Ring Floodlight Cam Review

In our previous article, we have reviewed the Ring Stick Up Cam from Ring, a smart home startup specializing in smart doorbells and smart security cameras. Today, we will review the successor of the said product, which will be released shortly in the first quarter of 2017.

We are lucky enough to get ourselves an early reviewer’s product from Ring, and we will provide you our Ring Floodlight Camera review based on our tests.

While the Ring Stick Up Cam is very similar to Ring’s flagship product, the Ring Video Doorbell (standard version), the Ring Floodlight Cam is a definite upgrade, mainly because, as the name suggests, the addition of the built-in floodlight lamp.

The floodlight lamp itself has further set itself apart from the competition, being the first one among similar products to provide such feature. However, the floodlight is not the only addition for the Ring Floodlight Cam, it also has the upgrade in video quality, from the 720p found on the Ring Stick Up Cam to a nice, full HD 1080p resolution. It also features a nice, 110db built-in alarm, which is certainly a nice addition to its security purpose.

Overall, it tackles many issues found on the Ring Stick Up Cam, but at the same time sacrificing the best feature of the Stick Up Cam we really liked: the built-in battery. The Stick Up Cam is often criticized for its limited, 80-degrees field-of-view, and the Ring Floodlight Cam is nicely upgraded with a 140-degrees wide-angle viewing, which is among the best in the industry.

Although unfortunately, it doesn’t feature a sound-detection sensor, its motion detection is vastly improved compared to the stick-up cam. The detection field-of-view is improved to a very wide 270-degrees and enhanced with facial and object detection. The night-vision is also improved to a true night-vision instead of infrared LEDs found on the Ring Stick Up Cam.

Let us begin our Ring Floodlight security camera review by discussing its key benefits and qualities.

Key Features

Two Built-in Floodlights

The key highlight of the product, hence the name. The 3000-degrees Kelvin LED floodlights will serve two purposes: to light up the surrounding areas where the Floodlight Cam is installed and to effectively enhance the video camera visibility. The camera is practically always lighted, so it won’t even need a dedicated night-vision technology, but it’s provided anyways.

Advanced Motion Sensors

The motion sensor technology included is simply, superb. Features a 270-degree wide field of vision, it is more than enough to detect any movement near the camera. The facial and object recognition technology is excellent, and the adjustability of motion zones and scheduling through the app is very easy to use, yet very useful.

110 Decibel Siren

While you might miss the push notification on your phone, we doubt you will miss the extremely loud built-in alarm siren. It is a very simple, yet very useful technology, and now that it is introduced, we simply wonder why other products didn’t feature this.

The Ring App

We have mentioned several times how we really liked the Ring smartphone app, and with the Ring Floodlight Cam, there are even more things you can do. You can not only control the camera itself, but also the

Our Review

As we opened our (early bird) package, we found all the things we expected from a typical Ring product: you got all the necessary things needed for the installation from a leveler, screwdriver, screw bit, drill bit, and a very useful quick start guide.

The installation process is, well, a bit of a hit and miss. First things first, the Ring Floodlight Cam is strictly hardwired-only, and you will ideally need an existing light wiring. Provided most of us will have a light fixture in our front porch, or any ideal location for the camera, this will not generally be a problem. However, if that is not the case, you will need to reroute your wire, which certainly can be a hassle.

This can be an issue if you need to install the camera in a hard-to-reach area, but that is where the Stick Up Cam fills in. You can easily use the Floodlight Cam in combination with one or more Stick Up Cam (s), and control it from the same Ring app.

With that being said, the installation process is fairly straightforward with an existing wiring, almost plug and play, as with any of Ring’s products.

The range of the customization provided by the Ring App is simply excellent, you can control the camera, motion detector zoning, scheduling, lights, and alarm siren in the very easy-to-use app. If you are also using Ring’s video doorbell products or the Stick Up Cam, it will integrate seamlessly.

The Floodlight Cam retains the amazing range of third-party integration to smart home systems with IFTTT protocol, ranging from the popular Amazon Alexa, Belkin WeMo, Wink, ADT, and Kevo. Again, Nest’s smart home system, which is also popular, is notably missing due to Nest’s own security camera product.

Performance-wise, it is nothing short of astonishing. The video and audio quality are crystal clear, and we are glad that the Wi-Fi receiver is vastly improved from the Stick Up Cam. The motion detector works like a charm, and the facial and object recognition are amazing. We initially thought that it would only be a gimmicky feature, but it works surprisingly well. For example, the alarm won’t sound when a face it recognized (i.e, a family member) is detected. It is definitely one of the best features of the product.

You Should Buy This If

If you already have an existing wiring for front porch’s light or existing hardwired security camera, this is definitely the best option for an upgrade, period. Being fairly new (in fact, not yet officially out when this article is published), it features all the most advanced technologies available in the market today.

If you already used Ring products before, it is certainly a nice addition, and can be controlled/monitored together in a single Ring app.

Bottom Line

Let us end our Ring Floodlight Cam Review with a single verdict: It is definitely the most advanced smart security camera product available in the market today. The only downside, honestly, is the strictly hardwired setup, which will limit its positioning.

Featuring state of the art technologies in all aspects, it is definitely a nice upgrade for your smart home security system.