Reolink Altas PT Ultra: Your Award-Winning All-Seeing Eye

Smart home technology is all the rage these days, and for good reason. Even putting aside the baseline cool factor, turning your home into an interconnected ecosystem gives you a much greater degree of control over your various devices, all commanded from the smartphone in your hand. Perhaps more importantly, smart home tech pairs excellently with security systems, giving you an instant eye-in-the-sky whenever or wherever you need it in and around your home.

Industry leader Reolink certainly understands the importance and appeal of smart security, having made its business in reliable, high-quality products, authentic dedication to the pursuit of better, pioneering technology, and an open-minded, user-centric approach. All of these qualities and more have led Reolink to its latest brainchild — the Altas PT Ultra security camera. This new device was one of Reolink's centerpieces at the 2024 IFA trade show in Berlin. IFA is the largest consumer and home electronic show in the world, but among the massive selection of products, Reolink's Altas PT Ultra was so impressive that SlashGear gave it an Innovation Award. Here's why.

One of the annoying things about some security cameras is that they can't function efficiently under their own power. They either need to be in the proximity of a power outlet or elaborately wired into your home power grid, and if there is a battery, it needs to be recharged constantly. The Reolink Altas PT Ultra doesn't have that problem. This camera is packing an absolute beastly 20,000mAh battery pack, twice the capacity of comparable battery cameras. While in its standard working mode, the camera has enough internal juice to sustain itself for up to 16 months before needing a recharge.

When switching to recording mode, more power does get used, but the Altas PT Ultra is no pushover. The camera can record in 4K quality for up to 12 straight hours, and even if you were to use that entire recording capacity every single day, the camera's power would last eight days. Through the Reolink mobile app and desktop client, you can customize the camera's recording schedule, both to get coverage when you really need it and to optimize the battery usage.

For an extra layer of optimization, the Altas PT Ultra features a first-of-its-kind pre-recording option, which allows it to capture the moments leading up to a motion sensor trigger event, as opposed to only winking on after the sensor has been tripped. This helps to ensure that an entire security risk event is captured on camera, instead of just the tail-end of it.

Some security cameras have an exclusively "one or the other" approach when it comes to times of day. Some cameras can only do daytime viewing, while others are only built for night vision. The Reolink Altas PT Ultra brings us the best of both worlds with its ability to switch vision types on the fly. This is thanks to Reolink's proprietary ColorX technology, bringing true-to-life color to both daytime and nighttime views for the utmost in recording accuracy. Your nighttime footage in particular doesn't need to be rendered in black and white or radioactive green like with most night vision cameras; you can get just as much color as you would during the day.

The camera is equipped with an ultra-large F1.0 aperture lens and an 1/1.8-inch sensor. This hardware allows the camera to take in up to four times more light than a typical infrared camera, which in turn allows it to generate more detailed images even in low-light scenarios. Not only is this great for seeing everything in your recorded footage, but because the lens and sensor are so sensitive, you don't even need a separate spotlight or infrared sensor installed nearby to add extra illumination.

When installing a security camera in or around your home, you may need to think a bit about how much the camera is actually capable of seeing, not to mention where it can be safely placed without damaging anything. The Reolink Altas PT Ultra expertly assuages both of these concerns with its all-seeing rotating view and its placement adaptability.

The camera features 355-degree horizontal rotation, as well as 90-degree vertical rotation, virtually eliminating all possible blind spots. While it can be manually moved around via the app, you can also set up custom motion tracking events for things like people, pets, and cars. You can even designate up to 64 guard points within the camera's view to automatically track anything that passes that specific area, ensuring round-the-clock coverage where it matters most.

The Altas PT Ultra comes with a set of versatile mounting brackets, allowing it to be set up just about anywhere, whether it's in your living room or over your driveway. It can be angled and mounted on both walls and ceilings, so there's sure to be at least one spot where you can safely stick it. In the specific case of outdoor installation, don't worry about having to install it somewhere under a cover, as the camera has an IP65 waterproof rating. A few little showers won't hamper its viewing prowess in the slightest.

The Reolink Altas PT Ultra has several convenient features for easy control and management. From the Reolink mobile app, you can instantly access the security feed with a quick tap, as well as receive alerts, use the two-way microphone, set schedules and sensitivity, playback saved footage, and even activate a deterrent light. Speaking of saved footage, if you prefer to keep your security footage close by, you can store all recorded video on a microSD card up to 512GB in size or a NAS server. The camera uses the H.265 coding format, which helps maintain 4K quality while cutting down on file size.

If you're looking to go the extra mile with the Altas PT Ultra, there are two accessories that can help you do it. If you don't have a microSD card handy, you can connect the Reolink Home Hub, which adds large quantities of additional video storage space. The basic Home Hub adds 1TB of local storage, while the Pro model adds a whopping 16TB of local storage. 

Meanwhile, if you're looking to keep your camera running longer, you can hook up the Reolink Solar Panel. This compact 6-watt panel only needs 10 minutes of direct sun exposure to generate enough energy to power the Altas PT Ultra for an entire day. If you can get a whole day's worth of sunlight, that'll keep the camera going for nearly six months at normal operating capacity.

Remember to visit Reolink's website for more information on its IFA 2024 offerings, including its Innovation Award-winning Altas PT Ultra security camera.