Connect with us

CNET

Ring 4 review: The best wireless video doorbell? Not quite

The latest video doorbell from Amazon’s Ring brand gets a lot right, but its narrow field of view and the company’s relationships with police hold it back. Add in tight competition from companies like Arlo, and it’s a tough sell. To read more about Ring’s Privacy: Read CNET’s written review: See Ring 4 on Amazon:…

Published

on

The latest video doorbell from Amazon’s Ring brand gets a lot right, but its narrow field of view and the company’s relationships with police hold it back. Add in tight competition from companies like Arlo, and it’s a tough sell.

To read more about Ring’s Privacy:

Read CNET’s written review:

See Ring 4 on Amazon:

0:00 Intro
0:12 Overview
0:33 The Basics
0:54 Quick Replies
1:36 Full Color Pre-Roll
1:56 The Competition
2:38 Aspect Ratio
3:34 Ring’s Privacy Problems
5:18 Recommendation

Subscribe to CNET:
Like us on Facebook:
Follow us on Twitter:
Follow us on Instagram:
Follow us on TikTok:

Continue Reading
Advertisement
61 Comments

61 Comments

  1. Eric Domínguez

    July 22, 2021 at 5:01 pm

    Didn’t they JUST come out with the Ring 3 ? 😀

  2. Stjepan Nikolić

    July 22, 2021 at 5:03 pm

    Wait a minute.You buy this and then you have to give access to the police when they ask or they dont even need to ask, they can just access it themselves?

  3. Blender Study

    July 22, 2021 at 5:10 pm

    Thank you for the in-depth review, CNET..!!

  4. Brandon Yammine

    July 22, 2021 at 5:14 pm

    Who cares if anyone can see what your ring sees. All you have to do is stand in the road and look at someone’s porch and you’ll be seeing the same thing. It’s not like a porch is a private space

  5. SAS Stewart

    July 22, 2021 at 5:28 pm

    Ring makes such great hardware and they have a great ecosystem but the police connection with them unfortunately makes it a deal breaker

  6. The_Natives

    July 22, 2021 at 5:38 pm

    amazing video

  7. awakethebeast

    July 22, 2021 at 5:59 pm

    Great review! Best I’ve seen in awhile.

  8. Wayne Brooks

    July 22, 2021 at 6:09 pm

    That’s true, I had arlo and returned it before opening it because their app is the worst as it pertains to glitches. But Ring 4 you can go Live and double tap to zoom in and it let’s you see your package on the ground and aim up. Wish Ring 4 had that Arlo aspect ratio without having to go live and zoom in or down.

  9. Chris Laidlaw

    July 22, 2021 at 6:09 pm

    The solar panel isn’t efficient enough and even after a few days of strong daylight I’m at 3% charge. Wish Nest offered a battery-powered doorbell. Haven’t seen anything with a battery and ground coverage for packages.

    • J O

      July 22, 2021 at 6:25 pm

      You can customize settings in the app to extend battery life. 🙂

  10. timtampa

    July 22, 2021 at 6:22 pm

    Great overall video, with some added flare. I would suggest to add the LONG URLs you put in the video to be in the description, or at least shorten them to make them usable. I checked your written review, but it’s not easy to find them quickly. There are home consumers who can do that in their videos, and I expect more from CNET. I’ve been watching CNET for as long as it has been CNET, since 1994. Please keep CNET alive by continuing to provide usable content, so we don’t go over to places like Twit that took half of your staff anyways. 😉

  11. Don Melton

    July 22, 2021 at 6:47 pm

    Guess your all for defund police. Not interested in catching criminals

  12. Dayner

    July 22, 2021 at 6:53 pm

    Ughhhh hate politics

  13. g e o

    July 22, 2021 at 6:58 pm

    This is a big no no.

  14. L Smith

    July 22, 2021 at 7:39 pm

    It’s not RING, it’s Amazon!

  15. falcon7350

    July 22, 2021 at 7:42 pm

    cut down on what the cam sees and it cuts down on the file sizes , power time in runing the unit and so on so your comparison in not in line with what it should be

  16. Alex

    July 22, 2021 at 7:50 pm

    I gave my ring away to a friend and bought myself Eufy and super happy.

  17. Lord Refrigerator Intercooler

    July 22, 2021 at 7:51 pm

    I guess stealing a door bell is about to become a thing.

    • Surge P

      July 22, 2021 at 9:30 pm

      Not really. The doorbells are locked to an account. Stealing it won’t do anything because people won’t buy it if it’s lock by ring and the serial number is black listed.

  18. Surge P

    July 22, 2021 at 9:26 pm

    Nowhere outside is private. Even in front of your door

  19. Sagacious Apotheosis BLM

    July 22, 2021 at 10:29 pm

    I avoided Ring precisely because they work with unaccountable tax funded organizations that tyrannically terrorize some groups to extract wealth and maintain White Supremacy aka Law Enforcement. ACAB

  20. Kate

    July 22, 2021 at 10:40 pm

    I was really wanting a ‘ring’ door bell then when I did my research and discovered the privacy issues with police for myself and neighbors I was gob smacked pretty hard. I can’t believe people feel safer when giving up a lot of privacy. I find it creepy.

  21. ugoboss

    July 22, 2021 at 10:51 pm

    👏🏿👏🏿

  22. artraft

    July 22, 2021 at 11:40 pm

    And Philips hue bulbs are smart? Really?

  23. Blackwater Pictures

    July 23, 2021 at 12:50 am

    Serpico

  24. Max Headroom

    July 23, 2021 at 1:22 am

    How Orwellian is it?

  25. David Bern

    July 23, 2021 at 1:52 am

    Arlo sucks…

  26. zeek ab

    July 23, 2021 at 2:03 am

    Public space Is public, not private smh lol. Same reason anyone can record in public space to include the cops, can’t have it one way without the other. Just review the products CNET and cut the politics.

  27. leomtk

    July 23, 2021 at 3:38 am

    So you want a security camera to video burglars and porch pirates but you don’t want to share the videos with the police so that they can catch them? What kind of dumb are you? Why don’t you put out a welcome sign saying “Steal from me and my neighbors; I won’t cooperate with the police.”

  28. Paul Ruff

    July 23, 2021 at 5:47 am

    Look, the only thing important is when someone comes to the door I can see them on my Show 10 3rd addition but it gives me a heads-up but never the person. Junk

  29. Denis Lara

    July 23, 2021 at 5:59 am

    I had the ring 2 doorbell for a year and a half. It never worked. Got a Nest doorbell it has never failed.

  30. cowboys94

    July 23, 2021 at 6:09 am

    wow I really hope the police don’t get footage of someone stealing my package

  31. Sharif Al Humaid

    July 23, 2021 at 6:26 am

    Valid comments. I complement it with another camera to increase coverage.

  32. Alex Aguallo

    July 23, 2021 at 9:09 am

    Thank u for the info! I didn’t realize Arlo was so legit

  33. JEEP 2019

    July 23, 2021 at 9:21 am

    Helps the police? Where do I buy?

  34. Liery

    July 23, 2021 at 9:53 am

    Tbh. There’s a huge untapped market for “offline” security cameras with smart features. All videos and images are stored and only accessible locally, but the cameras are connected to the internet so you get instant alerts if sus motion/sounds are detected, preferrably with descriptions of what the cameras’ AI think is going on. Hence no one can hack and spy on you. Protect your property AND privacy!

    • David Priest

      July 26, 2021 at 2:45 pm

      This is the big value of end-to-end encryption, which basically makes sure ONLY you have access to the video. Some cameras do have this option, including Ring’s hard-wired cameras. But E2EE is rarely the default setting, so you have to elect to use it.

  35. Peter Moss

    July 23, 2021 at 10:06 am

    How can you not mention eufy, it has messages you can prerecord your own voice and 2k video

  36. Graham Evans

    July 23, 2021 at 12:29 pm

    $200 in US makes it very expensive to buy in Aus. To give away my privacy & store it in ‘the cloud’? No thanks! All my security runs on TF cards so my data stays with me. BTW, where is the Cloud? Lol ✌🏻🇦🇺

  37. roy kerkhoven

    July 23, 2021 at 12:59 pm

    na i prefer my eufy doorbel without subscriptions an with privacy

  38. Brian

    July 23, 2021 at 1:03 pm

    …….. Just install the “Ring Doorbell” lower to the ground then you can see the package…….!!!!???? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍👍👀👀👀

  39. Brian

    July 23, 2021 at 1:07 pm

    In our part of the world. It has the thug to think twice before he walks up to the front door. Word on the street is Ring will warn people and therefore the use of approaching the property in stealth mode does not work.

  40. RJeezy

    July 23, 2021 at 1:13 pm

    Sooo it’s exactly the same as the previous model(s), just with a new number after its name… Great! 😐

  41. steev the technophile

    July 23, 2021 at 1:52 pm

    This isn’t Ring, it’s Amazon now. Between the poor video and their server latency I shocked these sell well. Maybe it’s cause they’re cheap.

  42. murcielago Batman

    July 23, 2021 at 3:31 pm

    No wonder that cheap to get now .You say you can find them on sale for $45

  43. Dan Florez

    July 23, 2021 at 3:35 pm

    Yes, sharing video with police is a positive feature. When a crime occurs you want the police to obtain the video easily, not jumping through a ton of Redtape to get a bad guy’s description. Which can be the difference in catching a bad guy or not. Your review on that point comes from a trendy hatred for police not the practical every day reason doorbell cameras are so popular. I don’t see CNET coming down so negatively about big technology companies tsunami-size intrusion into our every day life and all our devices, unlike the police.

  44. Andre Winston Powell

    July 24, 2021 at 6:51 am

    I love the police, will be calling them if something happens

    • IronGiant

      July 26, 2021 at 7:59 am

      Good for you. Hopeless they don’t accidentally shoot you thing that you’re the suspect.

  45. Alvin L. Tatum Jr

    July 24, 2021 at 6:59 am

    I think the Ring partnership with Police is a good thing. It allowed police to give out free doorbells in problem neighborhoods to individuals that would not have been able to afford it otherwise. It’s easy to say something is problematic when shootings are not happening everyday where you live.

    • IronGiant

      July 26, 2021 at 2:32 am

      Police departments have shown that they can’t be trusted. I use to live in a violent POC neighborhood (being Black myself I deeply understand these issues). You know what stops violence and reduces crime, its not security cameras. Instead, it’s more good-paying jobs, social workers, better public transit, universal background checks, and police officers that actually solve crimes.

    • Alvin L. Tatum Jr

      July 26, 2021 at 7:01 am

      @IronGiant But an individual has to want those things. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Go look at DC Police p Chief’s recent interview on shootings. He’s spitting fire.

    • IronGiant

      July 26, 2021 at 7:58 am

      @Alvin L. Tatum Jr Yeah this is the same bs bootstrap narrative that people have been saying for decades now. The safest communities are not those with the most police per capita, it’s those with the most resources. America has NEVER invested in its poor or working-class communities, especially those that are majority Black and Brown. As for DC I completely understand his frustration after the recent shootings but no one is going to out the shooters because they do not trust the police and they have no resources in their communities to better their lives. I have lived this, the hood has a lot of smart, hard-working people who have never been given a chance. Ring doorbells do not fix this.

    • Alvin L. Tatum Jr

      July 26, 2021 at 1:40 pm

      @IronGiant I’m from the same environment I’ve seen it then I see it now. It’s not BS. Humans will do what humans want to do. There are plenty of people in the hood that say they want more police presence. Videos all over YouTube. But due to the events of the last year departments across America are short and you can’t blame them. Why pour out your heart and work when people just lump you into one category. Those in the hood that don’t mean it well just like the rest of the world have a heart problem. Which all comes back to sin.

    • IronGiant

      July 26, 2021 at 6:13 pm

      @Alvin L. Tatum Jr? People have been saying the same thing about Black and Brown people for decades. People are People and if you give people resources they will flourish. The hood has never been given the resources that it needs, never. Yes, there needs to be more police and cameras to help catch criminals but that alone can’t fix the problem. You know how I know that it’s because that is what we have been doing for decades and it has not worked. We need to do something new, and that is to invest in people and treat people like you think that they are smart incentive driven entities that are doing what they think is the best for themselves. When you do that the solutions that you find, end up looking very different from what we have tried before.

  46. DANITA JONES

    July 24, 2021 at 9:17 am

    Can u unlock and lock your door with any of these locks?

  47. David Pinero

    July 24, 2021 at 11:48 am

    If one is serious about door or package security, why rely on Ring or any doorbell video system? There are so many different systems and ways to mount them overhead or otherwise they make the whole concept of Ring-style doorbell security seem silly and limiting. If I am not mistaken Ring literally started out as just a communication tool and kind of began enveloping itself as a security thing when it improved sales to do so.

  48. Reggie R

    July 24, 2021 at 2:34 pm

    It would have been great if you would have reviewed the Nest Hello doorbell.

  49. Eyeman M

    July 24, 2021 at 2:36 pm

    Good presentation.
    I think that you touched on a very important point.
    Being accomplice of a police State is not the Amercan way, but we have been condition to accept the overreach…

  50. Rob Stitt

    July 25, 2021 at 4:35 am

    The police have to request footage.

    My porch is MY porch and the public street is…public. I have to give the ok, so it’s not unfettered surveillance.

    I really don’t have any issues with that aspect of things. I’m more concerned about privacy when it comes to inside my house…

  51. JUR O

    July 25, 2021 at 12:02 pm

    I hot attacked….and…IT was om video because home camera pointed to the street

  52. MrKarthikbritish

    July 26, 2021 at 9:55 am

    You can get anker security camera without any subscription at all

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CNET

Unboxing the PDP Riffmaster Wireless Guitar Controller

Whether you’re jumping into Fortnite Festival or starting up Rock Band 4, the Riffmaster Guitar Controller will have you ready to rock. Available to pre-order for #PlayStation, #Xbox and #PC. #videogames #rockband #fortnite #tech

Published

on

Whether you’re jumping into Fortnite Festival or starting up Rock Band 4, the Riffmaster Guitar Controller will have you ready to rock. Available to pre-order for #PlayStation, #Xbox and #PC. #videogames #rockband #fortnite #tech

Continue Reading

CNET

WWDC 2024: What Will Apple Announce?

Here’s why Bridget Carey thinks this year’s event will be the one to watch. What do you think they’ll talk about? #ios18 #iphone #mobile #tech #visionpro #applenews #technews

Published

on

Here’s why Bridget Carey thinks this year’s event will be the one to watch. What do you think they’ll talk about? #ios18 #iphone #mobile #tech #visionpro #applenews #technews

Continue Reading

CNET

CNET Editors’ Choice 2024

From phones and tax software to mattresses, our CNET editors highlight top products and advice across many different categories. #tech #software #editors #reviews #shorts #gadgets

Published

on

From phones and tax software to mattresses, our CNET editors highlight top products and advice across many different categories. #tech #software #editors #reviews #shorts #gadgets

Continue Reading

Trending