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

Great at first, slows down and explodes with age. *****UPDATE.

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2018

Here's a real world review from a verified purchaser that has above average technical ability.

I purchased the Ring Video Doorbell on Amazon in 2016 because it was the only unit available in Brass. Living in a condominium complex there are very few things you are allowed to update esthetically. My Brass finish matched perfectly and I have never received a complaint.

Pros. Easy setup, seriously easy. Easy install, even using existing wiring. Video quality is awesome. I loved that I could stretch and zoom the video on my iPhone to scan the neighborhood. Also, I am a professional video surveillance designer and installer, I was blown away with the night vision abilities of this unit. Astounding.

Cons. Internal battery. Sounds wrong, doesn't it? Well, most lithium ion batteries are rated for 12 months (1 Year) of continuous use. The superior brands are rated, but not guaranteed, for 24 months (2 Years). Ever notice after about 1 year your cellphone starts to suck and after 2 years it's pretty much useless... unless tethered. Well, my Ring Video Doorbell at 2 years officially exploded. I attempted to access some video online and noticed it was a month old. I then tried to view online and it reported device is not connected to wifi. I retrieved the instructions for reconnecting to wifi and as I removed the device I noticed many issues. Primarily the installation screws where basically a Corel reef of rust and the brass finish was bubbled up from the inside out. The backplate contacts where worn and some protected areas where now exposed. I understand that this can happen, but trust me when I say it shouldn't. The professional grade units I install are rated for 5 years, I guess since I originally paid more for the Ring Video Doorbell I expected more.

Another con... was promised live access and Apple TV integration. After about 6 months I had live integration and was very pleased to have the ability to check on my house while out of the country. Contacted Ring about Apple TV integration and was told "We have a newer unit to be released soon and it has the ability to be answered with your Apple TV 4" - Really!

The BIGEST con of the system is speed. I have a well above average internet connection. I currently run at 200Mbps download and 15Mbps upload. These speeds, even in the house, I never established a connection quick enough to actually speak to anyone. When I ever attempted to answer the Ring Video Doorbell it would not fully connect for up to 3 minutes, which is apparently way too long for UPS to wait.

In short, don't waist your money. There are many cheaper solutions now that work as well or better. Find a unit that has no or changeable batteries and you should seriously consider one with a Micro SD slot to avoid the $30-120.00 fees.

UPDATE -

With no request on my part a Ring Representative (Alexis) reached out to me via email and requested a conversation about this review. I honored her request and quite frankly I was surprised Ring would care at all about one little guy and his review. The Ring representative appeared to be fully concerned and wanted a satisfied customer, rare these days.

After a brief conversation on the phone the Ring Representative told me they would like to ship me one of their latest models with no lithium battery, hardwired only, completely free of charge and simply test it and provide an unbiased update.

I was only concerned because I reside in a condo development that is quite picky about the rules of conformity. All of our units have brass fixtures outside and they maintain a vigilant check on that. The new Ring device is either black, silver or white. I was firstly impressed that it came with the 3 different colored faceplates, simply pick an choose out of the box. I went with white and it actually blends in quite well. Not a single complaint filed. The second thing that impressed me was the wedges included in the box also. In case you don't know this, some doorbells are mounted to a side wall near the front door of the residence and the camera of the Ring device doe not have an alignment ability. Because of this there are mounting wedges to adjust the angle of the camera when surface mounting. What impressed me is that several of my clients required such a wedge and they previously had to be purchased third party or 3D printed yourself. Very nice attention to detail and reviews.

What's awesome - the new installation method is extremely, seriously, extremely simple. I had this unit installed and fully configured in under 5 minutes. The day time picture quality has been brilliantly enhanced, so clear even while zooming. The response time has been incredibly rev'd up. I walk out my door and a notification immediately announces on my iPhone. This is extremely important to me since Amazon recently began self delivery in my area. In case you are unaware, Amazon self delivery just drops the package at your door. They do not require a signature or even a hand off. The driver approaches the front door, drops your package and takes a photo... done. The actual Ring response is vastly improved as well. Previous model by the time I connected to the device over the internet the person at my door was long gone... no longer the case. Connect time is about 15-25 seconds. The motion zones are also much more customizable then previous models, so now I am only notified when someone is actually near my door. All That being said...

The Not So Awesome - Night Vision. Not so great. I will not go so far as to say it's horrible, it's just not as clear and impressive as the past model. Ring has made some changes to their camera, it's obvious, and have offered more extensive settings with Night Vision mode... why? Because they know the new camera does not perform as well at night. Grainy, purple... just bad. Even their B&W mode is blocky. I have a well lit front entrance and I actually had to start turning off my lights to receive a clearer video.

On the upside, that's it. The Night Vision is lacking, as far as quality, but that's the only flaw in this system. A+

Kudos to Ring and Alexis!

40 people found this helpful

Helpful

Michelle

Nice for security

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2016

Verified Purchase

I really like having this doorbell I am handicap so I move slow so being able to answer the door thru my phone works really great and I can talk to them without even opening the door which is great for safety feature and if I am not home and someone rings the bell I can answer it and the person outside cant tell if I am home or not and I like that you can set the range of how far it will pick up in the yard. I still have problem with it picking up the movement of the cars on the street because it picks up the heat I wish you could select the distance of the range on each side but right now it all distance all around. Another problem I have is sometimes there is a delay as for the time it takes to get to my phone if there is a motion or someone rings my bell I notice that it may take a moment to come thru on my phone and by the time I answer they are walking away or the motion sensor has picked them up and the doorbell ring takes a long time to come thru, I even bought one of the Wi-Fi range extenders that they recommended on their website hoping that would help but I guess it has to do with your internet speed I am not sure yet but I will keep on working to make it better. I love how it records all the motion and the ring and the conversation and you can access this right thru the app it does cost 30 dollars a year which it really not much to monitor your house for safety. all in all I really like the ring doorbell I think it does need some improvements with it picking up quicker to my phone but it really is nice. It's very easy to install just put close to your modem and follow the instructions that came with the doorbell. The camera is pretty clear you can see your visitors pretty good and you can zoom in and out on your phone and you can hear them really well also. I would like to be able to open the camera sometimes without having to wait for it to be activated but maybe in the future they will have an update. You really do need a good internet speed to keep from having some delays even with a WiFi extender but even with the flaws it has I really love it and like I said it will probably keep getting better with the updates.

I also got One of the ring chimes and this is the review part for it ,I really love the ring chime for the the ring doorbell. The ring chime is an extra purchase you can purchase after buying The ring doorbell that you can plug in another room of the house so if I don't have my phone with me having a chime in the other room I can hear when the door bell has been rang and can either answer the door or use my phone to answer the door which I prefer since its so much more safe in this day in age because of so many people with bad intentions out there. There is a delay between the door bell ring and the chime but not much so it works great. it's very easy to hook up you just plug it in the wall socket open up the ring app on your phone and follow the simple instructions on the app and it comes with a little pamphlet to help you get started. on the ring app you can control the volume of the chime and disable it if you don't want it to go off. One thing I would like would be if you could actually change the tone of the chime and have different ones to choose from but that is just a suggestion. I really love the ring chime it is a wonderful accessory to your ring doorbell.

Helpful

Tobymosey

Fantastic product!!! Not perfect, but so good I have to recommend it.

Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2015

Verified Purchase

This product really is amazing, one of those things I can't believe I didn't own before. I know it may not matter to some people, but the first-time, out of the box experience was great. The product packaging is fantastic -- just like Apple, Sonos or the Nest Thermostat/Nest Protect. Really spoke of quality. The finish is great, and it has a decent weight to it -- it doesn't seem cheap at all. Overall it's awesome, but I'll go over a few nits first.

The installation was pretty straightforward, but I will give you a tip that might save some time. The installation is done via a video, and it runs kind of quick so I had to constantly pause and put down my phone. It also was a little bit dated (honestly, I can't remember what it was now, but I remember at some step saying to myself "Huh...that's not *exactly* right") -- but just a minor nit. I have little patience, but it probably would have helped to watch the video fully end-to-end first. My only mistake was that I failed to route the wires correctly underneath the bracket, so I had to do it again because it didn't snap close cleanly. Probably just an oversight on my part, but worth noting anyway because I don't exactly know how I missed it. Second nit was that it was supposed to include some putty to water seal the top of the Ring, and it did not have it. Trust me, it was *not* there. I ended up using some silicon caulk I had. But both of those are minor.

Now on to its use -- it just flat out works. It connected to my WiFi network and existing doorbell wires trivially. Video quality is unbelievably good, and I am surprised how quickly it transmits from the press of the doorbell to my phone. No matter where I am -- home, at the office or out-of-town -- I immediately get the doorbell alert and can connect to view the video and talk with them or not. It just works great.

Another great benefit is the cloud recording -- which I signed up for immediately because (a) it's cheap, and (b) it acts as a de-facto security system. However, for me anyway, the motion sensor is *way* too sensitive, so I had to turn off alerts for motion only and just keep it enabled for actual doorbell rings -- I was getting alerts every time a car drove by, even when I put the sensor on its least sensitive setting. But I live in a town home and have a relatively short driveway -- about 30 feet from the road, so it's reasonable that I would get lots of false motion alerts.

I have been ordering tons of stuff from Amazon for the holidays, and it's so damn cool that I get a Ring alert right before a text message confirmation from Amazon saying the package was delivered. Nice peace of mind. And even if they don't ring the doorbell, the Ring records the whole thing from its motion detector and stores it in the cloud -- it just doesn't send me a push notification.

I have two features I would really like them to add. First is the ability for two people to answer the door. When I am away at the office and get a Ring alert, I instinctively want to answer it. But if my au pair is at home, that means she can't answer it. (When you answer the Ring alert, you get the live video stream from the camera and can talk to them at the door). So I am often in this weird state of not knowing if I should answer it, because only one person can. What would be great is if both people could connect at the same time. Second would be the ability to connect to the Ring at any time and just view the live stream, like a normal webcam.

One awesome side benefit is that I haven't even gotten a solicitor at my front door since I installed it. I think they just see the Ring and move on to the next house. :-) All in all, a fantastic product that just has a few things not perfect.

One person found this helpful

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Tony M.

An Absolutely Amazing Product

Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2015

Verified Purchase

I am so blown away by the Ring Doorbell, that I hardly know where to begin. Therefore, I'll start from the beginning.

Yesterday, I saw a TV commercial for the Ring Doorbell, and was intrigued. I then went to their website (ring.com) to read everything about it. After watching the videos, I showed them to my wife who said, "I want that." Okay, but before I hit the 'buy' button, I wanted to be clear on how to install it, as well as feeling secure that this would work in place of my standard doorbell, so I decided to call the company to speak to a representative.

I spoke to a very friendly and knowledgeable rep named Rich, who patiently and courteously answered each and every question and concern I had. I explained to Rich that I have a sophisticated security system at my home, but the added security of being able to technically answer the door even when I wasn't home just seemed like the perfect final layer of security. He told me that this is precisely the purpose of Ring Doorbell because when you are notified that your doorbell has been pushed, the person outside doesn't know if you are in the house or across the world. You're talking to the person through your cell phone, and the two way communication happens as if you are on the other side of the door--even if you're not!

As if this wasn't enough to make the purchase, this baby does even more. If someone approaches your home, and doesn't even ring the bell, you're notified of a motion alert, and the video feature is triggered, just as if someone rang the bell. It's perfect! I look at it this way: if I'm on vacation somewhere, and someone breaks into my home, I'll be notified "after" it happens. With this product, I've greatly increased the chance that I'm notified "before" something happens, and most likely end up avoiding an incident. How's that for being able to sleep at night?

One other thing...

My wife is very skittish about safety, and whenever the doorbell would ring after dark, she'd always say, "Ignore it! Don't answer it!" I'd always check it out, but in today's world, it's understandable that people would be hesitant. Now, with Ring, that feeling of insecurity is removed as we can now see and hear who is at the door without even going to the door.

Okay, it all sounds good, but what about installing and seeing if it's really as good as described? Back to my experience...

Yesterday, after speaking with Rich at Ring, I clicked the button at Amazon, and a little later was delighted to find that Amazon would be delivering it the next day (gotta love Amazon!). It came an hour ago, and I couldn't wait to get started.

The Ring Doorbell arrived beautifully packaged with everything---and I mean EVERYTHING you need to install it. I had no idea they would be including a tool set along with the product. This is a tool set, all in case with each tool marked, that includes, a philips screwdriver, a tool for securing the proprietary screw that avoids theft of the doorbell, screws of various types to cover whatever material you are installing the bell to, a level, a drill bit that fits into the included handle, and even caulk for filling the holes from your old doorbell. They thought of everything. But now, I have to install it...

Now I'm the last person one would call handy. My friends joke about how I call professionals whenever I need anything done. But I wanted to tackle this project myself, and I am not exaggerating when I say that it was all done in under 10 minutes. The first step was to download the Ring Doorbell app, and sync the doorbell to my wifi. Simple and quick. Then, I removed the old doorbell, and used the wood screws to secure the backplate to the vinyl siding, pulling the two wires that had been attached to my old doorbell, and attaching them to the new backplate. (Note: if you don't have a wired doorbell, you can still use Ring because they have a battery operated feature that makes the unit work the same way, and it holds a charge for a year.) With the backplate affixed to the house, and using the included level to make sure it was straight, I attached the main part of the doorbell by popping it onto the clips of the backplate, and then using the special tool to secure the proprietary anti-theft screws. Done!

Now to test it.

I pressed the doorbell, and the Ring Doorbell rings as well as my indoor bell as it used to do. In one second---yes, one second---my phone alerted me that someone was at the door. Since it also alerted my wife on her phone, she spoke into her phone, and we had a conversation with her inside the house, and me outside at the door. Not only could we hear each other clearly, but she could clearly see me at the door. Amazing and flawless! I did another test by walking out the back door and going to the front. I didn't touch the bell, yet the motion sensor alerted both our phones that motion was detected. Again, amazing.

For anyone with a security system, I'd urge you to not hesitate to get this product for an even higher level of security. For anyone without a security system, this $199 investment now brings you to a much more secure state. So convenient, so user-friendly. The product is great, the customer service is great, and my wife and I couldn't be happier.

4 people found this helpful

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K Smith

Cool but flawed

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2018

Verified Purchase

I bought this so that when I'm out of town, I can keep an eye out for who's coming and going, answer the door when someone rings, talk to the UPS guy and such. Since it rings on my phone but not in the house, I also bought the Chime Pro with a wifi extender. This is a really cool idea but a very flawed execution.
1. The Chime stopped working pretty quickly; it doesn't ring inside anymore. The doorbell is linked to the extender and it seems to be good, but not as good as the Belkin extender I had it hooked up to before.
2. Even if I adjust the range to be the narrowest available, it still seems to catch the motion of cars passing on the street or someone walking their dog on the sidewalk many times a day.
3. The battery life is really short. I am often away for 4-8 weeks at a time. The battery will fade after a month, which means until I can get back and charge it, the Ring is dead/useless.
4. You are also unable to trouble shoot or make any adjustments remotely. You have to physically have the Ring in your hand to push a switch before any further troubleshooting steps can be taken. Again, if it malfucntions while you're away, you can't do anything till you're home again.
5. It used to give me a reasonable amount of time to respond when I heard the chime -- you have to pick up your phone, hit your home button, click the ring app -- and could usually get the image; but then it started becoming shorter and shorter period, till sometmes now even if I have the phone in my hand and take the appropriate steps as quickly as possible, I am likely not to get the image.
6. The Ring is delayed. As I approach my door, I do not hear the ring. I can open the door, go inside and walk halfway up the stairs before I hear the chime and the video -- of the empty porch -- becomes available.
7. There is always quite a wait for customer serive. They're usually very nice, though, when you reach them.

All in all, it's cool when it works and you can see what's going on outside your door. But the product needs much furher work to be effective.

Helpful

Buyer51

Not bad... but has some issues.

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2015

Verified Purchase

I have been using this device for a couple of days now. It works OK but it has some issues.

Issue 1. It takes a while to answer the bell. By the time it sends you a notification to your phone and you fish your phone out of your pocket and enter your phone lock pin & launch the app... About 15-20 seconds have gone by. The person may be gone by the time you answer.

Issue 2. It takes a slamming fast internet connection and an very strong WiFi signal to work properly. Fortunately I pay for a 100 megabit Cable service. My internet service is screaming fast. If your wireless router is a hundred feet away forget it. I am using a repeater and get a strong WiFi signal... But it's not working all that well. It gets macro blocking, loss of clarity and the audio is choppy.

Issue 3. The audio quality is poor. When you talk... The speaker in the RING unit is not very loud. My front door faces a busy street. If cars are driving by... The person at the door cannot hear me. The sound quality from the microphone in the RING unit is probably OK but the sound is choppy and has so many dropouts I miss most of what the person is trying to say.

Issue 4. You cannot force the camera to turn on from your phone. This is a problem because some people walk up to your door and knock. If you have the motion sensor disabled (because of frequent passers by...) there is no way to see who is there. Unless they push the button the system is sleeping. I am told that this was a power saving issue. There is no way to have the unit "listening" for the phone to contact it and turn on the camera right now. RING says they are working on this issue. I can see how it might be a power management issue if your RING unit is not hardwired. But if you have your unit hardwired to power there should not be any issue with a standby mode that lets the unit wake up and enable the camera "on demand". This "on demand" viewing is my biggest complaint about the RING. There are times when you just want to look and see if anything is outside without relying on the motion sensor... I spoke with a representative from RING and they say they are working on a software update to allow this "on demand" feature in the future. I hope that happens soon.

On the bright side... When it's getting a strong WiFi signal the image quality is good and the coverage is almost 180 degrees... So you will see someone almost anywhere in the area. (Although there is a strong fisheye effect.) At night the quality is quite good. It does have an internal IR light so it can see in the dark too.

RING also told me they will have Apple Watch support within a month or two. That will be nice! My Apple watch already displays the notification but You can't actually see the image or answer the call without a phone at this point.

The Motion sensor is a nice idea... But it can also be very annoying if it goes off every time a bird flies by or a pet walks by. I have it set to minimum distance and minimum sensitivity. I still get false alarms. (Hopefully not at 3:00am.)

The basic idea is good. It's great to be able to see who is at your front door when you are out of town. But the latency of receiving notifications and responding in time can be frustrating. Also know that you will need a very fast internet connection and close proximity to your WiFi hotspot ir it's not going to work well.

5 people found this helpful

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Chuck - The Tech Guy

Video response to movement is very disappointing

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2016

Verified Purchase

My rating of the marketing and packaging: 5 Stars
My rating as a useful product meeting the needs of why I bought it: 1 Star (THIS IS THE KEY RATING)

Pros: Great looking product; Good marketing - good explanation of product and its benefits; Great, high quality online videos and built-in videos to assist with installation; Great packaging - everything you need to install the product is included including most of the tools you'll need. Nice blog for sharing information with consumers. Good customer support - "live" people answer the phone and are friendly and helpful - for most, but not all the issues I had.

Cons: Subscription required if you want to save and later view your recorded video, but more importantly the Performance of product is an issue - particularly for the reason I think most people buy this product - security. Yes - if someone rings the video door bell, you can eventually see your visitor on your phone and talk to them without opening the door. This works only if you have your phone on your person, and are connected to the internet - either at home or away. A text alert will appear as a notification on your smartphone (speaking only from an iPhone 6 Plus perspective, probably all Apple iPhones in general). You will likely see the alert while using your phone, but what I would prefer to have happen is the text alert combined with a configurable audio sound AND automatic display of the video from the video door bell. The audio might be configurable, but I haven't figured out how to do that - but you will ONLY see the video by bringing up the Ring app located somewhere on your phone. And that video is the disappointing part. If a person actually rings your doorbell, you will only see video and hear sound after the first 15 seconds or more - not when they approached and rang your door bell, even with motion detection enabled. If your visitor does not ring your door bell - like a delivery person, or a thief taking your package already delivered, you will never see their face. If you see anything, it will be their back as they are walking away - if they run, you won't see anything. Despite adjusting the motion detection areas and sensitivity, I was gone this weekend and upon returning home had about 12 notifications waiting (only because I now had access to the internet via my home). Only one video showed the backside of a delivery person just as he left our front porch and turned to walk on our sidewalk. If I had paid for the cloud subscription I would be very, very disappointed. If the Ring folks can provide a firmware upgrade to enable video to be quickly initiated so I could see the approach of a visitor, then this product would then be viable. If this issue is blamed on device to internet transit time, then some local buffering is needed, or else a link to a storage device on in-home networks should be supported. Ring Support suggested the distance to my nearest router might be part of the problem - I will have to explore this and see if it resolves the issue. If I had to pay a small amount for an upgrade to resolve this performance issue, I would do that to make my product purchase viable, although Ring probably owes it to its customers to do this free of charge. I would likely sign up for the cloud subscription as well... Also, if Ring had a User Forum on its website - more customers would be aware of this performance issue - and that's probably why no forum exists. One more thing - I have a mechanical doorbell that is also connected to a whole home audio system, which is digital. I have to pay a service company to come out now - to stop my home audio system from continually playing the digital door bell chime. Right now I'm running the Ring doorbell off battery, without a wired connection to my home doorbell. The Ring's built-in doorbell sounds great on the porch abut cannot be heard inside my home - Ring's additional cost Chime product would have to be purchased to hear the doorbell inside my home.

Everyone who is seeing the same performance issue that I've described (and particularly if their router is closer to their doorbell - mine are about 45 feet away) should mention this in their review and write the company - maybe they will listen to consumers and fix the issues I've described. Note: They have a new Pro model which may address some of these issues - unfortunately I wasn't aware of these performance problems before I purchased, else I might have taken a chance and ordered the Pro model for $50 more - but no guarantee that the motion detection response issue has indeed been fixed.

I hope Ring addresses the issues I've described - I have several decades experience in product marketing with the last 5 years focused on user experience. The Ring video doorbell has UX issues based on my home network situation. Your mileage may vary... Be Aware.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

FloridaRider

Excellent device and FUN to use

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2015

Verified Purchase

Ring Wi-Fi Enabled Video Doorbell I've had my Ring for almost 2 weeks now and it works GREAT!
Problems I had on start up:
1. My iPhone was not set up right. I had to turn on Microphone and Camera in the Ring App after downloading and activating it.
2. A week WiFi signal at the Ring Doorbell location was detected by using the Speed test at bandwidthplace.com (recommended by Ring Support). I ran the test next to the modem then at the Ring Doorbell location. It was at or above 2.0 download at the modem and below 1.0 Mbps at the Ring Doorbell. Ring Support recommends at LEAST above 1.0 at the Ring DB.
3. The low WiFi signal prevented the video from appearing on the iPhone every time: The modem is in a metal "Communication" cabinet in the laundry room. I did a temporary fix by taking the metal door off the Comm Cabinet. I've ordered a WiFi extender for a permanent fix. Ring support suggested one of these:
a. TP Link - TL-WA850RE WiFi Range Extender
b. Netgear - EX2700 WiFi Range Extender
c. If the extender doesn't work then I'll relocate the Modem.
4. My wired doorbell button is in a wall perpendicular to the front door. I temporarily placed the Ring DB there and pressed the Button. The video generated showed my profile and did not get a full on face shot. So, I relocated it to the Door Frame just above the door knob facing down the driveway. Now the video records a full face shot of the "guest".
5. Like Munchiniwa observed on April 17, 2015, it appears that motion detect is a bit delayed and you do get the back of someone who does not hang around.
a. With that said a Termite inspection guy set off the motion detector and I answered it while several miles away from the house. I engaged him for his business and told him I was indisposed and to come another time after his office called to set up a time. He thought I was home during the entire conversation. The video is a Hoot!! Here's a link to watch it: https://ring.com/share/34365502. REMEMBER I was several miles away from the house when I was talking to the guy. How cool is that!
6. Also Munchiniwas noted he could not access his videos on a computer. That is correct for live feeds and interaction with a "Guest" at the door. However, you can log in at Ring.com and select "Activity" to view and download any video taken by the Ring DB. You can also email the video via an email icon in the Ring.com site under "Activity".

I've shared my experience with a few friends and they have committed to purchasing a Ring Video Doorbell.

I hope this helped with your understanding of the Ring DB and gave you some better insight on it.

Thanks for taking the time to read this [...]

6 people found this helpful

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Ralph Furlong

Ring Wi-Fi enabledVideo Doorbell

Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2016

Verified Purchase

The concept of this product, being able to answer your door when you are not home or tied up, appealed to me and so I ordered it. Here is what I found when I installed it:

1. You need to know that this unit will NOT function without INTERNET connectivity!!!! No, you cannot connect to the device via your home network. No, you cannot view video direct from the camera. No, the device is not usable unless you create an account on the company servers.

2. Some of the problems that the above limitation causes are the following:

A. Because you connect to this device from your phone via an app that requires the use of a company server, there is a considerable delay from the time someone activates the button or trips the sensors (if you have them turned on) to the time the app on your phone goes off. Depending upon conditions on the Internet and the state of the company's servers, this can be 15 seconds to 2 minutes. In that amount of time, people may wait or they may leave. If they are dropping off a package and you have the sensors activate, the effect is all you get is a picture of them leaving or no picture at all.

B. The company's servers have been off line several times. During that time, your product is non-functional and the app on your phone will tell you that YOU have a problem with the Internet even though the real problem is that the company is offline. How do I know this? Because I can connect to e-mail, web pages, IM, etc., wihtout problems and only this app will not work.

C. If you are trying to answer from a remote location, which I have tried several times, there can be a long delay between when people say something to you and when you hear a response.

3. If you have this unit also connected to your door bell, that door bell may or may not work when people press the button. Apparently you can press it lightly and the light on the button activates as well as the app, but it does NOT ring your interior door bell. To ring the door bell requires the user to fully push and hold the button down for a couple of seconds!!!

4. Viewing videos is a bit of problem on a phone since you do NOT get a large image and you cannot zoom into see detail!!!! What you see is what you get and that is not all that great if you are trying to identify who is at your door. Especially if there is a theft involved!!

5. They have improved one thing. Originally, you could not view live video on demand. You can do that now, but do NOT expect instant video!! It can take several seconds for the connection to come up since you are linking from the unit to the company servers, back to your network, then to the app on your phone. Again,NO zoom feature.

6. The light sensitivity is decent and with normal porch lights on at night you get a decent picture. This is basically a pin hole sense, so you get a round image much like the original picture tubes on the first televisions if you are old enough to remember that or have visited a museum on such things.

I really like the concept, but think that the company needs to make some changes. Specifically, they need to make this a stand alone system that does NOT require their server to work!! You should be able to just link back to your home network through your router to the device. I can understand having an option of using the company if you want so that you can have stored video offline, but that should NOT be a functional requirement of the device to work. As I have seen, too many times the device is useless at home because the company servers are down, have an issue, or there is a problem with traffic on the Internet. if it ran on your home network none of the above would be an issue when you re at home!!!!

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JLego

Buy it for the camera, not for a doorbell replacement.

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2015

Verified Purchase

Pros:
- Looks great, with a nice range of options for finishes
- Solid construction. Doesn't feel like cheap plastic
- The fisheye lens can give you a literal 180° view of whatever it's facing. (It's motion alert is often triggered by cars driving the street in front of my house, about 30ft from where it's mounted on my porch)
- Fairly granular control over motion sensor areas, not just on areas of the screen, but by distance/radius
- Packaging is nice and comes with a screwdriver, drillbit, and level to help with mounting.

Cons:
- It needs to be fairly close (another review mentioned within 10ft, which is about right) to the router it's connected to. I had to buy a range extender for this to work. (Although my router was on the complete other side of the house.)
- The ring sound it makes it kind of awful and of horrible quality. (There's a section in the app called "Saved Tones" that appears to let you add different sounds to use as the doorbell, but I have yet to figure out how to add any besides the default.)
- When it senses motion, it does not pick up the couple of seconds before the motion was triggered, so oftentimes I'll get an alert but when watching the recorded video, the thing causing the motion may already be gone. I've got an app (ManyThing) that turns my old iPhone into a security camera, and it handles adding a few seconds before the motion that triggers the alert perfectly.
- It takes an awful long time (about 3 or 4 seconds) to pull up the video when motion is sensed.
- You can't just pull up the video feed whenever you want. You can only view archived videos and the feed when motion is triggered or someone actually hits the button.
- The sound quality for the video feed is absolute sh*t. I haven't had to yet, but I bet if I needed to talk to someone at my door through the feed they wouldn't be able to understand me, nor I them.

I bought the Ring doorbell after I saw that it integrated with the Wink smart home system. I've found that since I don't have a Wink/Z-wave connected door lock, this integration is not much use, as that's all you can currently make Ring do in the Wink app. (Not actually sure what else might be useful to make it do, but it would be nice to have the options anyway.)

When trying to attach the mounting plate to the wall, all 4 screws broke off at the head, even though I was using a the hand screwdriver that came with the Ring and I had drilled holes for the screws. I had to pry them out somehow with a pair of pliers and find some different, sturdier screws that fit.

My old doorbell never worked in the first place, so I figured doorbell + security camera was a great investment. I was happy to see that the Ring does not require a wired connection for power, but has the option to receive charge from one. However, when reading the manual, it states that connecting the Ring to live wires won't fully power it, just extend it's battery life. It's understandable since the Ring is powering a camera and wifi connection which a regular doorbell does not. But when I got the Ring the battery was at 60%. After 2 weeks it's now at 45% (though it has been cold.) That means that Ring needs to be charged about every 3 months.

As a doorbell, it falls short (although I can see if someone is at my door while I am away from the house), but the 180° camera view is just about worth the $200 this product cost. Though I am hoping for some software/firmware updates that might be able to mitigate some of the cons listed above.

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