Ring Battery Doorbell Plus Review

Editors Note: This is the most recent version of Ring Battery Doorbell Plus. Read our original review from May 15, 2023 below.

The latest addition to Ring’s growing stable of video doorbells, the Battery Doorbell Plus ($149.99), is the company’s most advanced battery-powered model yet. It offers a wider, higher-resolution (1536p) view than its predecessor and includes features like color night vision and intelligent motion detection. Our main complaints are that it costs a lot and all but requires a Ring Protect subscription plan

A familiar design with a high-resolution camera

The Battery Doorbell Plus retains the satin nickel and gloss black finish of the Video Doorbell 4 and is the same size at 5.1 by 2.4 by 1.1 inches (HWD). The camera sits at the top of the enclosure, while the bottom has a removable cover and a doorbell button An LED surrounds the latter; It turns blue when you ring the doorbell, and a white light rotates around it during setup.

In the box, you’ll find a mounting wedge and mounting hardware, a Torx screwdriver and Torx security screws, cable nuts, a charging cable, and a user guide.

The camera captures video at 1536p, a significant jump over the previous model’s 1080p resolution. It has a 150-degree (vertical and horizontal) field of view that’s wide enough to show viewers a head-to-toe view, your entire doorway, and even some of your front yard. This coverage is comprehensive enough that you won’t miss any context of motion events. The doorbell records color video at night if there’s enough ambient light, but otherwise relies on two infrared LEDs to provide black-and-white night vision.

Under the cover is a removable 5,800mAh battery pack (which charges via the included micro USB-to-USB-A cable) and a reset button. On the back, there are two terminals for connecting the device to traditional doorbell wiring with an 8-24 VAC transformer if you don’t want to worry about charging the battery pack every few months. Note that while the Ring Video Doorbell 4 and Wise Video Doorbell Pro offer dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity, the Battery Doorbell Plus only uses the 2.4GHz band.

The device records video and sends an alert to your phone whenever someone presses the doorbell button or the camera detects motion, but you need a Ring Protect subscription to view those recordings; Otherwise, you will get screenshot with warning. The Ring Protect Basic plan, which costs $3.99 per month ($39.99 per year), unlocks 180 days of cloud-based video history for one camera, as well as person and package alerts, snapshot capture, rich notifications, and save and share capabilities. video clip. For $10 per month, you can extend coverage to all your Ring doorbells and cameras. Wyze offers a similar plan for $1.99 per month ($19.99 per year), but only gives you 14 days of video history.

The Battery Doorbell Plus supports Alexa voice commands and IFTTT, but it doesn’t integrate with Apple HomeKit or Google Assistant. For reference, the Wyze Video Doorbell Pro works with Alexa, Google Assistant, and IFTTT.

Ring Battery Doorbell Plus app experience

Doorbell Plus uses the same mobile app (available for Android and iOS) as every other Ring device, and its last event capture is displayed in a panel on the main screen. Just tap on that section to see a live feed from the camera. Here, you get buttons to end the live stream, start two-way talk, and mute the speaker Once you finish the live feed, you’ll see a timeline of events with controls for pausing, fast-forwarding, and rewinding the recording. At the bottom of the screen are buttons to share, download and delete clips created by this particular device You can also sort by calendar date and filter by type (Person, Package, Speed ​​or Doorbell Press).

Tap the gear icon in the top left corner of the screen to access the doorbell settings. Here, you can toggle ring and motion alerts, as well as motion detection. Several other widgets take up the bottom half of the screen. The event history option provides thumbnails of events from all account devices, which you can view, share, download or delete. The Mode Settings widget lets you set Home, Away and Disarm modes if you pair it with a ring alarm system. The Linked Devices section enables you to connect the doorbell to other ring devices and configure it to trigger. The Motion Snooze widget lets you temporarily silence doorbell alerts, while the Linked Chimes area lets you set up doorbells with the $60 Ring Chime Pro.

The list of features doesn’t end there. The Device Health section lets you check the doorbell’s battery and signal strength, as well as change Wi-Fi networks. In the Motion Settings section, you can create custom motion zones, adjust motion sensitivity, configure smart alerts, and set up a package detection zone. A smart response area enables you to select a pre-programmed message to play when someone rings the doorbell. Finally, the Device Settings widget lets you configure video settings (HDR, Color Night Vision, and recording length), set snapshot capture frequency to see what happens during motion events, enable rich notifications, and configure privacy zones to protect your neighbors’ privacy. Lets do it .

Stress-free operation

Like most battery-powered doorbells, the Doorbell Plus is easy to install. If you decide to set it up with traditional wiring, though, don’t hesitate to hire a professional to complete the physical installation. I already had the Ring app on my phone, but if this is your first device from the company you’ll need to download it.

After I inserted a fully charged battery into the doorbell, I immediately heard a beep, and a white light started moving around the LED ring. I tapped Set Up a Device at the bottom of the app’s dashboard screen, selected Doorbell, and used my phone’s camera to scan the QR code on the back of the device. The app immediately detected the doorbell, so I added it to my home location, gave it a name, and scrolled through several help screens.

When I got to the setup screen, I entered my Wi-Fi network information. After a while, the doorbell showed up in the app and in my list of Alexa devices. After a quick firmware update, I was ready to install the doorbell outside. At this point, you can view an installation tutorial, set up motion zones, and link the doorbell to other Ring devices. Or, you can skip all this and do it later. I simply attached the doorbell to my doorframe using the included screws and replaced the cover to prepare for testing.

Battery Doorbell Plus delivers sharp video. Colors are bright enough in daytime captures, but nighttime recordings look darker and less vibrant. Black-and-white night clips look crisp and bright enough. Like most doorbell cameras, the edges of the frame suffer from slight barrel distortion, but people and objects appear normal in the camera’s main field of view.

Doorbell and motion alerts arrived quickly in testing, and the camera does a fine job of detecting human-caused motion. The two-way communication between the doorbell and my phone sounded clear and loud enough. An Alexa routine I set up to turn on a Wyze bulb when someone rings the doorbell works perfectly. Alexa voice commands to stream video from the camera to the Amazon Echo Show display worked without issue.

An expensive yet capable ring doorbell

If you don’t have existing doorbell wiring and don’t want to run wires to a transformer, the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is worth a look. It’s completely wireless, installs in minutes, offers a wide field of view and delivers better-than-HD video You also get support for Alexa and IFTTT, though we don’t like that you have to pay extra for a Ring security plan to view recordings and unlock person and package detection features.