WITH ANDY O’DONOGHUE See who’s at the door even if you’re away
Ring Video Doorbell 4 From €199 ★★★★★
Smart-home technology such as voiceactivated coloured lightbulbs or robot vacuums are often talking points when friends or family come round. They can also be fun but, at their core, they are usually designed for convenience or security.
The Ring Video Doorbell 4 is an excellent example of a gadget that upgrades home security and provides convenience whether you’re at home or away. This new version of the Ring doorbell looks a lot like its predecessor with a satin nickel faceplate and neat dimensions of 12.8cm by 6.2cm.
At under 3cm deep, it can affix to the wall at the front of your house without protruding.
In the box is the bell and a rechargeable battery pack which is designed to be quick-release. As well as that there’s a clever corner mount that lets you angle the bell as required and an assortment of tools and screws for fitting.
If you have a wired doorbell you can hardwire this Ring into those connections, but there’s also a plugin adapter that connects using a
I FITTED IT MYSELF AND HAD IT WORKING IN JUST 10 MINUTES
standard wall socket.
Why I was drawn to this model though, is the rechargeable battery pack. I was able to fit it myself, using the included mounting kit, attach the battery and have it working in about 10 minutes.
The bell unit is weather resistant, looks high-tech and yet remains nicely discreet when mounted on the wall. Over the Christmas, I noticed that Ring was selling seasonal faceplates and there are other versions if you’d like to customise the look.
Being a smart doorbell, there’s an app to be downloaded – the free Ring app. The doorbell joins your home wifi network and that’s how you get access to the video feed from the bell. It is equipped with dual-band wifi, 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, for connecting to your broadband router. Not all smarthome devices have this feature, so this is a notable plus for Ring.
Once connected to your network, the bell works seamlessly and sends real-time notifications to your phone when someone presses the bell or triggers the built-in motion sensors. When you answer the notification, you can see and hear the person at the door. If you’re not home but have your phone, you can see and speak to the visitor.
Perhaps it’s a neighbour with a cake or a delivery man with a package – you can see them and ask them to drop the package around the side of the house or put the cake in the porch. It’s also tightly integrated with Amazon’s Alexa, so your Alexa device will announce the caller and, if you have an Alexa with a screen or compatible TV, you can just say, ‘Alexa, show me the front door’, to see the live video feed.
This new model of the doorbell has an excellent feature called preroll. This means that four seconds of video before a motion event will be recorded, meaning you can see someone coming or an event before the bell is triggered.
Video quality is good with 1080p HD video and it also has night vision. The field of view is 160° horizontal but 84° vertical. This means you need to position it carefully or you might not see the faces of callers.
It is not a cheap doorbell and if you want to store videos of callers you miss, you will need a Ring subscription starting at €3 a month. However, it works incredibly well. Battery life is good, it’s tough and sturdy and fitting is a snap. The convenience of being upstairs, in the garden or even away and never missing a caller is wonderful – and worth the investment.