One-minute review

Breaking with the line’s numerical naming convention, the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus is the newest addition to Ring’s range of video doorbells since the Ring Video Doorbell 4 was released in 2021. 

The Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus easily earns its spot among our picks of the best video doorbells. It’s only the second Ring device to introduce head-to-toe visibility (the other being the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2), and the first wireless Ring device to do so.

On the outside, the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus looks much the same as the Ring Doorbell (2nd gen), as well as the Ring Doorbells 3 and 4, but inside is where the magic happens. 

The Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus drops a few features in favor of improved quality and intelligence. It’s packing a new camera with 1536p resolution, night vision with color, and a snazzy new head-to-toe view thanks to the increased vertical field of view (150 degrees by 150 degrees), and is a noticeable iterative improvement on the Ring Video Doorbell 4 for an ever-so-slightly higher price.

Ring also says the Battery Video Doorbell Plus offers up to three times the battery life of previous models. It’s worth noting that it’s quite hard to test this, as it’s dependent on how much motion occurs outside your home, but I found that it drained very slowly over the weeks I used it, and hasn’t yet dropped below 50%. 

While these upgrades do see the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus lose out on some features, like pre-roll (which captures motion four seconds before a motion event is triggered), 5GHz connectivity, and motion alerts on compatible Amazon Echo devices, some of these are value-adds rather than a necessity. It’s a bit of a shame, certainly on behalf of pre-roll and the Amazon Echo compatibility, but ultimately the head-to-toe view, improved overall motion detection and battery life go a long way to making the extra expense worth it. 

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus review: price and availability

• List price: $179.99 / £159.99 / AU$289
• Available from Ring and Amazon

The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is available from Ring and Amazon directly, as well as some third-party sellers, and costs $179.99 / £159.99 / AU$289.

While it’s certainly not cheap, it’s not outlandish compared to other video doorbells; the Ring Video Doorbell 4 is just $20 / £20 / AU$30 cheaper, having had its price cut fairly recently. 

However, as with all Ring Video Doorbells, it’s worth noting that the ongoing costs can get pretty high if you take out a Ring Protect subscription that enables you to keep your recordings and access some of the more premium features. Plans start at $4 / £3.49 / AU$4.95 monthly or $40 / £34.99 / AU$49.95 per year for the Basic plan, which covers one device. There are more expensive options, depending on your setup and location; the Plus membership is about double the price but covers multiple devices, while the Pro plan (which is only available in the US) starts at $20/month or $200/year.

Price and availability: 3.5/5

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus review: specifications

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus review: design

• Simple design
• Rechargeable and removable batteries
• Easy installation

If you’ve read TechRadar’s previous reviews of Ring video doorbells like the Ring Video Doorbell 4, you’ll likely be surprised to hear that the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus looks the same as previous devices, with a black top third that houses its 1536p camera, and a matt silver lower section with the doorbell button in the middle.

Ring isn’t reinventing the wheel here, and while that’s hard to do even with conventional doorbells, the design is perhaps getting a little tired. However, it comes with perks; it’s incredibly easy to install, and if you’ve previously used Ring Doorbells it’s likely you won’t need to replace the base plate.

The battery is removable, meaning you don’t have to uninstall the entire device every time it runs out of juice, as is the case with some video doorbells. Alternatively, if you’d rather not worry about having to recharge it, you can also hardwire the doorbell into your home's electrical system.

I installed mine with the tilted base plate, which is a wedge that can be purchased separately to improve the viewing angle; on my door, there wasn’t a suitable spot for it that was facing straight onto my walkway. It’s worth noting most users wouldn’t need one thanks to the new, taller video feed aspect ratio. 

Design: 4/5

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus review: performance

• Simple and well-designed app
• Automatic lock mostly works well
• Lock feels very secure and robust

The Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus works brilliantly both as a security camera device and a functional way to remotely interact with anyone – or thing – that finds itself passing by your door. However, there are some pretty huge differences between the features that are available with and without the Ring Protect subscription.

First, let’s discuss how the Battery Video Doorbell Plus performs sans-subs. Once you’ve installed the doorbell, you’ll need to download the app, create an account and follow the pairing instructions – this is pretty easy. 

As with most video doorbells, once you’re set up you’ll be able to tap into your doorbell from your phone and watch a live feed of your front door, using two-way audio to communicate with anyone waiting outside, whether you’re at home or out and about. You can adjust the motion zones on your camera to stop your doorbell from sending erroneous motion alerts, and also set up privacy zones if you don’t want to see into a neighboring property. 

The doorbell will also notify you when it detects movement outside of your home on your mobile device or, of course, when someone rings your doorbell. You can also check out your device’s battery status and adjust various settings in the app. 

The newly upgraded HD+ 1536p camera has HDR and night vision with color, meaning you can get much clearer footage from your Ring doorbell around the clock compared to previous models. Its head-to-toe view means you can check out all of your entryway’s surroundings – including any packages that might have been left for you – but the odd fisheye lens effect needed to facilitate the expanded field of view is a little off-putting. The audio is pretty clear, as long as whoever’s at the door is facing the bell; otherwise, it can be a little muffled, especially if you live on a busy road.

All of the above is great, but on its own doesn’t quite justify a pricey video doorbell such as this – but that’s par for the course with Ring at this point. A Ring Protect subscription unlocks a whole host of additional features, and some pretty useful ones at that, although while the basic membership tier isn’t too expensive, it’s always a little frustrating to see so many useful tricks locked behind a paywall. 

You get one free month of Ring Protect with your new Ring device, during which time you can try out some of its exclusive features, including:

• Connect devices: Set up trigger responses on other Ring devices, as well as Amazon Echo smart speakers and selected third-party devices.
• Advanced motion detection features: With Ring Protect, you can customize motion detection even further, including how frequently the doorbell checks for motion, schedules, sensitivity, and snooze alerts.
• Package detection: Easily the most exciting addition to the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus is package detection, which I found worked pretty well for larger packages. Amazon says 10 x 10-inch packages and larger are most likely to be identified, with anything smaller being hit-or-miss, and my results were consistent with this.
• Alerts: Change your alert sounds for doorbell rings and motion detection, and also set up person alerts, which will mean your mobile device only notifies you when a person has been detected. With Ring Protect, the doorbell will also send you a snapshot of whatever triggered the alert.
• Photos and video: Your doorbell will record video events in the cloud for 180 days, which can be saved or shared, and you can also set it to capture a snapshot once every hour or 14 minutes, creating a timelapse of the day in front of your doorbell.
• Home or Away modes: Set up pre-recorded quick replies to respond to a doorbell press, and allow visitors to leave a voicemail if you can’t answer the door. You’ll also be able to customize how your doorbell behaves when you’re home or away.

Some of these features are a huge boon day-to-day. Home and Away modes, in particular, are really useful, as are object-specific notifications and connected devices. 

Due to operational costs, I can understand why any features involving data storage justify a greater fee; but overall it just feels like ringfencing these features detracts from how great the product is by itself. 

Still, both with and without a subscription, the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus can most definitely perform well; I’d just say you’re better off with a lower-spec video doorbell if you’re not willing to pay out for the Ring Protect subscription.

Performance: 4.5/5

Should I buy the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus?

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Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus review: Also consider

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How I tested the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus smart lock

• I tested the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus for two weeks
• I used it every day with the free Ring Protect subscription trial
• I tested its motion detection, package detection, and sound quality. 

I installed the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus on my front door, using it to track movements outdoors, accept deliveries and communicate with callers when I wasn’t home.

I used both its standard features and advanced, Ring Protect-enabled features, and tested how well they work. I used parcels at three different sizes to test parcel identification, set up motion zones and privacy zones to test the responsiveness, and recorded motion triggers to see how accurate and timely filming was. I also tinkered with its customization settings, adjusting the motion detection zone on the doorbell’s field of view and seeing how well it could detect parcels and people.

I test smart home devices regularly, and have a good sense of how easy the user interface should be and how well devices should interact with one another. I’ve also used various smart home security devices, developing testing metrics for motion detection and object identification.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed June 2023

Two-minute review

 An easy-to-use professional time-lapse camera, the Brinno TLC 2020 is versatile, with several capture and exposure modes for different times of the day, and tough when seated in its waterproof housing. The camera has a minimum focusing distance of 60cm, so with the stock lens, it’s most suitable for shooting wider scenes. There are also more advanced zoom lenses available separately, with improved image quality, which can be used to shoot more intimate scenes. I tested the camera with the stock lens, so we’ll focus on this.

The TLC 2020 is available in a variety of kits. I used the Brinno TLC 2020-M Outdoor Time Lapse Bundle with Housing & Mount kit, which costs $429 / £424 / AU$719. In this kit, you get the TLC 2020 Camera, the waterproof housing, a lens cap, a lens screwdriver, a USB-C cable, silica gel (to combat condensation in the housing), two bungee cords, four AA batteries, an AWM100 (screw-in) Camera Wall Mount, a 16GB microSD card and SD adaptor. The kit with everything except the wall mount costs $399 / £399 / AU$679, with other kit options also available.

Measuring just 2.4 x 2.8 x 1.8in / 60 x 70.6 x 46.6mm and weighing 6.7oz/190g, including batteries and a microSD card, it’s a small and lightweight camera, and using the waterproof housing only adds a small amount of size and weight. The housing has rubber buttons for controlling the camera, a compartment at the bottom to hold the included silica gel to avoid condensation, and provides IP67 water resistance. It's made of tinted plastic, except for the clear lens section, so it’s best to adjust exposure with the rear door open.

There are five buttons in total and a 2in TFT LCD screen on the back for composing shots and adjusting settings. The screen is a little dark, which makes it tricky to manually adjust exposure, but menu navigation is simple, and you can be set up and ready to shoot within a minute if shooting a shorter time-lapse over minutes or hours. Setup time for long shooting periods takes a little more time, but only because you have to set the days and start and finish times for each day alongside shooting frequency and camera settings. There’s no remote or Wi-Fi control, so you need easy access to the camera to change settings or batteries.

The TLC 2020 runs on standard AA batteries or can be powered externally via the USB-C port on the side of the camera. However, this isn’t possible when the camera is in its waterproof housing, which is a little odd considering external power is useful for shooting over long periods when the weather is likely to change. If the case did allow for cable pass-through, you’d still have to protect the USB power bank from the elements, though.

Fresh AA batteries can last up to 99 days, depending on the frequency of the shooting interval and the AA battery type used, so this isn’t a major issue. Plus, the TLC 2020 has a battery type option that optimizes battery use depending on whether you’re using Alkaline, lithium, or rechargeable batteries.

The great thing about this camera is that it’s well-equipped for shooting long-form time-lapses that are days, weeks, or even months in duration. It also has a few features up its sleeve that make it a versatile option beyond its ability to capture time-lapse videos. The TLC 2020 can also shoot Step Video, where you record short videos at set intervals, Stop Motion, for creating animation videos, and it can capture photos at 1080p.

The f/2.0 lens provides a full-frame equivalent of 19mm with a 118-degree field-of-view and noticeable fish-eye/barrel distortion with closer subjects, which eases off with wider scenes. Image quality, on the whole, is good, but not at the level of a smartphone and certainly not a mirrorless camera. Creating time-lapse videos with the TLC 2020 is incredibly easy, though, plus it offers the long battery life and weatherproof housing.

The settings available for adjusting images include exposure compensation, white balance, sharpness, contrast and saturation, with an HDR option to increase detail when required, so what’s available is limited. To be fair, these are enough to fine-tune time-lapse videos to your liking while keeping everything easy to use. The screen is darker than the output, so you have to factor this in when setting EV/exposure compensation. In most situations, EV 0 looks dark, but the output is absolutely fine. Auto white balance is also more effective than using white balance presets such as Daylight, which is slightly too warm.

Brinno TLC 2020 Time-lapse

 Should I buy the Brinno TLC 2020 Timelapse Camera? 

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How I tested the Brinno TLC 2020 Timelapse Camera

The Brinno TLC 2020 was tested over several days in different locations to see how it copes with different weather conditions and environments. The focus of the testing was the time-lapse functionality rather than any other features, although additional features have been covered in the review.

The time-lapse videos captured ranged from 30 minutes to several hours, depending on the interval frequency. It was, however, impossible to test capture over extended periods, so long-term scheduling functionality was set up and started to test ease of use and reliability.

With nearly 30 years of photographic experience and 15 years working as a photography journalist, I’ve shot many time-lapses using mirrorless cameras and DSLRs, so shooting with a dedicated time-lapse camera was much easier and provided straight-out-of-camera videos without the need to process photos and convert them into a time-lapse.

First reviewed July 2023