Today, Amazon-owned Ring is announcing its first new video doorbell in two years with the Battery Doorbell Plus. With a new head-to-toe HD+ resolution, motion detection and alerts, and more, the new Ring Battery Doorbell Plus enters with quite a few features… though a lot of those functions will only be available with a Ring Protect plan. Looking for more info on the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus? Keep reading to find out all we know and how to pre-order.
Ring launches new Battery Doorbell Plus
Let’s get the elephant out of the room first. A few days ago, Ring announced that many of the currently-free features of its security cameras and alarm systems would be locked behind a paywall with Ring Protect. Starting March 29, all new users of the Ring Alarm security system will have to pay for basic features such as arming/disarming the system, using Alexa, more. Those with video doorbells or cameras won’t have to be new users to lose features, and will lose access to home and away modes in the app, and linking the cameras to the alarm system will also incur a fee, too.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at what the new Battery Doorbell Plus from Ring has to offer. Finally bringing a square 1536p resolution to the table, this doorbell allows you to get a full head-to-toe view of your visitors, which also allows you to view packages on the porch. This is because you now have a better aspect ratio than the 16:9 all of the other battery-powered cameras use, which misses a lot on the floor even though it allows for better side-to-side viewing. This is a big bump in resolution too, bringing it up to par with the Pro 2 camera from Ring.
This doorbell is designed to replace the Video Doorbell 3 in the lineup as the company’s midrange battery-powered option, coming in with more features than the standard Video Doorbell and less than the Pro 2.
You’ll also get access to Advanced Motion Detection, Motion Zones, and People Only mode in the Ring app, though some of the functions could be locked behind the Protect paywall, so do keep that in mind. None of these features, however, are exclusive to the new Battery Doorbell Plus, and are available on other models currently.
The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus comes in at $179.99 and is available to pre-order starting today. Delivering are slated to begin April 5.
9to5Toys’ Take
The square aspect ratio is something missing from Ring’s more low-cost lineup and has only been available in the Pro 2 up until now. So, the fact that you can now use a lower-cost Ring doorbell camera to see the packages that are on your porch is really awesome.
It does make me a bit sad to see that Ring is locking previously-free features behind a paywall though. I personally subscribe to Ring Protect, but can understand the frustration that others who don’t subscribe have right now. Either way, you’ll likely be paying a monthly fee to use your Ring cameras from the end of the month onward.
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