It’s been some time since any new doorbell has come to enrich Ring’s catalog, which has not been idle in 2022 and notably launched a solution for connecting building intercoms: Intercom. The Amazon subsidiary has also enriched its range of surveillance cameras with the Spotlight Cam Pro, but it is indeed with a new Doorbell that it is returning at the start of 2023. The Battery Video Doorbell Plus, to be exact , does not bring any real novelties, but it inherits the “medium shot video” from the Video Doorbell Pro 2 and thus becomes the first battery-powered model to offer it.
A better view of visitors, and especially parcels
As a reminder, the “medium shot video”, as Ring calls it, is nothing but a 1:1 aspect ratio video. The new doorbell thus offers square images, up to 1536 x 1536 pixels, with optics allowing you to enjoy a viewing angle of 150° both horizontally and vertically, whereas the previous models on battery offer a much smaller vertical field of view with a 16:9 ratio. The idea is to offer a more complete view of the visitors who come to the door, but also to integrate part of the doorstep into the frame to monitor the parcels which could be deposited there.
Ring also takes the opportunity to highlight the package detection function included with its Ring Protect subscription, but we would have preferred it to be offered natively, and free of charge, as on Google’s Nest Doorbell (Battery). The subscription requires you to offload 3 to 10 € / month or 30 to 100 € / year, and it is also essential to enjoy recordings, since they can only be stored in the Ring cloud. No microSD port is offered.
Without a subscription, the Battery Video Doorbell Plus can still observe visitors live; we will also add that infrared vision is of course offered for the night. The user is notified when the doorbell is triggered by its button, but a PIR sensor also allows it to detect movement without draining the battery too much. The manufacturer is also highlighting new energy saving functions that are supposed to provide autonomy up to three times greater than that of the first model.
If it presents itself as Ring’s most advanced battery doorbell, the Battery Video Doorbell Plus remains far behind its best wired models, in particular the Video Doorbell Pro 2 with its aerial vision and 3D detection system. It will be available from April 13 and launched at the recommended retail price of €179.99.