I have had my Ring Doorbell Pro for just under 2 weeks. Last week we were on vacation so I figured it was the perfect time to buy and test it out within the 30 day trial period. I’ll split this review into 3 bits. First impressions, Install, and Operational Use.

1) First Impressions. We have a security system installed but didn’t go with their camera system because it was CCTV and I wanted something with an internet connection or way to access it from my phone. While making small talk with the security system guy, I mentioned the Ring to him. He was super excited to get out his phone and show me that he has one. He said he couldn’t buy any camera with nearly that quality at that price even with his discounts. He spoke so highly of it I was sure that’s what I wanted to get. We want to do a whole system with cameras on the back of the house, but we purchased the Ring Pro to see how we liked it before we commit to buying everything.

I went with the Ring Pro over the Original Ring because I was going to be wiring it in place anyway. I also like the slender profile and the possibility to use wireless 5.0 in the future if I desire. Plus I live on a very busy road and wanted the advanced motion detection zones on the pro. Since I did my research, I was aware that the Ring Pro has a 160 degree field of view compared to the 180 degree view of the original. For this reason, I purchased fiberglass shims to angle it more towards my large 6 foot doors when I installed it.

I talked with Ring customer service and asked if there was any advantage to ordering through them versus Amazon and they said there were none, so I went with Amazon for my Prime shipping and additional protections of ordering through Amazon.

2) Install. I was a bit intimidated with the install as I’ve never wired anything up before and our house is new construction. But the YouTube video and pamphlets made it pretty clear to follow. They also emphasize that you can call them at any point for assistance. I had also been told by the security system guy that install was super easy and I could do it myself (he’s also the one who gave me the tip about the fiberglass shims). He also gave me an extra tidbit for those of us with stone or brick exteriors: drill into the grout lines – they drill easy; stone does not.

I started with the extra power pack that gets installed inside and connected to your door chime. It was the more complex part of the installation and involved a very tall ladder but it went well. I was impressed that the ring doorbell came with everything you need to install it – including the drill bit AND a screw driver. It even has extra bits you MIGHT need (like extensions wires and extra screws). I also really appreciated how everything was in separate baggies for which part of the install you were doing and was very well labeled (extras were labeled as extras, pro kit wires in one bag, doorbell wires and screws in another). I was unable to fit the power kit inside my chime housing but it doesn’t look bad attached to the wall just outside the chime housing (see picture). It’s just a bit larger than a matchbox.

Installing the actual ring was even easier. I was able to drill into grout lines between stones so I had that going for me. The hook up was super easy, two wires from the house connect to the two connectors on the Ring – doesn’t even matter which is which. Nice and easy. I will have to work out something to cover the shimmed side, but I’ll work something out.

Set up was easy and step-by-step. I was concerned when it was downloading the new firmware and updates and then rebooted because the light was off for (what felt like) a long time (maybe 5 minutes). But it all went flawlessly.

3) Operational Use. I like being able to set up polygons for the motion detection zones. I was able to easily mark my drive way, flowerbeds and porch. I’ve never had a problem with the busy traffic from the road (something the security guy mentioned was a problem with his original Ring). There are two problems they need to work out: You will get a motion detect when the night vision clicks on in the evening and when it clicks off in the morning. Expect that.

Also, this is not a miracle product. It will only work as well as your internet connection. That means a little lag if you’re on a cable connection at peak times. There are a few times I’ve had the video come up in laggy and weirdly pixilated forms that took a second to work out. I’ve also noticed our voice connection is VERY quiet. As in, the person at the door can barely hear the person on the phone, so I consider that feature a bit useless. We managed to scare our cat sitter from the other side of the country and greet my mom, but I wouldn’t rely on it for communicating with people often. We managed to talk to our lawn service but we had to yell into the phone and they had to ask us to repeat ourselves a few times. Also we live on such a busy road that there is a lot of noise which makes the video sound very choppy. So again, I just consider this feature a novelty and not something to rely on.

I mentioned a cat sitter. It was kind of awesome to be able to see that she came by every day. In fact, the first day she didn’t come by until 11:00pm and I worriedly texted her to see if she was going to come. Every other day I took solace in knowing that she had already stopped by without having to text her or fear her shed forget. I was able to see when the lawn service came by and did their thing. I was able to see when packages were delivered and when my mom brought the nephews up to use the pool. I also got to scare the crap out of our friend as they were leaving our empty house and I wished them goodnight. That was worth some money right there. I even caught a few people using my driveway to turn around.

My favorite bit was the unexpected bonus video of my husband going outside to inspect my work. I’m keeping that one.

It catches us leaving for work every day and coming home. It catches me when I go to fill the bird feeders. I’ve not had it miss any movement that I’m aware of. If you have motion sensors on, expect more notifications than you think you will get. As said, you’ll get the two from nightfall and sunrise. Plus I get two from me departing for work and my husband departing plus 2 more for each of us coming home. Add on more for checking the mail and anything you may do in the yard. This is where not being limited on storage size is handy. The cloud storage is $30 per year and it keeps videos for 6 months. It doesn’t say anything about size so having these extra videos doesn’t bother me. I find the video quality to be great and I can easily identify who is at the door night and day.

I also like that it came with a decal showing that the house is monitored. I placed this prominently in my front window along with our security monitoring service decal. Avoiding bad guys is worth more than catching them.

I feel like this was a great purchase. The price is excellent. I love being able to access it anytime from my phone. I love knowing what is going on at my house even when I’m on vacation. I love the security aspect both in surveillance and as a deterrent. It looks sharp (see photo). It’s also a lot of fun. I’ve shown it off to many friends and coworkers, at least one of which decided to get one themselves.

4) Summary. CONS: Only as good as your internet connection. Sunrise and sunset motion detects. Sound quality is useless in my experience. PROS: Access from anywhere, anytime. Surveillance and deterrent. Motion zones let you cut out areas you don’t care to monitor (neighbors yard, roads, ect). Great price.

As a camera only, I would give this 5+ stars, easy. I deducted 1 star because they heavily play up the speaker aspect and that seems worthless in my experience with it. I’m insanely happy with the purchase over all. In the future I will probably buy a chime and a stick-up cam to go along with it.

UPDATE: 1 Year-On. We have had the Ring Pro for One full year now. I’ve also added two of the chime accessories. I’m just as happy with it now as I was when I wrote this review. We tried to trouble shoot the sound a few times and still have had no luck with it. I think my unit might just be defective in that area. However I still think if this was advertised as a camera only, it would be 100% worth the price and 5 stars. I did have someone point out the sticker over the ring might be the cause of our sound problem, removing it didn’t help.

Our indoor chime had the oddity of only ringing the first chime (rather than a series) after installation. As our indoor chime was never loud enough anyway, we added two of the chime plug in accessories without even trying to trouble shoot. We added one chime downstairs and one in our master bedroom. We’ve been super happy with them as well.

UPDATE: 3.5 years later. Still working. It stopped working for a while so I called customer service before I purchased a new one to make sure it wasn’t some power issue. They sent me (for free) the version 2.0 power kit and the chime bypass kit. Turned out the chime bypass kit fixed it. I didn’t need the indoor mechanical chime anyway as I have two Ring Chime devices. I used it this morning to tell the pest control guy the gate code without getting out of bed. It’s been up 4 summers now.

I still look at it every week to see what animals were creeping in my yard at night. Love the raccoons that come hang out on my porch some nights.

If this thing died tomorrow, I’d replace it with the exact same model, no regrets.