Ringer of power

A rechargeable battery means you can fit this smart doorbell without having to mess about with wires

Q Smart doorbells let you see and talk to visitors on your smartphone, whether you’re in the shed… or in Papua New Guinea. The Ring Video Doorbell 2 has one big claim over most of its rivals, though: it has a rechargeable battery, so there’s no need to hardwire it into your wall.

Q Once the battery is charged (it’s good for six months), you just screw your Ring into the wall and connect it to the Wi-fi. Hooking it up with your existing doorbell wires is a more complex option, but the app has walkthrough videos to help you out.

Q The Video Doorbell 2 will call you up when someone presses the buzzer, giving you the option of talking to your visitors (“I’m sure I told you I was going to Papua New Guinea”) – and thanks to motion detection, it can be set up to notify you if it spots anyone skulking outside your front door.

Q Video is recorded at 1080p HD. Sadly, even in a house with good fibre broadband, we found the signal and overall responsiveness to be patchy. The feed would sometimes degrade into a blocky mess, or simply be too slow to let us see who’d pressed the button.

Q After your trial ends, you have to pay a monthly fee to store videos or rewatch clips of missed visitors. Compared to other security cam subscriptions, this is a reasonable £25 a year, but it’s still a shame there’s no free basic plan.

Tech specs

Video resolution 1080p @ 15fps Features Two-way audio, motion detection, night vision Field of view 160º Connectivity Wi-fi Dimensions 128x64x27mm