Ring Stick Up Cam Battery review
Our Verdict
The Ring Stick Upwards Cam Battery works well, but information technology's best for those already invested in Band'due south ecosystem or Alexa devices.
For
- Slick app
- Ring ecosystem and Alexa Integration
- Practiced battery life
- Weather resistant
Against
- No local storage
- Useless without subscription
- No Google Home or Apple HomeKit Integration
Tom'southward Guide Verdict
The Ring Stick Upwards Cam Battery works well, but it'south all-time for those already invested in Ring'southward ecosystem or Alexa devices.
Pros
- +
Slick app
- +
Band ecosystem and Alexa Integration
- +
Skillful bombardment life
- +
Weather resistant
Cons
- -
No local storage
- -
Useless without subscription
- -
No Google Home or Apple HomeKit Integration
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery review: Specs
Size: three.eight ten 2.4 x two.four inches (without stand up)
Camera resolution: 1080p
Field of View: 130° Diagonal, 110° Horizontal, 57° Vertical
Battery life: Months
WiFi Connectivity: 802.11 b/g/n @ 2.iv GHz
Audio: 2-mode audio
Water Resistance: IPX5
Operating Temperature: -5°F to 122°F (-20°C to 50°C)
The tertiary-generation Ring Stick Upward Cam Battery joins an increasingly crowded field of affordable, battery-operated, WiFi-connected cameras, where names big and small are pushing out petty white plastic tubes and boxes designed to intelligently sense, capture, and categorize unusual activity outside your home. How they each approach this task varies massively, only the end outcome should ever be that the people who buy them feel safer. I really got to put that to the test when the Stick Up Cam Bombardment caught someone trying to open a window on the back of my house, about a week into testing. Fortunately they were unsuccessful and moved on, but this was a startling justification for keeping security cameras effectually.
This Stick Up Cam Battery promises months-long bombardment, crisp video, and a robust characteristic set (most of which is attainable via a low monthly fee, of course). For this new tertiary generation, they've added a solar console option that allows you to keep the bombardment charged, which should alleviate whatever concerns about bombardment life.
It'south worth noting Ring has made headlines in the last couple of years for security concerns and with its partnerships with police departments. Ring has since taken steps to mitigate some of these worries, but acknowledging that, and given the packed-out marketplace in which they now compete, does the Ring Stick Up Cam continue to hold upwardly?
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery review: Price and availability
The Stick Up Cam Bombardment is $99.99 for a single photographic camera, with 2-, three-, and iv-packs also for sale (add almost $100 for each additional camera). Other bachelor versions include the wired version ($99.99), which uses a normal three-prong power plug, and the new-for-the-3rd-generation solar-powered version ($139.99); it'due south an impressive set of alternatives for this category of cheap smart cameras.
Ring Stick Up Cam Bombardment review: Blueprint and installation
The Ring Stick Upwardly Cam was Ring's offset Indoor/Outdoor photographic camera, and looks very like to the cheaper Ring Indoor Cam — that is, information technology's a cylinder that's a touch smaller than a beer can. Three mounting holes — i on the bottom and two on the back - provide some versatility, letting you mountain the camera from behind and beneath. Disappointingly, if yous want to mount the camera from your ceiling, yous'll need to buy a separate $20 ceiling mount kit. I reviewed the battery-powered version, which comes with a quick-release bombardment pack that slots easily into the lesser of the camera. Included is a curt Micro USB charging cablevision and, of course, the mounting hardware, which consists of a few small screws and some wall anchors.
On the front of the photographic camera, blacked-out, glossy glass contains the camera lens, microphone, and condition light, as well equally the IR emitters. The camera lens field of view is wider than tall, with a 130° diagonal, 110° horizontal, and 57° vertical field, giving information technology expert overall coverage. On the camera's chin is a speaker grille that lets you talk to people in earshot of the camera or blare a siren, both of which are a little quieter than I'd like - when I did try to talk to someone on the other side, they had a difficult time understanding me without walking correct up to the camera.
The camera is waterproof to an IPX5 rating, pregnant it will be fine exposed to rain or low-pressure h2o jets from whatsoever direction, and tin withstand temperatures ranging from -5°F to 113°F (-twenty° to 45° Celsius).
When non mounting the photographic camera to a wall — for case, when using it as an indoor camera — you can simply set it on its stand, which has a soft rubbery base that is nice and grippy, allowing it to sit firmly in place.
Band Stick Upwards Cam Battery review: Video quality
Mayhap the most important office of a security camera is its video quality. Near, like the Stick Up Cam, accept a resolution of 1080p, but the actual end-result tin be dingy and total of artifacts. During my testing, I found the footage from this photographic camera was a little rougher than others I've used in this cost range, merely you lot'll still get a clear enough motion picture of your average porch pirate.
Night vision on the Ring comes in two flavors: infrared and non-infrared. Either has the option to permit Band colorize the image for you. I found that dark vision was good all around, and the prototype was nigh as clear as it gets with your typical consumer-grade Wi-Fi HD smart camera. The colorization wasn't especially successful at guessing the colors it was seeing, just it was good enough to differentiate objects from each other.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery review: Battery life and Wi-Fi
I had initial problems with battery life — the camera's charge had dropped to 36% within three days, but thereafter began behaving normally. After inquiring with Ring, I was told by a representative that what I experienced was the photographic camera self-calibrating, and that the trouble was likely an inaccurate reading and that over a few recharge cycles, accuracy should increase.
Band offers no specific bombardment life claims, just that it tin get months betwixt charges during normal utilise, and equally far as I tin can tell from my subsequent tests, that is probable true. That said, should y'all discover yourself regretful about having purchased the battery-powered version, Ring does sell kits to convert the photographic camera to solar-powered or wired.
Like most smart cameras, the Ring Stick Up Cam is limited to a two.four GHz connection on the outdated 802.11n, or Wi-Fi four, standard. I would like to see devices like this begin to adopt newer Wi-Fi standards, every bit Wi-Fi 4 is incompatible with WPA3 which, while problematic in its own correct, remains generally much more secure than the very old WPA2 security standard. Still, there are things you tin and should do to minimize the run a risk to your network when using such devices.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery review: Features
Smart cameras tend to range from simple, local, tape-it-and-store-it affairs to oversupply-sourced mass surveillance. Somewhere in the middle, though, there's not much a camera can do besides be a photographic camera. How it accomplishes that task is where much of the special sauce, then to speak, is mixed. In the case of the $129 Arlo Essential, for example, users tin specify whether they want the camera to notify of and/or record not merely people that the camera spots, only likewise cars and animals. The Stick Up Cam is less granular, merely tin yet exist fix to detect only people. A bummer, possibly, merely I've plant that pet/car detection can lead to a sort of camera-who-cried-wolf scenario, and notification fatigue isn't skilful for a security camera.
The Ring Stick Up Cam comes with other features that have go indispensable for security cameras in recent years, such as adjusting motion sensitivity and setting detection zones and motility-detecting schedules. From the chief device screen, a gridded tile interface lets you, among other things, quickly admission effect history, customize settings for different modes (designated Disarmed, Home, and Abroad), or set the size of your Geofence. Hither, y'all tin also check device health or look at power settings. The device health department lets you lot easily update the camera's network settings and view Wi-Fi signal force, represented by its Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) number, making it easier to place the camera in a place with the strongest connection.
From a privacy standpoint, I was disappointed to learn that the end-to-end encryption offered by Ring on many of its wired devices does not extend to their battery-powered offerings, presumably because it presents power drain issues. However, despite the guff Ring has gotten on other aspects of privacy, it does have some cool options in this arena, like Privacy Zones — a feature that lets you lot black out areas of the camera's field of view, so that you don't tape neighbors' action. It's non the only photographic camera with this feature, of course, merely it's a dainty feature, nonetheless.
Of course, Band offers more than just camera-specific features: information technology has its own proto-social network chosen Neighbors. In terms of usefulness, I'thousand not particularly convinced Neighbors is where it's at; while it may provide some superficial comfort and could even take legitimate potential as a offense-fighting tool, it is littered, as so many public online forums are, with paranoid speculation and unfounded accusations. Other aspects of information technology are nice - posts are completely anonymous, and the tiles at the top of the feed provide a lot of useful information on local law-breaking and safety issues, every bit well as a handy listing of crisis hotlines and COVID-xix information.
Ring Stick Up Cam Bombardment review: App
Owners of Ring gear volition know that the Band app oftentimes shines where other camera makers' do not. Peculiarly when looking at a given camera, the app is responsive, and videos load very speedily, even as you scrub through video history. Loading the live feed is almost as fast equally on a HomeKit-based camera. Sometimes it's besides pretty, though, every bit information technology's non immediately articulate how to, say, download a video or activate the siren, but with a piddling balmy dedication, y'all figure it out quickly enough. That said, while it'southward nice to have a pretty app, where domicile security is concerned, I experience controls ought to be clearly delineated and functional.
There is also a Ring desktop app, which I looked at on Mac OS. This app is nice in means the phone app is not; every bit a dedicated camera-only app, in that location is no backlog here. You become a list of videos, which are like shooting fish in a barrel to select and relieve, with tabs for categories of video. Improvements could be made here, of course — I wouldn't mind being able to batch-salvage videos, or sentry on a timeline, simply the straightforward approach is overnice, regardless. Additionally, I'thousand particularly fond of the characteristic where, so long equally the app is open, if the camera detects motion, a small live video window volition popular upward to show information technology to me.
Band Stick Up Cam Battery review: Smart home integration
Right now, Ring's smart home integration is one of its biggest drawbacks. Existence currently express to Alexa, the Band misses out on a large clamper of the market by ignoring Google Home and Apple HomeKit, requiring those users to resort to more complicated means of vocalism control, should they decide to choose Ring anyway — and I don't really see any reason they would.
Users more than invested in Amazon'southward ecosystem will be able to let their Ring and Amazon devices all piece of work in tandem. For instance, Amazon has integrated its Repeat devices, letting users view persons captured on camera using their Echo Show or configure their Repeat device(south) to play sounds or perform other automations. One of my Repeat Dots let me know that someone was in my backyard whatever time the camera detected motility. If you lot accept a busy backyard, such a routine tin quickly get annoying, simply at that place is genuine merit in using it — say, if you utilise scheduled Do Not Disturb on your phone, but want to exist notified of such things regardless.
That said, the integration with Alexa is powerful, every bit routines allow for y'all to turn your Amazon smart speaker or speakers into a makeshift alert organisation with blaring alerts and smart lights switching on wherever yous'd like in your house. You could also use your camera to trigger a notification to cheque for packages or something — the possibilities are great, and in my testing, it worked without delay, my Echo Dot's routine and my Ring notifications on my telephone occurring simultaneously.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery review: Storage
If you've been paying attention, then you know that Ring has no local storage selection without some fairly complicated workarounds. Simply put, without a subscription, Band is little better than a motion sensor with live video, which is still fine for a doorbell camera, but it'due south not equally easy to justify the expense for a normal security camera. I would argue that, practically speaking, this is Ring's biggest Achilles' heel. After all, how useful is cloud-based storage if your internet connection goes out? Additionally, many users' outdoor net connections may be tenuous, at best, and having a photographic camera that possesses no back-up means for storing video opens perhaps too large a hole in ane'south home security.
Other cameras, such equally the Eufycam 2 and the Wyze Cam Outdoor, offer local storage. With Ring, if your internet service goes, you're up the creek, whereas smart cameras with local storage tin keep on trucking, so long as your network is still operation.
This doesn't mean there isn't value to Ring's deject-based storage. At $3/month for the base of operations Ring Protect program, the subscription is cheap and accessible for single camera users, giving access to 2 months of video history. Accessing the videos is easy, cheers to an intuitive and fast-loading timeline that you tin can scrub easily. Periodic snapshots taken past the camera between videos provide continuity between videos, which is nice. If you have a solid, fast wireless network, and internet service that rarely goes out, the shortcomings of cloud-only cameras largely fall away. For more data on how Ring'south plan stacks up against the competition, check out our article on the best security camera storage plans compared.
Ring Stick Upward Cam Battery review: Bottom line
Ultimately, tin this camera help you feel safe? Absolutely. Move detection is consistent and in my testing I never had any issues with disconnection. As well, as far equally I could tell, there were no false activations, and if it missed anything I didn't notice. The Stick Upwardly Cam also benefits from Ring'south ecosystem and its integration with Alexa, both of which are big potent points, considering their penetration into homes. It also doesn't need a special hub, which is prissy.
However, questionable partnerships with law enforcement bated, in that location are more immediate, practical reasons to consider alternative cameras, not the least of which is local storage — Ring simply doesn't offer it every bit an option, while other camera manufacturers offer on-device processing and local storage. Additionally, limited smart home integration and somewhat lesser video quality make information technology hard to recommend Ring over other options. Ultimately, while I would definitely recommend this camera to someone already invested in Band's ecosystem, anyone but first to build out a security suite at their home should have a strong look at the best outdoor security cameras for other options.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/ring-stick-up-cam-battery
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