Review of Ring Pro Video Doorbell - 2016 (updated 2019)

Background

Recently, burglars broke into my neighbor’s house during the mid-day hours. Apparently, after receiving no response from a door knock or doorbell ring, the culprits kicked in the front door and proceeded to ransack the residence. Given my frequent travel schedule, this incident prompted me to consider how to better protect my home, beyond the existing centrally monitored alarm system.

Over the past month, I added two additional home security components – an exterior motion detection enabled camera and a Ring Pro video doorbell ($249, Amazon). Admittedly, there is some feature overlap between these two security devices as both support a smartphone app that receives alerts when either monitoring system is triggered as well as offer cloud storage of video clips. 

This review is focused on the features and operation of the Ring Pro video doorbell. The Ring Pro, released by Ring.com in April 2016. The developers of the Ring Pro have several years of video doorbell experience, beginning with the release of the "Doorbot" in 2013 and the subsequent "Ring" video doorbell release in 2014. 

Update: In 2018, I replaced my exterior motion detection camera with a Ring Spotight Cam (wired). This camera  monitors my rear patio door area. All Ring products are working fine and managed by a single smartphone app.

What does Ring Pro do?

The Ring Pro replaces your standard residential doorbell with a slim device (4.5 x 1.85 x 0.8 inches) that can send an alert to an app on your Apple, Android or Windows 10 device when someone either rings your doorbell or enters into the video doorbell’s custom motion detection zone. The captured video clips can be stored on Ring cloud servers. If you choose this subscription storage service, the cost is $3 per month or $30 per year. 

Ring Pro Hardware Installation

Installation of this video doorbell is straight forward. A prerequisite is an existing hard-wired doorbell chime. Your chime serves as a power source. The Ring Pro does not use replaceable batteries.

Upon opening the box, I noted that:

• All components and installation tools are in the box.
• Four faceplates with different finishes are included so that you can customize the exterior appearance of the doorbell.
• Instructions in the box are clearly written and installation videos are available.
• A telephone support line and online support chat function are both available.

I suspect the most challenging installation step for most purchasers will be installation of the provided “Pro Power” kit into their existing transformer-powered wall door chime.  This installation requires removal of the chime cover after temporarily turning off the electricity to the door chime. With the chime cover removed, you attach two wires from the Pro Power kit to the internal chime connections for the front doorbell and to the transformer. While the “Pro Power” kit is small, I mounted the kit on the outside of the door chime cover with the supplied double-mount tape. There was little additional interior space within my door chime to permit me to place the kit in the chime enclosure and still replace the chime cover.

Mounting the Ring Pro doorbell to my exterior wall simply required me to remove the two screws used to mount the existing doorbell. As I reused one of the existing mounting wall holes, I only needed to drill one additional hole in the wall to mount the Ring Pro.

Ring Pro App Installation and Final Setup

Once the Ring Pro video doorbell was connected and “Pro Power” kit installed in the door chime, I attempted to complete the last installation step. This step required the download of the Ring video doorbell app from iTunes, Google Play or the Microsoft Store for Windows10. 

After app installation, there was a connectivity test between the video doorbell and the app running on my Nexus 6P cell phone (2018: replaced Nexus with iPhone). The initial test failed. I called Ring technical support and was advised to reset both my WIFI router and the Ring Pro doorbell. The setup communication error was still present and support recommended that I then install the app on my Nexus 9 tablet and reattempt the final wireless communication test. This bypass worked and I was then able to receive doorbell and motion detection alerts on my Nexus 6P phone, iPhone, Nexus 9 tablet and iPad. I am still not sure of why this initial problem occurred as I was running the most current Android flavor (Marshmellow, 6.01) - at that time - on both Nexus devices and the then current version of the Ring Android app. The communication error may have also been related to the strength of my WIFI reception at the front door. 

I found Ring’s telephone and online chat technical support functions required little wait time and the guidance was both helpful and clear. Ring also provides installation videos that can help guide you through each step of the installation process.

Performance

The distance between my front door doorbell location and wireless router extended beyond the 25 to 30 feet limit recommended by Ring - in fact, the distance was almost double. Thus, my Ring Pro installation experienced some intermittent voice and video quality issues likely related to poor WIFI bandwidth at the doorbell. The video capture after the doorbell was generally very good but the sound quality was poor. Real-time video and audio function (LiveView) was choppy and inoperative at times.

After consultation with Ring technical support, I ordered and installed a wireless range extender (Netgear EX2700, $30 on Amazon) near the downstairs front door. My intention was to increase the reach of the upstairs WIFI router. The EX2700 was one of two WIFI range extenders that Ring has tested with its video doorbells. My below comments reflect testing with use of the WIFI extender.

Doorbell function: When the doorbell button is pushed, Ring Pro triggers a chime located in the doorbell and informs the Ring app of a doorbell ring. About two seconds later, the wall doorbell chime rang. The app permitted me to either remotely answer the doorbell using the app's video and audio function or, if unanswered, I could capture a video from the doorbell location. Once a video is captured, I could view it later and/or download the video to my computer or tablet.

The extender greatly improved doorbell WIFI reception and video and audio quality within the app when devices in the house were used to respond to doorbell rings or motion detection events. However, audio quality sometimes broke up when using the Ring app on my cell phone to respond to a doorbell ring or motion detection from a distant location. This audio issue is difficult to resolve as interference at the remote location, cellular service strength and/or quality of guest WIFI connectivity could contribute as problem sources. 


Motion detection: Multiple custom motion sensing zones can be established and monitored by Ring Pro. However, it is not possible to adjust the motion detection sensitivity. My external security camera has this adjustment function and it helps to reduce false motion detection from extraneous activity such as plants moving from wind, walkers or traffic. Lacking this sensitivity adjustment, false motion alarms do occur with the Ring Pro.

Motion detection, as well as the doorbell monitoring, can be individually enabled or disabled through the app.

LiveView: Real-time viewing at the exterior of the front door is a very useful feature as I used it to initiate a conversation with an individual at the door via the Ring app. Local video and audio reception quality of LiveView improves greatly after installation of the WIFI extender.

Day vs Night: The daylight video images were bright and clear. I noticed that my downloaded video clips indicated a 1280x720 resolution. It was not clear if the Ring Pro file export function reduces an actual 1080p video feed to a 720p downloadable clip. Evening infrared LED assisted video was grainy and less sharp than daylight video images.

Adding users: The Ring app permits you, as a doorbell  owner, to add/invite/revoke additional individuals to respond to Ring Pro alerts. This feature is particularly helpful for adding household members so that they can respond to doorbell or motion detection alerts. 

Integration Feature: During this evaluation, I did not attempt to integrate the Ring Pro doorbell with any other security device, such as a WIFI enabled door look mechanism or existing residential security system. It appears that such integration is possible with a limited number of vendor security solutions.

What’s the difference between the “Ring Pro” version versus the original "Ring" video doorbell?

This latest Ring product supports higher video quality(1080p HD video), both 2.5GHz and 5GHz wireless connectivity, provides a “LiveView” real-time video option, permits the establishment of a custom motion detection zone rather than a fixed zone, is a bit thinner and smaller than the original Ring video doorbell and requires connection to an existing hard-wired door chime mechanism as the “Pro” device lacks an internal rechargeable/replaceable battery. The Ring Pro offers significant enhancements over the Ring video doorbell.

Are there other 2019 wireless video doorbells to consider?

The market is becoming very competitive with several WIFI enabled video doorbell alternatives. I have not reviewed any of the other devices and am not sure how the Ring Pro compares to these units in respect to features, installation, operation, reliability nor ease of use. Looking through Amazon reviews, owners of of the below alternative video door bells report varying degrees of installation and/operational success:

• Arlo Video Doorbell
• August Doorbell Cam Pro
• eufy Security Wi-Fi Video Doorbell
• Nest Hello
• Remobell S Wi-Fi Video Doorbell Camera

Summary

Ring Pro, the latest iteration of Ring's video doorbell, appears to meet its feature specifications. As mentioned above, there were some audio challenges when I attempted to respond to a doorbell ring from a remote location via my smartphone. These difficulties required me to verbally repeat my audio responses. There are several possible contributors to this problem, so Ring firmware/software/hardware components or the Ring app may not be the primary problem - hard to tell without detailed code review or inspection of network communication. Finally, the Ring Pro's motion detection does produce false positives that a motion sensitivity adjustment, if available, could likely reduce. For this reason, I favor the combination of Ring Pro's doorbell function with my standalone motion detection camera.

Overall, I recommend the Ring Pro as a well performing video doorbell solution - as long as you have sufficient WIFI upload bandwidth at the doorbell location (3 to 4 Mbps). Less bandwidth could lead to unstable video and audio functions and suggests the need for a WIFI extender. Over time, I firmware and app enhancements have made this a stronger product in a crowded marketplace.

Suggested considerations for product Improvements, include:

• Sensitivity adjustment for motion detection to help avoid false alerts.
• An adjustment for the vertical video capture zone. The default viewing zone is a fairly broad. However, when the doorbell is mounted on horizontal exterior siding with overlapping slats, there is a possibility of the camera view being tipped up a bit. The capability to adjust the video camera view angle could be helpful for some installations.
• A setting to permit scheduling of wall doorbell chime monitoring. This would allow the chime sound to be disabled when a household member wants to sleep during a regularly occurring timeframe. At this time, the app provides only a single setting to enable or disable the doorbell chime.    
• Improved doorbell monitoring from remote locations.

Note that my review did not specifically review the security protocols used by Ring Pro. A more detailed security evaluation would require substantial resources to complete.

Rear Camera View

Update (July 14, 2016): After a few additional weeks of using the Ring Pro, I noticed a way to adjust motion detection sensitivity.  Creating an extremely small motion detection zone in a critical viewing area greatly reduced my false motion detection alerts and still provided accurate motion detection reporting.  

Acknowledgement 

Ring provided a Ring Pro evaluation unit to me at no charge. However, Ring did NOT have any influence on the content of this review. In addition, all contact with Ring's technical support was done without identifying myself as a product reviewer.