You might have seen in the news that there’s been a bit of uproar about “Ring” doorbells lately… Don’t let the brand name confuse you (don’t all doorbells “ring” when you press them?) – I’m talking specifically about a particular brand of video doorbells, which are basically where you have a small CCTV camera and microphone built into your doorbell.
The main advantage of video doorbells is that you can use them to see who’s at your door if you’re away from home, or otherwise unable to answer the door. You can see them (and even speak to them) through an app, like you would with an intercom, to tell the postie that you’re out and to leave your parcel in the shed, for example.
However, the downside of this particular brand of video doorbell is that to be able to use them properly, for example to save a copy of the video footage, you have to pay a subscription fee. And that fee is due to increase by 43% in March (so from £3.49 a month to £4.99, or from £34.99 to £49.99 for a year’s subscription).
It’s quite a large increase for no apparent improvement to the service, and that’s without the rather hefty price tag attached to the actual smart doorbell doodad itself. So if you were considering getting one for your front door, it might be worth looking into some more wallet-friendly alternatives, such as Blink or Eufy.
Or if you’re happy to stick with Ring, then by all means carry on – I’m not here to tell you what you should or shouldn’t buy or use, after all. And if you’d rather stick with a regular manual doorbell, then by all means do so – I still remember the excitement in our house when we got one that had 8 different chimes for us to choose from!