Just over two years ago I asked Should I Get a Ring Video Doorbell? Not long after that, I did order one via a Black Friday sale. Today I’ll talk about my experiences with it and the latest and greatest from Ring. Yes, I’ll include some links to purchase from Amazon for which I get a tiny commission. No, they didn’t send me any products to write this post.

Just to be clear, I ordered the Ring Video Doorbell 2 and I’m still using it today. It runs on batteries which is what I needed since I do not have wiring to my door. So that I could quickly swap out the battery every few months, I also ordered an extra battery pack. I would guess it took about ten minutes to install and maybe another ten minutes to configure it.

Let’s now look at the latest iteration, the Ring Video Doorbell 3. It has improved the motion detection, add privacy features and works with both 2.4 and 5 GHz Wifi bands. Are those updates worth the price difference above the older model? Those are for you to decide. If you already have one in place, it might not be as valuable.

There is a separate Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus that adds “pre-roll” video. In short, it records four seconds of video before motion was detected. It is a lower-quality video to save battery life. The price is about $30 higher if that extra feature is something you want.

Now let’s talk about how I personally use my doorbell. I would fully expect you may use one differently as your needs may be different. I have motion detection disabled as my video doorbell looks at a sidewalk that gets a fair amount of traffic. Motion would be detected quite often and all those notifications would drive me nuts.

The most useful feature for me is notification when someone pushes the doorbell. My front door opens to an outdoor courtyard. If someone knocks, I probably wouldn’t hear it. With the Ring, I get a notification on my phone as well as a message on my Amazon Echo saying “someone is at the front door”. I can see video of the front door on my phone and the video is also available on an Echo Show. You can even view it from the Brilliant Smart Home Control that I wrote about last week. In most cases I knew someone was coming so I don’t check the video. But it is nice that I have it and it works even when I’m nowhere near the house. Heck, I’ve even viewed the video from my Ring from another country!

Now that I’ve had mine for two years, I’m very happy I got it. Given that Black Friday is coming again soon, you might want to keep your eye on the price to see if a good special sale comes along.