Ring Video Doorbell – Venetian Bronze with Ring Chime (2020 release)

I had the original Ring Doorbell for about a year and really enjoyed it. It was cheap but lower quality video resolution. It was fine for the time I had it. When the same thing with improved video was being released, I jumped on it. I received it today and got it installed. The video quality is night and day as shown in the photos and much better than the 1st generation. Good work ring. Unfortunately, the installation and mounting sucks compared to the 1st generation. Why they did this, I have no clue but here are the issues.

1. The mounting plate on the first generation has connections for the wiring. This made it very easy to remove the device and charge, especially in the winter months where we live and the batteries lose charge. 2nd generation has a mounting plate and the wiring on the back of the unit, which was a pain especially when the existing wire is not very long. This will be a nightmare having to remove this and recharge compared to the 1st generation. I had no issues with the 1st generation. This is a failure for Ring in my opinion. I am debating about keeping my 1st generation instead of this now.

2. The mounting of the device to the frame also sucks. The 1st literally had no gaps and was secure in my opinion. It had guides that made the doorbell align to the mount. The 2nd generation does not and there are gaps all the way around and loose. I mounted it no differently than before, in fact the holes for 1st and 2nd generation are identical which is a plus, but again I see this mounting as a failure for Ring.

I literally just installed this, and outside of the perfect video, I can’t attest to motion and nightvision yet. I am disappointed in the execution of mounting the device. I have no idea why this changed this from the 1st generation but this was a bad move in my opinion. I still have no idea why these require a battery they never stay charged when connected to wiring, but I assume this unit will have the same issue for me as well come winter. They really need to rethink the whole battery idea and have a hardwired version and battery version or fix the way these thing function when power is applied. At this point I may deal with it and hope Ring fixes these mounting and wiring flaws. If this mounted the same way as the 1st generation, I would not be writing a review because I had no issues with the device other than the battery and that wasn’t enough for me to write a review. Excellent otherwise but seriously why did you change the way these mount?

***Update 6/6/2020***

So I decided to keep it primarily because I had already offered to sell my 1st generation to a neighbor, but I did end up having to make some changes. Ultimately I bought some spade terminals and soldered them to my doorbell wire with heat shrink tubing (Ring provided in older versions, but not this one for some reason). While it was easy for me, it won’t be for others. Overall I am still upset over this mounting as it is extremely poor execution when the previous version was perfect. I guess this is Rings way to get the price down to $99 by cutting corners. The doorbell it self seems quality but mounting just plain sucks. I have no other words for it. You can see my updated photos of what I did. There are two photos that show the camera quality difference. The low quality image is from a generation 1 ring and the better quality HD is from the generation 2 ring. Night vision appears to be decent and motion the jury is still out because of the People only filter. I am still trying to tweak it. I am still leaving only 3 stars because of the mounting issues and there is still a gap between the mounting plate and the doorbell. Maybe Ring will fix and send everyone a new mount, but that is wishful thinking.

This Doorbell Camera is Fantastic! I have had it set up and Working for over a Month and my battery has only used 25%, So the Battery life is Amazing! My Wifi is ok where I live but the camera hasn’t faulted once! The features are Amazing! The picture quality is perfect! Like a 4K HD Camera! The things you can do in the app or on ring.com made me subscribe. It lets you control the camera to what setting suits your House. The motion sensor is very fast, within 2 seconds I am notified if someone has triggered the Motion Sensor and it hasn’t missed one person. And being able to check the camera Live anytime is an excellent feature. I don’t have street lights where I live and the Camera on Night mode picks up everything clear as day! The 2 way Microphone is great and I have it set on 2 phones and it lets another person talk through it on my side of the Camera to the person outside with no complications, So 3 of us talk through it together perfectly! It even lets you turn the camera left and right and zoom in also. I recommend this Camera to anyone who is after a cheap way to keep an eye on your house anywhere you are and knowing the battery has the potential to last months, I rate it 10/10 even with having to pay a subscription which I’m Happy to Do after trying all the features in the trial period you get with subscribing at the start and honestly it’s not bad at $40 a Year or $4 a Month. One of the Best things I own!

The bell and video is OK and easy to physically install and connect to RING app. However though the echo dots announce when someone rings the bell (no need for indoor chime), no matter what I try, I can’t talk through the Alexa echo dot to the person at the door. We have to fire up the phone to talk through the RING app. Very frustrating. RING customer service admitted they didin’t know much about Alexa after I spent 40 minutes on the phone to them (yet they are all owned by Amazon!!)
I can live without being able to talk through Alexa but wasted spent hours fruitlessly trying to set it up something that is supposed to work easily.

I’m a mature female and this was easy to install and easy to download the app to my phone. Very simple to use the app that allows me to see my home/yard from anywhere and answer the door bell from anywhere as well. Clear pictures and video with a wide viewing range. Night photo and video are high quality as well. I liked it so much I bought two more units. Several of my coworkers liked it so much that they plan to order one for themselves.

Buyer beware! There is a subscription fee this device. And it is tiered based on the number of devices you have. I bought our first one without seeing the subscription fee. Bought the second one seeing that there is a subscription fee but thought the original subscription would cover the second door bell. IT DOES NOT. I pay 36 dollars a year for the first device and now will need to pay 100 dollars a year for two. We are going to sell these off and go with Nest or another door bell. Motion detector doesn’t work well and the night vision is not great. I do not recommend this door bell or service.