Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsNot working out for me :-( Read on...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 19 September 2018
This review takes into account 12 days of use, and lots of experimenting with settings. I apologise for the length and poor structure of this review, it's very much a rant!
IMPORTANT NOTES... I HAVE NOT tried moving the camera to another location. It's simply not going to do the job I wanted it for if I do that. But I accept, in a square garden, a smaller garden, or an area with no neighbouring traffic in close proximity, it will likely do a far more acceptable job. It's not all the cameras fault, but I read the spec in terms of detection distance and bought it to do a job that it can't do. Mounting facing AWAY from the house would work better no doubt, but is not an option due to the conservatory.
My install is at the recommended 9ft, overlooking my garden towards the house. The distance to the house is less than 14 metres.
UN-BOXING - the packaging is excellent, definite 'Amazon' quality flavour to it (Ring is owned by Amazon). The contents are everything you need, literally, even the screwdriver and drill bit, which is excellent. You just need the drill! The camera initially looks very nice, though in fairness it does feel a little cheap and plastic, and the battery compartment feels like it will break. It's not the most positive of 'catches' when shutting the lid. It doesn't open accidentally, though I fear after numerous battery removals for charging, it could be a problem.
SETUP / INSTALL - I'm a gadget man, and work in IT, so maybe I'm biased, but I don't think it gets any easier than this. Very simple, follow instructions if you really need them from the box, but download the app and the rest is childs play. The physical install is just mark holes and drill with included drill bit, use included screws/plugs, couldn't be easier either. The ball joint doesn't feel the most solid but it tightens down well and offers a huge range of movement for tweaking the level and angle. The app is easy to navigate, once you've used it for 10 minutes or so, you'll know how to do everything. Excellent so far. WiFi signal though is a problem, more on that later.
PERFORMANCE - So this is where I need to point out, I had problems on day 2 with this cam. A LOT OF PROBLEMS. Mainly false detections, and excessive motion alerts, with random moving objects, but NOT HUMANS OR ANIMALS - ie nothing with a proper heat source - which is what a PIR is supposed to work on. This included next doors clothing on the line, and a clothes peg bag hung on our fence, which blows very gently in the wind. I have received no solution for this, I have to live with it. It's really difficult for me to say this is specific to the Ring, as I haven't yet tried any others, but PIR is supposed to ignore a leaf blowing in the wind, and only detect heat sources. So I find it difficult to accept this is by design. Maybe I have a faulty unit, but Ring don't seem to think so.
WiFi is also a big issue, as mentioned by many in other reviews. Even though my phone and iPad shows great WiFi in the garden, the ring really is struggling. To the point that Ring support blame a lot of my issues on that. So, I installed a WiFi booster nearby, but this required a reset on the device, it didn't intelligently find the best signal on the same SSID. An annoyance more than anything, as you need the ladders to press a button on the top. Expect that you'll have problems with larger gardens for sure, my Wifi is behind only the house walls, and it's less than 15m down a clear line of sight, but I needed a booster in the conservatory to help it out. If this wasn't an option, I'd have to ditch the camera I think, as the notifications are delayed as are the live feeds, and it warns you all the time. I don't have any other WiFi device on 2.4Ghz that struggles with signal at that location, so it's a real shame and I didn't expect it.
The motion detection issues again - the settings don't help a massive amount, turning down the range settings help with the detection rate, but I then don't get detection's close to the house, which exactly what I want. There is simply no setting that works for me in my garden, at all.
I also noticed on numerous occasions, I could get within 4 metres (!) of the camera from a head on position, before it triggered. Which is awful. It's also hit and miss in that test, sometimes picking me up, other times it's like I'm invisible. If I was an intruder, I'd thoroughly expect the camera to cover the entire garden because of it's mounting position and direction, but it really isn't doing that at all. The main reason I'd give this camera a 3 star or worse in fact, as it's just not performing as the spec suggests. But I guess it's being realistic with your expectations, and I can't say I've tried any other device yet. My old house garden was square and I could face from the house outward, which I dare say would be far more ideal. But my conservatory makes this near impossible, and because of looking toward the area I want to monitor most, it's not effective at all.
Another issue that again the documents suggest shouldn't be an issue, and Amazon CS backed this up - it picks up cats, let alone dogs. I have a small cocker spaniel that sets it off, but then the smallest cat on our estate does also, so clearly it's not pet friendly.
DAYLIGHT Image / picture quality is very good. it's not super sharp, but it's fixed focus and superb 'fishbowl' style focus means it has serious range/coverage. See the many youtube vids out there for a real life example, as my pic is not excellent, but you can see the angle of coverage is excellent.
NIGHT VISION is frankly awful. Terrible. Without the light (which is lets face it, a USP for this device and probably why you didn't get an Arlo!) it's really rather dark and contrast is terrible. You can make out objects but you can't see them clearly. The light though, provided it's set to come on, brings colour to the image which is superb. It's not bright enough to offer full coverage of large areas, so distant detections are still not clear really, but bare in mind they do a floodlight version of their camera for good reason. I would happily test this unit if you're reading this Ring/Amazon :-)
BATTERY - Because of the false detection's, and constant triggering of cats and my dog, the battery inside of 12 days is 51%. This is not acceptable, but some of this may be down to the fact that I've been messing with it a lot. This would not last anywhere close the quoted life though, not even a month at this rate. This is not a solution for me.
EDIT - After 18 days, I'm now at 31% battery. This is with motion alerts completely disabled on my phone, therefore I'm barely using the camera. I've also dropped the motion distance right down too, so activation's are few and far between. It's very poor to have to charge after a months use.
OTHER NOTES - The Alarm is a great feature, nice and loud, but bare in mind you cannot simply activate this on motion, it's done via the live view only on demand. The light is also the same, no 'ON' mode on demand without doing a live view first, but it can be set to come on during detection in the dark.
SUPPORT - Amazon, as always, are excellent in offering you assistance. They offered numerous options for me, but ultimately, contact Ring support was the most logical. They were excellent, answer back within 2 hours on a Sunday (Email). Sadly though, they offered lots of help, but nothing has given me a solution, I suspect it's just the device not working in my environment.
To summarise, I think this is a flawed device, but maybe a battery cam that's wireless was always going to be flawed. I really want to try out an Arlo but as mentioned above, a light is a nice feature that they don't offer in one product, so I'm kind of reluctant.
If Amazon or Arlo, or any other product out there is reading this, go ahead and send me a sample, I'm happy to test products for free, I'm just not that lucky and have to spend my own money to find out something doesn't work too well. I am currently considering a return, though I did get this item when it was reduced in price, so it's some what of a bargain - if only it was one I saw a use for.
Hope this has been helpful.
