Ring Video Doorbell 3 review

PROS

Completely wireless

Sharp 1080p video

Pre-Roll video capture

Dual-band Wi-Fi

Supports Amazon Alexa voice commands

 CONS

No Apple HomeKit or Google Assistant support

Requires subscription to view saved recordings

I'm all for smart homes and with the quest to make it more smarter, I'm also mindful on the security and privacy issues that

come with it. Ring as a company is no stranger to controversy when it comes to privacy issues, but with some of their main issues having been addressed. I installed Ring's Video Doorbell 3 that they had sent for review.

The Video Doorbell 3 (AED 839 on Amazon.ae without installation ) is a wireless battery operated smart doorbell that you can install very quickly, even faster if you get a professional installation, if you want a wired connection. It deliver sharp 1080p video, offers motion detection support and has dual band and wi-fi support much like the older Video Doorbell 2.

The key difference is that it also lets you save recordings but you would have to have an additional paid subscription for it.

Design and Features

In terms of design, the Video Doorbell 3 looks exactly the same to its predecessor. It comes with the same black and silver covers as the Doorbell 2. Under the covers, there's the battery housing, holes for mounting it on the wall, and wire terminals to connect if you want to replace your existing doorbell to power it up and connects via dual-band Wi-Fi.

The camera records video at 1080p at a 160-degree field of view, it's triggered when the doorbell button is pressed and when there's a motion detection and uses infrared to record black and white night videos. The battery life varies with usage but it's estimated to give you a solid 6 to 12 months on a single lithium battery charge but can deplete faster if it records a lot of motion event detections. It takes up to 5 hours to charge it but it's fairly easy and all it requires is charging it with the supplied charger.

The Video Doorbell 3 uses the same mobile app (for Android and iOS) as every other Ring device. After you've installed it, you can use it almost immediately and connect it to other Ring devices which I did with the Ring Chime Pro if you have a big house.

There are multiple settings like Disarmed, Home, and Away buttons at the top of the screen that will arm or disarm certain devices depending on whether you’re home or away. You can use the doorbell to view live and recorded video which can be viewed in full 1080p. You can also enable People Detection (which reduces alerts from passing cars and other movement) and increases the battery life.

This doorbell supports Alexa voice commands that allow you to view video on a compatible Amazon device, and will interact with other smart devices, but it lacks support for Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant. However, you can link it to your other Ring devices to have it trigger them when it detects motion.

Conclusions

I was pretty amazed at how easy the whole process was, I installed the video doorbell effortlessly but opted to go for a wired connection just because we could but the fact is that you don't have to deal with wires if you want to go the wireless route, it's easy to mount and get it up and running and I had very little issues when it came to setting it up via the app. 

It makes sense to get the Video Doorbell 3 if you are an existing customer with Ring and use their ecosystem, Ring Video Doorbell 2 users won't see this is an upgrade but it makes sense for the first early adopters of the Video Doorbell to get this. This is an all round solution but for those living in villas, this is ideal.