Whether you actually need 4K resolution on a security camera is debatable, unless you're making a wildlife documentary about the comings and goings in your back garden. The Spotlight Cam Battery sticks to 1080p HD video, even though some of its rivals have made the jump to 4K. All the motion detection events that the camera has captured are available to review too, if you've got a Ring Protect Plan (see below for more on this). When you're tuned into a live view of the camera, you can activate the two-way audio, turn on the lights, and sound the siren if you need to. All very easy to do: not as detailed as the custom motion zones available on some other cameras, but quicker to configure. Setting motion zones is refreshingly easy too: the camera's 140-degree field of view is split up into three 'chunks' that you can enable or disable as required, and there's a distance slider that lets you refine the motion zone further. Setting up the camera and accessing its various features is all very straightforward and should only take you a few minutes. On the software side, the Ring app is polished to a high standard, as you would expect considering the company has been in the video monitoring business for some time now. We noticed a drop of a couple of percentage points in a week, so that sounds about right overall.īudget smart home: Top budget smart security cameras Ring says the battery is good for between 6-12 months or 1,000 notification events. You can get the camera in either a black or white casing. We do like the two slots for two rechargeable batteries: you only need one battery, which is supplied with the camera, but if you decide to pay for another it means your camera can be using one battery while you're charging the other – they slide easily out of the bottom so you don't have to move the device every time. The mounting plate is sturdy and well built (you get screws and even a screwdriver included), but if you pick up the Cam Battery, the battery compartment feels a little flimsy. The Ring Spotlight Cam isn't the best-designed bit of hardware we've ever seen, but then you're not really going to be spending a lot of time looking at it. We should also note that these lights are slightly brighter on the Wired version of the camera, which boasts 375 lumens next to the Battery's 300 lumens. The lights can be turned on manually or when motion is detected, whereas the siren can only be activated manually. You've also got night vision capabilities here, and a loud 110-decibel siren, two-way audio, and – as the device's name suggests – two LED light strips that are bright enough to scare off trespassers without waking up the entire street with dazzling illuminations. What we can tell you is it survived a couple of nights of light rain with no adverse effects.ĪMBIENT VERDICT: Ring Video Doorbell 3 review While marketed as an outdoor camera, it's only listed as "weather resistant" which doesn't fill us with confidence about it being able to survive the great British winter. There's no option to tune into the live feed through a web browser though, like you can with Nest and Arlo devices, which is a bit of a shame. This being an Amazon product, you can of course use it with Alexa – basically to send the feed to an Echo Show or a Fire TV device.Ĭaptured motion events can be viewed through the phone app or by logging into the Ring portal on the web. This was the reason why I chose the wired device, where the setting options are about the same as for the doorbell pro.So, what can the Spotlight Cam actually do? Well, it will buzz your phone every time it detects motion, and lets you view a live feed at any time, which is pretty much table stakes for these cameras nowadays. With the Battery you cannot set your own motion zones and it only continues to record a limited fixed number of seconds after motion detection. at least that's what he claims, because I can't request this in any way on my account.Īnother point to note for potential buyers: the Ring spotlight Cam Battery has less adjustment options than the Wired. The employee was able to adjust this anyway. While I wanted one for each device for 30 euros. Apparently something was wrong, because according to the employee I had a subscription of 100 euros. The chat session with an employee hardly yielded anything. It seems as if you are requesting a new subscription each time. Normally you expect a list of your purchased products with the status of your subscription for each product + expiration date of each subscription. The website where you can (should) manage the subscription is a disaster. It recognizes the WiFi settings of the doorbell and simply takes over. Installation of spotlight cam was therefore a piece of cake. I already had the Ring doorbell pro for a good month.
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