Ring vs Nest Battle of the smart doorbells
The Hello has more advanced features, but Ring’s device is easier to use and costs less – it’s our pick of the two
Once the sole domain of the wealthy and paranoid, video doorbells are booming in popularity. It’s easy to understand why. They let you see and speak to whoever’s at the door without having to open it; they can monitor the outside of your house and alert you when motion is detected; and they allow you to be in when you’re out – especially useful if a courier turns up with a package unannounced.
Nest is the latest big name to join in the fun, with the Google-owned brand releasing the high-end Hello to take on the market-leading Ring Video Doorbell 2. Let battle commence. Ease of setup
Ring wins the ease of setup round hands down. Even a novice DIY-er with a screwdriver and a few minutes to spare should be able to get it up and running in less than half an hour – you don’t even have to own a screwdriver as one is included in the box.
That’s mainly because the Ring Video Doorbell 2 is powered by a removable and rechargeable lithiumion battery. All you need do is screw it onto your door frame, charge up the battery and screw the cover on. Next, it’s a simple matter of downloading the app to your smartphone, running through the setup routine and signing up for a Ring account so you can access and download clips once they’ve been recorded. The doorbell connects to your home Wi-Fi via 2.4GHz 802.11n.
The Hello, on the other hand, is mains-powered only. Installation is quite involved, so I’d recommend getting a electrician to put it in or stump up the £100 installation fee Nest itself charges.
There are definite advantages to Nest’s approach. Because it doesn’t have a battery built in, it’s more elegant than the Ring 2 and also looks much less like a security camera. There’s no battery to pull out and recharge every couple of months or so and, as part of the setup, it can be integrated with your existing door chime if you have one. Note that you can also integrate the Ring with your mains and an existing chime, but again you’ll need some electrical know-how. Video surveillance Which brings us to to the Chime Pro, Ring’s Wi-Fi extender unit that also acts as a chime. If you buy the Chime Pro as part of a bundle at time of purchase, the Ring’s price rises from £179 to £199 (the Chime Pro costs £50 separately). The Nest Hello might look similar at £229, but that rises to £329 with installation and doesn’t include the price of a chime. Overall, the Ring will probably cost around £130 less to get set up than the equivalent Nest product.
Also consider subscription costs for the companies’ online video storage facilities. Ring’s prices start at £25 per year, Nest’s at £30 per year. You’ll need to pay for this after the first month – otherwise, you can’t view clips after they’ve been recorded or download them for sharing with the police if you’ve been broken into.
The Nest Hello’s video resolution isn’t as high as the Ring Video Doorbell 2. It’s 1,600 x 1,200 (recorded on a 1/3in sensor), while the Ring 2 records 1,920 x 1,080 video. In most other respects, however, the Nest matches or betters its rival.
The first area of superiority is that the Nest records video 24/7, just like a regular security camera, and it saves that video direct to Nest’s servers. This means you can review any minute of the day, whereas the Ring 2 records clips only when it detects motion.
The level of subscription you buy determines how far back you can go in your video history. The cheapest £30-per-year subscription gives you access to continuous video recording five days into the past; the next level up is £40 per year for ten days; and if you want a full month (30 days), it’s an incredibly pricey £200 per year.
Ring’s subscriptions, conversely, are far more reasonable. You don’t get continuous video recording, but at £25 per year for 60 days of access to your recorded clips, it’s more flexible.
Hello’s clever features
It is possible to run a Nest Hello without one of these subscriptions. You’ll still get alerts on your phone when someone rings the doorbell and will still be able to carry out a conversation remotely via the doorbell’s speaker and microphone when you’re not in.
But if you do, you’ll miss out on many of the system’s cleverest features. The best of these is the Hello’s “familiar face alerts” feature, which works in a similar fashion to Nest’s Cam IQ security cameras. Whenever someone new comes to the door, the app asks you if you want to ignore or add that person to your list of familiar faces. Then, whenever that person comes to the door again, you get a personalised announcement via (if you have one) your Google Home or Home Mini speaker.
Frustratingly, this doesn’t work nearly so well on the app. Sometimes a face is labelled when someone you know arrives at the door, but mostly all you get is a notification that “someone” has rung the bell or that a “familiar face” has been spotted. You can filter by “familiar faces” to make it easier to track down when people are coming and going, but it would be nice to have the faces feature actually work properly via the app.
The ability to create timelapse movies of sections of saved video is another neat option, as is the closeups feature, which automatically zooms in on areas of action when something happens within the frame. These are still considerably less useful than knowing when your kids get home from school, however.
The Nest Hello doesn’t neglect the basics. Video quality is crisp and clear, as is the speaker and audio quality; HDR ensures the camera copes with tricky lighting conditions well; and infrared LEDs mean it can see in the dark.
It’s wonderful being able to converse with couriers and let them know where to leave a parcel but, if you don’t want to talk yourself, the Nest Hello also offers a list of canned responses you can use.
The one big caveat is that with continuous video recording, you’ll be using an awful lot of data on a day-to-day basis. In Low quality mode, this equates to 30GB per month; in Medium quality it’s 120GB per month; and in High quality it’s a mind-boggling 300GB per month.
You can record to a schedule or disable it automatically while you’re home, but that does somewhat negate its usefulness as a security device. Essentially, you need an uncapped data plan to make the most of the Nest Hello. If you don’t have one, this isn’t the product for you.
Ring fights back
How do the Ring Video Doorbell 2’s features compare? Rather poorly. In particular, it doesn’t have the face recognition or continuous video recording of the Nest Hello – it relies on a doorbell press or motion detection to trigger the notifications and video clip recording.
You can set it up so that it gives a pre-chime as a visitor approaches the door, giving you advance warning that someone is about to ring the bell. And it also works with Echo devices, meaning you can hear that someone is at the door wherever your Echo happens to be. Plus, if you own an Echo Show or Spot, you can see the view from the camera.
Frustratingly, though, you can’t talk through the Echo to your doorbell: you still need to use the app.
Nor is the motion detection perfect. In theory, you can set up motion “zones” so notifications don’t go off when you don’t want them to, but they’re imprecise. I would prefer to be able to draw a box on the screen to limit what triggers the pre-chime. Instead, Ring only allows you to reduce or increase the sensitivity and change the direction. But, just like the Nest Hello, Ring gets all the basics right with the Video Doorbell 2. Video quality is excellent: it records at 1080p so you’ll be able to clearly make out faces, it has infrared LEDs so it can see in the dark, and its fisheye lens gives you a 160-degree, wide-angle view so you’ll be able to capture video to the sides of the camera as well as directly in front. Audio comes through loud and clear.
If all you’re looking for are the key features of a video doorbell – being able to speak to couriers when you’re out, checking who’s ringing the bell – then it does the job perfectly.
Which to buy?
The Nest Hello is clearly a fantastic product. It works beautifully, and it’s more elegant and far cleverer than its main rival, the Ring 2 video doorbell. However, it still suffers from the same issues as the rest of the Nest cameras.
The first is that it’s expensive to buy and install – considerably more so than the Ring 2. The second is that the subscription is more expensive, at £40 per year for the cheapest plan. It’s also data-hungry.
All these factors mean that, while brilliant, the Nest Hello isn’t for everyone. It’s replete with clever and convenient features, and a step ahead of the Ring Video Doorbell 2 from that viewpoint. But features aren’t everything. Despite its foibles, the Ring’s ease of use and more reasonable price mean it’s the best video doorbell to buy right now.
SPECIFICATIONS
Nest: 1,600 x 1,200 video 160° field of view infrared 802.11n wireless Bluetooth 43 x 26 x 117mm (WDH) Limited warranty
Ring: 1,920 x 1,080 video 160° field of view infrared 802.11n wireless Bluetooth 64 x 27 x 128mm (WDH) 2yr warranty
“The Nest Hello doesn’t neglect the basics – video quality is crisp and clear, as is the speaker and audio quality”