SQUIRREL_13099352
In my eyes, the doorbell was not a device that needed vast innovation. Walk up to the house, press a button and someone answers, that’s all you need right?! Well, clearly I was wrong with the smart doorbell market currently sitting at an overall valuation in the billions.
As part of the ever-growing smart home market, there are plenty of brands now producing smart doorbells with the aim of making your life easier via automation, notifications and hands-free controls.
Colour me ever so slightly intrigued. With every missed package and timid knock at my door, my interest in a smart doorbell has been increasing. With this in mind, I spent some time using one of the leading products – the Amazon Ring 4 – to see if the hype was justified.
Setup
Whether the Ring 4 will be easy to set up or not will come down to which version you get. I tested the wireless version, but they also make one that needs to be plugged into the house’s electrical wiring.
While it’s more complicated, this option is going to be better in the long term as it saves you having to charge the Ring 4. If this all sounds like a job you don’t want to take on don’t worry, the wireless option saves a lot of hassle.
Amazon estimates the average wireless Ring doorbell will last up to six months on a single charge, this combined with an 8 hour charge time means over a year you’ll be charging for less than a full day.
In setting up the doorbell, the first step was as simple as downloading an app and scanning a QR code. Like all smart products these days, most of the setup process is simply entering mass amounts of data and selecting preferences.
The hard part of the process is getting the doorbell put up. Ring includes screws, wall plugs, a mount and a plethora of parts to get you sorted. It can be intimidating but there are easy instructions to follow.
If you are in a rental property or somewhere where drilling into the side of the house would be frowned upon, this will pose a challenge. You could always attach the device to a wall with sticky strips or some kind of temporary mount, but this won’t stop any potential thieves.
Design
The Ring doorbell is a lot of things, but it isn’t exactly the most aesthetically pleasing smart doorbell out there. It’s large and quite noticeable which, if you’re looking for a security deterrent, isn’t exactly a bad thing.
While brands like Arlo or Google’s Nest offer sleek doorbells, the Ring is a large rectangle that looks slightly dated. This is the same design that Ring has been offering for years across generations but, if it isn’t broken why fix it?
The large design is utilitarian in nature. Housing a powerful camera and an absolutely huge battery, the benefits outweigh the slight aesthetic issues.
The housing that covers most of the doorbell is plastic. It looks sleek and premium, but it is prone to scrapes and marks if you’re not careful with it. Obviously, you’re not moving it about much, but I did bump it while carrying something into the house leaving a noticeable mark.
It isn’t entirely clear just how protected from water and dust the camera is. While it is water-resistant, Ring hasn’t made any claims around dust or more extreme weather. In fact, you’re advised to keep the camera safe by prioritising the location under a porch or some kind of rain protection.
App
Like most modern devices, when using the Ring doorbell the app will be your best friend. Through the Ring app you can access live feeds, change settings, rewatch old footage, set zones to scan and more.
In fact, the Ring doorbell can be somewhat overwhelming when you first boot up the app, offering a plethora of settings and preferences. However, day to day most of these options won’t be needed.
I mainly used the app to access the camera’s feed and to access push notifications when someone was at the door. However, it is also worth spending some time in the app messing with settings to get your perfect doorbell experience.
The app will also be used for any other Ring devices you invest in. This includes the optional Chime device, allowing you to hear your doorbell from other parts of your property.
King of the castle
So the doorbell is set up, the app is downloaded… what can it actually do? Yes, it can act as a doorbell, alerting you when someone rings the door but that is only one small part of the Ring’s functionality.
Whilst setting up the app, Ring requests a ‘Motion Zone’ be set up. This is the area that the camera will detect within, sending alerts and notifications if any human movement is detected in this range.
Depending on where you live, this zone is well worth setting up. I live on a busy road and would myself with upwards of 40 notifications in a day. Once I changed this to just focus on my entranceway, notifications dropped to a much more helpful quantity.
Motion detection can be edited even further. Adjustments can be made to the motion detection sensitivity to lower the frequency of notifications, and alerts can be sent when a package is left for you.
If the doorbell is rung while you’re out (or don’t want to have to socialise with the outside world) you can communicate via the doorbell’s microphone. It’s clear and loud, and so is the microphone that your postman will have to make awkward small talk with you through.
For even less socialising, automatic responses can be set up. These range from the simple ‘Hi! We’ll be right there’ to the blunter ‘Sorry, we’re not interested’ and the somewhat keen ‘Hi! Spring's here and it looks like you are too! We’ll be right there’.
If you set up these automatic messages, people can leave messages, or you can still speak to them via the microphone once the message finishes.
The doorbell utilises a Full HD camera that operates in a 160 degree field of view. The video footage was mostly detailed and crisp, even when zooming in on a subject to get a clearer view.
Equally, the night vision camera is surprisingly accurate, although it is in black and white. It does have a habit of applying a somewhat sickly filter though which is not exactly going to provide the most flattering images of you as you come home late at night.
Sucked into the Amazon ecosystem
Something that isn’t exactly very upfront when you buy an Amazon Ring is how dependent it is on a ‘Ring Protect Plan’. You get a full month of this when you set the doorbell up, showing you the wonderful experience available, and then a host of features will be lost.
For an extra £3.49 a month, Ring will offer alerts when a person has been spotted, photo previews of the people at the door, extended video storage, video downloads and sharing and snapshot captures.
This price increases to £8 a month if you have multiple Ring devices that you want to be included in this plan. This will only cover Ring devices at one property and a second plan will need to be set up for any other property.
Another issue with being in Amazon’s ecosystem is that Ring isn’t compliant with Google device’s or Google Assistant. If you have a house full of Google speakers and devices, you’ll be much better off with a Nest doorbell.
Verdict
Ring has been making doorbells for a decade now, working on the design through iteration after iteration, so it is no surprise that the Ring 4 is a refined product, offering everything you will need from a doorbell.
It is by no means the cheapest option around, but that money rewards you with a fantastic battery life, clear footage and audio, plus plenty of smart changeable features and more features than you’ll ever need.
However, with a lot of these features locked behind a subscription pay-wall, and a lack of Google assistant compatibility, those who aren’t already loyal Amazon customers could find brands like Arlo or Wyze better fit to needs or price brackets.
SQUIRREL_13099352
Alternatives
Arlo Essential doorbell
Arlo's Essential doorbell sits in a similar price bracket to the Ring Doorbell 4 and even has a similar list of features.
The big difference for Arlo is the more sleek design on offer. The brand's Essential doorbell is slim and thin with the same layout as Ring of the camera being on top and the button below.
The camera can capture great video quality and offers a full length capture of anyone coming to your door.
SQUIRREL_TEXT_13062290
Google Nest doorbell
The Google Nest doorbell looks very similar to the Arlo Essential above, slimming the design down to a long strip.
This device is mostly going to appeal to those who are deep into the Google ecosystem, filling their house with Google speakers, devices and possibly a Google smartphone in the pocket.
Where Ring requires you to set up a paid subscription to reap the full benefits of the doorbell, Nest includes it all for free.
Nest also offers facial recognition features so your camera knows when it is you or a friend at the door.
Eufy Security video doorbell
Eufy's security doorbell is similar to its competitors in a lot of ways. The design is fairly similar, as is the list of features on offer. However, unlike some competitors that ask you to sign up for a subscription plan, Eufy instead stores your footage in a hub that comes with it. This does mean there is a delay to access photos and footage, but nothing that will be all that noticeable.
Across price, features and design, Eufy has one of the best smart doorbells available right now.
Read more reviews:
