Amazon has a habit in the run-up to its big sales: the brands it owns get cheaper before anything else does. Ring is one of them, and ahead of Prime Big Deal Days the newest Ring Battery Doorbell 2K goes from $99.99 to $39.99 on Amazon, a 60% cut that any shopper can get, Prime member or otherwise. It is the current model in the line, a battery-powered video doorbell that records in 2K and needs no existing doorbell wiring.
2K Video and a Battery You Charge Over USB-C
Ring calls the image Retinal 2K, and it comes with a wide-angle view of the doorstep plus what the company describes as up to 6x Enhanced Zoom. In practice the resolution is what lets you zoom at all: a face at the bottom of the steps or the label on a parcel left by the mat holds together better when there are more pixels to crop into. I’d treat the 6x figure as a ceiling, since it is digital zoom on a doorbell camera, but 2K is a real step up for this kind of detail.
The everyday use is the one most people buy a video doorbell for. When motion is detected, a notification lands on your phone, and Live View opens the feed so you can see who is there. Two-Way Talk then lets you answer through the doorbell’s speaker and microphone, which is how you tell a courier to leave the box behind the planter while you are still at the office, or let a neighbor know you will be back in ten minutes.
Because the battery is built in, installation comes down to fixing the mount to the wall, and that makes the doorbell a reasonable choice for renters or for doors that never had a wired chime. Recharging is where the design asks something of you: a small tool supplied in the box releases the doorbell from its mount, and it then charges over USB-C indoors. The cable is not included, and the door has no camera while the unit is plugged in, which is the part I find least convenient. Ring also sells a Solar configuration and one with a Chime on the same Amazon page for anyone who wants to avoid that routine.
The other cost to know about is the subscription. Scrolling back through recorded video to see what you missed, and the AI-powered alerts that describe what is happening at the door, both require a compatible Ring Protect plan, which is sold separately. I would count that plan in the budget before ordering, because a doorbell that only shows live video is a different product from one that keeps a history. On the Alexa side, an Echo Dot can announce that someone is at the door and an Echo Show can display the video on request.
Three finishes share the same price: the Ring Battery Doorbell 2K is $39.99 instead of $99.99 on Amazon in Matte Mocha, Speckled Gray and Speckled White, for a single doorbell with no accessory. Amazon labels it a limited time deal with free returns, and it lists a bundle that adds a Ring Indoor Cam for $49.99.