The Rumors Were True Ring has announced two new video doorbells, the Ring Video Doorbell 3 and Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus The two products look similar to their predecessors, but offer several new features that make it easier to connect to a home network, identify people approaching the house, and reduce false alarms

The Ring Video Doorbell 3 is priced at $199, the same as the current Ring Video Doorbell 2, while the Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus costs $229 Both are available for pre-order on Ringcom and Amazoncom and will ship on April 8 in the US

Ring also sells the second generation Ring Chime ($2999) and Chime Pro ($4999), the latter of which has a built-in nightlight as well as a Wi-Fi extender

The Ring Video Doorbell 3 and Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus have the same design as the Ring Video Doorbell 2, with the same 1080p camera resolution and field of view However, both new models feature dual-band 24 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi, which should help with video transmission

We know from experience that the locations where one wants to install a video doorbell are not necessarily places with a strong Wi-Fi signal; Ring sells a Wi-Fi extender, the Chime Pro (which is also being updated), but a good radio on the video doorbell itself would help It would help if the video doorbells themselves had a good radio

Both new video doorbells have a new "near" motion zone that operates 5-15 feet in front of the door The most troublesome aspect of any video doorbell is false alarms That is, receiving a notification that someone is out front when in fact the video doorbell saw a car drive by If you live on a busy street, you often have to reduce the motion sensitivity considerably Hopefully this new near motion zone will eliminate this annoyance

Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus has an additional feature called Pre-Roll, which allows the user to see up to 4 seconds of video before the motion event With many video doorbells and security cameras, there is usually a 1-2 second gap between when the camera detects motion and when it starts recording As a result, the video is often not available when the person first appears in the frame

Both the Arlo and August video doorbells buffer video continuously, so when someone is detected, the camera can add an extra second before that person appears However, both the Arlo and August cameras are wired, whereas the Video Doorbell 3 Plus is both battery and wired

We are interested in how Ring could implement this feature without requiring the homeowner to charge the camera's battery each week

Both cameras come with Ring Protect for 30 days, which allows users to store and download video for up to 60 days