Ring Chime: Needy wireless doorbell or $30 bling t'ing?

Motion detection is better off than on

There are also a few niggling problems with the Ring. For one, the motion detection is not as good or precise as its user interface would have you believe. After a few months of false alerts despite constantly tinkering with the settings, in the end it was easier just to turn it off.

And then there's the fact that, despite us being constantly wedded to our mobile phones, it is very possible to keep missing the doorbell. Your phone may be in your pocket, or you've left it on your desk and gone off to do something. Once you get used to being able to answer your doorbell on your phone, you can get too used to it – and miss actual people at your door.

The battery also doesn't last as long as the company claims. With (admittedly heavy) use the doorbell lasted under two months the first time. Recharged, it then lasted just three months before it needed charging again. And literally this morning, the doorbell sent me an email saying it needed to be charged again. For a doorbell, this feels a little too needy.

It also makes you imagine that as you introduce more smart-tech things to your home, you're going to lose most of Sunday morning charging them all up.

Lastly, there is a bit of a design flaw. The Ring has special screws that hold it to your doorframe so it is harder to steal. But on the fourth occasion of unscrewing them to get it off/plug it in, one of the plastic housings it goes into simply snapped off. It was far too narrow and fragile for something that is supposed to be provided for theft protection. And there is no easy fix.

So now the doorbell is secured by one tiny screw in a housing that will no doubt fail in the same way within the next six months, thanks to us having to unscrew it to charge it up twice more.

Does that mean we no longer like the Ring?

Nope, it is still a terrific device. But its use cases are narrowing and it rapidly needs an update. The best solution, to our minds, would be to split the product line into two: one for houses that have a wire that it can be connected to; and one that needs to work wirelessly. The second needs a bigger battery.

As for the Chime: if you love the Ring and you don't have a wired ringer then it will be a very useful, if slightly expensive, add-on. As with many things in the smart home, it's a compromise. ®