Hey Guys, in my last Ring doorbell video, we completed the physical install of the Ring Wi-Fi ring video doorbell Pro.  It’s been 10 months of using the device and I thought I’d share some of my likes and dislikes and why I only give the very popular Ring doorbell 3/5 stars.

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Let’s jump right in. What do I like about this device?

  1. App setup. To get the doorbell working with the app, download the app from the app store or google play.  Power up the door doorbell and start the app.  The setup will take you through creating an account, selecting your device and doorbell.  Jump onto the doorbells network connection and share your home WiFi with it.  That’s it and the app and the doorbell literally talk and show you through the entire steps. I don’t think it could be easier.  Great use of icons and keeping instructions simple.
  2. Quick notifications. I like how I get notifications of someone pushing my doorbell within a second.
  3. Image quality. I like the image quality (most of the time).  The colors are great!
  4. Good idea. I like the idea of being able to see and talk to someone at your door from anywhere in the world.  Ring is going down the right path here but others are following and taking over.
  5. No router changes for local or remote access. I don’t need any router configuration, like opening ports to use this device.
  6. Night vision. Yes, the device has night vision using 3 IR lights.
  7. The camera angle. The angle is very wide and covers about 180 degrees.

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So far, we are at 5 stars. Here’s how we get to 3 stars:

  1. Image quality. Let’s look at the image quality.  The picture is often jumpy and contains trailers.  My network and my Internet connections are strong and there is no need of this given all the steaming I do with security cameras.  I wonder if it’s the doorbells weak processor.
  2. Horrible delay. Speaking of delays.  The time it takes for the image to show from when someone rings the doorbell is about 15-30 seconds, especially if 2 users are trying to access the doorbell at the same time.  This is a huge downfall and I by the time the app and doorbell connect and start streaming the video, I see the people driving away.  I don’t get it, my WiFi signal at the doorbell is great and my Internet connection is awesome.
  3. Subscription fee. Doorbell events cannot be saved on a local computer.  If you need to ever go back and look at any footage, you need to have a paid subscription to the cloud services for a minimum of $30US per device.  No thanks!  My elaborate security camera system does everything I’d ever want and more, and I pay no subscriptions fees.
  4. Broke without notice. After owning my doorbell for about 4 months I noticed I wasn’t getting any notifications.  Long story short, it dropped off my network.  I reset the doorbell and connected to it through the setup process and it wouldn’t connect to my WiFi.  I even created a new WiFi connection and it wouldn’t work.  There was no notification or flashing lights on the doorbell letting me know there was an issue for over a week.

It seems like Ring has put a lot of money into marketing, customer service and app process flows but cheaped out on the internal processing power behind this device.  I often get Ring app updates in an attempt to make things better, but I haven’t seen any changes yet.  Final thoughts.  I like to check in on it as a security camera now and then but as a video doorbell, I would look for another solution.  Check out my other video for more security camera review and give this video a thumbs up if you found this information helpful.

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