The Ring Indoor is a compact security camera with app for your home or office. With six tens, it is also very affordable. Sounds like a golden combination, right? Techzle figured it out and catch up with this Ring Indoor review.
Ring Indoor
price € 60
Colors white, later also black
Camera 140 degree viewing angle, 1080p video, night vision
Wifi 802.11 b / g / n 2.4 GHz
Other 110db Two-way ruling, app, optional subscription
Format 4.6 x 4.6 x 7.5 cm
Website www.ring.com 7.5 Score 75 
- Pros
- Complete and clear app
- Excellent image, even at night
- Compact design
- Negatives
- Subscription required for all functions
- No audio detection
- Often false alarms by acquaintances
The Ring Indoor is the newest security camera from the home automation company Ring, which is owned by Amazon. Ring is already selling smart doorbells and security cameras for indoors and outdoors in the Netherlands. For example, we tested the Ring Spotlight Cam last year. The Indoor works via the same Ring app and can be linked to other Ring products. Ring calls the privacy of its users very important but remember – as with any security camera – that you can never rule out that nobody is watching.
Design and installation
A security camera often stands or hangs in view, but you don’t actually want to see it. Fortunately, Ring understands this and has made the Indoor camera as compact as possible. The camera is considerably smaller than a can of soda, weighs little and can stand on its foot or be hung up. The box contains screws and other supplies. You are limited by the fact that the camera only works when the plug is in the socket. Now the cord is quite long, but it would have been more convenient if the camera were to run on batteries.
The Ring Indoor is only available in white at the time of publication, a black version will follow soon, according to Ring. Installation of the camera is very easy. Place or hang it in the desired location, plug in the power cord and follow the instructions in the (free) Ring app on your iPhone or Android smartphone. You will be ready in ten minutes. And please: enable two-step verification, a security feature that Ring – very well – promotes.
Notifications from your pet
Now you can get started with the functions of the security camera. A wide-angle lens constantly monitors the environment and warns you if desired if movement is visible. Fortunately, you can adjust this, for example when the camera always mentions your pet. Turn on the “People only mode” option in the “Movement settings” settings.
You can shout at burglars remotely, a handy feature that hopefully is not necessary.
The Ring Indoor has a loudspeaker and microphones for two-way speech. You can also switch this on and off, so it is privacy friendly. You can hear people talking in the room (or your dog barking!) When switched on. Talk to your smartphone in the Ring app and the sound will be heard from the camera speaker. Handy to greet someone from a distance, to chase it away or to give the dog a position.
Con: the camera is pretty stupid
Less convenient is that the camera does not send a notification if it captures sound without detecting movement. Only when someone comes into the picture can the Ring Indoor give you a call. Burglars that force your window or door but stay out of sight of the camera can therefore go undisturbed in this respect.
In contrast to various more expensive security cameras, the Ring Indoor has no face recognition option. Positive because of everyone’s privacy, but a downside if you have the camera at home and only want notifications from unknown characters. Now you will receive a notification of every movement.
The image quality of the camera is excellent. The Ring Indoor films in full-HD resolution (1920 by 1080 pixels), making the image sharp, also on a monitor. In the dark, the camera uses multiple infrared cameras and the image is good enough to distinguish people. Little noise is visible. The wide angle lens has a wide view (140 degrees) than usual and thus captures a large part of the space, for example your living room or view of the garden. With emphasis on “view on”, because the camera is not meant for outdoors. It is not weatherproof and must therefore be installed or hung indoors.
Integration with other products and services
The Ring Indoor works great with other Ring products, such as a smart doorbell or more advanced security cameras. For example, you can set that when one camera detects motion, all cameras in and around your house are activated so that you don’t miss anything. Thanks to the support for the IFTTT platform, you can also link Ring products to other equipment such as Philips Hue lamps. An example: if your camera sees movement in the living room, your lights will switch on at the brightest position. Uninvited guests will not like that.
Good to know is that Ring products work well together with Amazon Alexa home automation. However, those gadgets are not officially for sale in the Netherlands and the voice control only works in English, so for the time being we attach little value to this. It is a pity that Ring does not support the Google Assistant, which is popular here but is also Amazon’s biggest competitor.
Whether or not a subscription?
With the installation of the Ring Indoor you get a 30-day trial subscription to Ring Protect. With this subscription you can watch, download and share recorded video clips for up to 30 days with acquaintances or the police. Handy, but you pay three euros a month for it after the trial period. And then you only get to see the images from the Indoor security camera. If you have more Ring equipment at home, you can look at the Protect Plus subscription that costs ten euros a month. With this you look (afterwards) at the images of all your Ring cameras and doorbells and you receive a ten percent discount when you purchase new Ring products.
It is of course also not possible to subscribe. You will then simply receive direct notifications, see live images and can use two-way speech. However, reviewing clips is not possible. Whether you are smart enough to take out a subscription and if so which one, depends entirely on your wishes. In itself you are fine without a subscription, with the main disadvantage that you cannot show the police video footage if burglars turn your house upside down.
Conclusion
The Ring Indoor is an affordable security camera that looks good both during the day and in the dark. Thanks to the two-way speech you can hear and talk to the people in the room where the camera hangs. Ring’s app is complete and clear, but you need a subscription for all options. We find it more annoying that the camera is rather stupid: it only sends a notification when it moves, not when it is sound. And because the camera does not recognize people, you also receive notifications when acquaintances walk through the image. More expensive security cameras are smarter and therefore more pleasant to use. But those with a limited budget are well off with the Ring Indoor.
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