Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus Review

When I checked out the Ring Battery Video Doorbell 4 I was one happy chappy. The ease of setup, installation, and access on your phone made this a slam dunk in my house. Well now the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus is out, with promises of more battery and more vision; from one angle anyway.

Installation, setup, etc.

This is exactly the same as with the Ring Battery Video Doorbell 4. So if you are looking to understand that process, then check out my review here. I won’t bore you repeating myself, but in short, it’s fast, easy, and versatile.

What makes the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus different?

Field of view

The biggest win the new Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus offers is the 150-degrees horizontal and vertical view. The previous models had a 160-degree horizontal view and a 84-degree vertical view. This means you capture slightly less width over your front yard, but so much more on your doorstep.

Given most of us capture a lot of wall at our front door the slight decrease isn’t a major, but that massive increase on the vertical means you can capture things like a package on your doorstep. The view it grabs from directly below is excellent and handy when you get that NZPost text saying something is delivered but you are only two hours into your work day.

Video Quality

Another surprising increase is that the resolution has bumped from 1080p to 1536p. That’s another big win, especially if you want to capture detail further down your property/driveway. On top of that it now offers colour night video. It wasn’t like you are looking at a video filled with colour, because that is day time. But with the enhancement of low light colour it definitely makes checking out what is going on much easier.

Battery life

The battery life can be up to three times longer than previous models. The issue with testing is … these battery lives are months not weeks, but I can confirm I haven’t had to charge either yet. Obviously the battery life will go down the more videos it takes, how much you use the colour night vision, etc. The more time you spend watching live, the faster that will strip. 

The down sides

The Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus is cheaper than the Ring Battery Video Doorbell 4. I have been raving about the ways it is better, so surely there has to be a catch right?

The biggest loss is it doesn’t include the preroll. With the Ring Battery Video Doorbell 4 it records a few seconds constantly and so when something triggers an alert it keeps those four seconds at the start of your video. It is surprising how much that captures so that is a big loss.

The other major loss is it supports 2.4GHz WiFi. The Ring Battery Video Doorbell 4 offers 2.4GHz & 5GHz which to be honest should be standard these days. If you don’t have many devices connecting to your WiFi you’ll be fine. But let’s be honest if you are using a video doorbell, odds are your house is filled with stuff connected to WiFi. You may never have an issue, and I didn’t find any, but having dual band does mean devices can grab the least crowded one at any given time.

One thing I loved that I didn’t expect was the Ring Battery Video Doorbell 4 gives you a code for a new faceplate for free meaning you can colour match the wall you are attaching it to. The Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus on the other hand doesn’t. As long as you like one of the default colours you are sweet as here.

A damn good front door doorbell

It’s tough, the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus has some serious pluses going for it with a couple of niggly negatives. The new field of view and the cheaper price though makes this a serious contender for your front door. Ring keeps delivering.