Ring Battery Doorbell Pro review: Feature-packed, short on pixels

Video doorbells have found their way to millions of homes, with Ring alone selling over one million units every year. Since its acquisition by Amazon in 2019 for one billion dollars, Ring has grown its portfolio to encompass home security cameras, alarm systems, doorbell chimes, and smart lighting.

Not too shabby for a company that was unceremoniously turned down on Shark Tank in 2013. While its bench is now deeper, its star player remains the video doorbell. I’ve spent the last week testing the company’s new Ring Battery Doorbell Pro.

Ring Battery Doorbell Pro

A feature rich and versatile smart video doorbell

The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is the new top of the line doorbell in Ring’s battery powered lineup. While it skimps a bit on camera quality, it is packed with useful features.

Pros

• Can run on a rechargeable battery if hardwiring isn’t an option
• Provides an encompassing vertical view, ideal for packages

Cons

• Video quality is worse than some similarly priced competitors
• Ring Protect subscription required to save video, and other features

Price, specs and availability

First, let’s look at where the Battery Doorbell Pro sits in Ring’s lineup. Broadly speaking, Ring separates its doorbells into two categories: wired video doorbells and battery video doorbells. Both versions of the company’s doorbells come in standard, ‘Plus,’ and ‘Pro’ models, with this Ring Battery Doorbell Pro being the newest one in the battery line and the first battery model to bear the ‘Pro’ moniker.

The wired versions of the doorbell feature a slimmer, more modern form factor, while the exterior hardware on the battery models more closely resembles the way Ring devices have looked for roughly a decade now. Additionally, Ring offers an ‘Elite’ version of its wired doorbell aimed at commercial applications. As mentioned, the battery powered range now tops off with the new Ring Battery Doorbell Pro.

The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is available starting today for $230 on Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from the Ring website.

Design and battery life

So what exactly does battery-power mean?

While all current generation battery Ring doorbells can also be hardwired, Ring is quick to warn you that the easily removable and rechargeable battery is supposed to be the primary power supply, with your home’s doorbell wiring providing only a trickle charge that might help extend the battery life in-between charges.

In practice, if you don’t receive too many notifications, have a strong Wi-Fi signal, and don’t crank up every single smart setting, you can get away with the hard-wire powering your ‘battery’ video doorbell for quite a long time. In fact, in my testing, I installed the new video doorbell at 24% battery, hard-wired it, and 18 hours later, it was at 36% charge.

If you talk to various owners about their Ring Battery Doorbell models, some will report battery life measured in months, others measured in just a few weeks. In my testing, the battery got to 1% charge 48 hours after installation. So truthfully, whether a battery model truly requires frequent recharging is dependent on a wide variety of factors.

If you purchase a battery model and want to take full advantage of the various software features offered by Ring with frequent motion detection, then plan to recharge the removable battery somewhat frequently.

The batteries on newer Ring models like the Battery Doorbell Pro are much easier to remove and charge than on past models. The front housing pops up with ease and the rechargeable battery simply slides out the bottom of the doorbell. Users can then recharge the battery with the included USB cable.

Software experience and performance

A big price difference for a bit of software and better audio

The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is an easy to install, simple to use, and feature-packed smart video doorbell. While I certainly want to highlight the powerful software features I enjoyed using, let me get my biggest complaint out of the way. This new doorbell represents the first ‘Pro’ model in the battery line-up, and at a price point that represents a greater than 50% cost premium to the ‘Plus’ model.

I was disappointed to see that the hardware, in particular the camera, is pretty much exactly the same as that found on the Plus variant. For such a price jump, not upgrading the camera at all seems like such a missed opportunity for future proofing and value proposition to the consumer. Competitors like Arlo and Lorex are already offering 2K and 4K resolution video doorbells, mind you, at lower price-points than the 1,536p offered on the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro. Even the original Nest Hello doorbell from 2018, which is my daily video doorbell when I’m not testing others, provides a higher-quality image.

Some users will certainly appreciate the 150-degree vertical and horizontal field of view offered by the Battery Doorbell Pro, making it easier to spot packages, while others may prioritize video quality over other features. While the camera may be the same as the substantially lower-priced model, the new Pro version does feature upgraded mics and speakers that Ring is calling “Audio+.”

One aspect of the camera that I did find impressive is its ability to display full color video at night. Whereas other cameras may use infrared night vision that displays in black and white, the full color nighttime image was a welcome perk.

Ring Battery Doorbell Pro Full Color Night Vision

Where the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro truly shines is its software. Tools like 3D Motion Detection with Bird’s Eye Zones leverage built-in radar and existing satellite mapping to paint a detailed picture of the path a person took to approach your door. Since this technology can detect depth using radar, users can select zones within which the Ring doorbell will alert you to motion, but outside which motion should be ignored.

This would be useful, for instance, if your front door led out to a busy sidewalk. Features like this help cut out some of the erroneous notifications you might receive from a video doorbell that faces a heavily trafficked area. Some people may also find this useful to track any would-be wanderers onto the front of your property, at least as far and as wide as the doorbell can see.

These features, along with support for dual-band Wi-Fi, and pre-roll, represent the only improvements over the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus, which, to be fair, the absence of these features was noted in our review of the mid-level model. While these new and improved tools may find use-cases with a particular audience, I feel a true refresh or upgrade in hardware might have served a wider set of consumers.

Verdict: Should you buy the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro?

The latest addition to the Ring lineup of battery video doorbells represents a well-rounded product that would serve well on millions of front doors. If you haven’t yet joined the club of video doorbells, this model would make a fine choice for most homes.

It’s also clear that these sorts of features and improvements may be precisely where home-security and surveillance tech is heading. With a heavier focus on predictive and intelligent tools or algorithms, chasing the crispest, highest resolution picture may simply not be needed. The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is available for pre-order now and ready to keep you connected and safe in your home.