The front door of your home is a place that usually isn’t secured the way it should be. Package theft, burglary, and other malicious crimes are on the rise, but so is the smart technology that keeps us safe and secure. Video doorbells have been around for a few years, but none have been as refined and feature-rich as the new Ring Pro.
As featured in Time Magazine, Fast Company, and even the popular television show Shark Tank, Ring has been making a name for themselves as the best video doorbell available. But the original Ring Video Doorbell left a bit on the table in terms of desired features, specifications, and details.
Today we’re going to be looking over their improvement, the Ring Pro, how it differs from the original, it’s specific features, and what’s better about it. Set to fully release in April 2016, we expect it to be a game changer for those who need to keep an eye on home from anywhere in the World using their smartphone.
Size and Shape
From first glance, you’ll likely immediately notice that the Ring Pro appears much smaller in size. Measuring 4.5″ x 1.85″ x .8″, the Pro is slightly shorter and a bit skinnier than the original. Although the original is still quite small and discreet looking, it measures 4.98″ x 2.43″ x .87″.
We think that the design of the Pro is much more appealing than the original, simply because it’s more rectangular and looks more similar to a standard doorbell, rather than a video camera.
1080p HD Resolution
Offering an improvement upon the original 720p resolution, the Ring Pro delivers an extra boost of clarity with full high definition in 1080p. It’s designed to give you a better view of the details so that you can have a clearer and more vibrant image.
Too often, you’ll hear about a criminal that was caught on camera, but the camera that recorded them was outdated and didn’t provide enough clarity to make a good description of the perpetrator. By offering 1080p resolution, you should have no issues determining a clear description of anyone or anything that occurs.
Interchangeable Faceplates
One of the favorite aesthetic features regarding the Ring Pro is that it gives you the option to freely change the color of the faceplate whenever you’d like. Rather than coming with a solid color that can’t be changed, you’re given the freedom to change the to the faceplate that match the decor or color scheme of your home.
This means that you won’t need to decide on a specific color and be stuck with that option forever. Best of all, four different faceplates of various colors are included.
Connection
One of the most notable and important differences between the original Ring and the new Ring Pro is how it connects to your home. The Pro requires an existing hardwired doorbell so that it can be powered and functional without the use of a battery. Because of this, there obviously won’t be an included rechargeable battery like the Original. This can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. If your front door doesn’t currently have a doorbell, you won’t be able to integrate the Pro. But with the Pro, you won’t need to hassle with batteries – ever.
WiFi Connection
Since 1080p videos require a bit more bandwidth than your standard 720p video quality, Ring made a smart move by incorporating Dual Band WiFi into the new Pro version. With dual band WiFi, you aren’t restricted to the 2.4 Ghz channel – you can also take advantage of the 5 Ghz channel, offering better transfer speeds and improved latency with less load time.
It connects to your home WiFi network and is then available to view and interact with on virtually any device using the Ring App – free from iTunes or Google Play.
Motion Detection
Rather than selecting a variety of different motion zones like you had to do with the original, the Ring Pro allows you to create your very own custom shaped zones. While you’re looking on screen at the view that the camera has, you can easily draw a variety of shapes to create your own specific zones, rather than pre-selected zones that don’t give as much flexibility. However, each zone can’t be adjusted for it’s own sensitivity so that you’re only alerted about what matters most.
Motion detection is a great feature to have, but if not implemented correctly, it can become a nuisance. For instance, the original Ring video doorbell gives you the freedom to adjust how sensitive the motion detection is. Everything from the wind blowing to a bird flying by could potentially set it off. Unfortunately, although you can create custom zones for the Ring Pro, it doesn’t let you adjust the sensitivity of each zone like the original Ring does.
Night Vision
Having the ability to see in the middle of the night is a real luxury, especially considering that low-light and dark settings are quite common for front porches. With a variety of infrared LEDs built into the Ring Pro, you’re given full-freedom to see clearly in the dark.
Although the original version had this same night vision capability, it’s noteworthy to include as a quite useful feature for the Pro.
Field of View
To our surprise, the Ring Pro actually has a slightly smaller field of view than the original Ring Video Doorbell. Likely because of it’s smaller size, the Pro boasts a 160 degree field of view, whereas the original has a 180 degree field of view. Although this is a slight downgrade, it still offers enough view for most applications.
Cloud Video Recording
Recording to the cloud with the Ring Pro is not required, but it surely expands the amount of security and freedom that it brings to the table. With cloud recording, you’re given the ability to view and download up to six months of activity at a time. You can access your video clips and keep the important events and sift through the ones that you’d like to delete. Although it does cost $3 a month or $30 per year, this is a nice feature to have, especially if you’d like to share your clips with friends, neighbors, or even Law enforcement.
While the cloud recording is definitely a nice feature, we think it’d be nice if you could configure the Ring Pro to save footage onto your own hardware. For example, instead of having footage sent to a cloud server, if there was an option to save to an SD card, network attached storage, or your own FTP server, it would be a nice addition. The only way to save and access recordings is through the $3 a month or $30 per year subscription.
Two Way Audio
Through the App, you can speak through to whoever’s at the door, and they’ll be able to communicate back to you. With a small integrated microphone and speaker, verbally speaking is easy and clear. They’ve even integrated some advanced noise-cancellation technology that filters out all of the unwanted background noises and gives you clear communication without distortion.
Final Thoughts
Offering several improvements over it’s predecessor, the new Ring Pro Video Doorbell will likely become a game-changer in the home security market. By delivering full 1080p high definition clarity, advanced, fully-customizable motion detection, and an assortment of other advanced features, we’re confident that it’ll soon become one of the most desired home security products for 2016.
To top it off, everything you need is included – a screwdriver, 4 faceplates, optional wiring and connectors, a drill bit, pro power kit, screws, anchors, and an informative quick setup guide. Best of all, each Ring Pro is backed by a one year warranty on parts, and they even give you lifetime purchase protection to assure that your investment was well worth it.
is there a way to shut off monitoring at certain times as when I’m home and go in and out of my house. this is a very important feature and would be a make or break item for people to consider purchaseing the ring.
Yes, you can shut off the monitoring in the settings on your smart phone.
My Ring Pro is going off every few minutes at night with seemingly no cause, although a few times, I’ve noticed flying insects in the video. I cannot get a read on how to adjust sensitivity.
I don’t recommend this product. I had high hopes for ring pro as a second generation. Figuring they would of resolved any bugs they had with the first generations. But it is loaded with bugs.
1. Constant false alert at night. Night vision is constantly turning on and off. Called tech support and they said I had insects setting it off. Next tech tells me the lights from the cars are setting it off. It’s one Excuse after another. My product is still not fixed since they first launched it.
2. Recording has a delay of about 3 to 5 seconds before it starts to record. Tech support blamed it on my internet speed. I showed tech support that I was receiving 110mbps speed from my phone next to the door bell. They ignored me for days and closed the ticket.
3. Some times when I view the false alert, I do not see my front door. I see someone else’s front door. This is a huge security risk. Tech support states they are having issues and it will be resolved. But I still see it happening.
The problem with false motion detection events at night is so serious, I must turn off motion detection as soon as it gets dark. Otherwise, I will get a false motion sensor event alert exactly every ten minutes until the sky gets light in the morning. I opened a case on this. Ring Support replied that they acknowledge the problem, that it is due to a firmware bug introduced by accident in the last firmware release, and that they cannot provide a date at which this bug will be fixed.
This product needs to be recalled. I have exactly the same problems as Robert reported. I get false motion reports at exact 10 minute intervals after dark. I called tech. support yesterday, they had me resize the sensing window. It made no difference at all. As with Robert, they told me they don’t have a release date for the new firmware which will supposedly fix the problem. Not good support or customer service. I’m returning mine. I, also, had high hopes for this, but it’s a failure.
I also have frequent false motion alarms at night, although not every 10 minutes…mine were about once per hour. I have to turn off alerts as soon as the sun goes down.
I’ve chatted with tech support, and here’s what I’ve learned:
* The original Ring used heat signatures for motion detection, and the sensitivity of those heat readings was adjustable.
* The Ring Pro doesn’t use heat signatures – it takes a picture of the “scene” in the zone, and any change in pixels triggers an alarm. I have landscaping (large plants, trees, etc.) on both sides of my walkway. So, I had to exclude ALL of them and make my zone target very small or else the motion sensor would go nuts if there were a breeze. Tech support also said that since I leave my porch light on at night (it’s a dawn-to-dusk light), that’s throwing it off…and finally, bugs. Little bitty bugs flying around.
What I find odd about all of the excuses tech support gave me is that the false triggers only happen at night. Even with the trees/plants and wind, I wasn’t getting false triggers during the day. So, their excuse doesn’t “ring” true.
So, bottom line, the motion sensor on the Ring is unusable in its present state. Unless they can come up with a firmware fix soon, I’m going to have to return the Ring Pro.
Does anyone know the reason why the Ring Doorbell Pro wont complete setup?
I was told it could be the transformer, I’ve changed it; it could be the router is outdated, I’ve gotten a better one and it still doesnt connect; Tech support even sent a replacement and nothing.
This is so frustrating, it’s been almost a month, and the thing still doesnt work.
I am having same issue as Gilma. Was told I needed a 16v transformer after 2 calls to tech support with 2 different ans.
Having changed to 16v transformer I Finally got the setup to complete yet when someone rings the door I get no notification on my iphone where I can actually see someone at my door.
If I look at live view I do see activity. When I select on it just plays back a dark screen. Under all it has the same list. If I look at Rings it shows no activity and then if I go to motion same thing again no activity.
I have all my notifications turned on. Selecting Motion setting all I getting is the blueish circle spinning on black back ground. It does not give me a screen to do any motion setup.
Not sure what is going on with this…. I got this for a gift and it getting frustrating trying to make it work.
Right now the ring on the door bell is white – not sure if this is how it should be…
Looking for guidance, Thanks
Don’t have many problems with my Ring Pro! False Positives are extremely low…if any at all. No False Negatives! The only thing is the display on my iPhone 7 Plus doesn’t look quite 1080p. It has close proximity to my Apple Extreme (dual band WiFi). Not sure if anyone feels the same???
My problem is the speaker on the ring pro is so quiet you can’t hear it from the street noise. Any way to increase the speaker volume????
Joe I am having the same problem as you with the ring pro volume. It is very hard to hear with any background noise at all. I contacted ring support and alerted them on this problem and asked the if they can fix this issue through a firmware update. I am still waiting for an answer from them. I suggest that you also contact ring support and tell them about the problem. The more people who do, maybe they will come up with a fix.
Same here. People outside can barely hear me talk. I reversed the role, and my kid had to yell into the app for me to hear a distant and faint voice. How to increase the volume?????
Same here
I was so frustrated with the pro that I returned it to the stripy after 15 days. The connection and the wifi status read really good yet, the image kept going from color to black and white. Suddenly, it stopped working for good. I had no choice but to return it to the store. This was upsetting !!! Back to the surveillance cameras market!!!
Went through FOUR of these far. First had a bad ir array (never switches out of night vision and constant motion alerts). Next had a bad wifi chip- wouldn’t see any wifi networks. Next was a speaker problem – started very low, then turned garbled, eventually just stopped. Final one has a mic problem (internal mic won’t pick up sound). Overall a mess of a product and it needs to be recalled. Never had 4 bad hardware products in a row. Insane.
Mine is in constant night vision. How do I get it back to normal?
The picture on mine is totally blown out, my neighbors house is a light green but blows out the whole picture even when it’s overcast and all I can see is a big white spot with a shadow figure when someone comes to the door unless they shove their face into the camera.
There is nowhere I can mount it without going into the attic and drilling down through the framing and out the wall to face away from his house, it would have to be in a weird place where nobody would ring it. The motion detection shows me a picture of someone walking away because it takes forever to start recording. Half the time it takes forever to get the alert, get my phone on and by that time the person is gone and I’m stuck with a recording of someones pixelated shadow walking away. (Yes, my wifi is very good)
The motion detection totally sucks and records headlights on the street even with the thing adjusted to the minimum zone and then it only records crossways, if someone walks directly to the camera forget it.
I bought a 4 channel camera setup with a 1gig hard drive for less that works way better and I don’t have to pay for cloud service but it records and alerts me better.
Hey Jeff,
Same type of issues as you. What was the setup that you switched to?
Thanks,
Jerry
I was really interested in this product except that i cant store video on my home server. im not spending this much on a product then paying 30$ more a year… maybe next release, how about it Ring?
I think that the cloud storage issue with so many of these video doorbells is worrying for many people. They don’t like the idea of having to pay for the storage and there is the additional concern about the security of having videos relating to your home stored online. Cloud storage is a money spinner for the companies but I am not sure how long customer’s will tolerate it?
Just installed my Ring Pro and as others have stated here, the volume level is so low and funny from the mounted Ring Pro, you really can not hear what is being said.
This problem needs to be fixed as soon as possible.