Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus Review
High-resolution video makes this the best battery-powered doorbell.
Verdict
An excellent video doorbell, the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus ups resolution to a square 1536 x 1536, capturing everything at the door from head-to-toe. An excellent app, plus low-cost cloud costs, makes this the best overall battery-powered video doorbell, particularly for those with other Ring products.
Pros
- High quality video
- Easy to install
- Powerful app
Cons
- Lacks pre-roll
Key Features
- TypeA battery-powered smart video doorbell with a swappable battery.
- Battery lifeUp to six months, although how often the camera detects motion will dramatically affect this. I’d say up to three months is more likely.
Introduction
Although Ring started with battery-powered models, in terms of resolution and features, these models have always lagged behind the wired models, such as the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2. Not so now with the Ring Video Doorbell Plus, which ups the resolution to 1536p.
Ring’s more advanced features, such as 3D Motion Detection, aren’t supported, but if you want the best battery-powered doorbell, this is it.
Design and installation
- Simply screws into position
- Can sound an existing wired chime
Externally, there’s little to tell between the Ring Video Doorbell Plus and previous wired models. The new one is the same size and shape as the Video Doorbell 4, offering a like-for-like swap if you do have to replace or upgrade.
Similar to previous models, the Doorbell is compatible with interchangeable faceplates (£14.99 each), so you can change how the doorbell looks easily.
Faceplates, and access to the mounting screws, are secured with a security screw. Make sure you don’t lose the provided screwdriver, otherwise you’ll need a replacement to get the faceplate off so that the battery pack can be removed for charging.
Installation is a doddle. At its easiest, the Ring Video Doorbell Plus needs to be screwed into place on a door frame. If you do need to angle the doorbell, there’s a corner kit available separately. As with previous models, the doorbell is powered by a Quick Release Battery Pack.
It’s a useful choice, as you can buy a spare battery and just switch between them to avoid any downtime with the doorbell. Alternatively, the Ring Video Doorbell Plus is compatible with 8 to 24 VAC doorbell transformer, and it will sound an existing wired chime.
Using a transformer is useful, as it will trickle-charge the doorbell and keep its battery topped up. I also like having an internal power chime, as these tend to be a little louder than the Ring Chime, which plugs into a standard power socket.
Once installed, the Ring Video Doorbell Plus can be connected to Wi-Fi and the Ring app by scanning the code on its side.
Features
- Works with Amazon smart displays
- Clever motion detection options
- Integrates with other Ring products
Although the Ring Video Doorbell Plus can be used without a subscription to Ring Protect, you get more features if you upgrade, plus the video is saved to the cloud. A single camera subscription costs £3.49 a month (£34.99 a year), or you can pay £8 a month (£80 a year) to upgrade to unlimited cameras, plus unlock cellular backup for the Ring Alarm system. If you have the Alarm system, in particular, Ring Protect is quite staggeringly good value.
Upgrading to Ring Protect means that you get 30 days of video storage included. That’s enough time to search back and find a clip in most circumstances, although it is possible to upgrade to up to 180 days of video storage.
All cameras, including video doorbells, live or die based on how good the quality of motion detection is. Battery-powered Ring doorbells used to be rather basic, but now there are a few advanced features.
Most importantly, activity zones are there, so it’s possible to set which part of an image you want to monitor, ignoring anything outside of this. There’s no 3D Motion Detection using radar to limit detection distance; if you want this, then you need the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2.
Motion sensitivity can then be adjusted. By themselves, these two settings can dramatically reduce the number of alerts you get.
However, there’s also Person Alerts, a smart feature that only tells when the camera spots a person. The Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free goes further, with selectable alerts for people, vehicles and animals, but Ring’s person-only alerts cover the most important notifications.
Other motion can still trigger a recording, but there’s a choice of whether you want to be notified; I don’t, so I turn off general alerts.
Package detection is a special alert zone, which will tell you when a package is spotted. It works best with larger items, but is a handy feature to have.
To further help, alerts can be paused if you get too many. For example, if you’ve got builders and they’re in and out unloading a van, pausing alerts makes for a calmer life. And, there’s a motion schedule option, so you can choose when you do and don’t want alerts.
As with other Ring devices, the Ring Video Doorbell Plus can trigger recordings on linked devices, say a Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro. And, the doorbell can be activated or disabled based on the mode the Ring Alarm is in. To be honest, I wouldn’t bother with that, as a video doorbell is at its best when it’s permanently set to record.
All footage is saved to the cloud (assuming you have a subscription). Tap the icon to open up the live view, and the timeline shows the type of event (Ring, Motion, Person Detected, Live View, Linked Device or Package), and you can filter the view by event and date.
These improvements have made it much faster to find a particular clip of interest, reducing the amount of scrolling required. Once found, a clip can be downloaded to your phone’s gallery to be saved.
Unlike the Ring Video Doorbell 4, the Ring Video Doorbell Plus does not have the colour pre-roll, where the camera records a low-resolution video and prepends it to a motion event, so you can see what triggered it. It’s a feature that I can live without to get higher resolution video.
If you’ve got an Amazon smart display, such as an Echo Show 5 (3rd Gen), alerts come through to the display, and the doorbell can be answered without using a phone. Standard Echo smart speakers can be used as internal chimes.
Neatly, Smart Responses are available. After a set response time (default of 10s but selectable), the doorbell can speak one of a choice of stock phrases, and then ask the caller if they want to leave a message. I toggle this feature on and off, depending on my availability and what I’m doing.
Performance
- High-resolution portrait video
- Shoots colour night footage
- Responds quickly
Shooting video at 1536 x 1536, the Ring Video Doorbell Plus captures a full view of what’s going on outside the door, including right down to a caller’s feet. This kind of view makes a lot of sense, as video doorbells are all about what’s going on right at the door; if you want general surveillance, then add some traditional security cameras into the mix.
I found that doorbell presses came through to my phone within a few seconds. I’d say that fully wired doorbells are slightly more responsive, but not by much. Sound quality, both via the speaker and microphone are spot-on, making it easy to understand the person you’re talking to.
Image quality is very good: footage is nicely exposed, there’s plenty of detail and I could see exactly what was happening all around my door. The slight fisheye effect means that this camera is better close-up than far-away, but that’s what a video doorbell is about.
At night, the Ring Video Doorbell Plus can switch to full-colour night vision if there’s enough ambient light. At dusk, video quality is amazing, with little noise in the image.
In full darkness, the footage is impressive, too, pulling out full colour, provided there’s a bit of light around; the camera can be helped if you’ve also got a security light. Some detail is lost, and motion is a little more blurred but close-up, you can see what’s going on outside of the door brilliantly.
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Should you buy it?
You want a high-resolution battery-powered doorbell: No wires needed, high-resolution video and low-cost cloud storage make this a great buy.
You want a wired model or no subscription fees: If you prefer the sleeker look of a wired model or don’t want to pay for the cloud, look elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
With more resolution than previous battery-powered models, the excellent Ring app and low cloud storage prices, the Ring Video Doorbell Plus is the best battery-powered smart video doorbell. If you want a wired model or some more advanced motion detection features, check out my guide to the best video doorbells.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every security camera we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
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Used as our main security camera for the review period
We test compatibility with the main smart systems (HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, SmartThings, IFTTT and more) to see how easy each camera is to automate.
We take samples during the day and night to see how clear each camera’s video is.
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FAQs
Yes it is the same size as models from the Video Doorbell 3 upwards, so it’s easy to swap for an older model.
Yes. It ships in one colour, but other colours are available for £14.99 each.
Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
