Ring Spotlight Cam Plus Battery Review

You can leave blind spots in your rear view with the massive 140-degree horizontal FOV of the Ring Spotlight Cam Plus Battery, though this large FOV does come with some distortion. Up close, the Spotlight Cam Plus captures sufficiently clear video in 1080p resolution. By default, it's powered by a rechargeable battery pack but can also be powered by a hard-wired connection or a solar panel for additional purchase.

Video Quality

In our testing, the Ring Spotlight Cam Plus Battery captured partially clear and somewhat pixelated images and didn't really wow me. The daytime results are pretty flat, and I could only make out the letters on the Snellen Chart down to the third line.

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The pixelation of the image made it difficult to judge color accuracy. That said, all of the colors are discernible but not very accurate. The nighttime results were surprising, to say the least. For a camera in this price range, I expected exceptionally clear images packed with detail. I had to really squint and focus to make out the characters on the fourth line of the chart. The large 140-degree field of view is a win for the Ring Spotlight Cam, but it does cause some distortion around the edges of the image. Overall, the image quality is underwhelming and unclear for the price point, but the large field of view sets it apart from others I reviewed.

Monitoring Performance

The Ring Spotlight Cam Plus Battery allows for the creation and management of motion zones within the Ring app. You can create up to three different motion zones and use a drag-and-drop point system to create them. Each motion zone can have up to eight points, which I found to be plenty.

Although the Ring Spotlight isn't capable of facial recognition, it does have subject recognition, and was able to spot and notify us whenever a person arrived at the door, even from 20 feet away. In addition to subject recognition, it also has vehicle detection, two-way audio, a built-in siren, and two bright LED lights. The siren is plenty loud and measured 76 decibels in our testing.

Ease of Use

The Ring Spotlight Cam Plus Battery uses the Ring app, which I found very user-friendly and intuitive to navigate, whether you're tech-savvy or not. It ships with one battery but can hold up to two rechargeable battery packs to double your capacity. You can also purchase additional accessories to power it with a solar panel or a hard-wired connection. Although Ring doesn't specify the battery life of the Spotlight Cam Plus, our testing revealed an average battery percentage loss of 1% a day, so users could expect to get close to three months of battery life between charges on the standard battery setup. I feel like that's quite impressive, especially with it having two LED lights, and it does well compared to other battery-powered cameras we tested.

My biggest gripe with the Ring app is that the thumbnails don't provide a live view of the camera feed and only provide a recent screenshot of the activity. Something that sets it apart from other apps that also only provide screenshots in the thumbnails is that the Ring app has a timer in the lower left-hand corner that tells you how old the thumbnail image is, which is helpful. Once you select the thumbnail, you still have to click one more time to view the live feed, but once you get to this point, the Ring app is great. Frustratingly, many features that are free on other cameras, like video history and motion alerts, are locked behind a paid subscription to the Ring Home app.

Should You Buy the Ring Spotlight Cam Plus Battery?

The Ring Spotlight Cam Plus Battery is a versatile security camera that you can put just about anywhere and capture reasonably clear video. Its wide field of view is exceptional for those looking to maximize their camera coverage, though I can't say the same for its light. The 1080p image quality captured by the Spotlight Cam is pretty rough and pixelated, and ultimately, I expected better results given the price. The Ring app does a great job of managing motion zones and is very user-friendly. However, if you're closed off to the idea of a paid monthly subscription, you'll miss out on most of the handy features of the Ring Spotlight Cam Plus Battery.

What Other Security Cameras Should You Consider?