The next generation of Ring’s smart home doorbells is here, with better sound, a wider field of view and, most interestingly, radar. The Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 replaces its direct predecessor as the flagship of the range and offers new features called 3D Motion Detection and Bird’s Eye View. Both use the new radar sensor – with a range of up to 30 feet – to better identify and track people approaching your home. The former is designed to make motion detection much more accurate, while the latter uses radar to track someone’s movement through your front yard in real time.
In terms of specifications, the Pro 2 has a new 1,536p HD video camera with a fish-eye lens, so you can look down and see the floor of your porch. While other ring clocks have a 90 degree vertical field of view, this model is 150 degrees in either direction so you can actually see the packages on your porch. The company added that a new array microphone will help reduce sound distortion for clearer sound when talking to visitors.
Since they use a camera to detect motion, Ring doorbells can often be overzealous with its motion alerts. View your app’s activity log and see alerts triggered by birds flying past, a large truck blocking the sun for a moment, and people walking on the sidewalk. Using a radar sensor for 3D motion alerts will hopefully reduce the number of incidents as it will only search for motion within the range you have set up to 30 feet.
Bird’s Eye View, meanwhile, uses the sensor to track a person’s journey to your door to make sure they don’t stray off the path. Review the footage and you’ll see an inlaid map with a breadcrumb trail, presumably to make sure they haven’t started rummaging around your property. If you feel a little nervous about the privacy and surveillance implications inherent in this type of tracking, get in line.
The longer Ring is part of Amazon, the closer the integration between your doorbell and the retailer’s digital assistant is. Now users can set up Quick Replies and Alexa Greetings, which allow you to make a preset request, or have Alexa take messages as an answering machine without talking to the app itself. In an example, Alexa could ask a delivery person to put a package on the step if your period is different.
The Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2, like its predecessor, is a wired-only competitor, and looks like it’s the same size and shape as the first version. It can be pre-ordered starting today and will ship to customers starting March 31, 2021 at a price of $ 250.