Ring Video Doorbell (1st Gen, 2015)

Enormous security potential ; Intuitive app ; Easy installation ; Inexpensive

Latency in time-to-answer ; Plastic-y case components

We think the Ring Video Doorbell is a great addition to any home, and at just $99, is a steal.

Smart design ; Very easy setup ; Largely intuitive mobile app ; Decent-quality footage ; Reliable motion detection ; Talkback works well

Easy to steal ; No ring tone options ; Only one month of cloud storage included

Technically a great home security solution, but the higher-resolution Ring Video Doorbell 2 is a now a better choice.

Technically a great home security solution, but the required subscription service dents its value.

Easy to install. HD video. Cloud recording. Motion detection notifications.

Pricey. No on-demand video. Audio could be better. Short battery life.

Conclusions With the Ring Video Doorbell, you can see who is at your door from the safety and comfort of your couch. It lets you accept or deny visitor calls, and uses motion detection to alert you of activity on your doorstep even when the bell hasn't...

Interact with visitors and delivery persons without opening the door---or even without being home. Painless installation and setup. New feature can detect motion on your property, up to 30 feet away. For a small fee, every trigger is recorded

Alerts sometimes take far too long to arrive on your smartphone---as long as 30 seconds. Motion detection requires some fine-tuning. No remote camera access (yet)

Multiple users can answer the door remotely, night vision and motion detection work well, noise cancellation makes audio clear

Battery down to 80 per cent after one week, needs dismounting and charging every time it runs flat, dependent on network performance

The Ring Video Doorbell provides a great service and adds an element of security to a product category which has long been just a minor peripheral.

Let's you view, and speak with, anyone who presses your doorbell. ; Wide-angle video with night vision. ; Motion-detection feature sends video alerts when anyone steps to your door.

Bad lag times between doorbell presses and smartphone alerts. ; Slow app performance. ; No video-on-demand (yet).

My connection problems notwithstanding, I still give Ring a cautious thumbs-up. Every user will enter the Ring experience with a different connectivity situation—different home Wi-Fi dynamics; different smartphone variables—so others might experience...

Ring's audio quality is much better than Doorbot's, its 180-degree field of view lets you see a whole lot more and its motion detection zones work well.

I experienced occasional lag times and spotty video feeds.

Ring is a significant step up from Doorbot and its upcoming weather-sensing features show promise, but I'm still a little concerned about its ability to stream a consistently decent video.

Overall Ring is a pretty nifty gadget that really didn’t disappoint. Admittedly there are a few streaming issues here and there but my AT&T network has always been flaky, I drop WiFi on my devices a lot. Ring worked every time it was activated and the...