How to Choose Between a Call and a Blink Video Intercom

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One of the first smart home technologies that people invest in is a video doorbell. It has a lot of promise – being able to see who visited you when you weren’t there and, more importantly, interacting with those people as if you were there. A smart doorbell will allow you to protect your packages or monitor them being stolen in high definition. It’s often easy to buy one, but it’s harder to decide which brand to buy.

While this may seem like a one-time purchase, in the future your doorbell may become part of an entire home security system and you’ll want everything to be the same brand. The two biggest players in this space are Ring, a leading video doorbell manufacturer, and Blink, an Amazon brand. (To be clear, Amazon now owns both brands.) So, which video doorbell is better: Ring or Blink?

You can’t beat Blink on cost alone.

Blink makes it easy. There is only one model, the Blink Video Doorbell , and it can be wired or wireless. At just $59.99, it’s significantly less than most Ring models on the market. Ring has taken a different approach and offers many versions of the doorbell. Video Doorbell (2nd Generation) , most comparable to Blink’s wired or wireless approach, costs $99.99. A later release, the Battery Doorbell Plus (Video Doorbell) , costs significantly more at $179.99. If you’re planning on getting your doorbell wired, you can also check out the Video Doorbell Wired for $64.99, an older version that can’t be used wirelessly, the wired Video Doorbell Pro for $169.99, or the Video Doorbell Pro 2 for $249.99. Ring also offers a peephole camera (video doorbell) for $129.99 and its top-of-the-line Video Doorbell Elite model, which costs $349.99 and comes with professional installation and is powered by Ethernet.

Ring doorbells look more impressive

The Blink camera follows the look and feel of other Blink products, such as security cameras: it’s typically black and sleek, with plastic and metal parts, rounded corners, and a fairly slim profile. It doesn’t look expensive, and it isn’t. Ring cameras, on the other hand, feel more solid and well designed. The parts are brushed metal, most of them are made of aluminum, steel (silver) and black, and the front camera is surrounded by a blue circle. The model you choose will determine the amount of brushed metal, but Ring also has a more established ecosystem of doorbell frames and mounts, meaning you can disguise the metal if you want. Ring chambers typically have a combination of sharp edges and rounded curves.

Both doorbells come with flat surface mounting plates, but the Blink doorbells simply slide onto the mount, while the Ring doorbells attach to the mount with a few screws for security.

When installed, there is a tie between Ring and Blink.

The installation consists of two parts: physically installing the doorbell and then connecting it to the application. Both doorbells involve unboxing the doorbell, downloading the app, and then a step-by-step installation where you scan your new device, connect the doorbell to your home’s wireless network, and then set it up in the app. Having set up both, I can tell you that there is no advantage to either brand.

In five years of using the Ring on my door, I’ve only had to do a hard reset once, and that’s probably my fault for leaving it uncharged for six months. The month I installed the Blink doorbell, it kept shutting down every few days and had to be hard reset at least once. The Ring never went offline.

Even if you prefer rechargeable batteries, you may still prefer the AA Blink.

If you are using a wired connection, battery power is not an issue. However, if you’re connected to a wireless network, it’s a different story. Removing the doorbell to charge it or change the batteries is a headache. Luckily, the Blink only requires a few AA batteries to operate, and the company claims they last for two years. In contrast, Ring wireless doorbells use either a USB charger or a removable battery that typically needs to be charged every few months. To use the USB charger, you need to completely remove the doorbell, plug it in, charge it, and then install it again. For rechargeable batteries, you need to remove the faceplate and grab the battery to do the same thing, which means there will be no battery in the doorbell while it’s charging. However, you can purchase additional batteries so that you always have one on hand while the other is charging.

Nowadays I usually think that regular batteries have run out and I prefer a rechargeable battery. But as a Ring owner, I think the Blink may have the advantage in terms of simplicity and battery life. At a minimum, for comparison, you’ll need to purchase an extra battery and choose a Ring model with a removable battery.

However, Ring has an optional solar charger to extend battery life.

When it comes to resolution, some Ring models beat it.

All video doorbells, including Blink and Ring models, offer 1080p HD video, including night vision. This should provide clear and crisp video at any time of the day. Two Ring models, the Video Doorbell Pro 2 and Battery Doorbell Plus, offer higher resolution at 1536p. These two also offer color night vision, which is an improvement over the standard black and white. Of course, these models are also two of the most expensive, but if the quality of the video you shoot is important, you’ll want to choose the higher-end Ring doorbell.

Save clips to the cloud and locally

It doesn’t matter how good the video is if you can’t watch it. Doorbells, whether Ring or Flash, send notifications of various types of activity: someone rings your doorbell, leaves a package, or walks past the front of the house in an area you’ve marked as important. If you receive a notification immediately, you can switch to live video of the doorbell to hopefully see the action. However, this is not how most video doorbells work. While wired doorbells do it a little better, most have a slight delay and by the time you get the notification that UPS is at your door, switch to live video and it appears, the delivery driver is already pulling away. This isn’t a problem if they left a package, but if that package is missing and you see a notification that someone was at the door after the UPS guy, you might want to watch this video. But you can’t do this unless you’ve set up storage for your clips. Here’s how these two doorbells differ.

On both Blink and Ring models, these clips can be stored in the cloud, for which you pay monthly or annually. For Blink it’s $30 per year per device, and for Ring it’s $39 per year. (In both cases, the fee above is for storage on a single device; you’ll pay more for a whole-home plan.) In both cases, you can also store video locally. For Blink, you set up the sync module and connect the USB drive. For Ring, you’ll need to purchase Ring Alarm Pro and a micro SD card, and even then, you’ll still need a Ring subscription.

Ring is the leader in features

The Blink doorbell offers many of the same features as the company’s security cameras, and for interacting with someone at your door or watching video of what happened on your porch, it works great. If you’re looking for more advanced features, Ring beats Blink. It offers professional monitoring capabilities and has a whole community built-in so you can see alerts about what’s happening in your area. Ring is compatible with IFTTT and Alexa, but Blink is not. Blink has been slow to add AI features to its security systems, but Ring has already updated its doorbells to use AI for facial recognition.

Blink vs Ring: what will it be?

The Blink Doorbell is a durable, easy-to-install doorbell that will start your smart home and security system for about $50. It’s simple, but that’s the Amazon brand for you. Ring is an upgrade with more features, better looks, higher resolution, and also more value.

Looking for a new smart doorbell? Choose from our recommendations:

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