Ring has pioneered the smart doorbell market with some of the most advanced and user-friendly devices out there. Today, it still makes some of the best smart video doorbells, as well as a wide range of security devices like the Ring Alarm and an impressive number of cameras. Most of its products come with smart features, such as motion and package detection, two-way audio, and night vision.
However, Ring’s battery-powered doorbells historically haven't offered head-to-toe video formats, which prevented users from seeing packages left at their door. To address that problem and better match the competition, Ring has designed the Battery Doorbell Plus, a new product that builds upon the Video Doorbell 3, and packs some great features, including HD+ quality and head-to-toe video.
Ring Battery Doorbell Plus
The new Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is a mid-range offering with a higher resolution than any preceding battery-powered Ring doorbell camera at 1536 x 1536 pixels. The output feed is also in 1:1 ratio, so you can see packages left at your doorstep, as well as the face of whoever's ringing your doorbell.
- Video resolution
- 1536p
- Wi-Fi connectivity
- Yes
- Battery
- Yes
- Field of view
- 150º
- Measurements
- 12.8 cm x 6.2 cm x 2.8 cm
- Live View
- Yes
- Two-way Talk
- Yes
- Advanced Motion Detection
- Yes
- Night Vision
- Yes (with color night vision)
- Video quality and resolution
- Customizable faceplates
- Battery life
- Most features require a subscription
- Bulky design
- No assistant support
Price and availability
The Ring Video Doorbell Plus sells for $180 on Amazon, as well as Best Buy and Ring’s official store. It’s seen a handful of discounts to $140 already. If you’re not in a hurry, it’s likely to be discounted during Amazon’s Prime Day sale or Black Friday.
Design, hardware, what's in the box
The new Battery Doorbell Plus looks almost exactly like Ring’s other Video Doorbell models, and it’s easy to replace them without having to drill new holes. Similarly, the faceplates and battery packs remain the same, meaning you can keep the accessories you bought if you’re replacing your older Video Doorbell with the Battery Doorbell Plus.
The design isn’t the most attractive one and is starting to look dated. The ringer itself is relatively bulky, due to the fact that the battery is housed behind the faceplate, which covers about two-thirds of the doorbell’s front surface. The top third of the doorbell is made of a fixed black casing, which houses the camera and sensors. This is also where the Battery Doorbell Plus looks different from the other models, as the camera hole is more square and slightly bigger than Ring’s other Video Doorbells. Besides that, though, it’s quite hard to tell the difference.
As a matter of fact, the battery here is the same model as in Ring’s other battery-powered doorbells, which means you can use it to power almost any Ring device, including outdoor cameras and doorbells, and quickly swap it out if your battery is running low.
Besides the bulk, the design is quite practical. Indeed, Ring offers a choice of more than 20 faceplates, ranging from a large variety of standard colors to holiday-themed ones. To help you match your doorbell with your style, Ring also offers a free voucher to order a second faceplate when you first activate your Battery Doorbell Plus; it ships with a silver one by default.
When it comes to the box, Ring has thought of almost everything, as it includes the doorbell and battery, as well as a wedge to angle the camera, two sets of screws to mount it, cables in case you want to hardwire it, as well as a security screw and its screwdriver, which secure the faceplate to the battery, preventing people from opening it and stealing your doorbell. Ring also provides a microUSB cable to charge the battery, but no adapter. It’s a shame it hasn’t managed to update its batteries to USB-C while keeping the same form factor, as releasing a product that charges with a dated connector in 2023 isn’t really acceptable.
Thankfully, the camera is particularly easy to install and mount. The doorbell comes with a printed setup guide, together with step-by-step instructions found in the app. Ring provides two separate sets of screws and anchors, depending on what kind of surface you’re installing the doorbell on. The doorbell is attached using four screws, which are then covered by the faceplate. The latter is also secured using a non-standard screw, preventing people from being able to easily detach or steal the doorbell.
Setup, software, and features
Getting started with the Ring Battery Doorbell is a seamless process, thanks to the app’s built-in setup assistant. It provides step-by-step guidance on how to pair your new doorbell to your network and set up your preferences. All you need to do is scan the QR code printed on the doorbell and follow the app’s instructions to connect it to your Wi-Fi router.
As with many other Ring products, the Battery Doorbell Plus integrates with the rest of your Ring products and can behave differently based on the modes you set up for your system. This means it can detect motion and send alerts when you’re away, but avoid bugging you when it’s disarmed. Similarly, if you use other Ring products, you can set scenarios for them to automatically start recording or even turn on their built-in lights when the doorbell senses motion or someone rings it.
The doorbell’s motion settings can be extensively customized, in the sense that you can set zones for it to monitor and ignore motion from the other ones, preventing you from receiving notifications when birds fly by or cars drive by in the background, for instance. Similarly, you can adjust the motion sensitivity to avoid receiving unwanted notifications.
Ring also offers smart alerts, enabling you to customize the different motion alerts, which can include person detection and other motion, as well as package sensing. For these three types of alert, you can define whether you want the doorbell to record the event, notify you, or do both.
It’s great to see Ring offer advanced features, but keep in mind the Nest Doorbell (Battery) offers even more options, including car and animal recognition.
In addition, Ring lets you define privacy zones in which no video will be recorded. In fact, the zone will be blacked out even when viewing the live feed, which ensures optimal privacy.
When someone is at the door, the Ring app notifies you on your phone by making it vibrate continuously, instead of a simple one-time notification that’s easy to miss. It can also notify you on your Alexa speakers and smart displays, and ring additional compatible chimes you may have at home. The app also provides a video preview thanks to a rich notification, making it easy to quickly see who’s at your door.
If you miss a notification, events are recorded in the app for you to review at a later time and see who rang your bell or passed by. Similarly, you can see if a package has been delivered while you were away.
Just like other Ring doorbells, this model supports Quick Replies, which are preset messages that can be played automatically after a predefined period of time. Unfortunately, though, these can’t be customized, and the maximum timeout is only 20 seconds, which seems a bit too short.
Thankfully, though, you can also pick from the preset quick replies when answering the door from your phone, which can be convenient if you’re in a meeting and want the delivery person to leave the package at the door. These can also be used to ask the person to leave a video message, which you can review at a later time.
Also, since the Battery Doorbell Plus is an evolution of the Video Doorbell 3, it doesn’t feature the Video Doorbell 4’s advanced functionality like pre-roll and bird’s eye view, which can be particularly useful, as they let you see the few seconds before someone presses the button and where they’ve been. It’s a shame Ring didn’t integrate these in its new model, as they add some extra security features to the product.
The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus’s battery can last for about a month with motion detection on, which is quite impressive. The app lets you customize the power settings, by customizing how often it should refresh its snapshot, check for motion, or even the video recording length. When it’s time to charge it, you simply have to unscrew the faceplate, release the battery and plug it in using a microUSB cable (sigh). However, you can purchase additional batteries to swap them in a few seconds or even hardwire the doorbell at no extra cost, which will prevent you from having to charge it.
Ring Protect subscription
Even though the Battery Doorbell Plus is packed with features, many of them aren’t free. Indeed, while the device includes a free one-month Ring Protect trial, you will have to pay for a subscription to benefit from some of its features after it’s over. These include video history saving on the cloud, rich notifications, and person alerts, meaning you will have to pay to be able to review who rang the door if you miss a notification. That’s a bummer, considering the device’s relatively high price.
However, the subscription starts at only $3.99/month or $39.99/year, making it relatively affordable. In addition, you should consider a Ring Protect subscription if you have other Ring products, especially an alarm or cameras, as it also works with the doorbell and other devices, and allows all products to work seamlessly with each other.
If you prefer to use the device without the extra fees, it will work just fine, but it won’t record past events and won’t provide smart and rich notifications, meaning it will only send an alert if it senses any kind of motion, which you’ll have to view live, as it won’t be saved.
Video and sound quality
The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus offers HD+ video, combined with HDR and color night vision, as well as two-way audio.
The video quality is generally good, making it easy to distinguish people and see what’s happening in the background. The vertical and horizontal 150º field of view lets you see more than with other Video Doorbells, but the format is unnatural and makes it seem like you’re looking through a peephole, with visible black edges in all four corners.
Also, unlike more traditional formats, people look smaller on the screen and their faces seem further away. That being said, the doorbell does deliver on the head-to-toe promise, and lets you see people’s feet and packages left on the ground.
The app can also send out notifications when a package is left without someone ringing the doorbell, but doesn’t let you know if it’s picked up. You can set person detection, though, for it to sense if someone walks in front of the camera and potentially makes off with the package.
When it comes to night vision, the image quality is excellent, and the IR beam is perfectly calibrated, helping you see what’s going on without difficulty. The Battery Doorbell Plus also features Ring’s color night vision, which is just a gimmick that artificially adds color to black-and-white video, without providing much added value.
Competition
The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus isn’t the first doorbell camera on the market to offer head-to-toe vision, and competes with other battery-powered products, such as the Arlo Essential Wireless Video Doorbell. Arlo’s doorbell offers similar features compared to Ring’s new device, with some accessible with a subscription only. While it has a higher MSRP, it’s now sold for about $100, which could make it a more interesting buy.
Alternatively, you can consider the Nest Doorbell (Battery), which also offers package detection and works with Nest Hubs, while offering a lower image quality. It comes with a nicer design, as well as similar features, while costing the same price as its Ring rival. Most of its features don’t require a subscription, though, making it a potentially more interesting product.
Should you buy it?
The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is an iterative update to the Video Doorbell 3, and it comes without the Video Doorbell 4’s advanced features. It simply adds minor software features and a new head-to-toe video format that lets you see more of what’s going on. Its main advantage is to see packages and be notified when someone leaves one in front of your door.
While it comes with great video and audio quality, it’s mostly worth considering if you specifically want to keep an eye on package deliveries. Otherwise, a more traditional doorbell such as the Video Doorbell 4 is probably a better option, as it has more interesting features, despite not offering head-to-toe video.
Also, if you need your doorbell to work with Google Assistant, you should consider another brand, as Ring and Blink products only work with Alexa devices.
Ring Battery Doorbell Plus
The new Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is a mid-range offering with a higher resolution than any preceding battery-powered Ring doorbell camera at 1536 x 1536 pixels. The output feed is also in 1:1 ratio, so you can see packages left at your doorstep, as well as the face of whoever's ringing your doorbell.