Today we’re taking a look at the Ring Video Doorbell. This may be familiar to some of you out there as it was featured in our Top Smart Home Tech of CES 2015 article a few months back, but we’ve finally got our hands on it and today we’re going to see what it’s all about…
As you’ve probably guessed this is a doorbell, but what makes it so special? Well first off, it’s a connected device with an HD (720p) camera that pairs up with an iOS or Android device via WiFi and can be accessed anywhere in the world. This doorbell will stream live video from your front doorstep and allow for two-way audio communication with the person on the other end.
Inside of the box, everything you need to get Ring installed and setup is included. You’ll find a mounting plate, small quick start guide, and a toolkit with screws, a multi-bit screwdriver, caulking to seal up old holes, a drill bit… yeah like I said, everything you need to get it installed. Finally we have the Ring unit itself.
Ring is the only smart doorbell on the market that is dual-powered. This means you have the ability to power it off of existing doorbell wires or the 5,200 mAh rechargeable battery inside that’s rated to last up to a year. I chose the latter option for installation as my doorbell wires are unique to my situation, but it’s nice to have dual options available. Because Ring connects to your existing doorbell wires, it will still chime the traditional doorbell on the inside of your house as well.
Watch our Ring Video Doorbell review below:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RIVK7Dd2fY]
Installation was very simple. I started out by removing the old doorbell attached to my house, then I took a picture of the wire configuration for my reference. After that, I used the included tools and screws to secure the mounting plate to the exterior and double checked using the level indicator that it was straight. After I got all of the screws tightened down and attached the doorbell temporarily, it was time to get the smart parts set up.
First, I downloaded the Ring app to begin the process. Pressing the button on the back side of Ring will put it in setup mode and emit a WiFi signal. From there, you’ll want to connect your device to Ring’s WiFi network, and then you’ll be prompted to connect Ring to your existing WiFi network so it’ll work independently.
After the app was setup, I made sure to charge Ring up to 100% using the included Micro USB cable and the port on the backside, then I attached it outside to the mounting plate and tightened the security screws at the bottom. This will help prevent the Ring Video Doorbell from being stolen, but if it ever is, the company backs it with “Lifetime Purchase Protection” and will replace it free of charge.
Ring Video Doorbell includes everything you need to get it installed.
Inside of the app, the main page displays the connected doorbell devices along with recent activity. Ring also offers optional cloud recording capabilities (6 months of recordings for $3/month or $30/annually), and video from each activity indicated in the list can easily be accessed by tapping on it. The videos here are recorded with Ring’s built-in motion detection if configured and each time someone rings your doorbell. You can also set up shared users within the app that will allow your friends and family members to have access to the same notifications and the video feed (with their own account and device) through the app. Ring’s button also has a glowing blue/white light surrounding it and the camera amazing night vision so it will work in pitch black with no issues.
When someone rings the doorbell, a notification will pop up and you are prompted with the ability to accept or reject the incoming call on your smartphone. But instead of explaining it to you, check out the demonstration in the above video.
As for the motion detection, you can set up specific zones within the app and adjust the range within these zones, but you can also set the frequency in which the app notifies you of detected motion. If it sees something moving near your door, a notification will pop up, and allow you to pull up a live video feed and communicate with whatever is on the other end.
Overall, Ring is a pretty simple smart home accessory to use. The app has a clean layout and setup took maybe 10 minutes or so using the short little quick start guide. I’ve had no issues with Ring aside from the occasional glitch in the video feed, but I never saw that as a major issue. Being able to answer the door and appear home from anywhere in the world is a major win.
Ring’s marketed video feed vs real world use. (See where the video is cut off?)
The only complaint I have is how the actual video looks in comparison to Ring’s marketing photos. On Ring’s website the camera’s video is shown to be a clean wide-angle shot that spans the device’s screen from edge to edge. In reality, that’s not the case. Because of how the camera is positioned or how the lens may be, the video feed is actually cut off at the edges by its circular housing with more of a fish-eye effect. Definitely not a deal breaker in this situation, but something to keep in mind.
It may not be for everyone, but Ring is definitely a nice product to have around to help keep your home secure. And as you would expect, Ring is weather resistant and designed to withstand humidity, rain, snow, ice and extreme heat. Currently, you can pickup the Ring Video Doorbell system at ring.com or Amazon for $199 in a wide variety of faceplate colors.
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I wonder if it can be paired with multiple phones – imagine a couple living in one address, it is plausible that the person with the primary phone may go out, so it would be useful for the other persons phone to already be paired. Does anyone have any clarification on this products capability?
Actually, you can. I just added a sentence about shared users. Sorry about that. You can set up shared users for different people/devices. The doorbell is connected via WiFi, so there’s no actual pairing (like Bluetooth) involved. Creating a shared user can provide them with the same access to the video feed and notifications on their device.
Cool (my technical response)
yes it is possible as I have connected everyone in my home that is 4 of us and we all receive notifications when some one press the door bell
It looks great, just that it also seems very easy to disable and steal.
Hence the theft insurance built into the device. Also with the motion sensor on, you’d be notified if someone was tampering with it, and the video clip would go off into the cloud as they are stealing it. only way to stop that, i’d imagine would be to jam the wifi signal. not sure someone is that well-versed in internet-enabled doorbells to want to do that. but stranger things have happened.
Hi there – we’ve actually sold over 50,000 units worldwide and have only had 4 units reported as stolen. It’s difficult to steal unless you’re carrying a screwdriver or crow bar or an object of that nature. Additionally, if someone does happen to steal it, our advanced motion detection will pick up the movement and kick on the video recorder anyway, so we’ll be able to not only catch the thief but send the information over the police.
Lastly, in the even that it is stolen, we “kill” the unit right away, so the thief will virtually not be able to use the unit.
Thanks,
Yassi
Brand Manager at Ring
Does the doorbell light up at night? Seems like a blueish circle around it.
Yep!
First Question:
Does my existing doorbell around the house still function the same? Or does it only ring on the designated phone.
Second question: Can more than one phone be paired to one doorbell?
They should make a package for a door dock too. Either that or include a coupon like $50 off one of the automated door locks. Would be nice if it then could be integrated into this app to unlock the door
thats door lock not door dock. why can’t you edit your posts?
Agreed!
The should make it compatible with HomeKit, and other companies could make HomeKit compatible locks. Then this doorbell could work with any HomeKit-compatible lock, and could also be integrated with lights, so that when someone rings the doorbell a light would turn on after a short delay.
Cool idea. The video makes the product look very good. I wonder how well people really look at night in the dark, and what troubles people might have with camera angles depending on where there doorbell is and how low it is to the ground. Also – why could you not use the existing doorbell wiring? I would think that would be ideal instead of having to worry about ever charging a battery. Is it possible to wire so that you still get your indoor doorbell sound too?
The night vision is just as good as it is in our video review. As for the wiring, I just didn’t feel like messing with the other wires at the time. I’m not worried about the battery life. As noted in the article, it does ring your standard doorbell.
How do you charge the battery= From what I could see, the USB port was on the back of the Ring. How can use access that port, if the Ring is secured with the secure screws?
Well yes it is secured, but the batter should last up to a year. Not really a problem in my opinion. Once a year I’ll need to worry about that.
Thanks for the elaboration.
How fast is the connection to see the person?
If you don’t answer or are not home, does it save a picture or video?
I have the SkyBell, and it is HORRIBLE, by the time the video comes up the person at the door are usually gone. It does not save any details or pictures of who was there, like UPS, or neighbors, buglers. The connectivity once someone does ring the bell only works maybe one out of 10 times.
Skybox came out with a new version and fully abandoned us early supporters, stating we would have to buy a new one at a full cost.
Looks like it may be time to change.
Seems pretty quick to me. I’ve had several occasions (at home and away) where it was very quick to pull up the video feed. If you have cloud recording enabled, it will save the video feed for access at a later time.
Is it possible to turn on the camera from your smartphone even if motion is not detected?
Doesn’t seem to be a way at the moment.
Have had one of these for about six weeks now. Customer service is great and quick. The unit seems to hold a charge and works well. The camera image is not amazing (not as good as our DropCam) but it’s useable. The funny thing is, since we’ve installed it, nobody’s pressed the damn button. UPS, Fed Ex, the neighbors all seem to think it’s just a camera and don’t know that it works as a door bell. Might be a bit too new for some to get it I guess. Really wish they would allow you to monitor it even if the button has not been pressed though. Sometimes there is someone out front and I’d like to see who it is, but unless they push the button I don’t have a way of accessing the camera. I believe this feature is going to be implemented in the future.
If you enable the motion detection zones and adjust the notification settings for it, you can receive a notification and access the camera when someone is outside.
I’ve had my Ring for a few weeks now. I probably have to do some more waterproofing as when i pulled the device off the backplate, i saw some rust around the backplate contacts. the connection is fast to tell me when someone is at my door, but i’d like the notification to vibrate my phone more than once. i think that’s a limitation to iOS than Ring, though, so we’re hosed. Sadly, I’m forever alone and have YET to test this doorbell on an actual person coming to the door! wtf! freaking door to door salesmen are everywhere except after my video doorbell is installed. I did notice that after my install and testing process, as well as turning on motion detection, that my doorbell’s batteries were at around 80%. that was after just a few days use. I couldn’t get the motion sensor to not detect the false positive that my boxwood bush was giving off, so i turned off the feature, hoping to trim the hedges soon! But perhaps motion sensing is a feature best left for when you have a direct power connection? we’ll see. The company says they are working on ‘on demand viewing’ of your Ring, but naturally the limiting factor is likely conserving battery life. sigh. but still fun to have, I’d rather have an aimable video source, even though the camera does show a 180 degree width view, the person at the door is stuck on the left side of the frame, as the doorbell is on their left. I’m toying with the idea of setting it on an angled mount so i can see them at the center of the door. or stick it to my door itself with some adhesive! that would require a caller to open my storm door though, triggering my DOG first before the doorbell. nah. anyway, those are my thoughts! I like it, i want to use it! hah
Sound interesting. But do I have the use the cloud? I hate to send everything on servers I don’t know or abroad my country. Second problem here in Europe: I’m not allowed to film or photographe people without their consent. Or if I setup the this RING Doorbell at my door it will take pictures of the houses on the other side of the street. An absolutely NO GO here in Europe.
But I had to laugh when I saw the video: typically American: you buy something and get the tools to fix it with it. Or the water bulb nice idea. But these whole gimmicks makes this RING Bell more expensive than it should be. If one buys something for DIY one normally has the right tools to set it up or fix it :-)
I’ve had this installed about a week now. Chose this model as the least geeky looking model, and not so obviously a video cam.
Observations:
1) Installation very simple and fast. Has quality feel definitely, and fancy packaging. Includes drill bit and everything required and clearly marked except for power drill. Drill to anchor size is not a good match, two of 4 screws are loose, anchor loose. Arrived with at least 50% charge, so probably don’t need to worry about charging if you plan to use it powered–it gets a trickle charge.
2) Picture quality pretty good, uses a wide angle though so images are somewhat distorted. Camera is not adjustable. I get occasional pixillation, mostly minor, but occasionally half screen for a couple of seconds and then clears up.
3) Arrived with version 1.3.39 firmware, with motion control. Motion control is extremely sensitive, causing quite a few false positives (about 10-15 a day), and thereby notifications. I have it still activated as it is an option, but at lowest sensitivity setting which is about 5FT.
4) Records only to cloud right now, and live back to your IOS device–suppose same for Android, would’t know. There currently is not an option to record it to a local server, so if you want recording you need to buy the iCloud storage package which is not expensive, but still $30 a year–for now.
5) Alerts set up to go to 2 phones and one IPAD. There is no limit, at non published. If you set up other devices with different email, they can operate, but not configure. There is about a 3-5 second delay from an incident start until video recording starts. What this practically means in my case, with minimum distance setting, someone can approach, ring the doorbell and possibly be let in before recording shows anything. Delivery men drop off, ring doorbell and leave, and recording is too late.
To address the 1) above issues on anchor, I emailed support. They are sending replacements. No problem.
2) I called in the motion later after I tried everything I could to reduce the sensitivity. It is still picking up large objects like a garbage truck 40-45 ft away. I also have a southern exposure with some large leaved plants about 8 ft in front and on the side of the walkway that move around in the wind. I think the leaves get heated and trip the motion. Almost all motion alarms are during the day. I was advised they are working on both the motion and time to start recording issue. It seems like the device should have had a video buffer to enable a minimum # of seconds so that noting is missed once the incident begins. Help desk was very apologetic and easy to deal with both times.
So, this product is still a work in progress, but since the hardware seems to be very good for the most part, this should get better and better.
I recently installed my ring and I doesn’t pick up the signal. My modem is only about 40 feet away inside the house and when I ring the bell I get no notifications. I know everything works because when I bring the Ring inside it works fine. Seems crazy because it is not that far away. Any advice?
give it up and return for credit – it’s a worthless product
Feature Idea: Once you get the kinks worked out, I think a family of devices would be a good addition to this, meaning everything except the door bell function to accompany it as a perimeter home security system, all suing the same cloud service.
Do we really need 720p?
Why not cut some corners and bring it in for under $100?
360P B&W is good enough for me to check my front door.
This is a great product and I had purchased it in December. It has been working flawlessly since then. Having good wifi is very important as the quality of the wifi will affect the quality of the video. Good video review here, this one is good as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkqYIn1rj2E
No mention here of Ring previously being sold as Doorbot which was a shoddy product that didn’t work. They dumped the old name and the old website (with all the negative feedback along with it) and are now selling essentially the same product as Ring. Suggest googling Doorbot before you buy.
In answer to some of the above questions and one I got on twitter.
1) q: do you really need 720 video quality–ah yeah especially with especially with the wide field of view. This is the second brand I’ve tried, best quality. As for cheapening it to bring down to $100, HA the market will take care of that priceless, for for heavens sake, you don’t want a cheaply made product. This one is of top quality and design.
2) q; does it also ring your normal doorbell (twitter) it sure does, as long as it’s rally normal–believe 12-24v range.
3) q: how do you charge the battery once it’s installed since it on the backside of the unit. If it’s wired into your existing low voltage doorbell you don’t worry about it–it gets trickle charged from off the transformer. If you use it wirelessly, you use the torx adapter tool included in package to loosen the front panel and off it comes. Takes all of about 30 seconds.
4) q: regarding this being a next gen doorbot, that is true, entire design change, not sure how much of hardware, and later firmware. I think it (Doorbot) had a troubled rollout and they needed to restart it–much improved.
I do not have a cell phone. Can I use my iMac on my network? Must I get a cell phone? There is little or no cell service in my area. And I am home alone all the time. Purchasing a cell phone significantly increases the price of your doorbell/camera thingie.
TomDorn@mcn.org
http://www.MarVistaMendocino.com
Tom Not that I know of–works on Apple & Android phones and on iPads, and iPods.
Mine worked fine for a week, then the battery was down to 2%. I charged it but have not been able to get it to work since. It’s been 10 days since I posted my first support issue to Ring and they have not responded.
I am sorry to say that this doesn’t seem to be the quality product I hoped, I’ve payed $220 for a brick :-(
Nice review – but the one I ordered DID NOT work out of the box and after bad customer service – I RETURNED IT FOR CREDIT.
I really wanted one (RING DIGITAL VIDEO doorbell) and purposely waited (to order) until way after Christmas to allow them to get the “bugs” out of the product. But the ordering entry process was flawed and they had trouble with confused communication about when the product would ship.
After it finally shipped and I received it… It DID NOT work out of the box. They never did answer any of the HelpDesk requests for assistance with the problems
Camera worked but no audio (voice) outside of the door and the motion sensing was not as advertised. There were a few other issues but they were not a big deal. No ability to speak with the visitor at the door was a show stopper. Also, when a call was received, it took about five minutes for the unit RESET and be ready to receive the next visitor call.,
Then I got fed up and requested return information – which they provided promptly – “GO FIGURE” ??
Returned device to them and received credit promptly.
It is really too bad their technical staff and support staff can’t get their act together.
I hope some “SERIOUS” company will take them over and make it happen.
I can see several possible other applications like sick room call buttons, vacation homes, boats, RV doors, travel (put at motel/hotel room doors, etc
I would but at least three or four of them.
I am in the market for a video doorbell…how would you compare this to the Skybell 2.0 in terms of quality and reliability?
Just wondering why the wifi signal has gone crazy when I installed our Ring doorbell. What should I do to fix the problem?
how do i access the camera without a ring..it is possible correct? just to see what is outside
I am considering getting one of these because we have lots of issues with delivery people and would love the extra security. Plus, it seems like a cool gadget. However, we have a dog that runs around outside all the time inside an invisible fence. Is there a way to adjust the settings so that the dog does cause it to be on all the time? Maybe only things above 3 ft off the ground trigger the detector?
i have adjusted the motion, it will not detect someone until they are 2-3 feet from the unit. I have the range set to about 15′, any further it will pick up large trucks at street which is 40′ away. I have several motions from my newspaper guy. all you will see is his bald head leaving. I called support, they acessed my unit and will get back to me..still waiting 3 days later.
Just had one installed and I love it. Two things I would really love: 1) that it would automatically open the app on your iPhone or iPad when someone rings, and 2) that there would be an Apple Watch app for it, which would really make life easier.
So if you don’t use the wiring to existing door bell.. you will never hear a ring? Only goes to your phone?
I personally like the Ring doorbell except that the motion sensor is a bit off sometimes; but other than that, it works perfectly. I’m also looking for other wireless intercoms in http://doorbellhome.org
What is the distance that motion is picked up? We have a very long driveway so thought we could mount it on a small pole closer to our home. We want it to cover a big area that is about 200 feet from our home. The drive opens up to our barns and shop where we have our heavy equipment. We have tried so many driveway sensors but they just did not work because of cold winters. THank you!
Nice Review 9to5 , i purchased one after reading this and here is my Review of ring video doorbell – In Under 2 Minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttV38vy5L7Y
Is there a subscription for this and if so how much
Is there a subscription for this if so how much
I got the ring as a birthday gift and absolutely love it. Took 3 months before I had to charge would have been longer but I turned on the motion sensor. However since I had to charge for the first time and put it back up I get no audio. I cant hear them they cant hear me. I emailed customer service they told me to reset it which I did three times and still nothing. I hope to get an exchange or my money back. I hope I get another one I just dont like the fact thats its barely been 3 months and already an issue unless it was something on my part. The piece looks brand new still. Will see when customer service responds to me email of no luck with reset option.
Is there a way to hook it up to a mac computer or pc so you can get those notifications on your computer?
Or is it only on mobile devices?
Concerning the cloud storage, will my iphone “record and save” video if we choose to not use the cloud? Do I have to have the cloud storage?