I recently installed a new Ring home security camera, which was a surprisingly fun experience – even hilarious at times. This is because it gave me a free 30-day trial of the Ring Pro plan with my purchase, and Ring Pro now features AI video descriptions for each camera you have installed.

These descriptions are usually just a sentence. It is invariably an American-sounding sentence, even for me, based in the UK. I was told "A person is walking on the sidewalk with a tumbler'. We call the sidewalk the 'pavement' here in Britain. How very quaint!

However, the AI description feature is useful, especially as it connects to phone and watch alerts, so I've been trying it.

It also, on occasion, gets the descriptions wrong. I noticed it happened especially on the camera by my front door, which has to identify action outside the house – perhaps because it tends to happen faster and be more varied?

All the Ring cameras are half-price on Amazon Prime Day

When I watched the clip of the person on the sidewalk, allegedly with the tumbler, they were in fact pushing a stroller. I zoomed in to see if they were holding a glass tumbler, but they were not.

Confused, I asked Google, 'can a stroller be called a tumbler in American English?' to be informed that, as I thought, a tumbler 'primarily refers to a drinking glass with a flat bottom and no handle or stem' - and that the only alternative noun referred to either a lock or a type of domestic pigeon. The person did not have a pigeon on their head, domestic or not. Indeed, I would imagine this could be an impediment to safely pushing a baby carriage.

Weirdly, further down it did say 'a person is walking on the sidewalk with a baby stroller' but the clip was of a bored-looking man trudging past looking at his phone! So perhaps the captions were out of sync?

They were also a bit stilted-sounding. Instead of saying 'a person is walking up the stairs', the description said 'a person is ascending the steps in the house'. Not technically incorrect, but unnecessarily formal. I don't have enough friends, so want to feel that the robot is my friend!

The pièce de résistance when it came to hilarity took place when my gorgeous husband and I were in bed, erm, doing what newlyweds do. The AI was incredibly coy about this! The bluntest it got was 'Two people are kissing on the bed.' Needless to say, we were doing a LOT more than that! It also amused me that, during the action, it described us as 'A person moving near another person on the bed'. Near?! Pretty much as near as you can get...

I do wonder if, at some stage, the AI will move from saying 'a person' to identifying the person's gender, but I guess this could be a minefield. 'A person' is probably safest. It would also be interesting to know if it could estimate the age of a person, but I guess this is all much further down the line.

Ring Pro costs £15.99 a month or £159.99 a year. I currently have Ring Multi, the lower-priced tier for more than one device, which only costs half as much.

The descriptions were entertaining though, so I wouldn't rule out upgrading for good. Maybe when the AI can correctly identify expressions of love?

Amazon’s gone all in this year, especially on security gear from Blink and Ring - brands it owns and has discounted heavily for Prime Day.

From smart doorbells to weatherproof outdoor cams and complete home setups, the offers are the best I’ve seen in a long time. Whether you need to keep an eye on deliveries, monitor your property remotely, or just want a little extra peace of mind, this is the moment to make it happen without breaking the bank.

• See all of today's best Amazon camera deal
• See all of today's best security camera deals

I’ve gone through all the noise to flag only the deals that are genuinely worth it - no filler, no fluff. But stock is already thinning out fast, and come midnight, it all ends. You won’t get another shot at prices like this for a while.

So if security is on your mind, don’t hang about. These are the best Prime Day security camera deals, but they won't be there for long! Check your basket, hit checkout, and lock in the savings while you still can.

🇺🇸 Best security camera deals in US

🇬🇧 Best security camera deals in UK

Check out our guides to the best outdoor security cameras and the best lightbulb security cameras

If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your home security without draining your wallet, this one is well worth your attention. The Ring Battery Video Doorbell (2024 release) has just dropped to £59 at Wowcher, down from its usual £99 asking price. That’s a straight 40% saving — and in today’s world of rising costs, that feels like a proper win.

The latest 2024 version of the Ring Battery Video Doorbell refines what made the original such a runaway success. You’re getting crisp HD video, improved motion detection, and two-way talk, meaning you can see, hear, and speak to whoever’s at your door whether you’re upstairs, at work, or halfway across the country. For £59, that’s serious peace of mind at a seriously sensible price.

What I like about this model is the flexibility. Being battery-powered means no complicated wiring jobs or electrician call-outs. You can install it yourself in minutes and have it connected to your Wi-Fi and smartphone almost instantly. For renters or anyone who doesn’t want to start drilling into brickwork for mains power, that’s a huge plus.

It’s also more than just a doorbell. With real-time alerts sent straight to your phone, you’ll know the moment a package lands on your doorstep or someone approaches your front door. Pair it with Alexa-enabled devices, and you can even get announcements inside your home. It’s smart home security made simple — and affordable.

At £99, it’s a solid buy. At £59, it’s hard to ignore. A £40 saving on a device that actively protects your home, keeps an eye on deliveries, and lets you answer the door from anywhere? That’s the kind of practical tech deal that actually makes sense.

If you’ve been on the fence about adding a video doorbell to your setup, this might be the nudge you needed. Forty percent off a 2024 model from a trusted brand doesn’t come around every day — and at £59, it feels like one of those “buy now, thank yourself later” purchases.

Amazon’s popular smart doorbell brand, Ring, has rebutted claims that video footage from Ring doorbells and security cameras is being accessed by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, more commonly known as ICE.

Accusations stemmed from Ring’s relationship with the security hardware and software company, Flock Safety. It was announced in October that the companies would be partnering to deliver a new Ring feature called ‘Community Requests’. This enables neighbors (if they choose) to share video footage with local public safety agencies, securely and privately.

However, it’s been reported by Gadget Review that the controversial federal law enforcement agency can access said footage via federal data networks.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean that all your Ring footage ends up in a federal database; you actually have to volunteer the footage first. But the Gadget Review article doesn’t pull any punches, stating: “This isn’t speculation – it’s documented infrastructure.”

Stuff has reported that the Flock Safety and Ring partnership, although announced, is not yet live, while citing a quote via The Verge from Amazon PR Yassi Yarger, who said: “Ring has no partnership with ICE, does not give ICE videos, feeds, or back-end access, and does not share video with them”.

As the same article points out, though, it’s what happens to the footage once it’s out of Ring’s hands that has sparked the controversy. However, if you’re a Ring user with any concerns, you can simply turn off the ‘Community Requests’ feature within the app.

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If you want an alternative to the best Ring cameras, check out the best outdoor security cameras and our Eufy Video Doorbell E340 with Chime review.

As you're undoubtedly aware, the Amazon Ring is a doorbell that houses a camera, speaker, and microphone, and its primary purpose is to enable you to see who is at the door before you answer it. Not only does it give you a heads-up of who is calling by streaming video to your phone or Alexa device, but it allows you to have a conversation with the caller, which is invaluable if you happen to be on the toilet "I'll be there in a minute!", or you wish to avoid the door-to-door salesperson or Jehovah's Witness "Sorry, I'm not in right now!", or, as you don't even need to be in the house to answer, for directing couriers where to leave the parcel.

• Don't miss today's best Black Friday camera deals

That may be a good enough reason on its own to invest in a Ring Doorbell, particularly as during the Black Friday sales, it's less than half price, dropping from £99.99 to just £39.99, but I'm going to give you a better one (it's directly below my roundup of the best Ring doorbell deals, but you can skip to the yarn by scrolling to the bottom). It hinges on the fact that not only do you not need to be in the house to answer the caller, or even in the same country, but every member of the household can be alerted when someone rings the doorbell.

Anyway, earlier this year, my 19-year-old son went traveling. It's something of a rite of passage for the kids in my neighborhood as they make their way to adulthood. Taking a gap year after finishing college, he'd worked hard in local restaurants to get enough cash together for a trip through Southeast Asia, to take some time to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life. Off he set to Bangkok with a bunch of his mates, and I was keen to hear about his adventures. But being a typical teen, his updates were brief, to say the least.

"How are you finding Thailand? I can't wait to hear what you've been up to!" I'd message. "Yeah, good," would come the WhatsApp response half a day later.

And so it went in the weeks that followed. "What are you doing today?" I'd ask. "In Cambodia" would be the two-word reply. "Oh wow! Have you been to the Angkor Wat temples? I'd love to see them, they're a photographer's dream!" I'd persevere. "Yeah, it's good," was as good as I was going to get.

Then, one day, I went to visit a friend. I rang his doorbell. His Ring doorbell…

"Dad!" the doorbell exclaimed. I was confused. My son went on to explain that he was in Vietnam and had met up with my friend's daughter when the Ring alert was triggered on her phone. The two are around the same age and have known each other since they were in nappies, and she was also on a gap year and on her own Asian adventure.

It was a little disconcerting, talking to a doorbell; he could see me, but I couldn't see him. But we had a good chat for half an hour about his travels, and I learnt a lot more about the sights he'd seen and scrapes he'd got into than I had in the previous two months of messaging.

And that is why I'm buying a Ring Doorbell in the Black Friday sales!

With Black Friday approaching fast, Ring doorbells and security cameras are always available for massively tempting bargain prices – half price or even better. That's pretty exciting, and can take the price of the tech down to the point anyone is prepared to experiment with it. My word of warning – and I say this from a house with Ring cameras – is that you do need to be prepared to commit, heart, soul, and wallet, to that experiment. Because, honestly, their best features only really work with the subscription...

The necessity of a subscription might not come as news to everyone. This is also a point in time to upgrade your Ring devices.

Many will be perfectly happy paying their subs for the security, but now feel that a higher resolution camera is a good idea and, frankly, that's fair enough. The cameras have advanced a good way since day and – although I'm sure very few people are used to upgrading their doorbell as regularly as phones or even cameras – this is a developing tech and there is something to be said for staying ahead of things, especially at points where the costs are lower.

But if you're not interested in paying a monthly subscription, the relative resolution of your camera – or any of the other benefits of the newer models especially, many of which are dependent on the cloud services that come with the subscription – will be a serious waste of money.

Remember the idea of checking what happened in your home when you're out of the house? That's a cloud service. You won't be able to do that unless you watch it live. That'll drive you mad. Nor can you download or share the footage, or capture snapshots that build up a stop-motion view of the day.

Motion alerts? Yes – you'll get told when the cameras see some motion, but you won't get any distinction between people and animals, so you'll just have to turn the alerts off if you have pets because the alerts will come so thick and fast they'll be useless.

Anyway, the answer is this – if you have one Ring doorbell camera, you'll need to spend £4.99 a month in the UK. You get one month free, so 13 months before the money you've saved in this deal is spent. It's $4.99/month in the USA.

You can also get a discount ($49.99 / £49.99) for buying a year at once, so that's potentially 15 months.

I'll leave you to decide whether it's worth it, but personally I've got two pieces of information – I find the features useful, but I'd also say that, ordinarily, I probably would not change my doorbell as frequently as every 15 months.

Never easy, is it?

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Check our guide to indoor security cameras.

I'll be honest: when I saw the announcement about Ring's new 4K cameras with "Retinal Vision", my tech reporter brain went straight to the specs. Ten times zoom. Low-light performance. Adaptive night vision. Impressive kit, no question.

But here's what bothered me: nowhere in all that marketing speak about "neighborhood safety" did anyone ask whether we actually need to see our neighbors' faces in 4K as they walk past our house.

I remember when video doorbells first arrived. The pitch was simple: see who's at your door when you're not home. Check if that parcel's been delivered. That's protecting your doorstep, which is what they promised. Yet somewhere along the way, we've shifted from "doorstep" to "entire street".

Beyond the boundary

It reminds me of how, back in the 2010s, parents bought cellphones for their kids 'in case of emergencies'. Fast-forward to 2025 and we're wringing our hands about screen addiction, social media anxiety and whether we've accidentally raised a generation that can't look up from their devices. The road to hell, as they say, is paved with sensible-sounding safety precautions.

Consider this: Ring's new cameras can zoom in ten times and capture clear color footage in near-darkness. Their AI identifies whether someone's carrying a package, walking a dog or "peering into" a car. The Floodlight Cam Pro covers "larger outdoor areas like the driveway, back garden or property boundary".

Property boundary. Interesting phrase. Because boundaries work both ways. They mark where your property ends and someone else's begins.

These boundaries are now being sidestepped by, for example, Ring's Search Party feature, which uses AI to scan neighbourhood cameras for lost pets. It's wrapped in heartwarming language about reuniting families with their animals. But think about what this actually means.

Ring is openly advertising a system where cameras throughout your neighborhood continuously analyze everything that moves past them, building a searchable database of life happening outside people's homes. Today it's looking for your spaniel. Tomorrow it could be looking for anything. Anyone.

Everything, everywhere

Of course, as a writer for Digital Camera World, I'm fully aware that cameras in public spaces aren't inherently sinister. But there's a profound difference between a photographer making a conscious decision to document a scene and an automated network of AI-powered cameras watching everything, all the time.

Ring insists that it doesn't share footage with police without a subpoena, but it provides law enforcement with a dashboard to request footage by location and time. It has built the infrastructure for distributed surveillance.

George Orwell imagined Big Brother as the state watching you. Ring's version is more insidious: it's your neighbors doing the watching, voluntarily, encouraged by slick marketing and the occasional package theft video.

When your doorbell can identify and track people in 4K from the other side of the street, when AI catalogs everyone who passes your house, when the same footage is available to police on request, that's not a doorbell. That's a surveillance apparatus that happens to have a doorbell button.

At what point did "seeing who's at the door" become "seeing everything, everywhere, all the time"? And is that really the neighborhood we want to live in?

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If Tom hasn't scared you off, take a look at the best doorbell cameras and the best Ring cameras.

As you're undoubtedly aware, the Amazon Ring is a doorbell that houses a camera, speaker, and microphone, and its primary purpose is to enable you to see who is at the door before you answer it. Not only does it give you a heads-up of who is calling by streaming video to your phone, but it allows you to have a conversation with the caller, which is invaluable if you happen to be on the toilet "I'll be there in a minute!", or you wish to avoid the door-to-door salesperson or Jehovah's Witness "Sorry, I'm not in right now!", or, as you don't even need to be in the house to answer, directing couriers where to leave the parcel.

• Don't miss today's best Amazon Prime camera deals

That may be a good enough reason on its own to invest in a Ring Doorbell, particularly as during the Prime Day sales, it's less than half price, dropping from £99.99 to just £39.99, but I'm going to give you a better one (it's directly below my roundup of the best Ring doorbell deals, but you can skip to the yarn by scrolling to the bottom). It hinges on the fact that not only do you not need to be in the house to answer the caller, or even in the same country, but every member of the household can be alerted when someone rings the doorbell.

So, earlier this year, my 19-year-old son went traveling. It's something of a rite of passage for the kids in my neighborhood as they make their way to adulthood. Taking a gap year after finishing college, he'd worked hard in local restaurants to get enough cash together for a trip through Southeast Asia, to take some time to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life. Off he set to Bangkok with a bunch of his mates, and I was keen to hear about his adventures. But being a typical teen, his updates were brief, to say the least.

"How are you finding Thailand? I can't wait to hear what you've been up to!" I'd message. "Yeah, good." would come the WhatsApp response half a day later.

And so it went in the weeks that followed. "What are you doing today?" I'd ask. "In Cambodia" would be the two-word reply. "Oh wow! Have you been to the Angkor Wat temples? I'd love to see them, they're a photographer's dream!" I'd persevere. "Yeah, it's good," was as good as I was going to get.

Then, one day, I went to visit a friend. I rang his doorbell. His Ring doorbell…

"Dad!" the doorbell exclaimed. I was confused. My son went on to explain that he was in Vietnam and had met up with my friend's daughter when the Ring alert was triggered on her phone. The two are around the same age and have known each other since they were in nappies, and she was also on a gap year and on her own Asian adventure.

It was a little disconcerting, talking to a doorbell; he could see me, but I couldn't see him. But we had a good chat for half an hour about his travels, and I learnt a lot more about the sights he'd seen and scrapes he'd got into than I had in the previous two months of messaging.

And that is why I'm buying a Ring Doorbell in the Prime Day sales!

I remember years ago when a simple Facebook post led to the return of my beloved but mischievous dog – but technology could soon again impact the way owners find wayward pets. Amid the deluge of new announcements at Amazon’s launch event on September 30, Ring unveiled its latest lineup of doorbells and security cameras, introducing 4K to the lineup for the first time, optimizing video using an AI feature dubbed Retinal Vision, using AI to write detailed descriptions of video events, and using neighborhood Ring cameras to find lost pets.

The list of new Ring devices is a long one, starting with a list of high-end models that bring 4K capabilities to the Ring family for the first time:

• Wired Doorbell Pro - $259.99
• Spotlight Cam Pro - $249.99
• Floodlight Cam Pro - $279.99
• Outdoor Cam Pro - $199.99
• Plus Power over Ethernet (POE) options in the Spotlight Cam Pro POE, Outdoor Cam Pro POE, and Wired Doorbell Elite

A new AI processing that Ring is dubbing Retinal Vision helps optimize footage with processing that the company describes as “crisper and closer to reality.” That lineup of Retinal 4K devices will also offer 10x zoom, although Ring didn’t yet specify digital or optical, and enhanced low-light performance.

The list of announcements also includes more affordable 2K models, including Indoor Cam Plus and Wired Doorbell Plus. Both those Plus models also use AI, but with Retinal 2K vision to help enhance the footage quality.

But while the hardware is likely a welcome upgrade to the Ring lineup, there are a few new software-powered features worth getting excited over. Search Party is a new tool that allows pet owners to report a lost dog in the Ring app. The AI will then look to see if it can spot the animal on the community’s Ring cameras. To protect privacy, Ring says the owner of the camera can choose whether ot not to share the potential sighting with the pet owner.

That joins Video Descriptions, a tool that uses generative AI to deliver smarter notifications. Using generative AI, Video Descriptions analyzes the footage and describes what’s happening in the notification, giving owners more information as they decide whether or not the motion detected by the cameras needs immediate attention or can be ignored.

Ring shared examples of a description of men looking into a car in the driveway on an outdoor cam and a dog chewing up paper towels on the carpet on an indoor cam. Video Descriptions, however, is part of a Ring Home Premium subscription, where it’s rolling out first in the US as a beta test.

Alexa+ Greetings will also allow the doorbells to talk to solicitors, manage deliveries, and ask visitors for the purpose of their visit. Ring describes the feature like a smart doorbell attendant. Familiar Faces will also help users reduce unnecessary notifications.

The updated Ring cameras are now available for pre-order, with shipping expected to begin in November. Search Party is rolling out in November and will start with recognizing lost dogs before adding the ability to search for cats and other pets. Alexa+ Greetings and Familiar Faces is expected to follow in December.

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Browse the best outdoor security cameras, the best indoor security cameras, or the best camera doorbells.

As you're undoubtedly aware, the Amazon Ring is a doorbell that houses a camera, speaker, and microphone, and its primary purpose is to enable you to see who is at the door before you answer it. Not only does it give you a heads-up of who is calling by streaming video to your phone, but it allows you to have a conversation with the caller, which is invaluable if you happen to be on the toilet "I'll be there in a minute!", or you wish to avoid the door-to-door salesperson or Jehovah's Witness "Sorry, I'm not in right now!", or, as you don't even need to be in the house to answer, directing couriers where to leave the parcel.

• Don't miss today's best Amazon Prime camera deals

That may be a good enough reason on its own to invest in a Ring Doorbell, particularly as during the Prime Day sales, they're around half the regular price, depending on the model, but I'm going to give you a better one (it's directly below my roundup of the best Ring doorbell deals, but you can skip to the yarn by scrolling to the bottom). It hinges on the fact that not only do you not need to be in the house to answer the caller, or even in the same country, but every member of the household can be alerted when someone rings the doorbell.

So, earlier this year, my 19-year-old son went traveling. It's something of a rite of passage for the kids in my neighborhood as they make their way to adulthood. Taking a gap year after finishing college, he'd worked hard in local restaurants to get enough cash together for a trip through Southeast Asia, to take some time to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life. Off he set to Bangkok with a bunch of his mates, and I was keen to hear about his adventures. But being a typical teen, his updates were brief, to say the least.

"How are you finding Thailand? I can't wait to hear what you've been up to!" I'd message. "Yeah, good." would come the WhatsApp response half a day later.

And so it went in the weeks that followed. "What are you doing today?" I'd ask. "In Cambodia" would be the two-word reply. "Oh wow! Have you been to the Angkor Wat temples? I'd love to see them, they're a photographer's dream!" I'd persevere. "Yeah, it's good," was as good as I was going to get.

Then, one day, I went to visit a friend. I rang his doorbell. His Ring doorbell…

"Dad!" the doorbell exclaimed. I was confused. My son went on to explain that he was in Vietnam and had met up with my friend's daughter when the Ring alert was triggered on her phone. The two are around the same age and have known each other since they were in nappies, and she was also on a gap year and on her own Asian adventure.

It was a little disconcerting, talking to a doorbell; he could see me, but I couldn't see him. But we had a good chat for half an hour about his travels, and I learnt a lot more about the sights he'd seen and scrapes he'd got into than I had in the previous two months of messaging.

And that is why I'm buying a Ring Doorbell in the Prime Day sales!

One night last May, I went to dump a bin bag in the outside bin and got a nasty surprise: the bin was full of cat poo and stunk to high heaven! I don’t own a cat, but there are plenty living in my street. They slink through my back garden so often, I’ve given them names: ‘James Bond Cat’ is fluffy, white and malevolent-looking; ‘Michael Jackson Cat’ has white socks.

However, I may not own a cat, but I do own a trusty Ring Doorbell camera, and I pay an £80 ($100) subscription fee each year for the footage. (Ring's subscription plans have just been updated, but Ring cameras are also extra cheap this time of year!)

So I opened the Ring app and went through hundreds of video clips, hoping to catch the culprit.

Lo and behold: at 23:31 on Friday 10th May, an hour at which I’m always asleep, a slim youth in a tracksuit, socks and sliders (a fashion crime!) came and emptied an entire tray of cat litter, complete with droppings, into my black bin. Like me, he was Asian; unlike me (alas), he appeared to be around 18 years old.

So, fired up with indignation and outrage at my newly-smelly bin, I turned amateur detective. Clutching my phone, I stalked up and down the street, ringing doorbells and showing the neighbours the footage. I asked them if they knew of a household with an Asian youth and a cat.

Eventually, I got to the right house, where a middle-aged Asian man opened the door. ‘Do you have a cat?’ I asked. Yes, they did. ‘Do you have a son in his teens?’ He nodded, perplexed.I showed him the footage, at which point he angrily bellowed his son’s name and ordered him to clean out my bin.

Being 16, he didn’t exactly clean it (do 16-year-old boys know how to clean?) but he did empty it of cat poo. It still reeked, but at least the bin men wouldn’t refuse to empty it anymore.

He also left behind a full roll of bin bags, which always come in handy.

His excuse for dumping his cat litter in my bin? ‘I didn’t think anyone was living there.’I’d lived there for 19 months at the time, so was confused: was it just that the lights had been off?

He apologised: ‘I’m very sorry.’

I nodded magnanimously: ‘It’s okay. Just don’t do it again.’

It hasn’t happened since, but if I hadn’t had my Ring camera, he could have dumped the cat poo weekly and I’d never have been able to catch the offender. So I'm grateful to Ring and Amazon: these days, my bin is wonderfully fragrant and there are no remnants of its traumatic faecal past.

In any case, this really is the week to have a look at some of Ring's cameras and try it out for yourself as Amazon's big deals have already started and you can spend surprisingly little to try the tech for yourself.

Ring cameras are now offering a 24-7 recording feature for top-tier subscribers, enabling you to swipe back through up to six months of live video from your doorbell or security camera.

Ring put subscription rates up earlier this year by rates significantly above inflation, so the fact they're staying the same this time but gaining a few features isn't something to rejoice about, but it is nice that some features are filtering down the scale.

If you thought all security cameras were continuous, think again. In fact given a lot of Ring's devices are battery-powered this isn't practical, but many are now wired. To get a good idea (and to see which have great deals on) check the best Ring cameras guide I just updated.

Confusingly the top tier seems to be called 'Pro' in the USA and 'Home' in the UK; but the principle is broadly the same. All the tiers get at least one new feature, but it is this higher tier which benefits most from arguably the most exciting; 24-7 recording and continuous live view, which makes it possible to use the cameras more like a traditional CCTV setup.

The 24-7 mode will work on Ring Stick Up Cam, Stick Up Cam Pro, Indoor Camera (2nd Gen) and Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera. (We can only assume the tech will come to others when the internals are updated).

It is also only in this top tier that it's possible to use the live view – that is simply look remotely through the camera – for an unlimited period, which opens up the possibility of using the camera like a baby monitor. Otherwise, live view sessions peter out at 10 minutes, or 30 in the 'Extended Live View' of the middle tier.

Again this is sensible battery protection; only someone who understood their system should put as much strain on the cameras, but it is interesting how much has been limited by software.

Video Preview Alerts is a new feature in all the levels which will create a small animation / video clip in the alerts pushed to your device when there is an event.

Doorbell calls will ring your phone when your Ring doorbell is pressed, reducing the chance you miss a notification – given the level of 'notification noice' most phone users experience, this should help cut through, though we've not tested it yet to know how fast it is.

The features will roll out over the next month "and will be available worldwide through Ring Home plans on November 5, 2024." 

Ring, of course, are but one company in this space, albeit a significant one. Check our guide to the best doorbell cameras to explore more.

You can test the experience for a month with any Ring camera – as they have a month-free subscription – during the Amazon Big Deal sale.

It was 17th February 2021, right in the middle of the second national Covid lockdown, and I was on the phone to my friend Kia when my Ring doorbell sounded. I would ordinarily have checked who was pressing the bell on the app, but because I was on the phone, I just ran downstairs and opened the front door.

I was quite shocked to find a policeman in uniform standing there. 'There's no need to worry,' he said. 'I just saw that you have a Ring doorbell, (consistently one of the best doorbell cameras), and wondered if you pay for the subscription for the footage?'

I told him that I did. He was relieved – apparently some people just use the live view on their Ring doorbells and don't pay to access the footage. Others don't even have the doorbell hooked up - they simply use it as a burglar deterrent.

The policeman explained that there had been 'an incident' in my road the night before (which later turned out to have been a stabbing), and he wanted to try and catch the number plate of the getaway vehicle as it drove past my house. He asked if he could download the footage from the Ring app on my iPhone and Airdrop it to his phone.

I agreed. My friend Kia was still on the phone, so I said, "Sorry Kia, I've got to go and help a policeman."

I was mortified, but the policeman was very professional and simply swiped the message up off the screen! He Airdropped himself the video clips, then thanked me and left, and I never saw or heard from him again.

In answer to Kia's question though: yes, he was sexy – but perhaps not as sexy as my sleek crime-solving Ring video doorbell.

A Ring doorbell can be paired with other Ring devices, you might find them in the best indoor cameras and the best outdoor cameras and – if you're looking for a little light – the best floodlight cameras.

On Tuesday this week, a multiple system outage on Amazon's cloud servers resulted in widespread outages to Ring doorbells, leaving users in the dark and worried about the security of their residences until the problem was resolved. 

For some, the Ring failures – which affected Ring.com, Ring Protect (Video Recording), Live Calls (Doorbell Dings & Motions), Video On Demand, and Partner Integration – only lasted a few hours, but for others it persisted long into the night. 

While the issues have now been fixed, many have been left asking questions about what happened and whether it might happen again – and whether their Ring cameras can still be trusted. 

I asked Lorex Technology, one of North America's leading home security system specialists for over 30 years, to explain what happened. 

In short, the issue boils down to failings in Amazon's cloud services to which Ring systems are connected. With feeds and recording based in the cloud, rather than being captured locally, once there's an internet outage then the devices cease to function. 

Crucially, Lorex offers cameras with local recording capabilities that continue to save footage to a local microSD card or hard drive in such a situation. In addition, its Fusion systems enable wired doorbells to be connected to an NVR (network video recorder) for continuous 24/7 recording – which will record to the hard drive even during an outage. 

While Ring is a reputable and generally reliable system, it's definitely worth considering a system with local storage options to ensure that you're protected should there be a problem connecting to the cloud. 

Here's a breakdown from Lorex's spokesperson about what occurred during the Ring failure on Tuesday. 

What actually happened?

Cloud-dependent cameras
Many modern security cameras rely on cloud services for storage, remote access, and other features. If these cameras use Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud infrastructure, an outage could disrupt their ability to store footage, send alerts, or provide live streaming. However, if the cameras have local storage (like an SD card or hard drive recorder), they may continue recording locally even if cloud services are down.

Remote access and notifications
For cameras integrated with smart home systems or accessed via mobile apps, an AWS outage could affect remote viewing, notifications and control features. Users might be unable to access live feeds or receive alerts about motion detection.

Dependent services
Some security camera systems rely on additional services hosted on AWS, such as AI-based analytics for identifying specific types of events or integrating with other smart devices. An outage might disrupt these advanced features, potentially reducing the effectiveness of the security system.

Recovery and redundancy
The impact of an outage also depends on the availability of redundant systems and backup plans. Some security systems may have failover mechanisms or alternative data centers that can take over in case of an outage, minimizing disruption.

Why did it happen?

As referenced above, many systems that are exclusively reliant on cloud storage will face interruptions within their service. 

Systems that have local storage backup will still face interruption within their access through their application but can recover the recordings directly through the local storage source.

Will it happen again?

Predicting the exact occurrence of future service outages for any cloud provider, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), is challenging. While it's impossible to guarantee that outages won't happen again, several factors are involved. 

While cloud providers strive for high availability and minimal downtime, occasional outages can still occur due to the inherent complexities of large-scale cloud infrastructure.

Take a look at the best doorbell cameras, along with the best CCTV cameras and the best outdoor security cameras. 

My house is perforated with drill holes from the assorted smart home cameras I've tested from my years at DCW. 

When Prime Day comes round there are always some very obvious deals on great products like the Blink Mini 2 (which is a great device, don't get me wrong) but for some reason the Amazon-owned brands Blink and Ring do seem to get a lot more attention, so I've compiled a list of some of the other excellent deals which might not be getting as much promotion but are just as good – if not better – deals.

As well as testing the Eufy system for an extended period (and indeed you can read my review of the S330), we've tried many of the Arlo cameras which are excellent. Their styling, to be honest, does put the Amazon brands to shame and the company does – through their optional hub – also offer compatibility with Apple's HomeKit which neither Blink or Ring do.

I've also spotted a great price on the Arlo floodlight which we've I've tested too.

But I'm not going to say that you shouldn't also check out the surprisingly price-efficient Blink bundle with 2 Blink Outdoor cameras and a Blink Mini 2.

Check our guide to the best indoor cameras.

One of the most popular smart home security cameras of recent years has been the Blink Mini, helped in no small part by its accessible price. It probably hasn't hurt that Amazon's ownership of Blink has ensured the camera regularly shows up prominently in deals, and is compatible with the popular Alexa assistant.

The Mini, though, has been strictly confined to the indoors until now, with other devices in Blink's range covering the outdoors. That is one of the things being fixed with this update – though the price is staying impressively low.

Aside from the option of outdoor use – with a weather-resistant power adapter – the new model boasts a wider field of view, at 143-degrees (beating 110), a built-in spotlight which enables color night view, and person detection (when a Blink subscription plan is in use). For followers of the brand, the person detection AI has previously been seen on the Blink Outdoor 4, which also boasts the same 143-degree field of view.

Just like its predecessor, it can be used to provide a live two-way talk feature from your phone to the camera using its built-in microphone and speaker. Video is still 1080P. It is capable of sending real-time alerts to your phone, and (by subscribing for $3/£2.50 a month) it can also manage person detection as well as more useful alerts.

Unlike the Blink Outdoor camera, it still requires power, and the camera costs more with a weather-resistant power adapter. You'll find different pricing options on (of course) Amazon. The curvy new design is available in black and white, but sadly is not compatible with the pan-and-tilt base for the Blink Mini. (Strangely enough, the other Amazon-owned security camera and doorbell company, Ring, released their own pan-and-tilt indoor camera today!)

While the Blink Mini 2 arrives at $39.99 / £34.99, the older Blink Mini remains on sale at $29.99 / £24.99.

(Blink Mini 2 on Amazon US, Blink Mini 2 on Amazon UK)

We've not tested it yet, but will this be one of our favourite indoor cameras?

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States is issuing refunds totalling more than $5.6 million to consumers as part of a settlement agreement with Amazon-owned Ring.

The settlement comes after the security device suppliers were charged with failing to protect private customer video footage from hackers, who were able to gain access to consumers’ accounts, cameras, and videos. 

In a complaint from May 2023, the FTC revealed that Ring deceived customers, enabling employees and contractors to gain access to their videos, including those filmed with indoor cameras. The report also alleged that Ring used the videos to inform algorithms without customers' consent, and failed to properly implement security safeguards. 

“These practices led to egregious violations of users’ privacy,” the FTC said in a statement.

Approximately 117,004 users are set to receive refunds, including 1,169 people from Alabama who will receive a total of $56,273, roughly $48 each. 

Amazon’s Ring is the world’s best-selling video doorbell with over 1.4 million units sold in 2021, more than competitors SkyBell, Nest, Vivint, and ADT combined. 

The pervasive network of cameras have been dubbed by some, such as UK newspaper The Guardian, as “the largest civilian surveillance network the US has ever seen.” Funny or sometimes concerning videos filmed by Ring doorbells have become the norm across social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. 

There have been over 282.1 million videos related to Ring doorbell footage uploaded to TikTok according to the app, and the hashtag #ringdoorbell has over 8.3 billion views.  

Ring was in the news earlier this year after customers in the UK complained about a £15 (43 percent) price increase for subscription services to safely store their video footage on the cloud, download clips, and get discounted products.

Dave Ward, managing director of the Ring division, once said of the product: "We have taken home security to the next level by really democratizing the technology." Democracy, it seems, in this instance at least and through the arm of the FTC, draws the line at invasion of privacy. 

Maybe it's time to look for alternative indoor security cameras.

Ring has announced the first battery doorbell which incorporates the company's radar-based 3D Motion Detection and Bird's Eye View features; the Battery Video Doorbell Pro which the company is calling their 'most advanced battery-powered doorbell'.

This will make it possible for wire-free installations to take advantage of these features which can be especially useful in reducing false positives from the alert systems – even more so if your door is relatively near the street because the radar (3D Motion Detection) makes it possible to disable triggering from movement further away, not something a normal infrared camera can do.

We've already seen these technologies in other products from the Amazon-owned smart-home security company. It was first seen on permanently wired products like the Floodlight Cam Wired Pro (which carried a price premium of about $50/£50 over the Floodlight Cam Wired Plus which lacked the tech). Adding it to a battery-powred device, however, increases the possibilities for installation when it comes to doorbells as not everyone has power to their doorbell.

Ring doorbells with radar tech were first seen in 2021, but only those like the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 which need a wired power supply.

The new Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro will also boast 1536p HD video, and Ring are promising dynamic image processing and high-efficiency compression which they say will deliver life-like color. They even state a feature they call 'Low-Light Sight' will deliver color with nothing more than the light available from street lighting – without bathing visitors with white LED light.

The device will also boast color pre-roll, dual-band wi-fi, Alexa compatibility (it is Ring, after all!) and package and person alerts if you subscribe to Ring Protect.

The Battery Video Doorbell Pro will be available for purchase for $229 / £199.99 / AU$349 from March 20th.

I hope to review the device soon for our best smart doorbells guide, and check our  best ring cameras guide too if you're thinking of building a system.

You can't please all of the people all of the time – that is the dilemma Ring, the Amazon-owned video doorbell and security camera company, has found itself in the last few days. Ring's controversial decision, which pleased some and angered others, was to remove a feature called 'Request for Assistance,' from its Neighbors app.

Available only in the US, the Neighbors app lets local police & services send updates about crime in the area, and Ring customers might share details of local porch pirates. The feature which is being sunsetted, to use the jargon, allowed the police to directly request videos of illegal activities taking place outside people's homes – potentially powerful as a deterrent, but problematic for civil rights.

Although it didn't cite the extensive lobbying by privacy campaigners, nor mention the worries about whether Ring doorbells were inadvertently promoting racial bias, it's fair to assume the growing cloud of less-than-glowing publicity around the company will have influenced the decision to remove the feature which presumably was no longer helping sell Ring products.

It has led to disappointment amongst law enforcers though, who had already had to accept a certain level of disappointment in 2021 when the feature forced them to make their requests via the same public route as others, hence the name 'request for assistance'.

Can I still share video taken with my Ring camera?

Yes. The police can't describe a crime on the app and ask for footage of it, but if you have caught some footage you can do with it what you choose. In the devices I've reviewed, like the Ring Video Doorbell, it's been easy to share video using all the usual features of your phone.

Eric Kuh, Ring's Head of Neighbors, said in the statement that "Public safety agencies like fire and police departments can still use the Neighbors app to share helpful safety tips, updates, and community events."

Another treat in Ring's statement, if you have a minute, is a Bear relaxing in a pool, recorded on a Ring Floodlight Camera (see YouTube link below). Now that's a video that deserves to be shared!

See our review of the best smart home doorbells and the best Ring cameras.

The Plus X Award sounds like it might go for someone who consistently wins big in eating competitions, or provides clothing for those who do, but in fact, it is a nearly two-decade old judged competition with the goal of promoting high-quality design in technology, sports, and lifestyle.

This year the Best Product of the Year was awarded to the EZVIZ HP7, first released in May 2023, which brings some of the concepts seen in devices like Ring doorbells and makes them available in a way designed to fit better with larger homes or mansions, in case the look of the DIY attached Ring Doorbell 3 doesn't quite fit your neighbourhood.

The HP7 "replaces a doorman for communication and smart of protection," in the words of EZVIZ. It does this using a 7-inch color screen indoors, and integration with an electronic lock. Users can also use their phones and an app to view the video and audio and unlock the door – in some respects, this is like any other smart doorbell, but here the integration with the locking mechanism (as well as any of EZVIZ's other camera tech) is the selling point. Residents (as well as staff, butlers, etc.) can be given swipe cards to open the doors much like an office). 

“We are extremely proud because the success of the HP7 confirms EZVIZ’s continued leadership in the home entry product category,” said Candice Tu, the leading product manager. “It’s an example of how we enhance the user experience of an everyday household device, by applying effective product design to integrate complex features to be easy, straightforward and pleasant to use for everyone.” 

That 'leadership' is literal too – the HP7 system acts as a home hub for an EZVIZ system, and the product integration is something which won favours and initially the Excellent Product Design category in the German Design Award 2024. Many users, it seems, are happy to pay for a more integrated experience rather than have to keep switching apps on their phone to control different cameras and other smart home devices (as the reviewer of a number of these devices I do understand, though of course few reviewers have mansions!)

“The HP7 is a vital piece of the puzzle for EZVIZ to build diverse and customized front door solutions for families with different needs, filling the special market void that’s not covered by our video doorbells and smart door viewers,” said Binghong Wang, “It shows EZVIZ’s commitment to building future-oriented easy smart homes with extensive product choices and user-centric designs.” 

I have to say that it is interesting that a doorbell which looks more like the kind of doorbell you'd expect to see on the kind of property it is pitched at is the design winner; from face-to-face discussions, I know a lot of people are hesitant about 'smart' doorbells; perhaps this is a solution – though it won't stop EZVIZ selling their other smart doorbells like the DB1 series.

If you're looking for an alternative – that perhaps would fit something other than a mansion – check our guide to the best video doorbells, or if you've chosen the brand, the best Ring doorbell.

Amazon is one of the most powerful companies in the world. The trillion-dollar conglomerate has its fingers in e-commerce, advertising, streaming and more recently surveillance. Since the launch of Alexa devices, Ring doorbells and the Neighbor app, Amazon has eyes and ears everywhere and in doing so has created one of the largest public surveillance rings in the world. 

It’s kind of scary when you think about how much influence Amazon has on the world. What started as a humble book-selling platform from the garage of Jeff Bezos’ rental apartment (thanks to a big investment from his parents) is now one of the most valuable brands in the world alongside Apple, Microsoft and Walmart. But giving civilians access to CCTV that can be shared amongst communities and accessed by law enforcement has created even more of a divide between race and class in more affluent, primarily white areas in the States. 

• Check out the best spy cameras perfect for recording people secretly

Society has willingly bought into Amazon’s easy way of living. At first, people invested in Ring Video Doorbells as a means to protect their homes from potential thieves but now anyone who looks even slightly suspicious (even if they have no bad intention) can be watched. Without realizing we have signed ourselves up to be monitored at home and in our local neighborhoods by installing such devices. Whether you're taking the bins out, having a conversation around one of Amazon's always-on listening devices or dropping a package around to a neighbor, there is a chance you've been caught on camera. 

When Ring Doorbells were launched in 2014 (long before they were acquired by Amazon) they turned a familiar device on its head – suddenly you could receive an alert from your phone when someone was at the door and be able to see who it was. In 2016, a live-view feature that lets you see and speak to visitors from anywhere in the world and as Ring doorbells have advanced – so has the level of surveillance we have at our hands. Ring was acquired by Amazon in 2018 and since then we've seen the launch of the Peephole Cam, a feature called Pre-Roll which shows 4 seconds of footage captured before the motion sensor is triggered and in 2023 the first battery-powered HD doorbell was launched making them even more accessible. 

Footage recorded by Ring Doorbells is supposed to remain private but there have been incidences when Amazon has landed itself in trouble with the law for handing over footage to local authorities.  In 2018, Ring launched the Neighbors app which enables users to get real-time, hyper-local updates about what's going on in their neighborhood. People can anonymously share videos they deem suspicious and anyone who has crime alerts set to on will be notified as they occur making law enforcers privy to footage that would otherwise need a warrant to view. 

According to the Sentencing Project, African Americans are imprisoned at 3.5x the rate of non-Hispanic white people. In 2016, black Americans made up 27% of prisoners (double their share of the population) and black people are 3.7x more likely to be arrested for the possession of marijuana than white people. Now while these statistics may not seem to have anything to do with Amazon’s surveillance, how Ring Doorbells and the Neighbor app are used is hurting individuals from minorities. 

Affluent white communities, especially in the US, are known to invest not only in Ring doorbells but in Ring’s external floodlight cameras and internal security cameras. This is largely due to the fact they can a) afford to and b) believe they have property and valuables that will be better protected by enhanced security measures. For those who use home surveillance devices to keep an eye on who is at the door and whether the delivery man correctly delivered a parcel – these devices are pretty innocent. But one neighborhood in L.A. has started using these devices as a way of alerting neighbors of 'suspicious behavior' – and often those reported are Black or Hispanic. 

Ring doorbells are now thought to be the largest civilian surveillance in the US. According to Business Wire roughly 36% of homes in the US have smart video doorbells – of which 40% are ring doorbells. Ring doorbells are making it almost impossible to do anything without being recorded – whether that's taking the bins out, delivering food to a neighbor or getting into your car. Even at home, people are being monitored much more closely.

In 2018, Ring started brokering partnerships with local police departments in the US and as of November 2023 over 2023 are part of the programme. This controversial move raises concern for three main reasons. It takes ownership away from homeowners, it has the potential to put people who are already discriminated against by the police force at even more risk of persecution and could mislead police officers as to how to spend their time – especially if something takes place in an area of personal interest. 

Devices such as Ring doorbells may be designed to keep us safe but they also keep us on constant alert. They make us wary of everyone and instead of craning our necks over neighbors' fences like you might've done in the 'good old days', you can sneakily watch what people are up to from the comfort of your home. Ring doorbells have proved they are useful - especially when it comes to proving a package wasn't delivered safely or carefully but there is a much darker side to this all-singing, all-dancing doorbells. 

I'm sure people buy them with the genuine intention of deterring criminals, but at what point do we start assuming everyone who doesn't look the same as us or "who doesn't belong in the area" might be up to no good? There is very little evidence to show that Ring doorbells or other types of CCTV prevent crime. The only 'study', showing a 55% reduction in burglaries over a six-month period, is more of a promotional event. The sample pool was so small it's hard to be sure how accurate the results are. 

Until there are more thorough, independent studies into the effectiveness of Ring doorbells, it's worth considering the implications of getting one fitted. It might enable you to keep an eye on who comes to your door when out and about but at the cost of your own and your neighbor's privacy. We're already monitored the moment we step into the supermarket, a restaurant, or even the gas station, should we be monitored in our neighborhoods too?

One of the great things about Black Friday and Cyber Monday is the number of special offers on smart home security cameras, but drill down and there are a couple of concerns about those deals. 

Firstly if you're buying from the world's largest online retailer, Amazon, then there is just a hint of unfair bias since Amazon own two of the biggest brands in the market, Blink and Ring. These companies both produce good quality products with their own distinct slant (though it won't surprise you to learn that both prioritise Alexa compatibility in their feature lists!)

Secondly, like so much else, smart home cameras come with two costs – the cost of acquisition and the running cost; most (but not all) require a subscription service to get the best of the feature set available including, crucially, recording incursions onto your property.

With these two considerations in mind, I found myself thinking, what security cameras would I look to pick up this Black Friday to keep my own home safe and – ideally – to avoid setting myself a long-running financial trap. Personally I'd rather spend a bit more on day one than keep spending a monthly fee.

The pay-once route

Just the other day, a neighbor of mine visited and asked me if he could see a recording from my smart camera because his car, parked a few doors down, had been stolen. I had to apologise and explain that, unless someone came onto my property, the camera didn't actually record the incident.

This is normal with smart home systems, which are activated by nearby motion, record for a few seconds, and then go quiet for a spell to save power (even if something is happening). With a 'proper' system with a base station, like the EufyCam S330 below, you can choose to record as much as you want and the cameras are 4K because it's your own data network – your wi-fi – rather than a paid-for subscription happening on the cheap.

Eufy also offer a number of other elements which can work with this system or alone, like their eufy Security Floodlight Cam with 360-degree pan and tit camera.

The pay-or-not option

As mentioned, the Amazon-owned services come out in force over the Black Friday / Cyber Monday period with bundle deals, and one of the most cost-effective is a Blink Outdoor bundle.

These cameras are designed to work their best with a subscription, which for unlimited cameras is $10 a month, but you can buy an additional device called a Blink Wireless Sync Module which lets you record locally instead. It doesn't have all the smarts, and is seemingly deliberately less elegant (there are no animated icons in the app), but it is interesting to have a buy-out clause from the subscription!

In a pattern we've started to see in the last few Black Friday seasons, in the lead up, about a couple of weeks before, we see deals from a lot of the best security cameras and best smart doorbell brands. (You can find the best on our Black Friday security cameras deals page.)

Then, when Amazon declares its Black Friday sale has started – which, they year, it did the Friday before, there are suddenly some amazing deals on products from Amazon-owned companies – Ring & Blink – and even better bundles with Alexa products that integrate with them.

So it has been, so it is again – and this time the highlight bindles are the Ring Video Doorbell – perhaps the classic product in the space. Sure, there are newer models, like the Ring Video Doorbell 3, but the Ring Doorbell is still a popular choice because the battery means it can be installed without drilling if you don't already have wiring.

At the same time you can get an Echo Show 5 – which is a smart speaker with a screen. All this comes less than the list price of the doorbell, but the Echo Show can act as a remote monitor for the doorbell camera, which you place anywhere you like in your home. You can also use if for all your other favourite Alexa stuff (playing music, answering questions, setting timers etc).

Speaking as someone who ran cabling to his own doorbell (which isn't cheap and involves a lot of painting over damaged plaster), this looks like a very inexpensive option by comparison!

Another option, if you're not looking for anything with a screen inside the home, is a bundle with one of the Echo smart speakers:

Don't forget to check out our other Black Friday smart home security camera deals on our regularly updated page.

Think you might’ve captured an extraterrestrial life form on your ring doorbell? Or perhaps a mysterious UFO? Ring is on the hunt for any out-of-this-world footage captured on one of their doorbells and is offering a $1 million cash prize in return. 

Ring doorbells are a must in any smart home. They enable you to see who (or what) is at the door and in the past they’ve captured some pretty terrifying, naturally occurring events such as a lightning strike. But the Amazon-owned home security company now wants to see what unnatural, extra-terrestrial life forms have been caught on camera. 

• Check out the best Ring doorbell camera to ensure your home is extra secure just in case you get any unusual visitors

The Million Dollar Search for Extraterrestrials was launched on October 4 and, in just a few days' time, video submissions will open again. Ring is urging customers to adorn their front gardens and porches with alien-inspired decor to lure in creatures from another planet. 

Most Ring doorbells (except for 1st generation models) enable you to add a quick reply so that if an intergalactic guest should ring your doorbell they are greeted with a message of your choosing and there are plenty of Halloween and alien ones to pick. You don't even need a subscription to use the quick reply feature; as soon as the doorbell is pressed, you can watch the interaction live, start talking to the visitors, or share the recording but for that, you will need the Ring Protect Plan. 

See all of Amazon's Prime Day Ring deals - live now

Call it fate, call it coincidence, call it supernatural involvement, but not only could you win $1 million (paid out at $50,000 a year for the next 20 years), but some Ring video doorbells have been discounted massively thanks to Amazon's Prime Big Deals Day. The latest Ring doorbell model offers 1080p recording, improved motion detection (vital for catching alien movement) and offers easy installation and with a big discount, it's a good time to invest.

Oh, and if you're feeling entrepreneurial, we're sure Ring's owner Amazon can sell you an ET suit for Halloween too. On the flip side, it appears submissions can stop being accepted at any time so check Ring's blog here.

Whether you manage to glimpse a UFO flying up to your driveway or an alien acting unusually, you have until November 3 to submit your Ring doorbell footage to the Ring Million Dollar Siting website.

Also check out the best outdoor security cameras so you can keep an eye on your home no matter where you are.

Blink has made a name for itself with cost-effective battery-powered security cameras that ship with disposable batteries, and the new 4th generation version of their key Blink Outdoor – despite a slightly updated look – is keeping that fundamental unchanged. 

The Blink Outdoor 4 has a fetching new matt finish, and moves the camera lens to the top left corner of the facia rather than being in the center as it was on previous versions. The microphone and sensors are also a little more discrete on the refined fascia, though core functions like 1080P live view and infrared night vision are retained from the predecessor.

The shape of the molding is also broadly the same size, presumably to retain compatibility with the various external floodlight housings that are available for the Blink Outdoor camera.

The shape is also just the right size to play host to a pair of lithium AA batteries which, although disposable, do offer (according to Blink/Amazon), up to two years of operation which makes the camera considerably more convenient to install on your home and out of reach than a camera which would need regular charging.

In terms of improvement, Blink promises a 143˚ field of view – a big boost from the 110˚ on the camera's predecessor – as well as improvements to the motion detection and the option of person detection (though only if you're using a Blink Subscription Plan).

Subscriptions, however, aren't as essential as they are for other smart home cameras; if bought with the Sync Module 2 (which is included) the camera can record wirelessly to a USB memory stick in your home. You will, however, need to provide the flash drive (Amazon has plenty in stock!)

Blink has also produced a batch of colored silicone skins ( see on Amazon) for the new camera, so you can give it a bit more personality than the black or white options we've seen in the past for an extra $7.99 (around £6.30 or AU$12.44).

The camera itself is available now in the USA with a RRP of $119.99 with other markets to be confirmed. Blink Cloud Subscription plans start at $3 per month, or $30 per year.

Check out our guide to Blink vs Ring if you can't decide which Amazon-owned security cameras are best for you.

Long-time Prime members can't have failed to notice the striking early Prime Day deals on Ring security cameras (and Blink cameras, also Amazon-owned, are also well discounted too). The problem is there is a catch; these cameras work best with a cloud subscription, and is Amazon discounting that?

It won't surprise you at all to hear that the answer there is a blunt no. That doesn't mean you're not saving anything though – obviously, there is a discount on the hardware. The question is whether the saving is quite as exciting as it first seems.

First, I'm going to identify a sensible complete security installation: a Ring smart doorbell, a Ring indoor cam, a floodlight camera for the outdoors, and an Echo Show to place in the kitchen and act as the other end of the video door phone. You can use just your phone of course – there is an app for Android and iOS, and any other Alexa devices. But this is elegant, and as an Amazon brand, well discounted this time of year too.

Individual device deals first... maths below

We have recently reviewed the Ring Indoor Cam (2nd Generation), which can be placed around the home, perhaps as a baby monitor or perhaps in a hallway where you worry people might enter.

Outdoors a floodlight camera can have a great deterrent effect, as well as being useful to help you navigate your own property. Ring offer a powerful Floodlight Cam Pro which is even smart enough to detect distances, but the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus is more sensible most of the time. If you don't want to run cables, check our Ring Spotlight Camera Plus review.

Ring doorbells are in all practical senses just variants of the security cameras (which is why they have the same subscription fees).

Ring cameras also cooperate well with Echo show – which are in essence Alexa-with-a-screen. With one n your network you can easily ask Alexa to show you who is at the door or any of the other camera positions. Mercifully these don't require a subscription (except for some media), so any deal is a deal. And there are some over prime day. 

So, what are the savings, on day 1 and day 365?

As we come to Prime Day 2023, Ring Protect costs £3.49 a month per device. That means in the first year of any one device you'll pay £38.39 (you get 30 days free per device) for the cloud storage and some other additional features. Pay for a year in advance and that drops to £34.99.

If you have 3 or more devices you can take advantage of Ring Protect Plus, covering your whole home for £8/month or £80 a year.

I must admit I tend to choose monthly rather than annual fees, so the costs below are based on monthly costs, but they give a clear idea of how things work out. If you buy more than three cameras (the Echo Show doesn't have ongoing costs) the saving is still evident, plus the obvious hardware discount.

So, the maths shows that, in the first year, the percentage saving is still quite significant, especially with the more expensive equipment like the floodlights. Over time, of course, that will drop off, but not as fast as I first thought when I decided to crunch the numbers!

Ring, the Amazon-owned home security firm, has expanded from doorbells into a full range of devices to protect your home. They even have a surprising amount of choice within the floodlight niche, offering two variants of their 'Spotlight' series camera with smaller lights built into the housing as well as a 'Pro' variant of this shape with more sophisticated tech.

The key difference between this and the Floodlight Cam Wired Pro is that it lacks HDR video and what Ring call "3D Motion" – a sensor that detects range as well as the traditional PIR movement sensor this device sports.

For this review, I handed the device to my dad – equipped as he was with a garage in need of a floodlight and a suitable electricity supply. For that, too, is a factor here. Both Ring's floodlight options require mains electricity (110V in the US, 230v in the UK). The Ring Spotlight camera (which I have reviewed previously) can be powered entirely by batteries, significantly simplifying the initial installation but at the cost of long-term maintenance of that power supply.

I have tested and installed numerous Ring devices, and will offer comparisons as appropriate, but this review benefits too from my dad's first-time experience with the brand.

Key Features

The Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus has a 1080P motion-triggered security camera flanked on both sides by 2,000 lumen floodlights which can be angled to cover up to 270-degrees of view. It draws power from a wire, and communicates by Wi-Fi.

As a Ring product, it has good integration with Alexa, including the option of audio announcements if motion is detected and the ability to ask an Alexa View (the screen) to show the live view and initiate two-way-talk. Of course alerts, live view and settings can also be monitored in the Ring app for iPhone and Android.

When it comes to recording, like other smart cameras, this camera records when a motion event is detected, but there is no on-board memory; after the first 30 days you'll need a subscription to Ring's Cloud Protect cloud service, which costs $3 / month.

Specifications

Video: 1080P
Camera field of view: 140˚ horizontal
Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz only
Two-way-talk: Yes
Siren: 105dB
Motion detection: PIR

Build and handling

The floodlight comes in a satisfyingly well-engineered carton which has compartments for the lamp, its backing plate, fixings (including spares), screwdriver/wrench tool, basic instructions, and window stickers. 

The unit has two adjustable lamps on either side of the camera/detector unit which can also be swiveled as required. This allows the device to be mounted either on a wall or under a horizontal surface, typically under the eaves of a roof.

Installation was simplicity itself. The cable is threaded through a grommet in the backing plate which is screwed to the wall with two screws. There was no light at the proposed site but 230v power was present in the garage and it was reasonably straightforward to add a fused spur to the existing circuit and thread it out through a 10mm hole. Only a short length of the cable needs to project through the wall so if you’re replacing an existing lamp there’s no need to worry if there’s not much to spare. A qualified electrician might be required to check this work.

The mounting holes are elongated to enable adjustment and Ring has been thoughtfully built in a tiny spirit level so that a fitter working from the top of a ladder can get the plate straight and level. Built-in seals look to offer a decent level of weather protection. With the backing plate secure the mains cable can be wired to a connection block then the lamp unit itself can be offered up. Here again, Ring has helped the fitter by incorporating a handy strap that clips onto the backing plate, taking the (not insubstantial) weight of the lamp while it is wired to the block.  The lamp then fits neatly onto two threaded rods and is secured with discrete white nuts, tightened with the wrench provided. The whole process took less than half an hour.

The next step was to open an account with Ring, a process that includes the usual 2-step verification, and then to set up the device. The instruction leaflet included a QR code which enabled the Ring app to provide a series of steps to follow. The third step was to remove the protective film over the camera (some of us need reminding!) The process then creates a temporary network between the camera and your mobile device before finally accessing your home wi-fi network. The process was short, despite its misgivings about the quality of my wi-fi signal.

Performance

The smoothness of the step-by-step installation extends to the customising of software features which follows mounting and establishing a connection. It should be said that the connection to my home router, some 20m (60ft) away and hiding behind two substantial masonry walls, wasn’t going to be reliable. However, there was enough of a signal to complete the set-up and transmission only failed briefly in the first few days of operation, despite the app's warnings.

The default screen once the device is connected shows the image being recorded, or last recorded, by the camera. It’s in landscape format under a row of 4 editable buttons which can be customised to bring up the controls that the user finds most useful. There’s a scroll bar below the picture so that the user can easily navigate to recently recorded video. The definition of the still pictures displayed on this screen is reasonable, but a license plate about 8m away was not easily deciphered. 

A gearwheel icon in the top right corner of the image brings up a more detailed menu of which the most important options are:

Event History: showing a still from each occasion the camera has been triggered, with a time stamp. Device Schedules: enabling the user to define times and days when the motion sensor and lights are active. Motion Snooze: allowing motion alerts to be paused for a defined period from 30 mins to 12 hrs, a sort of ‘do not disturb’ feature. Device Health: which checks several functions, including a report on wifi signal strength. Motion Settings: where the sensitivity of the detector can be adjusted and the area of the field of view which it detects can be limited to a defined polygon. I found this useful to avoid the device being triggered by movement on my neighbour’s driveway and reducing the number of recordings set off by passing traffic. Privacy Zones: a feature enabling part of the field of view to be wholly excluded from recordings and for audio to be disabled.

Verdict

In my dad's words: "First impressions were largely favorable. Considering I had no previous experience with Ring devices or, indeed, any similar technology, the setup and operation proved reasonably straightforward. After a couple of days’ experience, I was able to turn down the sensitivity of the motion detector and restrict its field of view to prevent a plethora of triggers. I also reduced the intensity of the lights which, at their default setting, could’ve resulted in complaints from the nocturnal wildlife (although I’ve not yet managed to record the badgers or foxes which haunt the area at night).

He also noted, however, "The sound recording is not great – it is barely possible to interpret what is being said near the microphone, even when the chirruping of the local sparrows – which seems to monopolize the soundtrack – is absent. The frequent ‘dings’ from my phone and iPad when m movement was detected got irritating once the novelty had worn off but the app allows them to be silenced.

The other issue seemed to be a tendency for the lights to remain on well beyond the expected time occasionally – perhaps if it loses its internet connection in this period. We can't be sure it wasn't done by a neighbor annoyed by the light or the high wind, but the lamps did re-position themselves over a very breezy weekend.

Overall, though, this – the more sensibly priced of Ring's two floodlight cameras seems a wise investment, offering both light and good quality video for noticeably less cash than the "Pro," the primary benefit is to be able to reduce the motion detection distance. Great if you put it near the road, but not offering a lot on a garage.

Motorola has announced its latest body cam, designed for public safety agencies. The V700 uses mobile broadband to connect to the Aware cloud platform and transmit real-time field intelligence.

Body cameras are commonly worn by police officers, doormen, and even those looking to feel safe on a jog. We keep a list of the best body cameras for each situation, but Motorola's V700 is part of a range that targets large-scale use with command-and-control needs – police forces, for example.

"In public safety, outcomes often hinge on an agency’s ability to surface the critical insights necessary to make better, faster decisions,” said Mahesh Saptharishi, Motorola Solutions executive VP and CTO. “The V700’s connectivity to our wider technology ecosystem - from radios and in-car video to command center software - offers an agency unprecedented understanding of an officer’s situation so they can direct the resources needed to be successful in that moment.”

In practice, that means that an officer can pull a gun from their holster and a Holster Aware Bluetooth sensor will trigger recording. If an officer falls or is unresponsive, the V700 will record "giving incident manages immediate awareness" (though Motorola didn't say if the system highlighted their predicament in any way).

Motorola also claims they have a patent on "Record-After-the-Fact" tech meaning, presumably, that the camera is always recording a loop to memory even before you hit record. Similar tech is used on products like the Ring doorbell – perhaps a patent battle is in the offing?

The V700 LTE is on sale now in the United States, and offers 1080P video at up to 30fps, with dual microphones and noise canceling. Motorola says the field-swappable battery will last for up to 14 hours of recording. The rugged device is IP67 and even the battery contacts are even 'self-wiping' to make swapping batteries easier in the dust. 

The camera has a 130˚ horizontal field of view, fisheye de-warp, and can capture in down-to 0.1 lux. Features in the 7oz (197g) device include GPS, Bluetooth 5, Wi-Fi, gyro motion detection, and 128GB storage.

A mono LCD menu at the top of the device allows the user to tag events after recording, but, of course, the real management is designed to be done with the iOS/Android app or CommandCentral. 

If you're interested in it, you can contact Motorola for a demo, though for smaller teams or lone wolves our best bodycam guide might be more useful.

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Users of Amazon-owned Ring's range of security cameras using the basic free plan will lose access to mode settings from March 29. This will apply not just to new customers but existing owners of existing Ring cameras and doorbells in the USA and Canada. In addition, the Ring Alarm system will now require a Ring Protect plan for all new customers.

The Home and Away Mode enables users to disable motion sensors when at home to prevent being overloaded by multiple alerts from their device(s). This will now belong to the package of features only enabled via a subscription (this shift will not affect UK users). Ring currently charges $3.99 / £3.49 / AU$4.95 per month per Ring camera or device, or $39.99 / £34.99 / AU$49.95 a year, for this 'Ring Protect Basic' plan. 'Ring Protect Plus', accommodating unlimited devices, comes in at $10 / £8 / AU$15 per month, or $100 / £80 / AU$150 a year.

• These are the best doorbell cameras to keep your home safe and secure

The principal advantage of what Ring call 'an optional subscription' is automatic cloud recording of events captured by the cameras. By default, this is set to 30 days but can be increased to 180. Without it, the camera and doorbell's main functionality is live view; you see an alert (triggered by motion or a doorbell press), view the live video, and talk using two-way chat.

In fairness to Ring, the optional subscription approach is very much the industry standard, with similar approaches taken by the likes of Arlo, Google Nest, and others. It is also true of the other Amazon-owned company in this space, Blink, but it also offers the option of local storage via a modestly priced hub.

What is unusual, however, is a retrospective shift in the user experience. Sadly this gives a clear idea of the power imbalance in these subscription plans.

The same 'freemium' model was also applied to the Ring Alarm. This device, now in its second generation, works via the Ring app and is made up of traditional alarm devices – like a keypad (to arm / disarm), a siren, motion sensors, and contact sensors.

Here, too, the modes feature is being put behind the subscription paywall. At the moment you can use the app to switch modes and receive alerts when the system is triggered. That will not be true for new Ring Alarm customers, who will get no 'smart home' utility from the app without a subscription. Unlike the cameras and doorbells, however, existing owners won't be forced to cough up, for now. Instead, existing Ring Alarm base stations will be grandfathered.

Ring has a history of provoking rage from its customers. The previous price increase, in July 2022, took a monthly subscription from $3.00 to $3.99, and £3.50 to £3.49. This above-inflation rate increase to the current pricing incited a significant backlash.

The Ring price plans are the same across the devices, however, from the cheapest doorbell to floodlight cameras. 

If you enjoyed this article, you might want to check out our guide to the best Ring cameras and the best outdoor security cameras, and see which system fares best in our Blink vs Ring head to head.

Ring has announced that its clever and competitive security monitoring technology will now be available to watch over your car. Taking the form of a small and discreet camera, this Ring Car Cam will record your view as you drive, with an additional camera facing toward the driver seat for an inside look at your car. 

Both a front and rear live view of your car will be accessible anytime, acting as a deterrent to ward off any thieves with a two-way communication system, motion detection, and night vision. It will give you the same peace of mind as you get with the best Ring cameras, allowing you to keep an eye on your vehicle no matter where you decide to park, with GPS included too.

The world's most influential trade show, CES 2023, has been making all of our tech dreams come true lately, announcing developments with ASUS laptops and 3D imaging, as well as "life-changing" Panasonic glasses for the visually impaired, and now Ring has stepped up to the plate with the latest announcement of the vehicle security Ring Car Cam. 

Available for pre-order now, the Ring Car Cam from Amazon will begin shipping to US customers as early as February, priced at approximately $249.99 (£205 / AU$360). However, you might want to get your Cam pre-ordered now – as the Ring Car Cam is currently available at a lower price of $199.99 (£165 / AU$289 approximately) for a limited time only during the pre-order stage.

Owning one of the best dash cams is a great way to protect yourself and your vehicle while on the road, documenting every shred of evidence should you need it for an insurance claim. But Ring has taken it a step further with the Ring Car Cam, able to alert you if someone is attempting to steal your car in a parking lot, climbing into your car boot at a gas station, and can even let you know where your car is parked should you forget, with a built-in GPS function. 

As can be seen from the promotional video above, Ring has been pulling out all of the stops to make this smart security device one of the best front and rear dash cams that offer top-of-the-range monitoring, all controlled by the Ring App.

Two cameras, one dual-facing, are equipped with Night Vision and able to detect plus record any suspicious movement, providing you with the clearest picture of any activity to help keep you alert of a potential break-in or collision while parked, with real-time alerts when motion is detected.

Check-in on your vehicle at any time with Live View and Two-Way Talk via the compatible smart Ring App when your Car Cam is connected to your home wifi, or using LTE as provided through a Ring Protect Go subscription. The Ring Car Cam also offers a unique feature called Traffic Stop, which will record several minutes of action if the user says, “Alexa, record,” even if the car is stationary or parked. This feature would be extremely helpful in instances if you are pulled over or congested. 

The dual-facing camera has the option to record both when your car is in motion, and when it’s turned off - should any movement be detected. The Car Cam plugs into and is powered by your vehicle’s battery - via the OBD-II port - and can be securely attached to your car windshield and dashboard, with the cable neatly tucked away. 

For those a little worried about the Ring Car Cam and Alexa's always-recording and always-listening design, the company has included a privacy shutter that can be switched over for the inside-facing camera, which easily disables the interior video and all audio when it is covered over, to retain privacy and control. Just don't forget to re-open the shutter when you lock or park your car. 

Ring Protect Go is a service that can extend your Ring vehicle protection, with an LTE cellular connection for the RIng Car Cam enabling you to access live view and other features when your car is away from your home Wi-Fi connection, such as when you're grocery shopping and wish to view your vehicle in the parking lot, or if you've left your vehicle behind at an airport. Users can subscribe to Ring Protect Go for $6 per month or $60 per year.

Ring's Chief Technology Officer, Josh Roth, has shared that "I’m always humbled by the stories of how Ring has made a real-world impact, like when Ring Alarm stopped a burglary from happening in Ontario, California, or when footage from one of our cameras helped lead to the arrest of an attempted kidnapper in Ohio, and of course, the number of times our devices helped families find missing loved ones who accidentally wandered off."

What do you think of this newly-announced smart dash cam from Ring? Let us know!

You may also want to take a look at Blink vs Ring: which Amazon security camera system is best? as well as our guide to the best camera for car photography, and not forgetting the best doorbell cameras on the market.

An external security camera has captured a video of a raccoon trying to catch falling snowflakes, standing on its hind legs with its arms outstretched. No matter how old you are, snow can be pretty magical – and this one raccoon from Washington State seems to think exactly the same. 

Although raccoons often have a bad rep for being vicious and riddled with diseases, it’s hard to imagine this after watching the adorable clip. The heartwarming video was captured by YouTuber Timothy Ellis who found the raccoon playing in his snow-covered garden a week before Christmas. 

The camera used hasn’t been listed but it provides a very clear, high-quality picture so we can only imagine it’s one of the best outdoor security cameras such as the Arlo Go 2 or the Blink Outdoor. With more than 77K views on YouTube, it's Ellis’ most popular video by far though it’s hardly surprising – it really does pull on your heartstrings.

For 27 seconds, the raccoon tries (and fails) to collect snowflakes before running off into the night. Raccoons are commonly known as trash pandas due to the dark markings around their eyes and their tendency to rummage around in garbage in urban areas. Usually, raccoons aren’t associated with snow, so this footage provides a refreshing, endearing look into the lives of these large mammals. 

While external security cameras are officially designed to keep your property safe and deter thieves, on more than one occasion they have captured something out of the ordinary may that be an inquisitive creature or a tree getting struck by lightning. We can’t promise you’ll be lucky enough to capture such aww-worthy content as Timothy Ellis but a security camera will certainly help keep your home safe. 

You might also like the best indoor security cameras and the best ring doorbell cameras.

Owners of Amazon Ring doorbells have become the latest victims of "swatting" attacks across the United States. 

Swatting may be a new term for many, but it is a familiar one to those in the gaming and online streaming communities. In simple terms, it is the act of making a false police report dispatcher, in order to send a large number of armed officers (SWAT teams) to a person's home address. Such hoax calls could include a hostage situation, bomb threat or homicide. 

This form of emergency service deception is a highly criminal offense, though it has become a common prank in instances where the occupant may be live streaming via Twitch or YouTube, unaware of what's about to happen, so that the viewers and online pranksters can watch it happen in real-time. 

• These are the best doorbell cameras!

Sadly, the act of Swatting is nothing new and has been ongoing for a few years, but in more recent events it appears that Amazon's Ring doorbells and smart security devices are the latest to be targeted by swatters and hackers. 

Two men have been charged in Wisconsin and North Carolina for hacking Yahoo! email accounts and gaining unauthorized access to these cameras, taunting police officers, and placing 12 hoax calls through these devices in what reports are calling a weeklong swatting spree that took place in 2020.

The perpetrators have been named as 21-year-old Kya Christian Nelson from Racine, Wisconsin, as well as 20-year-old James Thomas Andrew McCarty from Charlotte, North Carolina. According to Fox News the pair have been charged with one count of conspiracy to intentionally access computers without authorization, as well as two counts of aggravated identity theft charged to Nelson.

An indictment was returned on December 16 2022 from the federal grand jury in Los Angeles, which stated that McCarty and Nelson gained access to home security door cameras sold by Ring LLC between November 07-13 2020, acquiring unauthorized access to the usernames and password information for Yahoo! email accounts belonging to victims throughout the United States.

In an announcement, the US Justice Department has revealed that the pair "determined whether the owner of each compromised Yahoo! account also had a Ring account using the same email address and password that could control associated internet-connected Ring doorbell camera devices. Using that information, they identified and gathered additional information about their victims."

The pair of young hackers during the week-long swatting spree allegedly placed hoax phone calls with the intent to elicit an extreme armed police response, then live-streamed several of these responses from the hacked doorbell cameras onto social media, and verbally taunted law enforcement and police officers that arrived at the scene through the Ring cameras.

The statement from the Department of Justice also revealed that on November 08 2020, Nelson and an accomplice accessed accounts including a Ring doorbell from a victim in West Covina, California, and made a hoax call to the local police department originating from the victim’s residence, posing as a minor child reporting that her parents were drinking and shooting guns inside the home. 

Having reportedly gained access to a dozen Ring home security door cameras across the US, can we trust that even the best home security cameras can keep us safe and protected from hackers such as McCarty and Nelson?

The FBI back in 2020 was forced to issue a public service announcement that urged users of smart home devices to enable the security measure of two-factor authentication, and to use more complex and dissimilar passwords to protect against any potential swatting attacks. 

The indictment and DOJ statement also revealed that similar swatting incidents have occurred in areas that include Flat Rock, Michigan; Redding, California; Billings, Montana; Decatur, Georgia; Chesapeake, Virginia; Rosenberg, Texas; Oxnard, California; Darien, Illinois; Huntsville, Alabama; North Port, Florida; and Katy, Texas.

Update 21 December 2022: Ring has since released a statement pertaining to the issue, suggesting that: “Swatting is a serious crime, and those responsible for it should be brought to justice. In this case, we learned bad actors used stolen customer email credentials obtained from external (non-Ring) services to access other accounts, and took immediate steps to help those customers secure their Ring accounts. We also supported the FBI in identifying the individuals responsible.

"We take the security of our customers extremely seriously—that’s why we made two-step verification mandatory, conduct regular scans for Ring passwords compromised in non-Ring breaches, and continually invest in new security protections to harden our systems. We are committed to continuing to protect our customers and vigorously going after those who seek to harm them.”

• You may also want to take a look at our guides to the best outdoor security cameras, as well as the best cheap security cameras, plus the best fake security cameras to act as a deterrent, the best body cameras, and not forgetting also the best dash cams to capture the action on the road.

Smart doorbells like this provide a dual function; they let you answer your door wherever you are via a phone app (at least as a disembodied voice) and they provide a discrete security camera. Ring, owned by Amazon, is a leading brand with the advantage that they also provide accessories like a Chime (which we tested alongside this doorbell) to save internal wiring, as well as security cameras and devices which will pair with the same phone app.

The Video Doorbell 3 has been superseded by the pricier but similar-looking Video Doorbell 4, and faces a good deal of competition from other Ring products as well as an ever-growing army of competitors. As such it remains the sensible mainstream choice for those looking to take the smart doorbell route without paying the ‘tax’ for cutting edge.

Specifications

Video: 1080P

Field of view: 160˚ horizontal

Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz and 5GHz

Dimensions: 128 x 62 x 2.8mm (5 x 2.4 x 1.1 in)

Temperature range: -20 to 48˚C (-4 to 118˚F)

See Ring vs Blink: which Amazon security system is best?

Build and handling

The Video Doorbell 3 (like its near-identical predecessor and successor) is a good looking two-tone design with a gloss black around the camera and a silver plastic faceplate. It’s chunky, to accommodate the battery, and Ring provide one free alternative faceplate in a different tone if you choose. This is done via a digital voucher, so avoiding plastic waste, which is to be applauded. In fact, the packaging in general is impressively efficient (perhaps pleasing Ring’s parent company). 

Installing the doorbell involves popping the faceplate off and following the clear instructions. If you need to mount at an angle a wedge is included. You can attach the doorbell to existing low-voltage wiring in the UK or US, or simply charge the battery and install without wires. The battery has a MicroUSB socket built in and a charging cable is included. While the cover is off, you can see Ring’s ring of LEDs which provide animated visual feedback – your home will be able to give visitors a spinning beachball!

Once installed, the app will – assuming you pay the $3.99 / £3.49 monthly subscription – store motion clips. The doorbell can also act as a kind of answering machine, with a choice of messages (including some fun seasonal options).

Performance

In general, the Ring Video Doorbell 3 served more reliably than many competitors. It’s clear that time has been spent refining the app and we appreciated that choices were clarified in clear English and their likely effect on the battery life made plain. We also really liked The breadth of features that arguably counterbalance the one weak spot: the main camera.

It’s not a bad camera, handling lighting conditions well, but it is mounted horizontally which means that – unlike, for example, WeMo or Nest’s offerings – the view doesn’t extend as far down to the step as you might hope (or as far up if you’re mounting low). The wide-angle balances this to some extent, and most of the time it isn’t an issue, but it does seem to render the package detection feature somewhat redundant.

Video sample: In glaring sunlight the camera still produces clear video.

A slight irritation is the seemingly entrenched Ring battery design. It’s great that the battery is interchangeable with so many other Ring devices (like the Stick-Up Cam or Spotlight Cam Plus), but MicroUSB does seem a little retro now. Charging is slow and, unless you keep a spare battery, means several hours with your doorbell out of action. 

Verdict

The Doorbell 3’s camera provides good quality video which makes it easy to view visitor’s faces, and the app (as well as decent mic and and speaker) make communication clear. We weren’t concerned about the camera quality (it copes well even when the sun is on it) but the horizontal mount feels a bit outdated. The one thing that can be said for it is that it looks in keeping with other cameras in a multi-camera install.

Some might find the automated replies a little inhuman, but for those who take time answering the door it could be a godsend. 

The Ring ecosystem has some nice touches too – we liked the Chime, and the fact it could make different sounds for motion alerts on other cameras as well as being the main doorbell. You can also have one camera (or doorbell) activate others for better coverage. All of this goes some way towards making up for the $100/£80 a year cloud subscription for unlimited Ring devices.

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If you're security-minded and keen to protect your home, video doorbell cameras are the next logical step. Functioning like a home security camera, video doorbells are able to stream and record footage of what's happening on your doorstep so that you can always feel confident that your home is being kept safe. Luckily, one of the best doorbell cameras on the market, the Ring Video Doorbell Pro, is currently on offer. 

The Ring Video Doorbell Pro is currently being sold in a bundle with the Chime Pro for just $179, which is a $120 discount from its original price of $299! With 1080p video resolution, night vision functionality and a 160º field of view, the Ring Video Doorbell Pro is a fantastic piece of tech that's now available for an equally fantastic price.

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Meanwhile the Chime Pro functions as a Wi-Fi extender for Ring devices, which means that you can link compatible Ring devices together for better Wi-Fi coverage and instant notifications. It offers multiple alert tones, volume control and a do not disturb mode.

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Ring has launched its first indoor-only  home security camera. Best known for its doorbell cameras, that allow you to see is at your door without getting off the sofa (or even without being in the country) - the new wifi-enabled Ring Indoor Cam is designed to help you keep an eye on what is going on in your home, rather than what is outside it.

Ring has made security cameras before, but they have been designed for outdoor use (even if people did actually also use them indoors). But this is a non-weatherproof and mains-operated model that is designed for use in your living room or kitchen – and which also becomes the cheapest smart home security device in the Ring range, costing $59.99 / £49.

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Ring Indoor Cam can be mounted just about anywhere in the home and features up to 1080p HD video, motion zones, night vision, two-way talk, and motion-activated recording. The device also includes privacy features that enable users to disable motion and audio recording right from the app, and an indicator light that displays whenever the camera is recording.

Ring, which is now owned by Amazon, also announced Ring also its third-generation Ring Stick Up Cam.  The new Stick Up Cam can be installed indoors or outdoors and comes in three power options: Plug-In ($99.99), Battery ($99.99 / £89), or Solar ($148.99 / £129). Featuring up to 1080p HD video, motion detection, night vision, two-way talk, and a wide viewing angle, Stick Up Cam provides flexible home security and privacy wherever it’s needed most.

As with previous Ring devices, you have the option to record the footage shot by these cameras using Ring's cloud storage subscription service ($3 / £2.50 a month for one device, or £8 / $10 per month for unlimited Ring cameras).

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