Ring Spotlight Cam Pro (battery) review – Ring raises the bar for DIY home security again

For the reason that first technology of video doorbells, Ring has continued to evolve and supply extra options to clients. One of many newest choices is the Ring Highlight Cam Professional (battery), which has a number of tips up its sleeve.

The title provides away one among them, being the highlight that permits not simply save entry and egress out of your property; but additionally makes it way more apparent to visitors — needed or not — that they’re on digital camera. There’s much more to it that we’ll delve into all through this evaluation.

What’s it?

The Ring Highlight Cam Professional (battery) is the most recent addition to Ring’s digital camera set. It’s a implausible possibility for open areas, entryways or excessive foot-traffic areas approaching your premises.

On the floor, the Ring Highlight Cam Professional (battery) seems to be very like the earlier technology of highlight cameras. It’s a 1080P HDR digital camera with a few motion-activated LED spotlights, a superb high quality speaker that operates for both two-way speak or as a siren, and it helps dual-band Wi-Fi; Thanks, Ring!!

There’s an choice to run a USB-C charger (hardwired or photo voltaic panel) into the again of the machine to keep away from altering and charging batteries. Though, I’ve discovered that the twin battery design and easy change of batteries imply the necessity for altering batteries is uncommon and the method takes moments.

Professional Tip: When you’ve bought a number of battery-powered Ring cameras, getting a few spare batteries and a charging station is well worth the funding!

What’s within the field?

All of the fundamentals are right here, however customers who’ve put in Ring cameras will word one absence; the drill bit. In honesty, it was adequate to put in one, perhaps two cameras — ie. 4 mounting holes — and that’s about it. When you’ve put in one earlier than, you’ll nonetheless have the appropriate measurement bit. In any other case, a fast journey to Bunnings will do you effectively.

In fact, you’ll get the digital camera, battery, mount (together with wall plugs and screws), some paperwork and a sticker to inform anybody shut sufficient to learn the sticker that Ring cameras defend your own home.

Setup, app and day by day use

We’ve lined the setup course of for Ring units in a number of earlier evaluations. Little or no has modified, and the preliminary steps to attach the digital camera to your community, whether or not a primary digital camera or including it to an current system, are fast and straightforward. The app guides you thru the method in easy language with pictures to help customers who could not have high-level studying expertise.

As cameras and their options have superior, the setup has develop into extra concerned for customers. A lot of this, just like the connection to your Wi-Fi, is walked via as a part of the setup course of. These options on the Highlight Cam Professional (battery) embrace:

• Movement Zones: You may customise the world your digital camera “checks” for motion, recording occasions and alerting you to the motions.
• Chook’s Eye Zones: That is an attention-grabbing addition that lets you create movement detection zones that alert primarily based on distance from the digital camera, not the two-dimensional view the digital camera creates.
• Movement Schedules: Configurable to keep away from getting movement notifications at high-traffic instances of the day.

The app is your management centre for all the options listed above, in addition to configuring the notifications you need for every digital camera you’ve. I’ve discovered that the notifications for the Highlight Cam Professional (battery) are delivered inside a number of seconds of the movement zone being breached.

Whereas Ring isn’t the most cost effective possibility, I’ve discovered that when they’re arrange: Ring cameras don’t have to be touched once more, save for the battery modifications.

Whether or not you arrange all the options or skip over a number of, the video high quality you’ll get to your units is great. The color is vibrant; at 1080P HDR, you’ll get clear video high quality and the microphone delivers crisp audio. With the digital camera connected to the Ring Chime Professional, I’ve had zero points with dropouts, and — with 40Mbps add on my Web — I can stream easily to my cellphone wherever I’m on this planet.

Alexa Integration: It simply works

It’s been a few years since I overcame my aversion to Alexa (born of poor expertise within the early levels of Alexa’s existence), and I’ve steadily accrued extra units. With my Ring account already linked to Alexa, the brand new digital camera was routinely related and was obtainable nearly immediately for viewing on my Echo Present screens.

Must you purchase one?

You’ll purchase a Ring Highlight Cam Professional (battery) to your house or enterprise for a lot of causes. Begin with current Ring {hardware} round your own home, as a result of it is sensible to stay with a single ecosystem, notably in case you’re paying for subscription providers.

Some options are seemingly overkill for some places, the place one thing just like the Ring Highlight Cam Plus (battery) and even the final technology of Highlight Wi-fi Safety Digital camera will do the job for you. Primarily the Chook’s Eye View makes this mannequin very helpful in main entry or yard areas.

For the Highlight Cam Professional (battery) to be in your purchasing record, you should be comfy with quick downtime when you cost or change (in case you purchase spares) batteries. You’ll have to be comfy with this price, and for this to hit the mark; it’s going to in all probability not be your solely digital camera.

Most likely the one detractor for some consumers is the shortage of native storage for recording. If you would like native recording, you’ll want to research your choices a bit additional and perceive that — notably with a Community Video Recorder — setup is considerably extra concerned and dear than the time taken to put in a battery-powered, Wi-Fi related digital camera.

In the end it is a actually versatile digital camera, among the finest and most feature-packed that I’ve used to this point. With the options on supply, the Ring Highlight Cam Professional (battery) can add some spectacular visibility to your own home. When you’re eager on grabbing one, the standard retail channels, plus the Ring web site, are your go-to channels for $329.00 or to take a look at the opposite digital camera and accent choices from Ring.