Ring’s latest smart doorbell installs on your door’s peephole and detects knocks

Unlike its parent company Amazon, Ring is going really big with public announcements at this year’s CES. The company is introducing 13 new products today, including a new doorbell, smart lights, smoke sensors, and more. It’s so many devices that it can be hard to keep track of them all, but the theme is that Ring is rounding out its ecosystem with products many of its users have been asking and waiting for. Most are refreshes of what we’ve seen before, but some add new integrations that simply make the Ring ecosystem a lot more connected.

The standout product from the bunch is the Ring Door View Cam, which keeps the same price point as its predecessors but adds a few more features. The best part about it is that it can be installed directly on your front door. It installs and replaces your peephole, and it can sense when people are knocking on your door.

Like the Ring Video Doorbell 2, the Door View Cam doesn’t require wiring, and it has a rechargeable battery. You just remove the current peephole on either side of the door and install the camera with no additional drilling or modifications needed. It still keeps a peephole, so you can keep looking through directly, in addition to using the camera.

In theory, it could be an option for apartment dwellers, especially since there’s also the option to add privacy zones, digitally blacking out certain areas in front of the doorbell to respect neighbors’ privacy in tight hallways. You can switch off audio recording.

The Cam records and streams 1080p HD video to the Ring app, although you’ll still need a Ring video recording plan to access recorded videos and other premium features. Even if no one presses the doorbell button and is simply knocking on your door, Ring has included an impact sensor that detects the knock and notifies you.

The Door View Cam also has a smart alerts feature, which optimizes the alerts that the Ring app sends out. Smart alerts let users reduce the number of motion alerts they receive either by lowering the sensitivity of the motion detection and / or manually ignoring motion events they don’t want to see. The feature also apparently decreases the number of false alerts users receive and incorporates a smart alert algorithm that stops the camera from recording repetitive motions that are “unimportant,” such as kids playing in the yard.

Notably, every Ring doorbell and camera is getting smart alerts in 2019, but you’ll likely need to pay for the premium subscription plan to obtain this feature.

The Ring Door View Cam also supports Alexa so you can ask the smart assistant to show your front door and get alerts on when motion is detected. The Door View Cam costs $199 and is coming to the US later this year, according to Ring, while a European release is also said to be coming later this year.

SMART LIGHTING

Last year at CES, Ring announced that it had acquired a wireless LED lights company and was expanding further into smart lighting. This year, it’s only increasing its portfolio with eight more lighting products and accessories that were first spotted in FCC filings last week.

There’s a wired Ring Floodlight that costs $69.99, which is a motion-activated smart light that requires an existing electrical box. It’s pretty bright at 2000 lumens, which is 200 more than the first-generation floodlight. Ring also made a battery-powered, wire-free version of this floodlight that’s $20 less and only 600 lumens called the Ring Floodlight Battery.

There’s also a new Ring Transformer, which costs $99.99 and adds smart features to older landscape lights, such as the ability to turn on the lights through the app and tweak brightness settings and patterns.

Ring has also made several battery-powered lighting options, in case you don’t have wiring for the lights. There’s a spotlight, a path light, and a step light that are all relatively affordable and designed to illuminate different parts of the home, including walkways, stairs, and above a garage. Finally, there’s a Ring Motion Sensor, just in case you want more coverage around your house. It activates smart lighting and video streaming whenever motion is detected.

Ring Smart Lighting is currently available for preorder on its website and Amazon, and it will ship on March 6th, according to Ring. After that, the products should be available at other major retailers and should arrive outside the US in a few countries later in the year. Ring also says it’s looking at solar-powered options for future smart lighting.

SMOKE DETECTORS

Ring is updating its home security offerings as well. There’s a sensor called the Smoke & CO Listener ($35) or First Alert Z-Wave Smoke / CO Alarm ($40) both of which detect smoke and rising carbon dioxide levels and can alert you through the Ring app. A Flood & Freeze Sensor ($35) can be placed near a source of water, and it will notify you if it detects water, indicating flooding, or if the water temperatures are freezing, which is something we’ve seen from Ring before. Finally, there’s the Dome Siren that will ring and flash lights to alert you of burglary or other security issues while you’re home.

Amazon also announced that the Ring app can now control select Kwikset, Schlage, and Yale smart locks, which moves the dial along incrementally in terms of integrations. A Ring and August integration will supposedly come last this year so that customers can control the August Smart Lock Pro through the Ring app.

At the same time, the Ring Alarm, doorbells, and cameras can now communicate with each other, like an alarm sounding could trigger the cameras to record a security breach. Previously, the cameras would have had to be turned on manually or triggered by motion detection. All the security accessories are available for purchase today.

Ring’s 13 products indicate that the brand is taking notes from its parent company Amazon, which debuted over 11 items during a hardware event in September. Both Ring and Amazon seem to be prioritizing large, sprawling events over one or two flagship announcements. And like Amazon, Ring’s smart home products tend to more affordable than some competitors, although its doorbell still ends up in the high range at $199.

Overall, out of Ring’s expansive product announcement list, the doorbell stands apart as a device that reimagines an old existing part of your door — the peephole — and provides new functionality that could come in handy.