Ring Stick Up Cam Battery Review

I only use it to look at cats

by Greg Hook
Tech Review

6

Highly Recommended
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery Review
MSRP: £179.00

What is the Ring Stick Up Cam Battery?

We’ve reviewed several of Ring's (now Amazon owned) products here on AVForums. From the, at the time, unique but since widely copied Ring Doorbell, to the excellent Floodlight Cam, and battery powered Spotlight Cam. All tested very well with a simple to use app that offers impressive customisation and features.

All offer the ability to be able to check on your home from wherever you are in the world (Wi-Fi or data connection permitting of course!) including two way talk and, on the Floodlight Cam, an alarm function. In the case of the Floodlight Cam and the wired version of the Spotlight Cam, these all required hard wiring in. Even with the battery versions, they were not portable and required fixing to a wall.

Thankfully, that has changed with Ring’s newest line, their Stick Up Cam. Retailing at £179, this is a 1080P full HD weatherproof camera that is battery powered and comes with a stand. So, inside or outside, it can be placed wherever you like plus it features a wall mounting kit if you do want it fixed somewhere permanently. Given the impressive results with previous Ring products, we expect the Stick up Cam Battery to perform just as well. Read on to see how it performs in our review….

Design and Specifications

Ring includes everything in the box that you could possibly need for setup and installation (excluding power tools, of course). In the case of the Stick Up Cam Battery, you get a micro USB charging cable, installation tools and hardware such as a drill bit, screwdriver, security screws and wall plugs along with a very simple to follow installation and setup guide plus 6 Ring stickers in case you want to alert would be intruders that they are being recorded.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery
As with other Ring products, the Stick Up Cam is available in black and white versions. It’s a compact device, compared to the Floodlight Cam for example, and it resembles a smart looking 97mm high x 60mm diameter cylinder mounted on a small stand that can be adjusted, rotated and angled to any position you could possibly need. The base of the stand even includes a small spirit level to help you install it correctly. Unlike other portable security cameras we have looked at, the camera and stand are sufficiently weighted so it won’t fall over even if you have it tilted backwards slightly. We personally prefer the black version as it isn’t so obvious and doesn’t stand out so much, but it depends if you are looking for a visible deterrent or not.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery
The Stick Up Cam Battery is full HD 1080P with a 115° horizontal and 65° vertical field of view lens, adjustable motion detection, night vision and two-way audio. Featuring 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi, it's fully weather resistant with an operating temperature range between -20.5°C to 48.5°C. The warranty is for two years and, as with all the Ring products we have reviewed so far, lifetime theft protection is included. Unlike the Spotlight Cam, there is only space for one battery here.

It is also compatible with Amazon Alexa, including being able to view live and recorded videos on the Echo or Spot.

Is it easy to install and setup?

With most Smart Home devices, gone are the days of having to be a computer genius if you wanted to set them up properly. Now it’s simply a case of downloading an app (which is available on iOS, Google Play, Mac and Windows) and following some very simple instructions.

Here, with the Ring Stick Up Cam Battery (and all of Ring’s other products), you simply download the app, scan the QR code on the quick installation guide that comes in the box and in just a minute or so the camera is added, connected to your Wi-Fi and all ready to go. It really couldn’t be any simpler, especially as they also handily include everything in the box that you will need if you plan to wall mount it.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery
The Ring app is very easy to use and well laid out. The main view gives quick access to the camera functions such as Live View, Event History, setting up the motion detection and seeing the Device Health. Ring does continually update the app to add features and a recent addition is the Event History timeline which gives you the ability to quickly scroll through recorded events.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery
Within the motion detection section, you can enable or disable three separate zones of detection, plus adjust the sensitivity of the detection. There is also a motion frequency setting plus the option of setting a schedule for when motion-activated alerts will be automatically paused, which is configurable to any day, several days or even right down to just a 15-minute window. The Device Health section shows the battery charge level, Wi-Fi strength and other system details.

Testing and Additional Accessories

One point to mention with Ring products we have tested over the recent years is that they do require a strong Wi-Fi signal to get the best out of them. If you are fitting it in a location with a weak Wi-Fi signal, you will likely see issues such as delayed notifications and having to wait a few minutes before being able to view a recently recorded video.

With the Stick Up Cam, as we tested it primarily indoors, we didn’t suffer any issues, apart from a couple of times when Live View failed to activate and recently recorded videos took a while to appear. Overall though, when motion was detected we were notified instantly (via smartphone, tablet or smartwatch) and could access Live View to see what had caused the alert. The videos were all recorded correctly with none of the blackouts that we had suffered with the Floodlight Cam.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery
The battery life is excellent and of course heavily dependant on the frequency of motion recordings and activations. We located it in a reasonably busy location with approximately 30 motion detections and recordings per day and the battery lasted for approximately 7 days. You can easily expect the battery to last a few months though if it only has a few activations a day.

The quality of recordings is very good thanks to the 1080P full HD camera and details such as faces can be clearly seen, including at night thanks to the impressive night vision. The audio pickup is excellent and you should have no issues with this camera whether you are using it for home security or just to see what your crazy pets are doing all day.

Our main gripe, having tested several different Ring products, is the lack of harmonisation in the app. They all have mostly the same options, but differ significantly on the motion settings. For example, the Stick Up Cam has three fixed zones, whereas the Floodlight Cam has an area you can draw to select exactly the zone you require, including having additional zones. The Spotlight Cam again has different settings with three zones that you can turn on and off and alter the distance.

Lastly, you can easily snooze the motion detections, but, on most of Ring’s products, there is no easy way of pausing motion recording. Thankfully, the Stick Up Cam has this option on the main screen for turning off both motion detections and motion recordings, but it is a feature severely lacking on the Floodlight and Spotlight Cam.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery
One other slight negative is that, whilst you can pause motion detections, if you are immersed in the Apple world, we found that pausing it on our Watch, for example, didn’t always pause it on the iPhone.

All of Ring’s products include a 30-day free trial of their cloud storage and video recording service. Once this 30-day trial has expired you will need to purchase a Protect Plan to ensure the service continues. You will still be able to access the Live View and receive detection notifications, but no videos will be recorded. With all Ring cameras, they include lifetime theft protection as standard (providing you get a police report).

There are two Protect Plans available. For £24.99 per year (or £2.50 a month) the ‘Basic’ plan is for one camera only and gives you all the cloud storage features including a 30 day video history. The ‘Plus’ plan at £80 per year (or £8 a month) is for unlimited cameras, includes a lifetime warranty as long as you keep subscribing to the plan, and a 10% discount on purchases at Ring.com.

The Stick Up Cam is also available as a wired option at the same £179, it’s basically the same device but just includes the option of Power over Ethernet and a 6m cable. Although bizarrely, the wired version has a much better field of view at 150° horizontal and 85° vertical, compared to the 115° horizontal and 65° of the battery version.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery
There are several useful add ons to the Ring cameras such as the Chime Pro for £49 which will help if you have a poor Wi-Fi signal as it acts as a Wi-Fi extender (for Ring devices only) and indoor chime. It simply plugs into the mains and should help to ensure the signal is of a high enough quality to prevent any issues such as late notifications or video recording problems.

There is also the solar panel at £49 to save you ever having to charge the battery or connect the camera to the mains. Additional batteries are available at £19.95. if you are feeling really flush you can buy the Stick Up Cam in multiple packs offering a slight saving over buying them individually with a 4 pack costing £609.

Conclusion

Pros

  • Very simple setup and installation
  • Easy to use
  • Excellent feature rich app
  • Good recording quality
  • Instant notifications

Cons

  • App harmonisation across devices could be better
  • Paid subscription required to save videos
  • No local storage of videos
  • No Geo-location activation
  • Requires a strong Wi-Fi signal

Ring Stick Up Cam Battery Review

Should I buy the Ring Stick Up Cam Battery?

The Stick Up Cam Battery is available from both Amazon and Ring direct for £179 but can currently be found for £30-£40 less if you shop around. As with our previous reviews of Ring’s products we were overall very impressed with the build quality, design which includes a very versatile stand, simple installation and setup and ease of use. The full HD 1080P recording offers good quality images with excellent night vision capabilities plus the two-way talk option if you need to tell an intruder to clear off.

Providing you give a Ring device a strong Wi-Fi signal, should any motion be detected, it will respond with instant notifications and quick access to Live View. The app is very well laid out, simple to use and offers reasonable levels of customisation.

Ring are clearly one of the brand leaders in this area but their products are not perfect. You can’t store videos locally and a paid subscription is required for cloud storage. They also lack the more advanced features such as enabling recording when you leave a certain area. Plus, the motion recording settings do really need harmonising across all the devices.

What alternatives are available?

There are plenty of alternatives now to Ring with the likes of Hive offering a range of indoor and outdoor cameras with similar options to Ring, plus the usual players such as TP-LINK and the formerly Netgear owned Arlo range of rather expensive cameras.

But there are currently very few manufacturers that offer both an indoor and outdoor camera. With the ease of use of the Ring Stick Up Cam, the simple and feature-rich app, good video recording and excellent motion notifications, this is an easy winner of our AVForums Highly Recommended award.

Scores

Connectivity

.
9

Features

.
9

Set Up

10

Build Quality

.
9

Performance

.
9

Value for Money

.
.
8

Verdict

.
9
9
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

Our Review Ethos

Read about our review ethos and the meaning of our review badges.

To comment on what you've read here, click the Discussion tab and post a reply.

Related Content

Ajax Smart Home Alarm System Review
  • By Greg Hook
  • Published
Ring Video Doorbell Plus 3 Review
  • By Greg Hook
  • Published
TP-Link Kasa Spot KC100 Indoor Security Camera Review
  • By Greg Hook
  • Published
Moobox Wire-Free HD Camera Review
  • By Greg Hook
  • Published
Ring Spotlight Cam Battery Review
  • By Greg Hook
  • Published

Latest Headlines

Ring video doorbell users facing a 40% price hike
  • By Ian Collen
  • Published
Samsung officially unveils the S24 smartphone series
  • By Ian Collen
  • Published
CES VIDEO: Sony Stand Tour
  • By Phil Hinton
  • Published
Wi-Fi Alliance introduces Wi-Fi Certified 7
  • By Ian Collen
  • Published
Apple Vision Pro set to launch in February
  • By Ian Collen
  • Published
Back
Top Bottom