Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have only been using the Ring for a couple of weeks now but so far it seems worth the cost. I don't mind the $30 per year cloud storage fee as I'd much rather not have to house the hours of video data this thing records each day in being at the front door. Installation wasn't difficult once we determined we had the right configs. Things you should know: 1) we tested ring out of the box after a full charge (the ring button will fully circle with blue light when comeplete) and it worked like a dream. Good picture, although fish eyed, even in the dark. That surprised me. 2) we then installed the ring hard wired to our existing doorbell. The doorbell worked, but the Ring video and motion/button notification no longer did. 3) we checked the long list of compatible doorbells that you can find on the Ring website. While the advertising and box says it works with virtually every doorbell... It doesn't. We have a Nutone bell. Fairly common. Doesn't work with ring. I was determined to get this thing working. 4) went to Best Buy and purchased the Ring chime. It's a plug in ring chime that allows you to install the Ring without hardwiring to your existing doorbell. So we have the Ring doorbell screwed in to the same place on the doorframe, but the wires are capped off and not connected to Ring. Plugged in and synced up the chime to wifi and it worked. It's very loud. You can also hear the Ring chime outside pretty loud so with that plus the Ring chime on every phone, iPad, etc in your house... Maybe not necessary to have the Chime unless you have a 4000+ sq ft house or don't have phones, tablets or computers with Ring app on them near you. But the plug in Chime was only $30. To me less hassle and cost than buying and installing a compatible doorbell transformer. 5) Ring began working like a champ. Then it grew increasingly unpredictable. We played with the motion settings, decreased it so that cars going by wouldn't alert us of motion at the door, etc. Butterflies set it off; they say it's heat sensored; not sure butterflies are warm inside, but I digress. It still works when it needs to "most" of the time. 6) As a doorbell, it's flawless. If someone pushes the button, the video begins. Talking to the visitor is clear and easy to accomplish. This is the best feature of the doorbell. 7) motion is hit or miss. It works, maybe not always, but enough to give me peace of mind on top of my other home security without video capabilities. Sure I get video at 4am of nothing, so if you are a scared woman living alone this may freak you out more than it helps, but for people with latchkey kids or teens that you want to keep an eye on in terms of verifying they're home or that unwelcome visitors aren't at your home, this is excellent. For people who get deliveries while at work or out of town, or folks who can't get up to answer the door, excellent. To keep intruders at bay... Eh, there are better surveillance systems out there for that. 8) the live view feature does not work if you set up using the not-hard-wired method. So if doing what I did and using the Ring chime, you will not be able to view live feed from your doorbell. You'll need the stick up cam. Didn't know this until after I did all of the above to get this thing functioning. But, we ended up buying a Ring stick up cam after all to get a better view of the opposite side of our home since the view from Ring is blocked... and we love it. Use it daily. It's motion detection is actually a bit more sensitive but that's okay. We drilled a small hole in our garage door wall to hard wire electricity to the stick uo cam as it works hard every day and loses battery life in less than 2 months for us. Don't depend on the battery. It will drive you nuts. Or get the solar charger panel. All in all, I'm happy we made this purchase. I wonder is the newer version really worth it for "better" video quality. This one doesn't nearly give out 720p so I'm guessing the new version saying 1080p is more like 720. The newer version had some bad reviews in terms of functionality and quality of the doorbell itself so I went with the longer-tested, older version and am quite pleased. So far so good and worth $200 IMO. We are still playing with doorbell types and have yet to find one that works after trying two different mechanical transformers. Customer service was less than helpful and referred us back to the list of tested doorchimes. If you have one that is not on the compatibility list, chances are it will not work hard wired and you will need the Ring chime. And again, know that the live feed will not work. Also concerning charging, it of course depends upon your usage but with a few notifications per day, we notice the battery has drained down about 8% over the last few weeks. I suspect it will need to be unscrewed and put on the charger within the next 5 months or so at this rate. If you are hardwiring, it will charge itself. If you are using the Ring chime and not hardwiring, you will need to charge it using the included USB charger, so expect having to remove it from the front porch every 5-7 months or thereabouts if using this method. Also don't be afraid to keep playing with the settings... we have managed to get it pretty close to perfect over the last few weeks. It takes some trial & error. It still misses some movement, and still picks up nothing... but it's better to have than not, IMO.