Ring Door View Camera Introduction

Smart doorbells have been around for nearly a decade, with lots of brands entering the market offering various features and at different price points.  And Ring is no stranger to launching smart devices. And the firm is back with their fifth video doorbell.

The latest gadget, called the Ring Door View Cam, offers a simple solution to monitoring the front of your home. 

At CES 2019, Ring founder Jamie Siminoff said: "As we continue on our mission of reducing crime in neighborhoods, we want everyone with a front door to have the ability to protect their property and prevent crime from neighborhoods taking place. We’ve heard from countless customers over the years who want to secure their front door with a Ring Doorbell but are not able to install one of our existing doorbells. With the addition of Door View Cam, we are unlocking peace of mind for every customer."

Announced back in January, the Ring Door View Cam is now available in the market for a little under $200.  Designed to fit into an existing peephole, the Ring Door View Cam is designed to be the easiest doorbell to install and doesn’t require any screws, perfect for people on a lease. This is the door camera everyone with an apartment needs! 

So what exactly is the Ring Door View Cam? 

Quite simply, it's a wireless video doorbell designed to transform an existing, traditional peephole into a smart security device. It's easily installed in place of the existing, compatible peephole, and does not require drilling or permanent modifications to your home or door. This means you're free to enhance your home security, without getting on the wrong side of your landlord or spending out on installation.

Here’s what potential buyers need to know and how to get started.

Ring Door View Cam Installation

Perhaps the best part of the Ring Door View Cam is the easy installation. Mainly because you don’t have to drill any holes, mess with wires, or do anything technical. Anyone can quickly add security to their door in just a few minutes- you simply remove the existing peephole, install the Door View Cam in its place on each side of the door, pop in the rechargeable battery and the removable cover, and then download the app. Then you are done, you have transformed your old peephole into a smart security camera that you can connect to from your smartphone. It’s really that easy.

Ring Door View Cam Features

If there’s one issue with battery-powered doorbells, it’s that they're usually quite bulky due to the large batteries needed to ensure continued service. As the Ring Door View Cam fits into your existing peephole, it solves this problem, with a slimmer (20mm) exterior component, and the battery tucked away on the inside of your door. 

Similarly, since the battery is the same battery as other Ring devices,  if you are already a Ring cam user or are thinking about becoming one, things just got even easier as you can use  Ring rechargeable batteries to minimize no service time if you have a Ring charging station.

Other exciting features include 1080p HD video stream, real-time notifications when someone rings the bell, and its new “knock detection” so you know when someone knocks instead of ringing the doorbell.

Last but not least there is Smart Alerts. With Smart Alerts,  you get additional control over recordings, although you’ll need a Ring Protect Plan for some features. Smart Alerts lets you set motion detection zones and motion,  motion verification, motion stop, and person detection. Let’s talk about these features a bit more:

• Adjustable Motion Detection – It’s motion sensitivity can be adjusted to fine-tune motion alerts, conserve battery life, and customize motion zones.

• Motion Verification – Get alerts on your phone, tablet, and PC when anyone knocks on your door, presses the doorbell button, or triggers the motion sensors.  Door View Cam rules out false alerts so users can see more accurate and relevant activity.

•  Motion Stop –Adjustable Motion Detection lets you easily adjust the built-in motion sensors to focus on and detect what’s important to you.  Door View Cam stops recording if motion is deemed unimportant, prolonging battery life.

• Person Detection – Door View Cam will identify and label the type of motion detected and give users the option to ignore motion events they don’t want to see.

• Alexa Support – let Alexa notify you when someone is at your door and see, hear, and talk to visitors with select Echo devices. Those who own an Echo speaker will find Alexa compatibility built into the Ring which allows users to ask compatible Alexa-enabled devices to “show me my front door,” and be alerted when motion is detected. 

Ring Protect Plan Pricing

Unfortunately, watching who’s at your door and recording everything will cost you more than a few bucks. However, the essential feature is free.

You get motion alerts and can interact with people at your door using the live view and 2-way talk with the free plan. You’ll need to pick the Ring Protect Plus plan to unlock video recording and the ability to review videos later and save them. The Ring Protect Plan is $3 a month or $30 annually. If you need or use multiple cameras at the same address, the Protect Plus Plan is a better option.

What are the differences with the previous Ring Doorbell?  

In some instances, the Ring Video Doorbell 2 can be viewed on TV. In truth, the Door View Cam is similar to the Ring Video Doorbell 2 and Video Doorbell Pro in many ways. It has a camera that sends notifications to your phone whenever someone presses the built-in doorbell, knocks on the door, or triggers its motion sensors.  

One important difference between the two is in video quality. The earlier models output a 720p video image while the second-generation doorbells provide 1080p. There have been some other improvements in video processing because the picture quality from the newer doorbell is significantly better. All this helps to explain the price difference.

Another difference is that the Ring Video Doorbell 2 requires drilling and doesn't have some of the peephole-specific features. Ring Video Doorbell Pro, on the other hand, is still superior with support for 5.0GHz Wi-Fi in addition to 2.4GHz, offering cleaner high-bandwidth video. But it costs higher and it's one of Ring's hardwired-only configurations. So it's more complicated to install than the Door View Cam.

In a market that was once entirely Ring’s, there’s now heated competition such as Arlo Audio Doorbell and the soon-to-be-released Arlo Video Doorbell. Despite all the competition, the Ring Door View Cam has its advantages. If you have a peephole and can’t install a traditional smart doorbell, especially if you are only a tenant on a lease, then this is the best doorbell for you. It’s ease of installation and has a powerful app and features. We’ve not seen another peephole doorbell that works as well as this model yet. Stay tuned for more.