Ring Doorbell Pro 1 to 2: Worth The Upgrade? – New Video

The Ring Doorbell Pro 2 has recently been released, but is it worth upgrading to if you already own the Pro 1?

After all, the Pro 2 is now one of the most expensive smart doorbells on the market, so surely it has something to justify its price increase… right?

Well, I cover all this and more in today’s video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAGYvgjZQOQ&ab_channel=SmartHomePoint

The video timestamps are:

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:13 Benefit 1 – better resolution
• 1:46 Benefit 2 – built-in radar
• 2:41 Benefit 3 – improved speaker and mic
• 3:26 Flaw 1 – less faceplates
• 3:42 Flaw 2 – quite expensive
• 3:56 Flaw 3 – doorbell delay still exists
• 4:24 Flaw 4 – no WiFi 6
• 4:45 Wrapping up

Video Transcript

Hello, I’m Tristan from Smart Home Point. A few weeks ago, Ring released the Ring Doorbell Wired – something which wasn’t all that much different to the Ring Doorbell Pro (as I covered in a previous video). This begged the question: why pay $200 more for the Pro, compared to the Wired?

Well, Ring have recently attempted to justify this fairly big price difference by releasing the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2, an upgrade over the original Pro model. But is it worth upgrading to the Pro 2 if you already have the Pro (or Pro 1)? Well, I cover this question in today’s video but firstly, I wanted to be grumpy and point out that “Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2” is a stupid name. I mean, the line-up already has the “Ring Doorbell 2” and the “Ring Doorbell 1 (2nd Gen) – 2020 Edition”. So there’s now three Ring doorbells with the number “2” in their name. Ah well.

Going back to the main point of this video – am I excited about the Ring Pro 2? Well… yes, I am. It has some really nice new features. But am I going to pay $250 to upgrade from my Pro 1? Probably not.

The first change is a higher video resolution – 1536p, which Ring calls “head to toe”. In essence, instead of standard 1920x1080p resolution, you get 1920x1536p – in other words, the video is 50% taller. This is pretty useful, especially for seeing parcels put on your doorstep. It also means that the Ring Pro 2 now offers better resolution than Nest Hello’s doorbell, although it’s still some way short of Eufy’s 2k resolution.

Moving on, the feature I’m actually most excited about is the built-in radar that offers “3D motion detection” ooooh. Marketing phrases aside, the radar offers two awesome features: firstly, you can now set motion detection to activate based on distance – in other words, you can specify to only be notified when someone comes within 15 yards of your property. That’s actually pretty useful. Secondly, this radar technology allows Ring to build up a map of exactly where a person (or animal) moved. This can then be overlaid onto a satellite image of your home, offering “bird’s eye view”. Whilst this won’t offer the drone-like footage that Ring’s promotional videos show, it’ll still be quite a nice feature – especially if a would-be criminal is ‘scoping out’ your property.

Thirdly, Ring realised that the original intercom functionality (allowing you to talk to visitors or delivery couriers) has a bit of a flaw: the speaker and microphone wasn’t very good! So the Ring Pro 2 offers an improved speaker with “HD audio”, along with a microphone that has noise cancellation. This should mean that if – like me – you can barely talk to visitors due to wind hitting the microphone, the Ring Pro 2 will work a lot better.

And… that’s pretty much it for new features. Some are genuinely useful, but some will probably just end up as marketing gimmicks. Are there are downsides to the Pro 2? Well, yes, there are a few.

Firstly, the Pro 2 only comes with one faceplate in the box (unlike the Pro 1 that used to include four faceplates). You can request another for free, and there’s a wider range of colors to now choose from, but it’s still a bit of a backwards step.

Secondly, $250 for the Pro 2 is quite a lot – especially compared to the Eufy Doorbell which is much cheaper and has a better resolution.

Next up, the original Pro sometimes has a frustrating issue with a 2-3 second delay between the doorbell being pressed and your pre-existing mechanical chime from sounding. This is due to the design that essentially handles all the smart stuff on the Ring doorbell first, and then switches to the ‘old doorbell’ chime mode – and the Ring Pro 2 will work the same way too.

Fourthly, WiFi 6 has ever-greater support amongst routers and smartphones, but the Ring Pro 2 doesn’t support it – even though it’ll probably be around for a few years at least. This seems like a missed opportunity on what is one of the most expensive smart doorbells on the market.

And that just about wraps things up. I don’t think that I’ll be upgrading to the Pro 2 myself, to be honest. I wouldn’t often use the “head to toe” feature, nor the “bird’s eye view” – I already know how people can walk up to my front door, after all! The only feature I would like is the upgraded speaker and microphone which is a nice feature, but not enough to justify me buying the Pro 2.

Before I wrap up, at the start of this video I mentioned that Ring Doorbell buyers have a choice between the Ring Wired and Pro doorbells – with the Wired being the better option in many cases. However, with the release of this Pro 2 model, the Pro 1 will probably be retired soon, meaning that in the future you’ll now have a clearer choice between the budget $60 Doorbell Wired and the expensive $250 Pro 2. After all, there’s now a range of extra features on the Pro 2 (compared to the Wired).

Okay, I hope you found this video useful. If you did, please click the thumbs up button and don’t forget to subscribe. Thank you!