With the second-gen Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus, the head-to-toe doorbell finally goes 2K | Tech Radar

Overview

News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets

Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more

Details

Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards.

With the second-gen Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus, the head-to-toe doorbell finally goes 2K

A sharper, taller view of your doorstep in Retinal 2K, with a swappable battery — provided you're relaxed about Ring's subscription and surveillance baggage

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

The second-generation Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus is a step up rather than a token refresh. The jump to 2K Retinal resolution, HDR, 6x Enhanced Zoom and true-colour low-light sight sharpens what Ring already did better than most: the head-to-toe view that frames a courier and parcel in one shot. Add a quick-release battery that takes the misery out of recharging, and it's one of the easiest premium doorbells to live with. Familiar caveats apply: the best features need a subscription, and buying into Ring means buying into Amazon's wider surveillance ecosystem. Accept both, and it's an excellent front-door upgrade.

The best home security cameras: indoor, outdoor and subscription-free cams

We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you're buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): two-minute review

A video doorbell is a parcel monitor, a deterrent, and a low-key surveillance node pointed at your own front step, and Ring has spent the better part of a decade making that proposition feel normal.

The second-generation Battery Doorbell Plus is the company sharpening its best idea: taking the head-to-toe doorbell and giving it the resolution it always deserved.

Where ordinary doorbells frame a visitor's torso and chin and little else, the Plus shows a tall, square 1:1 field of view — 140 degrees in both directions — that takes in the person, the doorstep and whatever's been left on it.

This generation shoots in 2K Retinal resolution (1920 x 1920) with HDR, so you can identify a courier, read a label and confirm whether the parcel is on your step or your neighbour's — and a 6x Enhanced Zoom lets you pinch in without the image collapsing. It's the spec that separates a useful doorbell from a novelty, and the upgrade that justifies picking the Plus over Ring's cheaper Battery Doorbell.

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen) (Silver) at Amazon for $119.99

Night performance has been rethought, too. Rather than dropping straight to grey mush after dark, the Plus uses true-color low-light sight to hold onto colour in dim conditions, only switching to adaptive black-and-white night vision once it's dark.

Two-way talk with noise cancellation does the doorstep-conversation job cleanly. The other quality-of-life change is the Quick Release Battery Pack: instead of unmounting the whole unit to charge, you pop out the battery, recharge it and slot it back.

Installation takes under 30 minutes, connecting to Wi-Fi through the app and mounting with the supplied tools, then lining it up so the head-to-toe view actually reaches the floor. No hub required. If there's a grumble, it's a small one: in 2026, a

On the upside, it runs dual-band Wi-Fi 6, so a 2K stream holds up better than Ring's older 2.4GHz-only doorbells, with Ring recommending a 10 Mbps upload to keep it smooth.

Then there's the Ring tax, in two senses. Financially, person alerts, package alerts and saved recordings all live behind a Ring subscription; without one, the doorbell is reduced to real-time alerts and live view, which rather undersells a 2K camera.

Philosophically, buying Ring means accepting its history of police-data partnerships and the broader unease about Amazon-owned cameras pointed at public pavements. None of that is new, and none of it stops the hardware being good, but a review that ignored it wouldn't be doing its job.

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): price & availability

Sitting in the upper-middle of Ring's range of video doorbells, the Plus costs more than the

With a list price of

You should also factor the subscription into the lifetime cost. Plans start affordably for a single device and climb for multi-device households. Although the doorbell functions without a subscription, the experience is hollow: you'll be notified that something happened without being able to review what. Treat the subscription as part of the purchase, not an optional extra, and the value equation looks honest.

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): subscription plans

Features such as instant notifications, Live View and Two-Way Talk are available out of the box and for free on all Ring devices. A Ring subscription (branded Ring Protect) allows you to review, save and share your videos.

With a Ring subscription, starting from

You get a 30-day trial subscription when you first set up your Ring device. Video storage defaults to 30 days, with the option to extend it to up to 180 days.

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): specs

True-colour low-light sight; adaptive black-and-white in darkness

True-colour low-light sight; adaptive black-and-white in darkness

Quick release battery pack (rechargeable, removable); Micro-USB charging cable included; hardwire for trickle charge (8–24VAC); solar compatible

Quick release battery pack (rechargeable, removable); Micro-USB charging cable included; hardwire for trickle charge (8–24VAC); solar compatible

Person and package alerts (Ring subscription required)

Person and package alerts (Ring subscription required)

Cloud; defaults to 30 days, extendable to 180 days with subscription

Cloud; defaults to 30 days, extendable to 180 days with subscription

Nickel Silver (UK/US/Aus); Polished Night Navy, Polished Mocha, Polished Sandstone (US only)

Nickel Silver (UK/US/Aus); Polished Night Navy, Polished Mocha, Polished Sandstone (US only)

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): design

I’ve never been the biggest fan of Ring’s bulky designs, but the second-gen Plus is a bit more suitably restrained: a slim, rounded slab that won't embarrass a period porch or a new-build alike.

Build quality is reassuring, and the button has a satisfying press, though for UK and Australian customers it only comes in a single Nickel Silver finish, so there's no matching it to your door furniture the way some rivals allow.

The most practical design feature is the Quick Release Battery Pack. On older Ring doorbells, recharging meant unscrewing and removing the whole device — exactly the sort of faff that leads to a flat battery and a fortnight of excuses. Here you release the battery alone, charge it and reinsert it, with the doorbell staying put.

Buy a spare — the standard pack or the new Quick Release Ultra Battery Pack — and downtime drops to seconds. If a permanent supply suits you better, it hardwires to existing doorbell wiring for continuous trickle charging.

Setup follows Ring's well-worn path through the app, and crucially needs no separate hub or bridge. The only thing to get right is the angle: head-to-toe view only delivers its full benefit if you mount the doorbell so the frame reaches the doorstep, so it's worth spending a minute on placement rather than slapping it up at eye level out of habit.

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): performance

Fitted to a typical front door, the Plus does the important things well, and the move to 2K makes the difference obvious. The higher resolution and tall, square frame capture a visitor from hairline to doormat, so you see the face and the parcel in one shot.

The 6x Enhanced Zoom lets you crop in on a label or a face without the picture completely falling apart. Motion alerts arrived promptly during testing, live view loaded quickly, and two-way talk was clear enough to hold a proper exchange with a courier rather than barking over each other.

It might split opinion, but Ring uses AI-powered features to identify and announce who is at your door. Instead of generic motion alerts, I received AI prompts such as “A person is walking in the room with a vacuum cleaner”. I loved it, my cleaner hated it, and well, I guess that’s the point.

After dark, true-color low-light sight holds onto color under external lighting, so a late-night clip is worth reviewing; only in near-total darkness does it fall back to adaptive black-and-white.

It’s worth noting that I tested this sample on an internal front door, but one with intermittent infrared communal lighting at night, so the low-light functionality became incredibly useful when the lights cut out. Being battery-powered and available with Ring’s additional adhesive stick-on mounting kit makes it suitable for rental properties, too.

Connectivity is more of a quiet improvement: dual-band Wi-Fi 6 gives the 2K stream more headroom than Ring's older 2.4GHz-only doorbells, with Ring recommending a 10 Mbps upload speed to keep things smooth.

The performance ceiling, though, is set by the subscription. Person and package alerts — the difference between 'motion detected' and 'a parcel has arrived' — require a Ring plan, as does the ability to go back and watch what you missed, with recordings held up to 180 days.

Without a plan, the doorbell still rings and still streams live, but it stops short of the intelligence its hardware is clearly capable of. As a generational upgrade, it's a real one: 2K Retinal, HDR, sharper zoom and better low-light all land, so first-gen Plus owners have a genuine reason to look, even if a working 1536p unit is still perfectly serviceable.

Should you buy the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen)

Strong, sharper hardware at a fair price, but the subscription is effectively mandatory for the full experience.

Strong, sharper hardware at a fair price, but the subscription is effectively mandatory for the full experience.

Tidy and well-made, with a quick-release battery that improves daily life, though it comes in a single finish outside of the US.

Tidy and well-made, with a quick-release battery that improves daily life, though it comes in a single finish outside of the US.

Sharp 2K Retinal head-to-toe video with capable low-light sight, with the smartest alerts behind a paywall.

Sharp 2K Retinal head-to-toe video with capable low-light sight, with the smartest alerts behind a paywall.

Head-to-toe view is the feature, now in 2K, and it's the most practical thing a doorbell can offer.

The quick-release battery pack and an optional spare all but eliminate doorbell downtime.

If you have an Echo Show on the kitchen counter, this slots straight in and answers when you ask.

Without a Ring plan, you lose package and person alerts and recorded footage, which guts the proposition.

If Amazon-owned doorbells and their data and policing history give you pause, a Matter-friendly rival may sit easier.

If you want Retinal 4K and 3D motion detection, the £219.99 (about

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): also consider

If you're not sure whether the new Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus is the right option for you, here are two other doorbells to think about.

At £79.99 (about

Ring Battery Video Doorbell (2nd Gen) at Amazon for $99.99

The obvious non-Ring alternative, with on-device intelligence and a little free event history, if you'd rather not commit to Ring's ecosystem.

Google Nest Doorbell (battery) (White) at Amazon for $118.99

How I tested the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen)

Assessed video, head-to-toe framing, zoom, night vision and audio

I used the doorbell outside to assess image quality, but mainly mounted the doorbell on an internal front door and used it as my main entry camera, paying particular attention to whether the head-to-toe view and the new 2K sensor delivered on the promise of capturing parcels and people together.

I checked live-view responsiveness, pushed the 6x zoom on faces and labels, held two-way conversations with visitors, and reviewed low-light and night clips after dark.

I've reported on Ring's privacy considerations because they're a material part of the buying decision, not a footnote.

For more details, see how we test, rate, and review products at Tech Radar.

Former Metro tech editor, Stuff editor-in-chief and associate producer on The Gadget Show, James has been writing about consumer electronics and innovation for over 25 years. Experienced in both online and print journalism, he is currently tech correspondent for the Goodwood Festival of Speed Future Lab and editor of private jet magazine, Cloud. You’ll also find him contributing to titles including Enki, The Times, Shortlist, Spear’s, and U3A Matters, all while lamenting the untimely death of the Mini Disc.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

1'Every day, a child is exposed to two pieces of inappropriate or harmful content': I've spent hours researching the best phone for my son — here are the safest options I've found, from i Phones to 'dumbphones'

2 How to watch Netherlands vs Japan: Free Streams, TV Channels & Kick-Off time for FIFA World Cup 2026, team news

3I installed this brilliant peephole camera in 10 minutes, and it's a great subscription-free alternative to a video doorbell for renters and apartment-dwellers

4I tested a budget RGB TV and equivalent mini-LED TV side by side — and while RGB gets us closer to OLED performance, it still needs to learn a few things from its old-school counterpart

5 Best Buy is slashing Fitbit devices for Father's Day — shop my 5 favorite deals starting at $79.95

Tech Radar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Key Takeaways

• News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets

• Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more

• Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards

• With the second-gen Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus, the head-to-toe doorbell finally goes 2K

• A sharper, taller view of your doorstep in Retinal 2K, with a swappable battery — provided you're relaxed about Ring's subscription and surveillance baggage