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The Ring Peephole Cam is a solid copy-paste of all the best parts of Ring's traditional video doorbell, with an added lens to act as a peephole replacement. Ideal for apartment dwellers, the Peephole Cam is easy to install, simple to customize, and captures some pretty stunning HDR video.

Ring Peephole Cam
Power Source
Rechargeable battery pack (6,040mAh)
Voice Compatibility
Works with Alexa and IFTTT applets
App Compatibility
Ring - Always Home (for iPhone and Android)
Pros
  • Perfect for apartment dwellers
  • Quick and simple to install
  • Excellent video quality
  • Plenty of customization options
  • Easy to integrate with Alexa
Cons
  • Doesn?t recognize people?s faces
  • No hard-wiring option
  • Requires a Ring Protect subscription (for most features)

Unboxing and Design: What We've Come to Expect From Ring

the box contents of the ring peephole cam
Michael Bizzaco / How-To Geek

The interior portion of the Peephole Cam measures 2.26 x 4.40 x 1.16in, and the exterior is 1.85 x 3.83 x 0.78in. The interior casing has a matte-white finish, while the guest-facing part looks similar to Ring's video doorbell products, with a black covering around the lens and silver trimming.

A single button on the guest-facing side has an LED light ring around it. When it's lit up blue, someone has rung the bell, and a notification (and audible chime) is sent to you. A red LED light indicates that your battery level is running low, infrared night vision is being used, or that people are standing in front of the Peephole Cam.

Now whether you'll be able to use the Peephole Cam or not depends entirely on the dimensions of your actual door and existing peephole passthrough.

The door thickness must be between 1.3 and 2.2 inches (34 to 55mm), and the peephole diameter must be between 1/2 to 9/16 of an inch (12 to 14mm). The passthrough itself must also be clear of obstructions like door knockers. In the event that a knocker is in the way of your install (like at my apartment), the process of removing one is fairly easy.

In terms of power, you'll be working with Ring's rechargeable battery pack, so no worries about flipping breakers and looping in grounds. But do keep in mind that the more your Cam is out of standby (and doing things like recording video), the faster your battery pack will wear down. Fortunately, keeping a second battery on hand won't cost too much.

In addition to the Peephole Cam itself, the box also contains a handy peephole-removal tool, an optional peephole adapter (if your door's peephole channel is too narrow), as well as a legal insert, a security sticker, and an orange USB cable (for charging the battery).

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Ring Rechargeable Battery Pack

When you rotate rechargeable batteries, your Ring doorbell has virtually no downtime.

Installation and Setup: Quick and Easy (But Do Charge the Battery First)

the ring peephole cam (front portion) mounted on a door
Michael Bizzaco / How-To Geek

The Peephole Cam could be the easiest Ring video doorbell to install yet, with the hardest part (at least for me) being the removal of the existing peephole hardware.

Fortunately, Ring had some good foresight and went ahead and packaged the Cam with a peephole-removal key. Simply slide it over your door's peephole (from the inside) and start turning it to remove the assembly. Unfortunately, yours truly did not acknowledge this useful tool, and used a set of needle-nose pliers to remove my door's peephole assembly instead. Nonetheless, I got the job done.

After removing the door knocker (most are just held in place with a screw or two), I slid Ring's peephole assembly in through the exposed hole (from the outside).

Be careful with the attached data cable. It's relatively thin, so a simple twist or turn the wrong way could completely ruin the Ring Peephole Cam.

With the front-facing mechanism in place, all that's left is the inside portion, which is attached to the peephole tubing and screwed into place using the supplied plastic thread-screw. After connecting the data cable to the device input (and slide in the battery pack), your Peephole Cam will be powered and activated.

the interior portion of the ring peephole cam (without cover)
Michael Bizzaco / How-To Geek

Before you insert the battery, you will want to give the pack a few hours to charge. Use the supplied USB cable and a USB-A adapter (you'll need your own), then slide the battery into the door assembly when you're done.

If this is your first time installing a Ring product, you must download the Ring - Always Home app (available for iPhone and Android) and create an account. After you've done so, go ahead and scan the QR code (located on the Peephole Cam itself or in the product manual) to add the Cam to the app and connect it to Wi-Fi (2.4GHz only).

Ring's simple setup wizard will guide you through some basic personalization and device settings, then, after a quick firmware update, your Ring Peephole Cam will be registered, live, and ready to use.

Video, Audio, and Smart Features: Admirable as Always

The Peephole Cam records and displays 1080p HDR video, and true to Ring's lineage of top-notch surveillance gear, the live view and Ring's stored clips look fantastic.

I'm the ideal candidate for the Peephole Cam, seeing as I live in a two-story apartment building. The camera provided a crystal-clear view of the upper common area at all times, with little in the way of image-banding or overexposure. In fact, I was certain that the hall's LED lighting fixtures would somewhat impede the overall video quality, but I was pleasantly proven wrong. At all times, the Cam's footage was bright and colorful, and well-balanced in terms of contrast.

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The fact that this is an HDR camera doesn't hurt, either. A feature that's becoming critical for pretty much any surveillance equipment these days, HDR allows for optimized brightness and color far beyond what a normal lens and sensor is capable of, which allows the Peephole Cam to rise above the competition.

Unlike other Ring camera products, though, the Peephole Cam is missing the ability to recognize people's faces. It's not a huge deal, but considering the device isn't far from the price and performance of Ring's true video doorbells with this capability, the feature would have been a nice inclusion.

In terms of audio, the Peephole Cam features two-way talk, allowing you to communicate with guests that physically ring the bell (although you can activate this option at any time). Your visitors will be able to hear you, and you'll be able to hear them back. The audio quality is sharp and clear on both ends, based on my own testing.

Also, if you happen to have an Alexa-powered smart speaker or display hanging around the house, you'll be able to activate the Ring skill, which allows you to receive Ring notifications through your Alexa devices and app. Conveniently, you'll also be able to view a live camera feed whenever you want and receive Alexa notifications when someone rings the bell.

Using the Ring App: Dashboards and Customizations A-Plenty

For those who haven't used a Ring product before, the control and management of your home's devices is all done through the Ring - Always Home app. And as previously stated, the app is required for setting up and activating your Peephole Cam in the first place.

You'll be able to access your Cam's many customizations and preferences by navigating to the device's "Settings" menu in the Always Home app. There are actually a couple of ways to do this: on the home screen, you can either tap the "Settings" icon (the gear located in the top-right corner of the "Cameras" tab), or tap the three vertical lines icon in the top-left corner of the home screen, then select the Peephole Cam under "Video Doorbells."

This isn't just a quick-tweak set of options to ignore either, seeing as the "Settings" menu is where you'll be able to adjust and view everything from motion sensitivity to notification preferences. I'll admit that right out of the box, the Peephole Cam had some solid default capabilities, but there were a few customizations I made that improved the camera's overall functionality based on my personal living situation.

"Event History" is where you'll view a log of all motion-triggered video recordings on your Peephole Cam. Selecting a clip will play the recorded event, and a control tab at the bottom of the screen gives you playback options, an indication of time and date, as well as additional settings for sharing, downloading, and deleting the clip. Do keep in mind that, without a Ring Protect subscription (discussed in a later section), none of these features will work.

The "Accessories" tab will give you a breakdown of all the different Ring products you can pair with your Cam. I also like that by simply selecting one of these add-on peripherals, you'll be linked to the device's Amazon page if you want to buy it or do further research.

Perhaps the most important customizations for apartment living can be found under the "Motion Settings" tab. Why, you may ask? Because by default, your Peephole Cam will capture and report absolutely everything. Trust me: I didn't know the second-floor common area of my building was so busy throughout the day, but after only a few hours of the Cam being live, I felt like a bonafide security guard.

You're (probably) going to want to make some adjustments here, and fortunately, motion customizations is one category where Ring has always shined. "Camera Motion Zones" is what you'll choose to draw custom motion-patrol areas for your Peephole Cam to focus on, while ignoring any square-footage that falls outside of the color-shaded boxes.

"Motion Sensitivity" will pull up a "Min-Max" slider for adjusting the amount of physical activity required for your Cam to trigger a recording and notifications. Out of the box, the slider is shifted a few positions toward "Min," but even this was too much for my demo unit. I actually ended up sliding it most of the way to the minimum side, which helped cut down on the barrage of alerts I was getting.

Another great adjustment is housed under "Advanced Settings." Here is where you'll be able to create custom motion-monitoring schedules for your Peephole Cam to follow, as well as how often the Cam will check for motion (you can choose between "Frequently," "Regularly," and "Periodically").

Back on the main "Settings" page, tapping "Power Settings" will display a handy dashboard that logs your Cam's overall battery level, along with quick links to device features that directly affect battery longevity (like "Snapshot Capture" and "Motion Frequency"). I also highly recommend you go into the "Device Settings" tab to fully optimize your Cam's performance, privacy, and notification parameters.

Within this menu, a quick visit to "Video Settings" will show that HDR is actually disabled by default. Sure, having it off saves battery life, but you'll want to turn that on to get the absolute best-looking video quality possible. There are also toggles here for "Live View," "Infrared Lights for Night Vision," and an option to adjust how long your Peephole Cam will record motion for.

Back on the main "Device Settings" page, you'll also see options for "Notification Settings," "Knock Detection Settings," and a handful of other categories you can tweak to your liking.

Ring Protect: The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty Necessary

Can you use the Peephole Cam without a subscription? Technically yes, although you won't be able to do anything but look at a live view of your surroundings. This means you'll need to subscribe to a Ring Protect Plan in order to unlock the full scope of your Peephole Cam's capabilities. Thankfully, though, these plans aren't very expensive.

For only $4 per month (or $40 per year), you can get the Ring Protect Basic plan, which gives you up to 180 days of video history, video sharing, the ability to download videos for up to 50 days, and more. If you happen to have more than one Ring device, the Plus plan ($10 per month or $100 per year) adds all the same features to all of your home's Ring surveillance products, as well as extended warranties for said products.

Then there's the Pro plan, which adds 24/7 professional monitoring, Alexa Guard Plus integration, Alarm Cellular Backup, and a handful of other useful add-ons.

Should You Buy the Ring Peephole Cam?

To answer the question in the header, it's a resounding "yes." The Ring Peephole Cam (once known as the Door Cam Plus) is built exclusively for those of us that want to invest in Ring video doorbell surveillance but are only working with a peephole when it comes to our doors. And outside of a few missing features (and the fact that you'll have to recharge the battery every now and then), it's every bit as good as Ring's existing video doorbell devices.

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Ring Peephole Cam