Ring Battery Doorbell Pro Is Better (and More Expensive) Than Other Brands
Video doorbells have become quite common since their introduction to the market 10 years ago, with 20% of American households now using them. The cost of owning and operating a video doorbell has plummeted, so how does Ring, which offers relatively expensive video doorbells and a nearly mandatory subscription plan, stay at the top of the market? After testing the new Ring Battery Doorbell Pro ($229.99 plus subscription), I think the answer is that Ring continues to solve some of the most common video security problems.
Ring’s software has the least bugs of any doorbell or security camera I’ve tried. It connects quickly when notified; allows you to interact with anyone at the doorbell; and captures clips corresponding to the zones you set. Ring has added new features to the Doorbell Pro and delivers exceptional video quality, but I believe it is Ring’s ability to address the most basic needs of a video doorbell that makes it so popular.
Traditional details and many accessories
Over the past year, I’ve tested doorbells from Google, Aqara, and Blink; While each had pros and cons, they helped me appreciate the new Ring. In the 10 years Ring has been on the market, the doorbell design has remained virtually unchanged, and Ring’s design is the grandest and most substantial video doorbell available. Ring wraps its doorbells in brushed metal with black plastic and metal accents—they tend to look and feel more solid. The Doorbell Pro continues this tradition, with the top half of the doorbell being made of shiny black plastic and metal, while the bottom half is clad in brushed silver metal (which can be swapped out for another metal ). The big round blue light button that Ring is known for is present, and Ring comes with a wedge mount for your door, but there are plenty of mounts available online if you want a different type. A solar charger and internal calls are also now available.
More labor-intensive installation results in a more reliable doorbell.
While the rings are not difficult to install, they are more difficult to install than many of the brands I mentioned above. In all these cases, doorbells are attached very simply, but also unreliably. The ring always had a fastening system that was supposed to ensure the safety of the doorbell itself, and was supplied complete with a special screwdriver. The doorbell itself needs to hook onto the mounting plate and then attach a few small screws to it. Physical installation took about 10 minutes and setup took another 15. After installing the Ring app and connecting the doorbell via USB, the app easily detected and added the doorbell. You can spend a lot of time setting up the Ring, but I encourage you to live with the doorbell for a few days to see what settings you need.
Ring continues to beat response latency
Once launched, Ring will start sending you a variety of notifications. There are two types – notifications about actions before the doorbell and about the actual doorbell. In both cases, you will most likely decide to click on the notification and see what happens. This is where Ring differs from other doorbells: With all other brands, I’ve encountered connection errors, delays, and timeouts. Ring, on the other hand, connects quickly and painlessly to show you a clip of what happened, or a live view so you can track or interact in real time. While there’s always a slight delay depending on the Wi-Fi signal, Ring’s response time is by far the best I’ve tried.
This means that the other feature people buy video doorbells for—interacting with someone at your door—works better on Ring than on other models. This response time is important – your UPS driver does not expect a 30 second response delay.
Subscriptions are expensive and required to use the doorbell.
Viewing of these clips (not live viewing) depends on having a Ring subscription. While a subscription is not required, not being able to watch these clips makes The Ring almost useless in my opinion. The doorbell comes with a free 30-day trial, but once it expires, you can reconnect. Plans start at $4.99 per month per device and go up quickly. I generally prefer products that don’t require these subscriptions and allow you to store clips locally, like Eufy.
Great video clarity with new features
The clarity of the new Ring is top notch, and it’s not just the resolution, which is a reasonable HD 1536p resolution. Ring has developed a lens that gives you a full view of who’s at your door, which means you can also see packages waiting at your door. I was surprised how helpful it was. That clarity extends to long-distance video—you get amazingly clear views of the delivery person even as they step out of the vehicle. I was impressed by how much better the Ring became at respecting the zones I had set in the app to ignore or pay attention to. I was able to easily set it up so that I wasn’t bombarded with notifications about people walking past the house – a previous problem I had with doorbells. This is likely due to Ring’s 3D mapping – a new feature – and Bird’s Eye View, which uses motion detection to determine whether the activity in front of it is relevant to you or not. I was also impressed with the night vision, which provided clear and colorful images even after I turned off the porch light, without the graininess you usually see. Some of the other doorbells I’ve tested provide higher resolution, but I barely noticed a difference.
Ring has been working hard to introduce new features. Most usefully, Ring can now use artificial intelligence to determine if a package is at your door. If you tend to leave things at your door, this feature works less effectively, but in most cases it correctly identifies packages if they were left right in front of the door, and only misidentified the neighbor’s cat as a package twice. Plus, the doorbell will work with your other Ring devices to track someone’s movements around your property.
Batteries are now more affordable and more powerful
The real upgrade, in my opinion, was the battery. While you can of course buy a wired version of the doorbell, a lot of people buy the version with a retractable battery, and previous incarnations required removing the entire doorbell to recharge the battery. The process was so difficult that I often left the doorbell uncharged. Now you simply remove the metal faceplate and battery, leaving the doorbell behind. This has two advantages: it’s a lot less work, and you can buy a backup battery and replace it, so you never run out of doorbells. Battery life is also much better. Over the course of a month, the battery lost only one bar, remaining at 75% charge. For comparison, I used to charge my Ring once every eight weeks.
Bottom line: Expensive but excellent video intercom
There’s simply no denying that the cost difference between Ring and its competitors is significant. This Ring model costs $229 before subscription, compared to the Blink doorbell at $41.99 or the Aqara doorbell at $119.99. There are smaller Ring models, such as the $59.99 Video Doorbell and $119.99 Doorbell Plus ; you can get most of the benefits of the Pro version for less. Despite my hesitation about the cost, there’s no denying that Ring does a better job of delivering on the original idea of a video doorbell than other brands – good quality video of what’s happening at the door in real time.