Ring Stick Up Cam Pro Review

Editors Note: This is the latest version of Ring Stick Up Cam Pro. Read our original review from October 25, 2023 below.

The Ring Stick Up Cam ($99.99) gets high marks for its versatile indoor/outdoor design, sharp 1080p video, and third-party integration, including support for Amazon Alexa voice control. The Ring Stick Up Cam Pro is more expensive at $179.99 but offers a lot more bang for your buck, with features like HDR video, color pre-roll, 3D motion detection, and dual-band Wi-Fi. Like all other Ring devices, it doesn’t include native support for Apple HomeKit or Google Assistant, but the Stick Up Cam Pro’s excellent performance, ease of use, and robust feature set earned it our Editors’ Choice award.

More features for better monitoring

The Weatherproof Stick Up Cam Pro maintains the same cylindrical shape as the Stick Up Cam but is much larger, measuring 6.0 inches long by 2.7 inches wide (compared to 4.9 by 2.3 inches). The camera comes in black or white and sits atop a circular base with a hinge that offers 45 degree backward tilting maneuverability. The base can be used as a desktop stand or mounted to a wall, outdoor soffit or ceiling using the included mounting hardware. There is a USB-C power port on the back of the camera for use with an optional AC power adapter.

We reviewed the wire-free battery version of the Stick Up Cam Pro, but it’s also available as a plug-in camera that uses AC power. Both versions cost the same $179.99 and offer dual-power capability with dynamic switching: You can buy an optional indoor/outdoor power adapter ($39.99) for battery-powered cameras or a battery pack ($34.99) for plug-in cameras. To access the battery, simply close the bottom of the camera and press the silver tab.

Ring doesn’t provide battery life specs for this camera, but the standard stick up cam is rated to last six to twelve months between charges, depending on usage, and we expect a similar runtime for the Pro model. As a more eco-friendly option, you can power the camera with a smaller 1.9-watt solar panel ($39.99) or a larger and more powerful 4-watt solar panel ($59.99).

The Stick Up Cam Pro has a front camera assembly, a motion sensor, a speaker and a microphone. New to this model is Ring’s Audio+ technology, which offers improved noise cancellation for cleaner two-way talk. The 1080p camera uses HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology to deliver enhanced contrast with more detail in dark shadows and bright highlights. It has a 155-degree diagonal field of view and uses two infrared LEDs for black-and-white night vision. With enough ambient light, it can also capture colorful night videos. Under the hood is a dual-band Wi-Fi radio and an 85dB siren

The Stick Up Cam Pro doesn’t have an integrated light, which can be a drawback if you plan to use it outdoors. The Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight Camera costs a bit more at $199.99, but it casts a bright light on whatever’s roaming your property and captures it in detailed 2K, making it our top pick for floodlight cameras.

Stick Up Cam Pro offers the 3D motion detection and bird’s eye view features that debuted on Video Doorbell 2 Pro and are also available on Floodlight Cam Pro. 3D motion detection uses radar to detect the distance to an object for improved accuracy and fewer false alarms than standard cameras. This technology also powers the Bird’s Eye Aerial View feature, which lets you see where visitors to your home have traveled on your property. Bird’s Eye events are displayed as tracking points along the traveler’s path on an aerial map presented in a picture-by-picture format.

The camera records video when it detects motion, and it supports color pre-roll, which captures up to six seconds of video before a trigger event. It doesn’t support local video storage, which means you’ll need to subscribe to a Ring Protect plan to access your recordings. For $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year, the Basic plan covers one camera and provides access to 180 days of recorded video history. It also gives you video saving and sharing capabilities, person alerts, snapshot capture, rich notifications (which includes a photo preview so you don’t have to open the app) and support for automation with the Ring Alarm system. For $10.99 per month/$100 per year Plus Plus, you get everything from the basic plan with coverage and extended warranty for all your Ring devices. Ring also offers a $20 per month/$200 per year Pro plan, which adds 24/7 professional monitoring, cellular backup, and other Ring Alarm Pro services.

The Stick Up Cam Pro works with plenty of third-party smart devices via Alexa voice commands and IFTTT applets, but it doesn’t offer native support for Apple HomeKit or Google Assistant, integrations available in the Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight. It uses the same Android and iOS mobile apps as every other Ring device and is displayed on its own panel with the camera name and a still image of the latest motion event on the dashboard screen.

Tapping on the camera section of the app takes you to a screen with a video panel and a timeline of recorded motion events. When enabled, Bird’s Eye View will appear in a small box within the video Below the video panel are buttons for two-way talk, muting the speaker, ending the stream, activating the siren, and launching a quick control panel that lets you turn other Ring devices on and off.

To access camera settings, tap the gear icon in the top right corner. Here you’ll find buttons to enable or disable motion detection and motion alerts, activate the siren, and launch a live view At the bottom of this screen are tiles to view an event history list with thumbnails of each recorded event, edit mode settings (for Home, Away, or Disarmed mode), link other Ring devices to the camera, and view device health statistics (including signal strength, network status , and MAC address).

A device settings tile lets you configure video settings (including color night vision and recording length), notification settings (reach notifications, linked chimes, alert tones), privacy settings, and snapshot capture (which captures still images at regular intervals so you can view what is happening between motion events). The Motion Settings tile lets you configure Bird’s Eye View, set up motion zones, enable smart alerts, and create motion schedules. Finally, the Accessories Tile offers other Ring products available for purchase, such as solar panels, chimes and power adapters.

Quality videos and accurate warnings

I already had the Ring app installed, so I scrolled down to the bottom of the dashboard screen, tapped Set up a device > Security cameras, then used my phone’s camera to scan the QR code on the back of the device. For some reason, my phone couldn’t scan the tiny QR code on the camera, but it had no problem capturing the one on the box. I then selected my home location (which I initially provided when setting up my account), specified whether the camera would be indoors or outdoors, and selected its power source (battery). I had already charged the battery, so I installed it in the camera, made sure the camera was on, and gave it a name in the app. I verified that the LED was flashing blue (indicating the camera was in setup mode), selected my Wi-Fi SSID, and entered my Wi-Fi password. After a few seconds, the camera connected to my home network.

Next, it asked if I wanted to enable Ring Sidewalk, set up device sharing, and add linked devices, but I skipped those steps, as well as the camera installation tutorial. I also left out the options to optimize motion performance and create a bird’s eye detection zone, both of which can be done later. After waiting a few seconds for a firmware update to finish installing, I took the camera outside and placed it on my deck railing overlooking my pool area to complete the installation.

Stick Up Cam Pro delivered quality video in the test. Daytime colors were well defined with sharp image details, and black-and-white night video was also highly detailed and showed excellent contrast. Color night vision worked as intended, but colors looked dark and a bit dull. If color night vision is your main priority, you’ll get better quality with the TP-Link Tapo ColorPro C325WB ($119.99), albeit with a narrower 127-degree field of view.

The speed warning was accurate and came promptly. The Bird’s Eye View and Color Pre-Roll features worked flawlessly, though you can’t enable both at the same time. Two-way audio was crisp and free of background noise, and the camera had no problem responding to Alexa voice commands to stream video to the Echo Show smart display.

Best stick up cam

Ring’s Pro series of doorbells and security cameras generally offer more powerful features than their non-Pro counterparts, and the Stick Up Cam Pro follows suit. It’s not cheap, but it packs a lot of features you don’t get with standard cameras, including HDR video and dual-band Wi-Fi. And with Ring’s color pre-roll and bird’s eye view features, you’re able to see what happened before a motion event and track the movement of visitors to your property. If you want a light-up camera for the outdoors, we recommend the Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight Camera, which offers 2K video capture and support for both Google Assistant and Siri voice commands. But the Ring Stick Up Cam Pro is more versatile and slightly more affordable, earning our Editors’ Choice Award for indoor and outdoor security cameras.