The all-new Ring Battery Doorbell is now available. It retains the Ring Video Doorbell 2’s $100 price tag, but it gains an expanded “head-to-toe” field of view, color night video, an extended battery life, and a more convenient charging process.
A head-to-toe FOV is the Ring Battery Doorbell’s most notable upgrade. Ring Battery Doorbell is ditching the old Video Doorbell’s short, narrow, 90-degree field of view for a 150-by-150 FOV with a 1:1 square aspect ratio. This is the same FOV and aspect ratio that you’d get with the $150 Doorbell Plus or $230 Doorbell Pro.
The expanded FOV, plus the Ring Battery Doorbell’s new color night vision mode, gives you a much more useful view of what’s in front of your home. A package at your doorstep will appear on your Ring Battery Doorbell’s feed, as will any stranger or burglar who chooses to crawl around at night.
But the Ring Battery Doorbell’s new quality-of-life upgrades shouldn’t be overlooked. The Ring Battery Doorbell is easier to charge than any of its predecessors—simply press a pushpin on the back of the Doorbell, and it’ll come off the wall. You don’t need to fiddle with screws, just use the orange plastic hook (or any hook-shaped thing) to apply pressure to the pushpin.
Once the Doorbell is off the wall, charge it via USB-C (no more Micro USB) and slap it back in place. Ring says that you shouldn’t need to go through this process too often, as the new Doorbell has a 23% longer battery life than its predecessor, though I suspect that any increase in battery life may be imperceptible if a user fails to set up motion zones (as the expanded FOV creates more opportunities for the camera to detect movement, activate recording, and burn through power).
Ring Battery Doorbell
With its head-to-toe 150-degree FOV, color night vision video, and extended battery life, the Ring Battery Doorbell is an excellent item for both home security and personal convenience.
While it’s nice to see these premium features in a $100 smart doorbell, Ring still reserves some fancy stuff for its more expensive offerings. The new Battery Doorbell doesn’t have a removable battery or a 1536p HD+ video resolution—two features that are exclusive to the Doorbell Plus and Pro. It also lacks the radar motion sensor of the Doorbell Pro, though it’s got the same PIR sensor as the Ring Doorbell Plus.
Oh, the new Ring Battery Doorbell also adds package alerts, but only for Ring Protect subscribers. Ring Protect is also required for 180-day video storage and person alerts. Basic camera functionality, including motion alerts, live view, motion zones, and two-way talk, do not require a subscription.
You can pre-order the new Ring Battery Doorbell for $100 at Amazon or the Ring web store. Orders will arrive September 4th. In case you haven’t noticed, Ring’s product names are kind of confusing, so be sure that you’re buying the 2024 Ring Battery Doorbell and not some older model like the Video Doorbell 2 (which is still listed on Amazon for $100, stupidly).
Source: Ring