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:…
Eric Domínguez
July 22, 2021 at 5:01 pm
Didn’t they JUST come out with the Ring 3 ? 😀
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?
Blender Study
July 22, 2021 at 5:10 pm
Thank you for the in-depth review, CNET..!!
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
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
The_Natives
July 22, 2021 at 5:38 pm
amazing video
awakethebeast
July 22, 2021 at 5:59 pm
Great review! Best I’ve seen in awhile.
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.
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. 🙂
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. 😉
Don Melton
July 22, 2021 at 6:47 pm
Guess your all for defund police. Not interested in catching criminals
Dayner
July 22, 2021 at 6:53 pm
Ughhhh hate politics
g e o
July 22, 2021 at 6:58 pm
This is a big no no.
L Smith
July 22, 2021 at 7:39 pm
It’s not RING, it’s Amazon!
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
Alex
July 22, 2021 at 7:50 pm
I gave my ring away to a friend and bought myself Eufy and super happy.
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.
Surge P
July 22, 2021 at 9:26 pm
Nowhere outside is private. Even in front of your door
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
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.
ugoboss
July 22, 2021 at 10:51 pm
👏🏿👏🏿
artraft
July 22, 2021 at 11:40 pm
And Philips hue bulbs are smart? Really?
Blackwater Pictures
July 23, 2021 at 12:50 am
Serpico
Max Headroom
July 23, 2021 at 1:22 am
How Orwellian is it?
David Bern
July 23, 2021 at 1:52 am
Arlo sucks…
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.
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.”
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
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.
cowboys94
July 23, 2021 at 6:09 am
wow I really hope the police don’t get footage of someone stealing my package
Sharif Al Humaid
July 23, 2021 at 6:26 am
Valid comments. I complement it with another camera to increase coverage.
Alex Aguallo
July 23, 2021 at 9:09 am
Thank u for the info! I didn’t realize Arlo was so legit
JEEP 2019
July 23, 2021 at 9:21 am
Helps the police? Where do I buy?
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.
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
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 ✌🏻🇦🇺
roy kerkhoven
July 23, 2021 at 12:59 pm
na i prefer my eufy doorbel without subscriptions an with privacy
Brian
July 23, 2021 at 1:03 pm
…….. Just install the “Ring Doorbell” lower to the ground then you can see the package…….!!!!???? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍👍👀👀👀
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.
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! 😐
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
DANITA JONES
July 24, 2021 at 9:17 am
Can u unlock and lock your door with any of these locks?
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.
Reggie R
July 24, 2021 at 2:34 pm
It would have been great if you would have reviewed the Nest Hello doorbell.
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…
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…
JUR O
July 25, 2021 at 12:02 pm
I hot attacked….and…IT was om video because home camera pointed to the street
MrKarthikbritish
July 26, 2021 at 9:55 am
You can get anker security camera without any subscription at all