Ring is one of the market leaders when it comes to smart doorbells, with a wide range of products like the Battery Doorbell Plus, offering plenty of features at an affordable price, or the Doorbell Elite, which comes with all the bells and whistles at the expense of a complex wiring process.
The new Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is the brand’s most advanced battery-powered doorbell, packing a range of advanced functionality, including a built-in radar. This feature allows it to create a bird’s eye view of someone’s footsteps, before they even ring the doorbell. It also comes with a head-to-toe view, offering a better view of who’s at your door, as well as packages left on your doorstep.
Ring Battery Doorbell Pro
The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is one of the most advanced battery-powered doorbells, offering HD video, head-to-toe view, and more. It’s most notable features are its built-in radar and pre-roll feature, letting you see what happened before someone rang the bell
- Advanced features
- Easy setup
- Integration with other Ring products
- Battery life
- Customization options
- Paid features
- Design
- Outdated microUSB charging
- No support for Google Assistant
- Expensive
Price and availability
The Battery Doorbell Pro is available for $230 on Amazon, Ring’s online stores, and Best Buy. If you’re not in a rush, Ring products are often discounted around Prime Days or Black Friday, though we can’t guarantee this one will be during sale season this year.
Specifications
- Resolution
- 1536 x 1536
Design, hardware, what’s in the box
A bit bulky, but very practical
The overall aesthetics of the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro are somewhat dated and bulky, especially compared to the competition. It’s similar to Ring’s existing battery doorbells, making it easy to upgrade from an older model. Indeed, the installation templates, faceplates, and battery packs are the same, making it simple to reuse accessories you already have.
The top part of the doorbell houses the camera, sensors, and 3D radar, which distinguishes it from its predecessors, at least when it comes to the internals. Indeed, it’s almost impossible to tell it apart from the Battery Doorbell Plus, hinting it might be time for Ring to work on some sleeker, more modern designs.
The main reason for this resemblance is Ring’s use of its standard batteries across devices. These take up most of the inner real estate, and can be swapped across different Ring products, making them particularly handy. What’s less convenient, though, is that they still use a microUSB port, and haven’t been upgraded to use a newer USB-C connector.
Despite its bulkiness and dull appearance, the design is practical, offering over 20 faceplate options to suit various styles, including holiday themes. Sadly, Ring has stopped providing complimentary faceplate vouchers upon the device’s activation, meaning you’ll have to pay to personalize your device.
The packaging is comprehensive, including the doorbell, battery, mounting accessories, a microUSB charging cable, and a wedge mount.
Setup, software, and features
Easy to install and to use
Installation is straightforward, supported by a detailed setup guide and in-app instructions. The doorbell uses four mounting screws, secured by a specialized screw for the faceplate, maximizing security against theft. It can be mounted on hard and brick walls, or wooden surfaces, and the app helps provide the appropriate instructions according to where you’re trying to mount it.
The Ring app makes the setup process easy, helping to pair the Doorbell Pro to your Wi-Fi network and configure it. All you need to do is scan the QR code and follow the instructions to get started.
The Battery Doorbell Pro integrates seamlessly with other Ring products, offering customizable motion detection settings, including zone management and sensitivity adjustments, to minimize unnecessary alerts. Advanced motion alert options are also available, such as person detection and package sensing, although competitors like the Nest Doorbell (Battery) offer even broader recognition capabilities, such as vehicles and animals. As for privacy features, these include customizable privacy zones for added discretion in video recording and live viewing.
In my experience using the Battery Doorbell Pro and other Ring products, I’ve found that they often misinterpret swaying plants or irrelevant motion as a people, triggering false notifications. Besides that, though, I’m a big fan of how customizable the Battery Doorbell Pro is, both in terms of the notifications, but also the sensitivity and the personalized zones.
The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro also supports Quick Replies. These are preset messages it can play, either after a predefined time passes when someone rings, or on-demand through the app. You can pick from a bunch of preset options, including holiday-themed ones, but unfortunately can’t record your own. These replies recently become available in more languages, and also work in conjunction with Ring Alarm modes.
I really appreciate this option, as I’ve been able to automatically trigger doorbell replies saying I’m coming to the door when I’m home, while the message can be different when I’m away, all thanks to my Ring alarm’s status.
Let’s not forget the doorbell’s most important features, which are the video pre-roll and Ring’s Bird’s Eye View. The first automatically captures the few seconds before someone rings the doorbell, allowing you to see what they’ve done and where they’ve come from. The second plots the footsteps someone has followed on a sort of aerial map, thanks to the Battery Doorbell Pro’s built-in radar.
When someone rings the doorbell, the Ring app offers continuous vibration alerts on smartphones, making sure you notice it. If you have a Ring Protect subscription, you’re also provided with an image preview directly in your notifications. The app is also compatible with Alexa, as well as Echo Show smart displays, showing live feeds directly on your device’s screen.
Battery life is good, lasting about two months on a single charge.
Battery life is good, lasting about two months on a single charge. The device can also be hardwired, if you have existing wires. However, you should probably opt for the Ring Doorbell Pro 2 in that case, which offers similar features without the bulk of the battery.
Advanced features that cost extra
While the Battery Doorbell Pro comes loaded with features, some of them require a paid Ring Protect subscription. It provides cloud storage for video history, enhanced notifications, and person detection alerts.
The doorbell comes with a 30-day trial, and a Ring Protect membership will then set you back $3.99 per month or $39.99 annually. For those invested in the Ring ecosystem, a Ring Protect plan is beneficial as it covers not only the Doorbell Pro, but also other Ring devices, including alarms and cameras,
Without Ring Protect, you’re still notified when motion is detected. However, you don’t have the capability to receive smart notifications for people detection or package, record or save these events for later review, or limit notifications to live events only.
Video and sound quality
Clear image and sound
The Battery Doorbell Pro boasts 1536p HD+ video, enhanced with HDR and color night vision capabilities, alongside two-way Audio+ communication with noise cancelation. Its expansive 150º field of view, both vertically and horizontally, provides a head-to-toe view of your doorstep and potential packages left on your porch.
It does, however, come with an unconventional viewing experience, due to a square format, reminiscent of a peephole, with black borders on all sides, and faces appearing more distant. It does, however, keep Ring’s promise of capturing full-body images, ensuring head-to-toe visibility and a view of the ground outside your door.
The app also alerts you when a package is delivered, even without doorbell activation. Sadly, it doesn’t alert you when a package is retrieved, or potentially stolen. Thankfully, the doorbell can notify you if it sees a person, so you’re aware if someone is messing with anything outside your door.
Night vision performance is good, with a well-adjusted IR beam that doesn’t reflect too harshly off of people’s faces. However, the color night vision feature merely colors a monochrome footage, with some parts remaining gray, making it relatively useless.
Ring’s bird’ s-eye functionality can be useful if your doorbell faces the street so that it can see where people are coming from. To work properly, it also needs accurate satellite imagery of your area so it can plot people’s paths effectively.
Night vision performance is good, with a well-adjusted IR beam that doesn’t reflect too harshly off of people’s faces.
I’ve personally turned Bird’s Eye View off and used pre-roll instead, as it allows me to view an actual video of what happened right before someone rang my doorbell instead of seeing a map of people’s footsteps. This comes down to your preference, but I believe the Bird’s Eye View feature is more useful on a security camera than a doorbell.
Competition: Arlo and Nest may be better for some
There’s no shortage of video doorbells to choose from
The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro faces stiff competition in the market, especially from two high-end rivals. The first is the $130 2nd Gen Arlo Video Doorbell 2K. It’s a compelling alternative due to its lower price point, better image quality, and similar features. It does lack a built-in radar and also requires a paid subscription to use some of its features, but it has the advantage of being compatible with both Alexa and Google Assistant.
Another noteworthy competitor is the $180 Nest Doorbell (Battery), which shares some functionalities with the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro, including package detection and person sensing.
Although the Nest Doorbell might not match the Ring in terms of image quality and radar-based bird’ s-eye view, it boasts a more appealing design. It also has the added advantage that most of its features, including person, animal, and vehicle detection, are accessible without requiring an additional subscription.
Should you buy the RIng Battery Doorbell Pro?
You could do a lot worse
Ring’s Battery Doorbell Pro ups the ante in the battery-powered smart doorbell battle with radar-powered “bird’s eye view” tracking and head-to-toe coverage. However, its clunky design and outdated microUSB port are disappointing. Plus, ditching free faceplates and requiring a subscription for full features stings.
Thankfully, there’s plenty to love about the device, including its advanced (but paid) notifications for package detection, integration with other Ring products and the Alexa ecosystem, and extensive battery life, not to mention the pre-roll and bird’s eye view features. The customization settings are also very extensive, making it a product that respects your privacy, together with your neighbors’.
Compared to rivals, the Battery Doorbell pro shines with its unique features, despite a higher price and a need for a subscription. If you’re deep in the Ring ecosystem or love the Pro’s specific features, it’s a solid option.
Ring Battery Doorbell Pro
The Ring Battery Doorbell Pro is one of the most advanced battery-powered doorbells, offering HD video, head-to-toe view, and more. It’s most notable features are its built-in radar and pre-roll feature, letting you see what happened before someone rang the bell
