Ring Video Doorbell | HD-Bronze

The Ring Video Doorbell Venetian Bronze is the dark version of the doorbell that started the category. Somebody presses it, your phone rings wherever you happen to be, and you see them, hear them and talk back.

• Frames the Ring Video Doorbell Venetian Bronze suits
• Battery, charging and the wired option
• Alexa, and answering the door with your voice
• Night vision, Wi-Fi and the upload speed nobody checks
• What the free features cover, and what they do not

Fitting it is a screwdriver job. The bracket, the screws and the tools are in the box, it goes on a door frame or a wall in a few minutes, and the setup runs in the Ring app.

Motion zones let you decide what it watches, so a person at the gate raises an alert and the traffic on the road behind does not.

Frames the Ring Video Doorbell Venetian Bronze suits

The Ring Video Doorbell Venetian Bronze is a dark, warm brown-black. It is the one to pick for hardwood door frames, dark stained timber, black steel gates and the deep brown aluminium that a lot of older Dar houses were fitted with.

Underneath the faceplate it is exactly the same doorbell as the silver one. Choose on the door frame, not on the spec sheet, because there is no difference in the spec sheet.

Battery, charging and the wired option

It runs on a built-in rechargeable battery, so nothing has to be wired and nothing has to be drilled through a wall. When it runs low the doorbell comes off its bracket and charges from a cable indoors.

If the house does have doorbell wiring at 8 to 24 volts AC, you can wire it in and leave it there. Most houses here do not, which is exactly why the battery version sells.

Alexa, and answering the door with your voice

Paired with an Echo, the speaker announces that somebody is at the door, and an Echo Show puts the picture on screen. You can hold the conversation through the Echo rather than digging for your phone.

That is included, not part of any paid plan. Live view through an Alexa device costs nothing extra.

Night vision, Wi-Fi and the upload speed nobody checks

Night vision is infrared, so after dark the picture is black and white rather than colour. The doorbell joins 2.4GHz Wi-Fi only.

Ring ask for at least 2Mbps of upload for video that does not stutter, and upload is the half of a home connection nobody looks at. Check yours before ordering, because a doorbell on a weak uplink is a frustrating thing to own.

What the free features cover, and what they do not

Live view, doorbell and motion alerts, two-way talk and motion zones all work from the moment it is set up, with nothing more to pay. Recorded video does not. Saving clips, video history, snapshots between events and person and package filtering all sit behind a Ring Protect plan bought separately from Ring.

If a monthly plan is not something you want, the eufy S220 records to a base station in your own house with no fee at all. Staying with Ring? Add a Ring Chime so the house hears the door and not just your phone, and the same doorbell in the lighter finish is the Satin Nickel version. Specifications are on ring.com.