Ring’s new Video Doorbell is its first with both a proper aspect ratio and battery

A lot has changed since the first Ring video doorbell was released nearly a decade ago but one thing that has become clear is that standard widescreen 16:9 cameras aren’t nearly as useful as those with a greater vertical field of view. That’s why the newly announced Ring Battery Doorbell Plus for $179.99 comes with a much more practical 1:1 aspect ratio, making it Ring’s first head-to-toe battery-powered video doorbell.

The square 1:1 aspect ratio of the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus gives it a 150-degree horizontal field of view and, more importantly, the same 150-degree field of view vertically. This allows you to see your entire front porch area, including any packages that may be waiting for you. The new doorbell camera uses a 1536p HD video resolution, making it the same as Ring’s much more expensive $250 Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2. The new Ring Battery Doorbell Plus will be replacing the $200 Ring Video Doorbell 3 in Amazon’s lineup.

While most people will likely just rely on the quick-release rechargeable battery pack to power this new doorbell, it can be hardwired to existing 8-24V AC doorbell systems to trickle charge the battery. Doing so comes with the advantage of also ringing your existing doorbell chime when the video doorbell button is pressed. The doorbell is also compatible with Ring’s solar panel kit if you wanted to go that route to keep the battery topped off.

The new Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is available to pre-order now for $179.99 and will be released on April 5th. If you don’t want to rely on the built-in chime and/or don’t have an existing doorbell chime to wire it into, you can also get it bundled with the separate Ring Chime Pro for $239.98. As the first new doorbell from Ring in two years, it strikes a nice balance of having the improved resolution and aspect ratio of Ring’s more expensive doorbells with the simplicity and convenience of battery power.

19 comments
  1. Mark says:

    LOL…Seems to me they need to work on the connection speed before being worried about being able to see what type of footwear is being worn. I mean, seriously. I am fully entrenched in the Amazon eco-system all the way to the TV’s I watch. Wired Ring doorbell, not 20 feet from the router location, and line of sight damn near as it can be, 6A network cabling, and still, by the time the TV or phone app notifies you (which seems fast) and actually connects with video, the guy/gal is back in their vehicle and going down my driveway…and that’s when it is fast! When it is slow it just spins the circle of eternity for 3 minutes before giving up. It really is a PITA. But that’s the improvement needed, not head to toe video in my opinion. /Rant over…

    • MH says:

      I install for a living and you have a network problem. Notifications from the doorbell are instant if setup correctly with a proper mesh network and enough bandwidth.

      • Mike says:

        Doesn’t Ring also use cloud services? I’ve never seen ANY cloud services provide instant notification, even when using a fully hardwired installation.

        • Kary says:

          Amazon Echo is very fast and mainly cloud. My Sensibo units (A/C controls) are entirely cloud and very fast. But yes a delay n the cloud service could delay response.

          • Mike says:

            I wish mine was fast, but maybe it’s just my lack of patience…

            I’ve got IOT devices (‘assistants’, lights, switches & cameras) from Amazon, Philips, Sengled, Kasa/TP-Link, GE and Wyze at 3 different locations. Two in the ‘burbs and one rural.

            I use Amazon & Google devices and mobile apps. My ISP services (WOW and Xfinity) are consistently 20Mbps up (WOW) or 50Mbps up (Xfinity) and 200Mbps down on both, measured with Netflix Fast and Speedtest, but there is always a 2 to 3 second delay, or longer. Some of Amazon’s Blink service has up to a 15 second delay sometimes – but usually only when it’s important ;)

            My ‘place in the woods’ has AT&T ADSL with 250Kbps up and about 4Mbps down and the delay is almost exactly the same and it uses just WiFi for everything.

      • Roger says:

        Wrong! Mine is connected and configured correct and internet connection speed test on the device is showing 400+Mbps download and the same upload and it slow as hell

    • Roger says:

      The image is like a phone from the early 90’s camera is crappy it should at least be 2mp and they should use starlight technology! For the prices they’re asking

  2. Hank Gallo says:

    Ring Support had suggested to me to set up two or more zones and to turn off smart alerts, which delay notifications.

    • Mike says:

      That’s what I heard, too. So we can choose to know about it after the fact or we can see what happens after the event. They’ve got a few bugs left to work on, I think. :O

  3. Nick says:

    I was happy to pay top dollar for a quality POE video doorbell. I known not everyone has the technical knowhow to use them, but it really was the best way to go. I do like that this new one can be powered and recharged by a traditional doorbell electrical line. That might make not using POE the way, but I still loved having it hardwired to my network over dealing with having to get a decent wifi to the outside of my house all the time.

    • Mark says:

      Still need wifi outside of your house for it to work.

      • Zeric says:

        POE means power over “Ethernet”, Wifi isn’t involved or required.

        Ethernet is a requirement for serious video security with the current Wifi technology available. If someone just has a couple of cameras and not too much neighboring interference, wifi may be satisfactory. I have over 10 cameras, all with hardwired network connections. Combined they generate far more traffic tham Wifi could handle as most cameras are 2Ghz only. As Wifi improves (6E) and cameras support 6E-6Ghz, Wifi may be a viable option for serious video security.

  4. Kary says:

    I’ve always preferred smart cameras, like the Ring Stick Up Cam to doorbell cameras, because you can aim them better, and also put them in better locations. I don’t consider this 1:1 camera an advancement as much as an admission that doorbell cams suck.

  5. tom42 says:

    If you don’t mind Ring giving all your video to the police without a warrant, it’s a great product

    https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/ring-reveals-they-give-videos-police-without-user-consent-or-warrant

    • Kary says:

      Yeah, shame on them for complying with the law! (Something your article doesn’t mention.)

      https://www.cnet.com/home/security/ring-google-and-the-police-what-to-know-about-emergency-requests-for-video-footage

      But the concern is legitimate. That and the chance of hacking is why I would never have a cloud based security camera placed inside the house, while I am home.

      And BTW, in Washington State recording audio is illegal absent express consent. For a time Ring didn’t offer the option to turn off audio recording, even after Ring was bought out by Amazon, a Washington Corporation. That was more worrisome.

      • tom42 says:

        Just what do you think WITHOUT A WARRANT means?

        If they had a warrant, and then turned over the footage, that would be complying with the law!

        • Kary says:

          Apparently you didn’t read the article I linked. Go back and read and pay attention to what the Electronic Communications Privacy Act allows–turnover with no subpoena.

          Whether that’s constitutional or not is another matter, but that would be a decision for a court, not Ring or Nest, etc.

          • David Fleetwood says:

            The issue here is that Ring is not obligated to comply with such requests absent a warrant. They choose to, which is their right, but is also why the EFF and others are saying it’s a poor choice.

            Nobody is accusing Ring of something illegal, they are pointing out that they hand over footage to governments and police departments without a warrant or any other legal process. So if that matters to you, do not use Ring. If it does not matter to you, you probably need to spend some time researching why that is important.

  6. Anthony rossetti says:

    Who cares their ecosystem is turning to garbage just like Google’s.
    Fire TV is garbage now, everything is broken or has stopped working or has been made useless through
    “updates”.

    First of all the automatic equipment control stopped working months ago on all my sticks, the ones on old FW and the ones on latest FW, quite a feat indeed that that they can just break this feature remotely without even a FW update.
    before I could request a camera feed with the TV off or on a different input and the TV would switch on through CEC or switch to the fire TV input, but now I get nothing and have to switch the TV on manually and switch the input manually.

    The camera viewer is just useless now if you are on the latest FW because of the stupid “minimize to PIP” button that does not auto hide ever and has no option to manually hide it.
    just what I want burned into my new $2000 OLED, a big white circle at the bottom center of my screen.

    That is of course if you can get the camera feed to come up at all now, for the past month If I ask a linked echo device to show the camera I just get “cameras are not supported on this device”
    I did all troubleshooting and nothing will fix any of these issues.
    This happen on all 3 of my fire sticks all of my linked echo devices now regardless of FW
    Alexa and fire TV is almost as big of a trash fire as Garbage Assisant chrome cast now.
    What is Amazon hiring all the recently laid off Google rejects now or something?

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