reolink cameras, there are two mounting options. The first, and most secure, is to drill a few holes using the provided template, screw in the mounting bracket, and then attach the camera to the bracket. The second, more renter-friendly solution, is to use the included mounting strap to fasten the camera to a tree or post. It’s certainly not the most secure option, nor does it look great, but it does the job if you can’t (or don’t want to) drill any holes.

Since I test security cameras for a living and my house has enough long-forgotten mounting brackets and drill holes already, I opted for the latter method. Not pretty, but effective.

The same mounting options are available for the solar panel (should you opt to get one), along with a four-metre cable so you can place it reasonably far from the camera, allowing for placement in an area with as much sun as possible.

As we’ve come to expect from Reolink security cameras, the Altas PT Ultra offers exceptional video quality with its 8MP 4K resolution that manages to capture small details with very little distortion when zoomed in. At night, the camera’s six LED lights and large F1.0 aperture lens enable the camera to record the same level of detail and colour at night that you’d expect during the day.

One of my favourite things about the Reolink app (and the Altas PT Ultra camera in particular) is how customisable the settings are in comparison to other brands. Sure, there’s the usual stuff like adjusting motion sensitivity, setting up privacy zones and adjusting spotlight settings, but Reolink goes one (or rather, several) step further and allows you to flip the video vertically or horizontally, adjust anti-flicker, increase or decrease the brightness and shadows, so you can make sure the output is the best quality and most true-to-life that it can be. Additionally, there’s very little lag when loading the camera’s live view, so you don’t have to worry about missing a thing.

The camera is capable of 355° horizontal pan and 90° vertical tilt, so it can see into just about any corner of any space. You can also set it to track people, vehicles, animals or a combination thereof, and you can create a preset point or monitor point that effectively acts as the camera’s default position when not tracking a target.

The solar panel is quite slow to charge the camera, but that’s somewhat forgiven considering the size of the battery. As long as the Altas PT Ultra is fully charged when you first install it, the solar panel does more than enough to keep it juiced—especially if you’ve set it up somewhere particularly sunny. Without the solar panel, you’re still looking at a whopping 16 months of battery life when set to its standard working mode (motion-triggered recording only), however, this is reduced to four days of 24-hour continuous recording and eight days of 12-hour-per-day continuous recording. Realistically, non-stop continuous recording isn’t something the average person is going to need very often, but it’s handy to have if you’re going away for a long weekend.

Battery-powered security cameras—especially multi-camera systems—can be costly and difficult to manage if they need regular recharging. The Reolink Altas PT Ultra kills three birds with one stone, with its gigantic battery that only requires a recharge every 16 months, no ongoing fees, and the fact that it could feasibly replace multiple cameras thanks to its pan-tilt coverage and motion-tracking capabilities. Add in the included solar panel that allows it to stay powered 24/7/365 and you’ve got yourself a true set-and-forget kind of device. No, it’s not the most sleek or subtle-looking camera you can buy, but when we’re talking security, that can often be a good thing.