Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 review: Ring’s best doorbell yet

Ring’s new $ 249.99 Video Doorbell Pro 2 is the best video doorbell from a company that has almost become a household name for video doorbells. It has an excellent field of view and excellent video quality; many customizable features for notifications and recording areas; and fast performance, whether it’s sending alerts to your phone or smart speaker when someone rings the bell, or fetching the live stream from the Ring app on a phone. If you can tolerate the price, are able to install a wired doorbell on your doorstep, and aren’t put off by the Ring’s Neighbors app or police partnerships (which you can opt out of), the Video Doorbell Pro 2 is one of the best video doorbells you can get right now.

The new Video Doorbell Pro 2 is Ring’s top-of-the-line model, replacing the original Video Doorbell Pro from 2017. Unlike Ring’s other doorbells, the Pro 2 does not have a battery option; you must have wiring going through it for power. But since it doesn’t need to contain a battery, the Pro 2 is much smaller than Ring’s battery-powered options and offers faster response times when you want to view the feed on your phone or an Echo smart display. Show. It can also work with an existing doorbell chime in your home if you have one.

Despite its above-average price tag, the Pro 2 doesn’t really look much more upscale than other Ring models. The case is completely made of plastic and there is a large Ring logo stamped on the bottom. If you’re after a sleek design, Google’s Nest Hello or the Logitech Circle View doorbell are better choices.

Ring has added a number of new features this time around, but the biggest change is how the Video Doorbell Pro 2 captures video clips. Unlike the previous model and all other Ring doorbells before it, the Pro 2 records a square footage of 1536 x 1536 pixels, so you can see visitors from top to bottom. It’s also much easier to see if any packages have been left at your door, as you can see the ground right in front of the doorbell.

On my doorstep, the Pro 2’s wide and high field of view allowed me to see my entire little porch much better than older Ring bells in 16: 9 format or others that have an aspect ratio. tall but not as wide, like The Circle View doorbell from Logitech. The Pro 2 captures a crisp, detailed image, with HDR to balance bright skies and visitors’ faces. It also has a dedicated infrared night mode that will automatically turn on if the light levels are low enough. The porch light I have on my doorstep was enough to keep the Pro 2 in normal video mode, so I was able to have color video captures at night without blinding visitors with a light on the doorbell itself, like what happens with the Circle. See the doorbell.

With both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi support, playing the Pro 2’s video stream through the Ring app on my phone is a painless process that only takes a few seconds. Likewise, asking an Echo Show to display the feed is quick and easy. The Echo Show and Fire TV devices will even automatically display the camera feed every time the doorbell rings. Older video doorbells took an agonizing time to show their video streams. I am happy to see that this new harvest is much faster than before.

The Pro 2 also has a new “3D motion detection” feature that lets you see someone’s movement on your property even if they are outside of the camera frame. The name exaggerates what it does a bit: the app will show a top-to-bottom view of the movements represented by colored dots on your house map overlaid on the recorded video clip. It is designed to let you see where someone has been on your property before they appear on the main camera. But the range of this feature is limited to just 30 feet – that’s about enough to reach a third of my driveway – and while this is a neat tech demo, I didn’t. found a lot of use.

The other thing that I didn’t find much use for is the Alexa Greetings feature, which allows you to ask Alexa to answer the door through the Ring doorbell if you can’t do it within a period of time. defined.

There are two reasons why I didn’t really like this feature. The first is that we are still spending the majority of our time at home due to the pandemic, I don’t really need someone else to answer me – I’m still here. The other is the idea of ​​having the Amazon Alexa robot speak to a visitor for me. Alexa can ask couriers to leave a package at a particular location that you specify, or to record a message from other visitors that will be sent to your phone. In my testing, this works like a typical Alexa interaction, with a slight delay between each prompt.

But in general, it’s a bit off-putting and rude to force visitors to interact with an unexpected robot. I feel the same about using two-way audio to talk to someone at the door through my phone. While there can certainly be great accessibility use cases for these features, they haven’t been useful to me and I’ve left them disabled. I think basic packet detection and notifications, which other doorbells offer, would be more useful, but Ring doesn’t have any functionality like that.

The Alexa responses feature requires a subscription to the Ring’s Protect plan, which starts at $ 3 per month and activates other features such as a six-second pre-roll recording for motion alerts, with the option to be alerted only when a person is detected, video history up to 60 days, and the ability to save and share clips. You can use the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 without paying for this subscription, but you’ll be limited to motion alerts, live view, two-way chat, and six preset responses if you’re away from home. None of Ring’s plans, paid or free, offer 24/7 continuous recording. If that’s something you want, Google’s Nest Hello is a better choice.

Since Ring is an Amazon company, the Pro 2 performs best and offers the most utility if you have Amazon Echo speakers or smart displays. In addition to the ability to automatically display the feed when the bell is pressed, you can have the Echo speakers announce when someone is at the door so you never miss a visitor. This feature is not available with Google Nest speakers or smart displays. again, the Nest Hello would be a better choice if you’re using a Google smart home. (Likewise, if you’re using an Apple HomeKit smart home, the Logitech Circle View doorbell is a better choice.)

Finally, I can’t cover a Ring product without mentioning its controversial Neighbors app and law enforcement partnerships. The Neighbors app is a separate app that collects crime and safety reports from other Ring owners in your neighborhood. By default, the Neighbors feed is integrated into the Ring app, allowing you to view other posts and share video clips from your camera.

Likewise, the public safety function allows police and other public service agencies to request video clips from your camera to help solve crimes. You then have the option to approve or deny the request.

Ring has made it easier to manage these features. Both are controlled in the Control Center section of the app, where you can turn off the Neighbors feed and prevent public agencies from requesting clips from your video camera. You can also enable end-to-end encryption, which will disable these features and limit the ability to share video clips with others. But I would like Ring to take it a step further and disable them both by default, letting owners decide whether or not they want to register during setup.

Ring’s video doorbell portfolio has grown significantly over the past two years, and it can be difficult to know which one is best for your needs. The Pro 2’s pitch is simple: it’s the best video doorbell camera Ring sells, provided you have the option of either connecting it to existing doorbell wiring or installing new wiring to it. If you want the best performance and you’re in Amazon’s Echo ecosystem, the Pro 2 is the doorbell to get.

Photograph by Dan Seifert / The Verge