• Ring Battery VIdeo Doorbell Plus square
    Ring Battery Doorbell Plus
    Our top pick
    $120 $180 Save $60

    The Battery Doorbell Plus is Ring's flagship battery-powered video doorbell, offering improved HD+ video quality and colour night vidion, not to mention a wider field-of-vision vertically for head-to-toe video and package detection.

  • Ring VIdeo Doorbell 2 square
    Ring Video Doorbell (2nd Gen)
    Still great
    $55 $100 Save $45

    As the entry-level battery-powered option, the Ring Video Doorbell (2nd Gen) offers 1080p HD video but no package detection. Features are similar otherwise, but with no removable battery, the whole unit has to be removed to charge it.

Ring has introduced numerous versions of its popular and convenient battery-powered Video Doorbell over the years, but more recently, it has simplified its line-up by phasing out older models and focusing your choice down to two.

That means you now have to choose between the latest and now flagship Ring Battery Doorbell Plus model and the more basic Ring Video Doorbell (2nd Generation). But with $80 between them, should you push for the features or save yourself money when not on sale?

We're here to help you make that decision, with all the differences and what they mean in practice, so that you can buy confidently.

Specs, availability and pricing

Both battery-powered video doorbells and their wired Pro siblings are available directly from Ring, many resellers, and, of course, Amazon as it owns the brand.

The 2nd Gen model has been around since 2020 and, for $99.99 / £99.99, is a great starter device.

The most recent addition to the range is the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus, which replaced the Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus in 2023. With better specs and performance, it will cost you more - priced at $179.99 / £159.99.


  • Ring Battery Video Doorbell PlusRing Video Doorbell (2nd Gen)
    Video resolution1536p1080p
    Wi-Fi connectivity2.4GHz2.4GHz
    BatteryRechargeable, removableRechargeable, built-in
    Field of view150-degrees horizontal, 150-degrees vertical155-degrees horizontal, 90-degrees vertical
    Measurements128 x 62 x 28mm127 x 62 x 28mm
    Live ViewYesYes
    Two-way TalkYesYes
    Advanced Motion DetectionYesYes
    Night VisionYes, colourYes

Design

As you can see from the images dotted around this page, the battery-based Ring doorbells look very similar to each other. There are very minor changes if you look particularly closely - the camera is larger on the Battery Doorbell Plus to account for its wider field of vision, for example, but you'd have to be paying close attention to spot that.

The result of this is that they are almost identical in size, too, allowing you to upgrade from one to another at any point without necessarily needing to replace the wall mount.

Perhaps the biggest change is the fact that the Ring Video Doorbell (2nd Gen) has a fixed rechargeable battery rather than a removable one. That means you must take the entire doorbell down to charge it (via a micro USB cable). You plug the cable into its rear.

With the Battery Doorbell Plus, the battery can be removed from underneath the doorbell using a special included screwdriver and charged indoors - also via Micro USB. This is more convenient and allows you to have a second spare battery, meaning you can have one ready to swap over and minimise your doorbell downtime.

Ring Battery Doorbell Plus

Both the doorbells are waterproof for outdoor conditions, although they don't come with an official IP rating. The Battery Doorbell Plus is only available in Satin Nickel - a silver colour - while the Video Doorbell (2nd Generation) is available in Satin Nickel (silver) or Venetian Bronze colours. However, removable faceplates are available separately for both.

Each Ring Video Doorbell can be hard-wired as well as used with the included battery, if you prefer - or there is a whole Pro range that may be worth considering, too.

Video Quality

This is an easy one. The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus offers the best quality video of the two, with 1536p video capabilities compared with the 1080p video from the Video Doorbell. The difference in clarity is noticeable, though you won't miss out too much if you can only stretch to a 1080p model - video is still clear and crisp enough for most situations.

However, you do get the benefit of HDR video on the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus, which isn't supported on the Video Doorbell - a feature that can help to brighten up shadowy areas.

At night, the Battery Doorbell Plus wins here again, thanks to its colour night vision mode, which provides a more detailed view when its motion detectors are activated in the dark. That colour is subtle; it won't look like the video does in the day, but it does give it the edge of the standard black and white video with the Video Doorbell - though this still works perfectly well.

Features

You'll get the same basic features with both the Battery Doorbell Plus and the Video Doorbell. That means that you'll get a notification on your phone when someone presses the doorbell, and you can see real-time video of them and talk to them via two-way talk.

You can also receive notifications for any motion spotted within a pre-selected area and watch live video from your Ring device whenever you like. And, if you link one to an optional Ring Chime, it will work just like a conventional doorbell, with a ring inside your house as well as on your phone.

Ring screens

With both doorbells, the Ring Protect subscription is required to make the most of them. It costs from $3.99 / £3.49 per month for one device and will mean your doorbell saves clips to the cloud of all motion triggers and doorbell rings, so you can go back and view them up to 180 days later. Without it, you'll only be able to view anything you are notified about at the time, which isn't very convenient.

Other features that the subscription adds are the use of AI to detect only people (rather than cars, for example), reducing the motion alerts you receive to your phone, and Snapshot Capture, which takes quick snapshots of the day at certain intervals so you can keep an eye on any changes.

So far, so similar. However, the doorbells differ in some of the tech - and unsurprisingly, you get more thrown in with the flagship offering.

Ring Battery Doorbell Plus

As mentioned, the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus uses a different lens to offer a head-to-toe FOV (150 degrees by 150 degrees), so you can see the entirety of your visitors. The original Video Doorbell has a slightly wider FOV (155 degrees) but much less vertical (90 degrees), meaning any parcels left on the doorstep are out of sight.

This head-to-toe video is a first for Ring's battery-powered doorbells and something we've only seen on the wired Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 before now. It allows you to set up package detection more accurately, as the doorbell can see much more.

Both doorbells offer "advanced motion detection", so you should get a similar experience here regarding the amount picked up. If you're missing anything, you can dive into the settings and adjust the motion detection sensitivity - but just be aware of the knock-on effect this will have on battery life.

Surprisingly, the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus only supports single-band (2.4GHz) Wi-Fi like the most basic Ring Video Doorbell (2nd Generation) - a little unusual since the model it replaced had support for dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz). Still, we have had no complaints of stability in our testing, so this shouldn't be something to put you off.

Battery life

Ring doesn't actually list a battery length for its doorbells, as they can change drastically depending on how you use them. That means you can get a couple of months out of them with the right settings - though, of course, ensuring the settings work for your needs is the most important. There's no point in having to charge the batteries once every couple of months if you are missing things as a result.

Ring Video Doorbell 4: The best RIng doorbell yet? photo 6

Still, if you turn down motion sensitivity, switch off HDR or turn off Snapshot Capture, for example, this will lengthen how long your doorbell will go on for, and the app has some recommended settings to help you get the most out of it. Try those and see how you get on, then you can adjust from there.

If you have a busy household with lots of doorbell rings and motion detection, then you can expect it to go down much quicker. If that's the case, you may be better off punting for the Battery Doorbell Plus with the convenience of the removable battery.

Conclusion

Both of the Ring Video Doorbells have their merits, especially as they sit at different price points.

The latest Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus is clearly the most advanced, with better video quality and an improved vertical field, giving you the best picture of what's going on at your doorstep. The removable battery is also a big reason we recommend it - you don't realise the convenience this offers until you do it once every 6 weeks or so.

Ring Battery Doorbell Plus
Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus
$120 $180 Save $60

For those on a budget, though, the Ring Video Doorbell (2nd Gen) is still a very attractive option at $99.99 / £99.99. If you can put up with removing it for recharging, you get a lot of the core functionality that matches the Battery Doorbell Plus, so it will keep you in the know about visitors to your home, as well as keep it safe.

ring video doorbell review image 2
Ring Video Doorbell (2nd Gen)
$55 $100 Save $45

Either way, we recommend putting aside a little each month for a Ring Protect plan to get the most from your new device.