Ring has a new flagship in its consumer video doorbell line: The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro delivers the company’s vaunted radar-based 3D motion detection to homes that don’t already have low-voltage wiring in their walls.
Ring’s Birds Eye View technology provides an aerial perspective that allows the homeowner to track the path a visitor took to their door, and it can be programmed so that alerts are sent only when motion is detected in a precisely mapped range. In our evaluations of other radar-based Ring cameras, we’ve found that the ability to restrict the range of motion detection to be useful in preventing nuisance alerts triggered by people on the sidewalk and cars driving down the street.
This news is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best video doorbells.
The new model measures 5 x 2.4 x 1.1 inches (HxWxD) and delivers the same 1536 x 1536 resolution (with HDR) as the hardwired-only Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2. That’s a 1:1 aspect ratio with a 150 x 150-degree field of view that should provide a head-to-toe shot of your visitor. But Ring says the new model’s Low-Light Sight feature can deliver color night vision with nothing more than the illumination from a streetlight or landscape lighting.
Ring
The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro operates on battery power, of course, but like all of Ring’s battery-powered doorbells, it can also be hardwired for power if you’re replacing a wired doorbell, in which case the new doorbell can also ring an existing hardwired chime (power requirements: 8-24 VAC, 40VA max, 50/60Hz). In the event of a power outage, the doorbell will automatically switch over to battery power. Your Wi-Fi router (and your broadband gateway), however, must also have a backup power supply for the doorbell to remain online during a power outage. More on that in a bit.
As with other Ring cameras and doorbells, you’ll need a Ring Protect subscription if you want the camera to capture recordings of your visitors; otherwise, you’ll get only real-time views through its lens. A subscription also grants access to cloud storage for recordings, person and package alerts, and rich notifications (snapshot images that accompany the alert, so you don’t need to open the Ring app to see what triggered the alert).
Ring
Ring Protect subscriptions cost $4 per month/$40 per year for a single camera, $10 per month/$100 per year for multiple cameras, or $20 per month/$200 per year for multiple cameras plus professional monitoring. The most expensive plan will be of interest only to owners of Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro home security systems.
Ring Alarm Pro owners with a Ring Protect Pro subscription will also benefit from battery-backup for the system’s integrated router, 24/7 broadband backup (via cellular network), and local storage (via microSD card) and image processing of their cameras’ and doorbells’ video recordings. The broadband backup feature will keep all of your Ring products connected to the internet should your lose service from your ISP. The backup power feature will keep all of your battery-powered Ring cameras and doorbells online–at least as long as the batteries last. You can piggyback up to three Ring Power Packs ($129.99 each) to a Ring Alarm Pro to get what Ring estimates will be roughly 24 hours of power backup.
The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is priced at $229.99 and is available for pre-order today. Ring expects to ship the new product to customers beginning March 6. We’ll review the new doorbell as soon as we can get a review unit.
