Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Ring Wi-Fi Enabled Video Doorbell in Antique Brass, Works with Alexa

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2018

So I wanted to get one of these for a while, and once the price came down I jumped on it. I am so impressed with this product and this company, that I feel compelled to write a very detailed review of my experience so far with both.

When I first received the package, I was extremely impressed with how much care went into the customer experience, even down to the experience of opening the box, etc. Everything is highly organized and guides you easily through the steps to get your unit up and running. The first thing you're greeted with is also their 24/7 800 #, just in case you have an issue, which I found to be very reassuring.

The unit comes with step by step directions so simple a small child could probably follow them, and they even include the tools you will need to install the entire unit with including a drill bit in case you have to install the bell on a masonry surface (They dont include a drill though, just the bit).

You are led to install their app on your phone first which is extremely simple, and you will need to have high speed wireless wifi for this to work. Once you install the app, right inside the the app they've included excellent high quality instructional videos which guide you through the entire installation, no matter which way you're doing it. I found the videos to be simple, right to the point, a very big help and incredibly easy to follow.

The installation in my opinion was very easy, and took me about 25 minutes total. It turned out that I had done two things wrong though, which I did not know at the time. So I immediately called customer service at 10pm mind you, to see if they could help. After about a 3 minute wait I was connected with an American tech support rep, who was friendly, courteous, and extremely helpful. He wound up staying on the phone with me for probably 45 minutes, walking me through every trouble shooting step till we identified the problem (which turned out to be an issue with my phone, not the device, and that I had failed to install the included diode for my hard wired digital bell).

Once we identified the issues, he walked me through fixing everything, and would not let me off the phone until we tested the bell three times, and it was ringing in the house, and to my phone each time flawlessly. The customer service was absolutely excellent, and top notch.

Since the installation, I absolutely LOVE this product. I had the first visitor today who rang the bell, and I was able to see them and talk to them from the comfort of my backyard, which was awesome. The Live View feature is just fantastic as well, and at any point you can turn that on and see whats going on outside right to the street. The camera is SUPERB, as it's a very wide angle camera, and no matter where the person is on the stoop, they are seen by it.

They'd basically have to be laying flat up against your front door with their faces and bodies pressed to it to hide from the camera, and even then you'd still see some of them! It's really just a top notch camera all around. The picture is crystal clear and in color as well, and the night vision really works too. If there's enough ambient light, you even get color footage at night! Can't say enough good things about the camera.

The speaker two way talking works great as well, I was able to have a conversation with a visitor with no issues and both our voices were clear as a bell. The app works extremely well and alerts you as soon as the bell rings in a manner of your choosing, including a traditional door bell chime on your phone, up to a voice announcing "there's someone at your front door".

Once you click the alert it opens up the live view immediately, and you can view and talk to the visitor; from anywhere you are with wifi in the world. Which I again think is absolutely awesome, even more incredible that it really works!

You can get alerts if there's any motion as well, and you can set the motion range (up to 30 ft away) to whatever distance you are comfortable with. The phone will then alert you in any way you choose when ever there is motion outside in range. Be careful though because its very sensitive. Most likely a grasshopper will set it off lol..But the great thing is if you don't want motion alerts? You can simply disable them, and just get doorbell alerts.

I really cannot say enough good things about this product, the company, or the system they have set up here. Everything is ultra-intuitive and designed with the customer in mind, the customer service is Top Tier (and not outsourced to India, so they're creating American Jobs), and they really stand behind their product.

I am very, very satisfied with my purchase and my overall experience, 5 big stars and a very enthusiastic A+++++++++ from this customer, Thanks!!

2 people found this helpful

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halfast

Ring works!

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2016

Verified Purchase

I love my Ring. I've had it now for around two months. Installation is a breeze. Once you have it connected to your router, you just read the directions to determine the type of installation you want to do, battery or wired to your existing doorbell power, and based on where you want to mount it, you just either screw it in directly or put in anchors first, which they supply, it took no time. The two security screws go in the bottom after you install the Ring - you use the supplied tool to screw them in. I also purchased the extra chime and plugged it in my living room. It's a one story house, so you can pretty much hear it all over. You can adjust the sound level of the chime using your app. The router set up is very easy, and in my house the front door is a long way around the corner from where my Uverse router is. I was hesitant to buy this at first, because I had purchased (and returned) the original Doorbot because the image reception was awful and the app unresponsive. The Ring however worked without a hitch. I couldn't believe how clear the image is and how clear the sound is. The app is very responsive. You either get a visual and audio notification that there's someone ringing the bell. You have a choice of answering or just watching and listening. Or, a short series of chimes when there is just motion at the door and you can also just watch and listen. Like now I know exactly when my mail is delivered. Even watched the mailman sit down on my bench to change shoes - LOL. By the way, the $30 of a year for cloud storage is well worth it. It's easy to go through and review any activity at your door or doors, even if you have multiple Rings installed. The events are listed in order and you just tap on the one you want to see. Setting the sensitivity on motion and heat detection takes just a couple of minutes on a very user friendly interface based on distance from the Ring. You just slide a finger and that's it. And, if passing trucks, etc, sets your Ring motion notification off, it's easy enough to adjust. Just remember that after you save your sensitivity settings, you actually need to ring the doorbell to activate the new settings. I have no idea why. I'd love to see the company come out with other outdoor and indoor surveillance cameras to add to the system. Pics show mail being delivered - as you can see there's a wide angle to the lens, so it picks up quite a large area which makes selection of a place to mount the button a no brainer. The other is an image of the Ring installed at my front door. It's attractive, sturdy looking and not overbearing in the least.

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Michael Singletary

Solid option for home security.

Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2017

Verified Purchase

The Ring video doorbell is a solid choice for people looking to get into smart home technology, and provides security, peace of mind, and ease of use that is not present in many other options at this price point. I’ll go by claim-by-claim to evaluate how well this product lives up to the manufacturer’s claims.

SEE, HEAR, AND SPEAK: This works, but your mileage may vary. You will need to have a very solid WiFi connection to the Ring, so make sure it is close enough to one of your WiFi points (or an extender/Chime Pro) so that it can handle an audio and video stream. It can take a few seconds to establish the connection if you’re powering it from a battery, causing a slight delay when trying to see motion/ring activity or speak with someone at the camera. Additionally, I found the volume on the Ring to be fairly quiet, and I see visitors leaning into the doorbell in video recordings where I speak with them.

GET INSTANT ALERTS: This works flawlessly for me - when it works. I get motion and doorbell alerts instantaneously, notifying me of movement on my porch or visitors/delivery people pressing the button to ring the doorbell. I have to admit that Ring sometimes misses motion on my porch, but this is due to sensitivity and zone settings, which I must finely tune due to my proximity to a busy street. Those located away from busy streets will likely not have this problem.

WATCH IN CRYSTAL-CLEAR HD VIDEO: Ring falls short here. While it is technically HD at 720p, it looks much lower quality in my installed location. It is not terribly grainy or pixellated, but it is not video quality worthy of preservation or bragging. It does the job, but the promotional videos you see on TV or their website are not indicative of the actual video quality you will experience. I’ll sum it up as “fine.”

PROTECT YOUR HOME WITH INFRARED VISION: Reliably switches between infrared and no infrared depending on ambient lighting. A noticeable clicking sound occurs when the camera begins recording at night, which I have seen scare away someone thinking about lurking on my porch. It is loud enough to be heard outside near a busy street, but does not detract from the experience.

COMMUNICATE W/ VISITORS - TWO-WAY AUDIO: Again, Ring falls short here. Audio works, but everyone that has used it when pressing the Ring’s button has been either disappointed by the volume and voice quality, or was nearly unable to hear me entirely. Everyone leans in if I try and talk to them, and I must talk at an uncomfortably loud volume to be heard properly. Apparently it has noise cancellation, but this is not noticeable to me, so I can’t imagine how bad the sound quality would be without it.

LIVE VIEW: It works, but is not super useful for me. It takes forever to power up Live View on battery power, making it nearly useless if you are trying to get to it quickly. I have other security cameras installed on my porch that run on batteries and come up more quickly, so I rely on them instead of Ring for a quick view of my porch.

SETUP IN MINUTES: This is highly subjective and depends on what your mounting surface is made out of. Mine is brick, and it took me “minutes”, but closer to 45 of them than single-digit. If you’re mounting into siding or wood it will be considerably faster, but I had to drill pilot holes and then size them properly for the anchors before finally installing the Ring. Not super fun.

DUAL-POWERED: My home didn’t have a doorbell so I rely solely on battery power. While I am glad it has a battery, I wish it lasted longer. Realistically, I get about a month of battery life before I must recharge it. Admittedly, this is because my Ring records about 4 events every hour, since the street in front of my house has city buses that drive by about this often. I wish I had known about the wedge mounts before drilling holes into my brick exterior, because I’m not drilling more to install the wedge kit now.

Overall the Ring video doorbell is a solid product. I took a star off for the video and audio quality, as they are nowhere near close to what is represented in marketing materials. Everything else works about as well as I would expect, and I am happy with my purchase. One of the biggest selling points is that you can power this entirely by rechargeable battery, so it can be mounted basically anywhere!

57 people found this helpful

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T. Hernandez

Convenient device

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2016

Verified Purchase

Personally we think this a quite a cool little device. I had no idea it existed but my dad had me order it up for him. It was much easier to set up then I imagined. Just unscrewed old doorbell and popped this one on. We hardwired it which just required we use the 2 wires already sticking out wall from old doorbell into this. After that we snapped it on and I set it up using the app from the play store. The regular doorbell still works fine which is a huge plus in my opinion. We initially set it up with the longest range of auto record motion detection but had to tone that down since it started recording every car that drive by lol. To keep this cloud recording motion feature is apparently like $3 a month or $30 a year i think.This is my dads device and he said that he thought that was pretty cheap and worth it. I'll leave that to you. I think he is also having more fun surprising friends that come over with the fact that he can talk through his phone once they ring doorbell and speak with them..lol. Now there does appear to be like a 3 second delay for us after the doorbell in house goes off until his phones notification goes off. Apparently for some that is a deal breaker. I read that some people think this delay will make people think you aren't home and leave. Either they have way more delay than us for some reason or they have impatient people. I mean it takes more than 3 seconds to go to door anyway and if you are home i hear regular doorbell if inside house anyway. We just so happen to have this nifty backup if we are in back yard or even not home now. We don't think the small delay was a big deal. Instantaneous would be pretty awesome but we are fine with how it is now. My dads internet is Uverse and I wanna say it is 30Mbps if that effects delay at all. Router isn't exactly close by either and considering this device is outside I think it is doing a pretty good job. I know wifi from inside usually gets much slower and unreliable once having to travel through a couple walls in my experience.

All of that being said this defiantly isn't a necessary $200 you NEED to spend but if you got some extra money burning a whole in your pocket and think this would offer you some convenience I say you cannot really go wrong. My dad thinks the motion recording is kind of like a little security camera is why he likes it and finds it worth the price. Maybe you want something similar.

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Quotes&More

You need at least 1.5 MBPS upload speed for this to work well.

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2016

Verified Purchase

This is a great idea but it is dependent on a lot of bandwidth on your wifi system. Installation steps are marvelously explained. I have pretty good basic internet service. I have essentially about 12MBPS down and .8 or so up. (Where I have it placed, it's well connected to the wifi system.) That's pretty typical for a lot of internet providers at the basic level. To be clear, my internet service works great. It's working great for everything I do, including if a couple people are streaming at the same time. Not a problem. But that .8 or so up speed is very typical for this type of service (DSL). But, likely related to this, my RING is unreliable, is slow to pop up on the phone, has questionable video quality and even more poor audio quality. The problem is that it does not even reliably function as a doorbell. It's one thing if the fancy features do not work well but another if it does not work as a basic doorbell. I get and believe in the security of having it be a video camera. I believe that this is a deterrent right off the bat for burglars who check first if someone is home. So, I would not entirely mind if it did only function as a basic doorbell while being convincing that it's doing a lot more. At any rate, I called technical support. They were terrific and responsive. But, at the end of the day, they said you really need 1.5 MBPS upload speed. I do not have that but will see about getting it. But, if that had been clearly advertised, I would not have purchased the thing at all. If you have really fast internet and great connectivity around your house, I can see this being pretty great. If you have so-so internet, I'd not bother until and if you have a way to address that. There are also various quirks about the APP but I've written enough for now. This is going to be a great product at some point but it's not quite there yet but might be if you have fast and great internet coverage and bandwidth.

Their customer service (I have used the chat twice) is fantastic. It's a together company and the product can only get better. But if you have mediocre internet, think twice for now. But see update below for more about the doorbell service itself.

Update: After a few days with this, I find that it works (the ringing part) about 6 out of 7 times, so fairly often, you can press the button and nothing at all happens. That is, no ring anywhere. I have the external, in the house, ringer (you really need that unless you want your phone to be your only doorbell). I think RING would be smart to put into the doorbell device AND the external ringer a secondary circuit that works the same way the cheap wireless doorbells work so that if, for whatever reason, the wifi hiccups or is not the fastest, the RING Doorbell outside rings the in-home external ringer no matter what. If they can make 30 dollar doorbells do that perfectly (which is what we had), they could include that in this so that your doorbell works no matter if the signal makes it all the way to the wifi and to the external ringer by wifi. That would be cheap and smart. I would like my doorbell to work all the time even if RING does not always show me who is there.

Update after a few weeks: This is working acceptably but not great. But I get notices and can see who is at the door when I'm away. But, the local ringer (the extra ring module you get to put in your house--if you purchase that--which enables those in the house not near a connected IOS device to hear the doorbell seems to work intermittently. Today, there was a workman at the door and my wife and too sons all were here and could have answered the door. I got the notice on my phone at work that there was someone at the door but I didn't answer it from phone because I knew all these people were at home. But, the external ringer didn't ring at all, it turns out, so none of them knew someone was at the door. When I got home I asked them all who came to the door and they said no one came to the door. I checked the doorbell and it worked fine (the main RING device outside) but it had lost it's connection to he wall ringer. I unplugged it and plugged it back in and it worked fine. This gets to why I'm staying with the 1 star. This is a cool idea but it does not even work that reliably for me as a basic doorbell. Forget all the camera benefits and security benefits, if it's unreliable functioning as a basic doorbell when people are in the house, that is pretty bad. As I mentioned earlier, basic, cheap, wireless doorbells (of a sort we've used for years) work flawlessly. I really think the people at RING need to build that functionality into this RING device so that it always works at least as well as a basic, 34 dollar doorbell system that works wirelessly that you can buy at the hardware store. I think it would be impressive if it had both ways to make the external ringer work. The one (the old tech) would always work even if the ringer had lost connection for some reason with the internet. Now I feel like I need to test the doorbell every day or so to make sure it's ringing in the house. This has nothing to do with the video upload speed issue. My internet is working great. it's just not a super fast system (but it's numbers are better than the average in the US) and the signal strength is great all around the house and where these devices are. So, I like this but it's not ready for prime time as far as I'm concerned. I might be more satisfied with a regular doorbell again and a motion sensing security camera near the front door. Case in point, I've used camera's on IOS devices through ManyThing for a couple of years. They seem to always work.

2 people found this helpful

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Maria Langer

Disappointed that Hardwired Unit STILL Needs Regular Recharging

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2016

Verified Purchase

I've had my Ring for about 6 months now. I have it set up hardwired to an existing doorbell transformer and chime. When it works, it works great BUT:

1) I definitely had issues with it picking up wind chime motion. The documentation assures us that it uses heat to identify motion targets so it'll pick up people and animals and vehicles with running/warm engines. It should NOT pick up wind chimes, but it does. Support says that wind chimes have some heat. Right.

2) The video recording does not start immediately. There's a definite delay. So if it picks up motion, it'll start recording for 40 seconds about 3-5 seconds after it senses motion. Result: Video excludes the beginning of the motion or misses the motion entirely.

3) To save video past the initial trial period will cost you $30/year. There's no way to save video on your own computer or on a standard cloud service like Dropbox or Google Drive. So you're basically at the mercy of Ring for video footage you may need to provide to police, etc.

I also had some issues with spurious rings of my door chime. That came to a head in the middle of the night last week when my doorbell wouldn't stop ringing at all. I had to get on a ladder and disconnect the wires to my chime. In the middle of the night. With my dog barking her brains out.

But the main reason I'm giving this only three stars is because of the misleading marketing materials. When I built my home, I purposely included a hardwired doorbell system, knowing I'd be buying a video doorbell. I chose Ring because although it had a battery, the electricity for my doorbell would keep that battery charged so I wouldn't have to recharge it manually. AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT I WAS LED TO BELIEVE. The fact is, the hardwiring gives it only a "trickle" charge of 10% of the power it needs (per Ring tech support today) and does not eliminate the need to charge the bell every 6 to 12 months, depending on activity. This all came to a head the other night when Ring's battery died completely, apparently setting off my doorbell nonstop.

The doorbell unit must be removed to charge it. This requires the removal of two tiny security screws, for which you need the tool that comes with the doorbell. DON'T LOSE IT! With the screws removed, the doorbell slides out of its plastic mount. You can then bring it inside and charge it with a USB cable. This can take HOURS to do; during that time, you have no doorbell. The doorbell then needs to be remounted, with the security screws replaced. In my installation, however, the plastic mount is not on a flat surface. When I originally installed the bell, it took me over an hour to get it to slide in properly, using all kinds of shims behind the plate to get it as flat as possible. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd have to do this multiple times a year, just to maintain a doorbell.

Customer support by phone is good. The guy who helped me seemed to really care about my problem and sympathized with me. He did, however, tell me that if I had the Ring Pro, which costs $50 more and was not available when I bought mine, I wouldn't have this issue at all. Thanks, but I think I've invested enough money with Ring.

Bottom line: If you want a no-maintenance video doorbell, this is NOT the solution.

16 people found this helpful

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JustMe

Peace of Mind, Convenient, Affordable, it Works Great and Very Caring Customer Service

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2015

Verified Purchase

When was the last time you received calm, confident, patient, HONEST and caring customer service? For me, it's been years. And now the product I so much wanted and needed to work, works beautifully.

I first read about this product in a recent issue of Consumer Reports, and immediately ordered one. I have a bit of a hearing problem and when I'm upstairs working in my home office, I either sometimes do not hear the doorbell or when I do, it takes me awhile to get downstairs to answer it. Statistics show most break-ins occur when people don't answer the door, so I love being able to answer the door, talk to them while a video is being made, and they never know if I'm home or not. The video is stored in iCloud so if anything bad happens, we have something we can email to authorities.

After several days of working with their tech reps to iron out some bugs primarily due to wireless reception, this company went out of their way to help me have a positive experience. I am very not-technically savvy and everyone I talked to was helpful, patient, friendly and with a sense of humor.

This product would be amazing for anyone, from elderly or disabled people who can't make it to the front door very quickly, to someone like me with hearing problems and having the app on my iPhone quickly get my attention that someone's at my door, to young mothers trying to quiet their little ones and may not be able to reach the door in time. In this day and age where people think nothing of breaking into one's home if no one answers the door - this device allows me to answer my door even if I'm not at home. We are happy with our current home security, motion detectors and security cameras but being able to answer the door whether I'm home or not is a real bonus, plus having all photos and videos stored in the iCloud from both the doorbell and the security cameras offers us additional peace of mind.

The app on my phone sends me motion alerts which prompts me to open my app and I see who is there and talk to them. They have no idea if I'm home or not. I also love that you can install it using your current doorbell's existing wiring; or, you can use it with its existing battery. The guy I talked to today said it will send me an alert when the battery is at 15% capacity, giving me time to recharge it.

My husband installed it using the existing doorbell wiring, because we both agree it's a sleek, modern and much more appealing doorbell than our existing one. Thank you!

One person found this helpful

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Garrius

Two units defective - motion sensors don't work beyond a couple of feet - sending back

Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2015

Verified Purchase

Well, after spending the morning futzing with this thing, and almost an hour on the phone with tech support, the consensus is that I received a unit with bad motion sensors. The device can only detect activity within two feet, regardless of sensitivity, zone settings and how much I wave my arms or walk by the unit. We reset the motion sensors but no change in behavior. The company is sending me a replacement. Not happy about it but when you ring the doorbell the video works, as well as the 2-way communication, at least on WiFi.

Pro's:
- Tech support allowed me to leave my number and called me back within an hour. The Tech rep spent nearly an hour on the phone with me recreating the tests I did and several others
- Video/audio function works on my wireless-N network
- I like the wide field of view with the video - covers my entire front porch
- App is fairly well done

Meh:
- Video quality is weak for a device nowadays - adequate but weak
- Quality of build is OK, also not great.

Con's:
- First pro is a comment about their tech support
- Broken first device
- As is, I am not going to get a video of anyone unless they ring my doorbell
- The back plate really is a piece of crap. If you have a stucco house, you are going to have to make adjustments to mount the device
- Anyone with a reasonable amount of arm strength can rip this thing off the house. OK if I get a video of them I suppose. See third con.
- If you are on a phone call on the iPhone and you are contacted by the app, you cannot get video and audio without ending the call. No way to swap or put call on hold.

I'm disappointed but like the concept enough to give it another shot. Whenever I receive the new unit I will update this review. I almost returned to Amazon and ordered another for speedy turnaround but decided to give the company a chance and see how long it took them to get me one.

Update - 10-13-2015: Sadly the replacement unit exhibits the same behavior as the first. I really wanted this thing to work!

The motion sensing technology has issues. By the time it detects anyone and activates the camera they are out of the field of view. I tested the new unit by starting 30ish feet away waving my hands, then approaching one pace at a time and repeating the behavior. The device didn't sense me at all after repeating all the way up to the door. It finally picked me up as I was standing there waiting for my iphone to ring. The really frustrating part is that this thermal sensing technology has no issue picking up cars driving by over thirty feed away! Also, the "answer ring" video technology doesn't work at all unless I was on my home network.

I have to wonder if this would work better in cooler climates. I live in California and I'm wondering if the device is having issues differentiating between the warm environment and people. Just a guess.

I'm leaving the review at two stars. It's too much money for a device that doesn't deliver but it's a great concept. If you need a device that notifies you when someone is at the door while you are travelling, this does a pretty good job but that's about all it does effectively. If you need something that is going to record video based on motion sensing technology, don't buy. Unless people are going to stand right in front of the thing until the video kicks in you aren't going to get any faces. If you are away from home, you can't answer the ring alert and access the camera - just a blank screen that can't connect.

10 people found this helpful

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C. Winton

Excellent as a doorbell, marginal for surveillance, and capturing video will cost you

Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

I installed a Ring doorbell as part of adding SmartHome devices to my house. Let me say right off that the only Amazon Echo device the Ring works with is the Echo Show (e.g., "Alexa, show the Front Door"), and that's pretty cool. Ring includes a nice installation package with the doorbell, including screwdriver, level, mounting screws, screw anchors, and even a masonry drill bit for brick or stucco siding. My old doorbell was installed when the house was built in 1973. I have wood siding at the front door and my doorbell uses a 20V (AC) transformer, so my installation went exactly like the Ring instruction video. Apparently most doorbells use low voltage AC produced by a simple transformer wired into a house circuit. For a wired installation Ring requires the transformer produce between 8VAC and 24VAC. My transformer is located in the attic so it was easy to check its VAC rating, but if you have a volt meter you can simply use its VAC setting to check the wires at the push button connection. Newer doorbells may be digital, so Ring supplies a diode to wire across the contacts to handle that scenario. If the Ring is installed as a battery powered device, you have to have your smart phone on hand to notify you when someone is at the door.

Setup can only be done with the Ring removed from its bracket and running off of its internal battery. It also requires you to be online using Ring's smart phone app. The setup is easy and you can quickly verify functionality. Once installed on the bracket, press the Ring's button and your inside chime sounds plus the Ring makes a chime sound itself. After that you will probably do what I did and figure out what else it can do, which is where things get a bit annoying since the documentation for the app is a bit buried on Ring's rather annoying website. The doorbell actually runs off of its internal battery, which can be charged via USB, and which for a wired connection recharges (slowly) from the VAC source. Heavy usage will draw the battery down faster than it will recharge, requiring you to remove the Ring from its bracket to recharge the battery externally (the software will warn you when the battery is too low).

From my perspective, sound quality is marginal and video is good, although the camera is easily fooled by lighting contrasts. As a doorbell device performance is excellent, for surveillance, less so. With the fish-eye lens you get great coverage, but with the distortion might have trouble making identification after the fact. The motion detection uses IR and is a bit slow on the uptake, where recording may not start until someone approaching the house has been in range a few seconds (possibly missing them entirely). As delivered, my Ring would only activate by the doorbell or motion sensing, but once I updated the firmware, live view worked, enabling the app to view the camera on demand. It took some hunting around to find out how to get the firmware updated, which turns out to be simple (in the Ring app, in the live view settings you just activate, then deactivate live view, which triggers an update check).

I might have given this a 5 star rating if there was some way to capture video other than relying on Ring's rather expensive cloud service ($30 per year, a lot considering that they only hold your video for 60 days). At least the company seems to be responsive to its customers, as evidenced by continuing to provide firmware upgrades for nice to have features like live view and Echo Show.

Update: I've had my unit installed for over a month and it's doing fine. As for the Echo Show, you can only access live view, not answer the doorbell, something Ring acknowledges on their web site. That's is a major mis-hit on Ring's part, or perhaps it is a case of the Show's software being too beta to be able to adequately deal with a device like the Ring at this time. I decided to pony up for Ring's cloud service to be able to check the doorbell when away from home. That generally works, but I've found the motion detection is often too slow to react to a delivery person in a hurry (either failing to record anything, or recording their receding backside). Also, on some occasions the camera image is simply black (in broad daylight conditions), which may be a function of my Comcast internet service dropping out at random times during the day. All in all I remain positive about the product and see no reason to change my rating.

Update 2: I've now had my ring doorbell for over a year and it continues to work well. Performance has actually improved since I put in a Google mesh system to distribute wi-fi throughout my house, ditching a hodge-podge of range extenders that went South with every power interruption. The Ring was particularly useful when we had to vacate the house for 4 months this Spring due to hurricane related repairs (fortunately the power could remain on). With the ring outside and a couple of cameras inside I was able to effectively monitor the house and work progress. The Ring activated whenever crews came to the door, and enabled me to run off a guy nosing around who was not a subcontractor. That alone justified the price of the Ring. Live view also enabled me to determine things like rain and wind conditions. Most cars don't trigger mine, but large trucks usually do (it's about 70' to the street) . The only real complaint I have is that detected motion does not activate the device soon enough, plus the delay of getting through the cell network is likely to preclude effectively answering the door bell.

3 people found this helpful

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D. Fletcher

Not good.

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2016

Verified Purchase

I've cleared out my previous review and this is the final version after having lived with it for some time.

In my experience, the camera isn't worth it. It's neither worth the money, nor the hassle. I'm going to keep it only because I hold out some slim hope that firmware upgrades may improve it to some degree.

So there are two main features, the camera and the motion detection.

The Camera:

The camera is terrible. They claim 720p, but it comes nowhere near that. My wifi signal is fine. I've been through all of that with their tech support. I even purchased an extender though I didn't need it. The video quality has nothing to do with my network speed or my internet speed, period. I'm not sure whether it's the camera itself or that Ring compresses the video to the point it's nearly useless, but either way it's a problem.

Real life scenario: Someone comes to the door and I'm expecting a package. The video quality is not good enough to tell if the logo on the person's shirt is USPS or some random sales company. With a broken leg I stumble to the door thinking it's mail. Instead it's a sales representative from some random company ignoring my "no soliciting" sign. Thanks, Ring. I know I should have talked to them through the intercom function first, but still. They were standing two feet away from the door. I should have been able to tell that it was not a USPS logo on their shirt. It was plain to see in person.

Another problem with the camera is the autoexposure. When the recording first starts, it's a huge bloom of white light and very, very slowly it may or may not tone itself down to a usable video. Whether it turns into something I can view depends on the time of day. Ring support says it's because the doorbell is mounted underneath a covered porch. Well, it is. But the cover only extends 4.5 feet away from the exterior wall. Many people have covered porches. Better autoexposure would be faster but would also compensate for that. Today you can buy a computer that will run Windows for just a few dollars (Raspberry Pi or similar), but this $200 device cannot figure out autoexposure.

Motion Detection:

This is what will really get on your nerves. I have been messing with this thing since May. It's what I hope will be improved with a firmware update, but so far, nothing.

First, whenever you change the settings, you have to go to your door and ring the doorbell for them to take effect. Really? What if I'm away and using the app? What if it's early in the morning or nighttime and everyone's asleep? Ridiculous.

Secondly, it just doesn't work very well. The thermal differentiation is a good idea in theory, but either it's not a good idea in practice or Ring has done a poor job implementing it. I live on a quiet suburban street. In the months I have this device, I have not been able to find good settings. Just today a guy came to the door to stick a flier on there, again ignoring my "no soliciting" sign. It didn't pick him up walking across the yard. It didn't pick him up at all until he was on the porch sticking the flier to my door. But last week it came on to record two people walking down the street, and not only that, the camera came on when they were in front of my neighbor's house. It picks up every car that drives by. Every one except for the mail truck which is the only one I'm interested in. Or the pizza delivery guy. How it knows to ignore the traffic I actually want to see, I have no idea. I've dialed back the settings so that it shouldn't pick up any traffic but nothing works. It goes off six times an hour sometimes. Again, this is a slow neighborhood. That's every car going by. As I write this it's picked up two. Sometimes you can't even see the cars at all because of the autoexposure problem. Sometimes you can but it either came on too late or the picture is still too bright to make out what kind of car it is. Can't tell a dump truck from a motorcycle and that's no exaggeration. The only reason I know is because I can hear it from inside or happen to see them through a window.

So it's next to useless. It camera comes on when you don't want it to, and doesn't when it should, or if it does it's really late. Maybe cooler weather would help. I live in Dallas, so it's hot and has been hot for a while. The cars going by are hot. A human's body temperature is usually going to be very close to or just below the ambient air temperature, which might explain why it doesn't always pick up people on my porch, or takes forever to pick them up.

Conclusions: Motion detection that's extremely flawed to the point that it's nearly useless. Very poor video quality.

Redeeming features:

So why do I keep it? Well like I said I think firmware updates can handle some of these issues. Plus I don't need the money that badly. Wouldn't buy it if I had to do it over again, but it's not a huge loss.

Also, it's probably better than nothing. Maybe. The jury is out on that.

There may be a deterrent aspect. People seem to know what it is. I've seen people walk up and turn away after looking at it. It may deter a break in.

The intercom feature seems to work well enough. That's important since you can't ever tell who rings the bell. I can't recognize somebody I've known 20 years, or the people who I've lived next to for 10, or tell the difference between the mailman and a random sales rep. So you can ask them who they are and tell them to go away if necessary.

Finally, the apps work pretty well on iPhone or iPad. Whether your at home or away, they do what they're supposed to do. Lots of times with a product like this, it's the app that is the weak link. This time it's the product. There are annoyances, however, especially on the Windows 10 app. You have to press/click too many times to delete all these random videos. With mobile devices the swipe is a little easier.

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