Ring Battery Doorbell Pro
With 3D vision, the Ring Doorbell Pro can exclude busy sidewalks from your alerts. The wide-angle lens captures more of your yard, plus the removable battery makes recharging simpler. The doorbell will also record night vision in full color. You can’t save video without a subscription, however.
Google Nest Doorbell (Battery)
The Google Nest Doorbell does more without a subscription, allowing three hours of video history and person detection in the free plan. Or, with a subscription, it’s one of the few options that will tell you who is at the front door. It will also save footage during an internet outage. However, without a removable battery, recharging can be a bit annoying.
Equipping a home with smart cameras often starts with the front door. However, video doorbells can do more than just show you who is knocking. Arguably, the most innovative options come from brands like Google Nest and Amazon Ring. Despite featuring a single camera, Ring’s newBattery Doorbell Procan display a bird’s eye view of the path to your front door. But how does the newest Ring stand up to Google’s longstanding battery-powered Nest Doorbell?
After testing the two smart video doorbells, some clear differences made one leapfrog over the other.
Best smart security camera: Keep your home safe
The best smart security cameras monitor your home’s interior and exterior using 3D motion alerts, night vision, and even Alexa integration.
Looking at the specs of each model, it’s difficult to pick a clear winner, especially since both options offer voice control. But after testing the two smart video doorbells, some clear differences made one leapfrog over the other. Here’s how the newRing Battery Doorbell Prostacks up against theNest Doorbell (Battery).
Price, specs & availability
Before the recent launch of the Battery Doorbell Pro, Ring’s only battery option was the more affordable choice. Now, however, the roles have reversed. As one of the company’s high-end options, the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro retails for $230 while the Nest Doorbell (Battery) sells for about $180.
If you want to slide by without a subscription, Nest is the more affordable choice. Google offers three hours of video recordings and features like person and package detection without a subscription. Ring only allows users to watch live footage, not previously recorded video, with a free plan.
You’ll want a subscription to see videos that happened more than three hours ago (i.e., to see what triggered the camera while you were sleeping) even with a Nest camera. And here, Ring has the more affordable option for single-camera users at $5 a month. Nest’s most basic subscription costs $8 a month, though it isn’t limited to a single smart camera. If you have more than one Ring camera, you’ll need the Plus subscription, which costs $10 a month.
Ring Protect vs Arlo Secure vs Nest Aware: Security subscription face-off
Subscriptions expand the abilities of smart security cameras, but which company offers the best option?
Ring may offer fewer features without a subscription, but the company’s most advanced subscription offers more than Nest’s. Ring Protect Pro, which costs $20 per month, includes professional alarm monitoring, a service that Google doesn’t offer. The most affordable $5 plan saves video for an impressive 180 days, while the $10 Plus plan supports multiple cameras and enhanced notifications.
Features and storage options
What delivers smarter notifications, facial recognition or 3D motion detection?
Ring’s newest video doorbell has an intriguing feature. Using 3D motion detection and satellite imagery, the camera can show you the path that a person took to get to your front door. Practically speaking, the biggest reason to use this feature is to limit the number of notifications the camera sends to your phone. While both doorbells will allow users to draw out a motion detection zone, Ring’s 3D view does a little better at customizing that motion zone based on distance from the camera.
Another point for Ring is the removable battery. If you don’t want to miss a guest while the doorbell is charging, you can purchase an extra, plus the process of charging is simpler. The Nest model, on the other hand, doesn’t have a removable battery, and you have to remove the entire doorbell to recharge its battery.
The older Nest doorbell, however, still delivers some hard-to-find features. Chief among these is internal storage. During an internet outage, you won’t receive notifications. However, the doorbell will still save videos and so you’ll still see what happened once your network is back online. Ring doesn’t have that option and anything that happens during an outage won’t be recorded at all.
The Nest model can also recognize familiar faces if you have an active subscription and go through the process of saving familiar faces. This means that, instead of receiving a notification that someone is at the door, you’ll see that it’s your neighbor or friend without even opening the app or watching the video.
The Ring’s ultra-wide view is a win
While you can get an idea of the clarity you can expect from a video doorbell based on the camera’s resolution, the biggest feature to look for is actually how wide the lens is. Often, video doorbells can’t see your welcome mat – they are just too close and the lens isn’t wide enough. That creates issues as directly in front of your door is typically where delivery drivers will leave packages. Thankfully, both the Nest Doorbell Battery and Ring Battery Doorbell Pro will allow you to see a head-to-toe view directly in front of the door, but both brands approach the problem a little differently.
Nest tackles this issue by turning the video sideways, so it’s actually recording a TikTok-style vertical video rather than horizontal. This makes it easy to see your packages from the 1,280p video.
Ring, however, uses an ultra-wide lens that allows it to capture a 150-degree field of view both vertically and horizontally. While both will show you packages, Ring’s wider horizontal view will show more of your front porch or yard. Ring also has a higher 1,536p HD+ resolution.
Night vision scores another point for the Ring Doorbell Pro – a built-in spotlight that allows for color night vision. Nest however, uses infrared sensors for black-and-white night vision.
Smart home compatibility
The two doorbells are neck-and-neck for compatibility
If you’re already invested in a smart home system, compatibility can often make the decision for you. That said, there are not many differences between Nest Doorbell (Battery) and Ring Battery Doorbell Pro here. Naturally, Ring devices are compatible with Alexa and Echo devices, but they also work with Google Home and Google Assistant. Similarly, Nest works with Alexa. If you have an Echo Show, both doorbells can stream video to your smart display.
Neither option supports Apple HomeKit.
Ring Battery Doorbell Pro vs Nest Doorbell (Battery): Which video doorbell is best for you?
Pocket-lint awarded both the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro and Nest Doorbell four out of five stars in our testing – so the decision comes down to what features are most important to you.
The Ring Video Doorbell Pro will show you more of your porch with a 150-degree field of view both horizontally and vertically. The 3D motion detection also makes it the ideal choice for homes that face a busy sidewalk, as the satellite view can customize alerts to exclude motion a certain distance from the camera. It also boasts color night vision. If you only plan to buy one camera, the subscription is also a more affordable $5 a month.
The Nest Doorbell (Battery) is the more affordable of the two, especially considering you may save some video and customize the alerts for people, packages, vehicles, and animals without incurring monthly fees. If you want the ability to recognize familiar faces or view videos from more than three hours ago, the $8 starting price of a subscription will mean gradually spending more than Ring’s $5 plan. If you own more than one Ring camera, however, Nest’s basic plan becomes the more affordable choice as it’s not restricted to a single camera. Nest will also keep recording during an internet outage.
