Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro reviewed: a clever addition

Looking to keep tabs on your home from the front door? Ring’s latest model, the Battery Video Doorbell Pro, records not only video, but where the people near your door might have gone.

It’s been nearly eight years since Ring arrived on the security scene, bringing with it something that would change the landscape of security cameras at home: a doorbell with a security camera inside.

When you think about the front door being the gateway to the home, a doorbell with a security camera makes a lot of sense. From one location, you can monitor and track the comings and goings, and even keep tabs on the packages that arrive, as well.

There’s little wonder why the category has taken off, with more security camera makers getting into video doorbells since Ring’s arrival, and everyone trying to one-up each other into making the next big thing.

So what’s next for Ring itself? Radar, or something close to it, as Ring turns to a top-down look at where you live to give you more details on what’s happening at home.

What is the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro?

At its core, the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro is very similar to what we’ve seen prior from the company.

Sized identically to the Ring Video Doorbell 4 we reviewed last year, it might seem only a few components have changed, but changed they have.

Inside, there’s a camera capable of handling 1536p video, which is to stay its square video at 1536×1536, slightly more than HD, but not quite Full HD. We’ll call it Full HD-ish for fun, but the easier way of describing it is head-to-toe video, because it covers a square that let’s you see the full video of someone on your property.

The Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro also includes a microphone and speaker for two way communication, and the camera includes colour night vision and pre-roll, with some extra technology thrown in for good measure, too. This is the “pro” model, after all.

That “pro” feature set includes 3D motion detection which can be married to a “Bird’s Eye View” mode that uses a mapping system to work out where a person coming onto a property has come from and where they could be going.

You’ll also find package alerts and quick replies here, too, and the whole thing is powered by a replaceable battery you can quickly remove and recharge.

Like all other Ring models, you can wire the Battery Video Doorbell Pro into your electricity, but the point of this model is that you don’t have to. You really just need a WiFi network and a door, and truth be told, you don’t even need the door. You could stick it anywhere and it would work.

Does it do the job?

The main point of the Battery Video Doorbell Pro is to provide a video concierge and bouncer of sorts for your home, and that’s exactly what it does.

There’s a 1536p square video recording, alerts, quick replies, speedy alerts, and can view events in real-time, though you’ll need to pay monthly or yearly if you want to access stored video history.

Outside of the need to pay for yet another service (sigh), Ring’s battery-based Video Doorbell Pro is a solid security system in the right place. We’re already fans of the Ring doorbells, and the latest adds handy features, such as improvements to low-light video, better audio, and the clever little Bird’s Eye View concept.

What does it need?

However, the problem with Bird’s Eye View is that it won’t suit every home, or even be effective for every home. This isn’t radar in the sense that you’re tracking a position of a person properly like radar, but more of a guess based on the proximity of the person in front of the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro itself, which uses 3D motion tracking to work out their position in relation to the camera.

Bird’s Eye View can be a handy inclusion depending on how your home is setup, particularly if you’re trying to track the position of someone walking to your door from the street, or even walking away. That’s a handy approach provided Ring sees them from the beginning, because you’ll chart their position.

But if your home’s entry-way is a bit of a distance from the road, or there’s a porch with stairs, or something like either of these, Bird’s Eye View will use track the person coming onto your property the only way they can. Where they go from there won’t be as helpful, because there is only one way in and out.

It’ll likely be a similar problem if you live in an apartment, which mightn’t reveal too much using Bird’s Eye View, either.

Unfortunately, the extra feature that is Bird’s Eye View will be more useful for some homes, but also not useful at all for others.

Every home is different, so you’re the best judge as to whether this feature will be worth your time. 3D motion detection is a little useful, but the pre-roll is very handy, because the doorbell can give you video of before a person triggered the doorbell’s security.

Bird’s Eye View, however, mightn’t give you the most useful experience, which is a similar problem to the ultra-wide viewing angle offered by the Ring’s recordings. It’s bigger, sure, but it might not be ideal for everyone. Sometimes the view is just too wide and mightn’t give you a view that is as clean as a widescreen image from previous models.

The square video does have something going for it, though: top-to-bottom viewing, which means getting the whole picture of who’s there, much like if you looked through a peep-hole in the door.

One final pain point: how you recharge the battery in the Ring Video Doorbell Pro.

Even though USB-C is the main charging port of choice, supported by the EU’s decision to make USB-C the international standard and something Apple has even moved Lightning over to Type C, Ring still has not.

The battery in the Battery Video Doorbell Pro uses microUSB to recharge, and at this point in time, that is just silly.

We’re past this, Ring. We should be past this. Every manufacturer has adopted USB Type C in some way, but for some reason not Ring.

In fairness to Ring, you do get a full-size USB to microUSB plug in the box. Great. But the world is largely moving, and should have by now. Most devices arrive with USB-C cables in the box, just not this one.

Is it worth your money?

Priced at $349 in Australia, the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro isn’t a dramatic price hike compared to the model that fits below it, the $249 Video Doorbell Plus, which itself is a slight update on the Video Doorbell 4. That’s clearly not confusing at all!

Similarities aside, the $100 difference between units isn’t dramatic, and Ring’s video concierge is still one of the better doorbells out, providing a way to easily keep track of the comings and goings outside your door.

We’d argue the $349 price is sound given the feature upgrades, but if you don’t need those features, the $249 model below saves you a few bucks in the process.

Yay or nay?

Ever since Ring first rolled out its battery-based video doorbell, we’ve been intrigued. Partly because the front door is the perfect place for a security system, but also because a video doorbell with an easy to charge battery is such a great idea, particularly given the number of renters who don’t want to lean on their landlord for a new doorbell.

If you’ve ever rented or are renting now, you know just how difficult it can sometimes be to get something added or replaced. Hiring an electrician to install a doorbell may as well be shuffled off into the “too hard” basket, because that’s exactly what it is: too hard.

With a battery-based doorbell, though, anyone can install a clever form of security in the right location. You could screw it in or even just install it with some solid 3M tape. Regardless of how you do it, adding a video doorbell with a battery allows renters to skip the landlord and get some great security, while home owners can forgo bringing in an electrician themselves.

Thanks to the friendly nature of DIY, anyone can install a battery-based form of video security at the front door, and keep eyes on their front of house.

With the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro, that’s exactly what you get, watching the house with some cool tech.

At its core, it delivers peace of mind where it needs to be. Not every feature will be useful for everyone, but on the whole, the doorbell is a handy addition to the home.

The Ring Battery Video Doorbell is clever technology for any front door. Recommended.