A reliable indoor surveillance camera for Ring users
Editors’ Note: This is the most recent version of the Ring Indoor Cam. Read our review from October 17, 2023 below.
Ring’s second-generation Indoor Cam ($59.99) is an affordable security camera that offers a handful of improvements over its predecessor. It still tops out at 1080p and requires a paid subscription to view motion-triggered video clips, but it adds color night vision and a privacy shutter. It delivered clear video and accurate motion detection in our tests, and remains an excellent camera for keeping an eye on the inside of your home, especially for existing Ring users. That said, you’ll get even sharper 2K quality as well as mechanical pan and tilt support with our slightly less expensive Editors’ Choice for indoor cameras, the $51.99 Eufy E220 Indoor Cam.Privacy, Night Vision Upgrades
The second-gen Indoor Cam shares the same basic cylindrical design as the original model. It comes in white or black, measures 1.9 inches wide, and stands 3.8 inches high (including the stand). The round base offers manual tilt and swivel maneuverability and can be used as a desktop stand or mounted on a wall or ceiling using the included mounting hardware.
It offers a few improvements over its predecessor including a privacy cover and color night vision. The removable privacy cover manually slides into place, letting you quickly turn off the camera and microphone. The glossy black camera face holds the lens, a microphone, and a status LED, while a speaker resides just below. The status light shines solid blue when the camera is recording, slowly blinks blue during setup, pulses blue during two-way audio communications, and flashes blue and red when Wi-Fi is disconnected. A button on the top of the camera lets you reset the device, and around back is a micro USB power port. The camera comes with a 6.5-foot power cable, a USB power adapter, and a quick start guide.
The camera captures 1080p video with a 143-degree (diagonal) field of view. It uses infrared LEDs for black-and-white night vision and captures color night vision if there’s adequate ambient light. It records video when it detects motion and supports Ring’s Pre-Roll feature which allows you to see what happened in the six seconds preceding the motion trigger. Network connectivity comes by way of a built-in 2.4GHz Wi-Fi radio. You can control the camera using Alexa voice commands and make it work with third-party devices using IFTTT applets, but it doesn’t support Apple HomeKit or Google Assistant.
As with every Ring camera, you have to subscribe to a Ring Protect plan to access recorded video and unlock certain features. The $3.99 per month/$39.99 per year Basic plan covers one camera and gives you 180 days of recorded video history, video saving and sharing capabilities, person alerts, snapshot capture, rich notifications (that include a photo preview so you don’t have to open the app), and support for automations with a Ring Alarm system.
