Ring Spotlight Camera Review and Pricing

Unboxing Our Ring Spotlight Cam

Ring Spotlight Camera at Night

Ring Spotlight is a powerful lighting component as well as a reliable camera. Those LEDs, though very customizable, are made to be bright and noticeable. It might feel like overkill, but these lights serve a dual purpose. They enhance video quality at night and act as a deterrent when motion triggers them. Spotlights are a great feature we’ve seen in other cams, like the Swann Wi-Fi camera, but with Ring, the picture looked exceptionally bright from our app – and now, we had motion-activated lighting, which is a huge boost in peace of mind, especially at night.

Since this is a battery-powered camera, we made sure to charge the battery using the provided USB cable before we installed the camera. But Ring offers flexibility here – the Spotlight Cam Plus comes in four power configurations: Battery, Wired, Solar, and Plug-In. For us, in particular, the battery option worked best with our home’s exterior. But we like that Ring gives us alternatives in case we’re not keen on climbing up and changing batteries, or if we’re looking to use our camera with a solar panel. (For another brand that does solar-powered cameras pretty well, check out our hands-on Reolink camera review.)

After our Spotlight Cam was fully charged, we lowered the battery into the camera’s compartment until we heard a click.

Ring App – How to Insert Battery

Our firmware updated within five minutes, and we were in business. Then, we turned to the app. Since we already had a Ring Doorbell camera, we were familiar with Ring’s app and didn’t have to download it again.

That said, while testing the Spotlight Plus, we discovered that Ring maintains a hierarchy of user permissions. Only the primary “owner” account can customize motion zones, enable People Only Mode, adjust snapshot capture settings, and create schedules. Shared users can still perform essential functions like viewing live feeds, accessing video history, and receiving alerts, but they won’t have administrative control.

Ring Spotlight Cam Connecting to WiFi

About the Ring App

The Ring app serves as your command center, and it’s not limited to mobile devices. Ring offers desktop apps for both Windows and Mac, giving you the flexibility to monitor your property from any screen. We found the desktop experience particularly valuable for detailed footage review. Those extra pixels make a difference when you’re trying to identify a package thief or verify if that midnight noise was just a raccoon.

Mounting the Camera

Ring Spotlight Cam Video Quality

Location is as vital to home security as it is to real estate, so we wanted to be smart and strategic when choosing where to place our camera. We decided it would work best above our garage, for a wide, clear view of our driveway, sidewalk, and street. This, in addition to our doorbell and additional Stick Up and Floodlight Cams from Ring, rounded out a stellar camera setup for our modest single-family home.

From there, we continued fine-tuning the camera’s settings to our liking.

Managing Alerts

After just a couple of minutes with our Spotlight Cam, we got our first motion alert.

A couple of minutes later, we got another one. And another, and another.

This continued until – oops! – we realized the camera was picking up motion every time a car passed by.

Time to fine-tune. Under the app’s Device Settings, we found Ring’s Smart Alerts feature a game-changer for reducing false alerts. This AI-powered feature distinguishes between people and other motion sources, filtering out cars, animals, and wind-blown objects. Once activated, our notification overload dropped by about 80 percent, leaving us with only the alerts that mattered.

Ring Smart Alerts

We did feel a bit shortchanged, though. What if People Only Mode causes us to miss important activity, like animals or sounds?

That’s when we discovered motion zones. In addition to customizing the type of motion you want to see, you can also pick certain locations within the camera’s view to focus on. And, if that’s not enough fine-tuning for you, we also like that you can change the frequency of your alerts, from light to standard to frequent. If you want to get motion alerts only at night, you can adjust for that, too.

Ring App Motion Capture Frequency

These customization options have become table stakes in the security camera market. While competitors like Google Nest offer more advanced AI features including familiar face detection, Ring strikes a balance between functionality and simplicity that works for most homeowners.

Two-Way Talk

Testing our Ring Spotlight Cam meant we had to interact with some functions that are available in almost every camera we review. One of those is two-way talk. These days, we wouldn’t even consider purchasing a security camera without two-way talk.

The Spotlight Cam delivered clear audio quality in both directions. However, we noticed a typical one to two second delay – standard for cloud-based cameras. On the plus side, the noise cancellation worked well to filter out ambient sounds like wind and traffic, making conversations intelligible even in less-than-ideal conditions.

And since we mounted it above our driveway, we got to use it a couple of times as an unorthodox way of greeting guests: “Hi, come on in, door’s open!”

Neighbors App

Neighbors App Dashboard

If you’re like us, you knew about Neighbors already. This free community watch feature integrates directly with your Ring app, creating a local network for sharing safety information. With over one million downloads on the Google Play Store alone, Neighbors app is one of the largest neighborhood watch networks.1 You can receive real-time crime and safety alerts from neighbors within a 5-mile radius, and even local police departments participate in many areas.

Siren

Ring’s outdoor cameras include a loud 110-decibel siren that is sure to scare off anyone – human, animal, or maybe even vegetable – who might be a threat. We know this purely by accident; we’re here to tell you that hitting the big red siren button on the app does, in fact, trigger the siren.

We love a good ear-piercing scream now and then. We’re not sure if our neighbors heard it, but our dog definitely did.

Ring Siren Activation

Smart Home Integration

Here’s where things get a bit political in the smart home world. Ring, being an Amazon-owned company, plays beautifully with Alexa but keeps Google Assistant at arm’s length. This divide still exists, though Ring has expanded compatibility with other platforms like Samsung SmartThings and IFTTT.

We’d love to see Ring’s next release include Google Assistant compatibility as part of its smart home integration options, in addition to Amazon Alexa. For folks like us, who want to build our smart home with convenience in mind, this would be a really useful upgrade.

Video Quality

The Spotlight Cam Plus’s 1080p HD video delivers consistently sharp footage, but it’s the combination with those dual LED spotlights that sets it apart. It produces up to 375 lumens, creating a wall of light that extends about 25 feet from the camera. During our testing, this meant we could clearly identify faces, read license plates, and spot details that would be lost in standard night vision footage.

Ring App Homescreen

As much as we like the spotlight, you don’t always need to use it. The camera also features standard infrared. It provides decent black-and-white footage up to 30 feet. This dual approach means you’re not constantly draining the battery with the lights on, but you get brilliant illumination when it counts.

Ring Display – Night Vision

Our Experience With Ring Spotlight Camera

As home security experts, we’re firm believers that the more control you have over your devices, the more you’ll like them. Ring has mastered this philosophy, which explains why they’ve captured 28 percent of the home security market.2 This approach also makes it easy to add multiple Ring devices. They all live in the same app, share settings, and can be managed from a single dashboard.

With Ring, you get a full suite of security products that communicate almost seamlessly with one another, making it easy to add multiple devices to the same account. To be honest, we love having this level of control and convenience. No guesswork, no fuss.

Not everything worked like the well-oiled machine it was supposed to be, though. Like all the products we’ve reviewed, we did find some aspects of the Ring Spotlight Camera that could use improvement.

Video Feedback and Delays

In our extensive tests of Ring’s Spotlight Cam, we were sometimes troubled by the glitchiness of the app, which we were able to view on both our desktop computer and our smartphones. Sure, we’re glad Ring has a desktop app – Arlo and Wyze don’t – but at times the live view failed to load properly once motion was detected. Instead of a real-time view of our driveway, we got this:

Ring Display Loading

This happened, we estimate, six times total out of the three days we spent reviewing this camera. After five or six seconds, the feed usually restored itself. But what about those precious seconds we lose every time the connection slows down?

Indeed, those are crucial moments you don’t want to miss. But do remember that wireless cameras do this basically across the board. When this happens, it’s rarely a sign of weakness with the brand or their network; more likely, it could just be a slowdown in your local network.

Going further, we’re pleased to see Ring level up over past models in motion zones, giving us lots more control over our footage. footage. By drawing up to three customizable motion zones, we reduced false alerts by about 70 percent. The zones work well for excluding high-traffic areas like sidewalks while keeping your property fully monitored.

For what it’s worth, customizing motion zones with Ring isn’t going to be quite as detailed as what you’d get with another leading outdoor camera, Google Nest. We ended up with a fun, first-rate experience in our full Nest Cam brand analysis, but the prices are definitely on the high side, and we found many of their features are more of a luxury than a necessity.

Ring Motion Setting Zones

Nest cameras cost about $100 to $200 more than comparable Ring models. While Nest offers superior AI features like package detection and familiar face alerts, Ring provides 90 percent of the functionality at a more accessible price point. For most homeowners, Ring’s feature set hits the sweet spot.

That said, we’d be very interested to see what Ring can do with artificial intelligence in future generations of their cameras. Maybe it’ll happen someday, but until then, we like that Ring is just as trustworthy with their indoor and outdoor security cams as they are with their video doorbells.

For more tips on choosing security equipment, visit our home security comparison guide.

Pricing and Subscriptions

Ring keeps the Spotlight Cam Plus competitively priced at $149.99 for both battery and plug-in versions. The solar bundle runs $209.98, while the wired version (with enhanced installation hardware) costs $179.99. These prices have remained stable, making Ring a predictable investment for budget-conscious buyers.

We also liked being able to choose the color; we chose white, but if your decor demands it, black is an option, too. Color isn’t our biggest priority, but this is another nod to versatility with Ring that some other brands lack.

As for prices, we put Ring on the mid- to high side cost-wise, but again, cameras and packages vary here. You’re not going to get rock-bottom Wyze Cam prices, though they still tested well (and looked cute in our home, too).

Feel free to read more about Wyze in our hands-on Wyze Cam review. But it’s important to note that Ring cameras do offer more – you won’t find any batteries or fancy hardware in Wyze’s kit, after all – we think the prices correspond nicely.

Here’s Ring’s current camera lineup. For a complete breakdown, check our Ring pricing roundup:

Cloud Storage With Ring Spotlight

Ring’s cloud storage starts with the Home Basic plan at $4.99 per month per device (or $49.99 annually). This gets you 180 days of video history. The Home Standard plan runs $9.99 per month (or $99.99 annually) and covers unlimited cameras at one location. For 24/7 recording, you’ll need the Home Premium plan at $19.99 per month (or $199.99 annually).

Ring Spotlight Cam at Twilight

Customer Service Experience

Ring offers 24/7 support through multiple channels, including phone support that’s available round the clock (a big upgrade from their previous limited hours). Their online Help Center has also expanded with video tutorials, troubleshooting guides, and an AI-powered assistant that actually provides useful answers about 70 percent of the time.

For technical issues, we first consulted Ring’s comprehensive online resources and found solutions for most common problems. Their Community forum remains active with members sharing tips and troubleshooting advice. When we did need to call support, wait times averaged five to 10 minutes. Once we got through, the representatives were knowledgeable about both basic setup and advanced features.

If a human is available, we’d rather talk to them.

Ring Community

Our Conclusions on Ring Spotlight

After living with this cam for several days and running extensive tests, we think Ring’s Spotlight Cam Plus deserves its place at the top of the industry. This camera has cornered the market in terms of user friendliness. For us, it excelled in all the ways that matter, from the 1080p HD resolution that allowed us to monitor our home, day or night, and view live feeds at any time, to the luminous, motion-activated LEDs that no criminal can escape from.

Ring Spotlight Cam Box

But make no mistake: The Spotlight Cam isn’t flawless, as with most technology these days. We would like to see a better user experience and a faster data transfer between the camera and the app. And while Ring has made incremental improvements to their motion detection algorithms, they’re still playing catch-up to Google Nest’s AI capabilities. The good news? Ring’s parent company Amazon continues to work on closing this gap.

Frequently Asked Questions