Ring battery Video Doorbell Pro review — Continued evolution of one of the best

Ring is — while not for everyone — an excellent range of products, with a wide range of features and capabilities on offer. With the addition of the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro, there’s a good reason to upgrade; or finally pull the trigger and start your home security setup.

What is it and what’s new?

The Battery Video Doorbell Pro is the next evolution of the Ring Doorbell range, bringing the “Pro” features — as well as new ones like the 2K resolution — we’ve previously seen on outdoor cameras, over to doorbells. This includes the colour pre-roll, 3D Motion detection and Bird’s Eye View. What’s great — and consistent with other Ring products — is that you can run the whole setup on battery and, with the right accessories, without drilling too.

When it comes to the features, one I have found very good on the Spotlight Cam Pro (battery) reviewed last year is the Bird’s Eye view zones. It provides far more accurate motion detection and placement, as well as the ability to follow the path; via aerial view, that a potential intruder has taken on approach to your property.

Package contents and setup

Everything you need to complete the standard installation of the doorbell is in the box including:

• The Doorbell, battery and screwdriver (more on this later)
• Mounting accessories – Including angle mount for corner mounting
• Documentation and a Window sticker (in case the device wasn’t deterrent enough) to warn would-be intruders

This leaves you with a straightforward setup: add the doorbell to your Ring account and follow the instructions. The biggest decision you’ll have to make is where to mount the doorbell, but there’s even guidance on that within the app. Ultimately, you’ve got a virtual friend holding your hand every step of the way throughout the setup and installation.

Once you’ve installed the doorbell, make sure you use the proprietary screw (and supplied screwdriver) to secure the cover, preventing anyone coming along and — easily at least — removing your new video doorbell.

Features and Video Quality

Being realistic, the upgrade to 2K video is a huge leap forward for Ring devices and at close range (as is likely to be the case on a doorbell) 2K video quality is more than sufficient to clearly identify whoever is at the door; and compared to the previous 1080p it’s a significant improvement but there is so much more on this upgrade than just the video quality.

The addition of HDR is great for users who may have their doorbell in a reasonably well sheltered area, but behind their guests a bright background. Normally this would result in the person at your door looking like they’re in witness protection on A Current Affair, but with HDR active — nb. This will make have a detrimental effect on your battery life — you’ll see a lot more; not a perfect view, but a lot more, of your guests.

I’m still a bit dirty on Ring for discontinuing the Windows and Mac programs they once had, it was so convenient to just run that in the background if I was working from home to know if there was someone — usually a courier — on the driveway. The app is gone, but the functionality is not with a web interface that covers all (including Linux) desktop platforms which is still pretty useful.

We’ve previously covered the inclusions in the Ring Protect Plus plans, and — one of the biggest downsides of DIY cameras — you’ll need this if you want to store recordings and clips from your cameras, not just received notifications of movement or the doorbell being triggered.

The battery life is good, the charging is questionable

If you’ve only got one or two ring products, you’ll probably just deal with it; but a MicroUSB charging port is — putting it gently — outdated. I get that there’s a lot of people with a lot of batteries out there and it would be a costly adventure to update all of your batteries should ring choose to update to USB-C. But truth be told it’s overdue, but there is a work around.

Purchasing one of the chargers that can hold two batteries will cover the needs of even some of the more demanding sites; or you could move towards the hard-wired options.

Moving on from charging though, the battery life is pretty reliable at a couple of months; even in high traffic areas. The trick there is to ensure that your settings cover ONLY the area you want to and, if motion alerts (supported by the earlier mentioned 3d Motion Detection) aren’t important to you then you should turn them off to preserve battery.

One thing (subscription required) that’s particularly useful working from home a lot, is package detection. I get a notification whether there is someone near my door, and if there’s a package; useful when you’re expecting review devices to be delivered. Like other features on the Ring ecosystem, you can configure the detection zone for parcels which meant I could target the walkway to my front door; eliminating the false alerts when my children play in the front yard.

Some serious positives

One thing that I am so pleased with (from any manufacturer) is when they make the upgrade pathway easy. I had a Ring Video Doorbell 3 previous to this device, and the upgrade was remarkably easy because the mounting holes were identical for both devices. So it was a case of unscrew the old, and mount the new devices on the same mounting holes. The whole process took me less than 10 minutes, including finding (should have just asked Jo in the first place) the right size screwdriver.

The other real positive is that there is almost zero waste in the packaging. The box and internal padding etc, are all cardboard, leaving me with 3 small (approximately 8 square centimeters) of adhesive plastic, used to protect the device until installed, that was landfill rubbish. That’s a huge leap forward from generations of Ring devices gone by and something that deserves recognition.

Should you buy the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro?

The name is a mouthful and the price certainly isn’t cheap; but the device, it’s features and general capabilities make it worth the investment. If you’re just starting out on your DIY security adventure, or whether you’ve already got some existing cameras, this is a great device.

I’m more than happy with the battery life, and with my existing system in place including spare batteries, this just slotted seamlessly into my set up. If you’ve got more than one device, a spare battery or two is definitely on the recommended list!

Probably the biggest issue for some will be the lack of local recording, but there are plenty of options available in varying budgets if you prefer the idea of your recordings being kept onsite. Realistically, until Ring has PoE cameras, that isn’t going to be a viable option for them to offer ONVIF compliance.

The video quality is a real selling point and brings the Ring hardware up to current standards and it has great audio for two way conversation with your guests. When you also consider some extra features like the Birds Eye view that make it a really clever purchase if this is your first device; maximising your coverage with just the one device.

Like I said, this isn’t a cheap doorbell but it’s got a great feature set that go a long way to justifying the cost. You can pick one up through the usual retail channels or the Ring website for $349.00, often cheaper if you shop around.