Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro review

Two-minute review

Ring is one of the most well-known video doorbell brands on the market right now. Having launched its first smart doorbell in 2013, Ring has continued to unveil new and improved models year after year. However, the brand also offers a range of indoor and external home security cameras too. 

The Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro is its latest release, and while it has a bit of a convoluted name, don’t let that put you off — this is a feature-packed home security camera that has an array of features to help you feel safer at home

This external home security camera is mains powered and uses the wiring from an existing sensor light, although if you’re not replacing an existing device, it’s likely to require professional installation. Designed to be mounted on an exterior wall or an outbuilding, it’ll alert your smartphone if the camera detects motion, but can also be set to illuminate two oval-shaped LEDs capable of 1,000 lumens each, that sit on either side of the camera itself. 

The Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro has 140-degree lens and records clear Full HD video in color during the day, and at night providing the LEDs are alight. It also has built-in speakers for conversing with anyone in the camera’s field of view, along with a piercingly loud siren which can be remotely activated as a severe deterrent to any would-be intruders.  

It’s also the first of Ring’s home security cameras to feature a built-in radar, which enables two handy features designed to reduce unwanted activity alerts and provide a better understanding of what triggered the activity alert. 

3D Motion allows you to set a specific threshold, and the camera will only alert you and start recording when the radar senses that a person or object has passed the threshold. Meanwhile, the ‘Bird’s Eye View’ feature lets you track the movement of subjects from above. Some might find this more gimmicky than others, but it doesn’t detract away from the solid performance everywhere else.

On top of this, the security camera also has the same pre-roll feature found on the Ring Video Doorbell 4, which stores four seconds of color footage recorded before the motion was detected, again giving you a better understanding of what triggered the alert. 

The only real downsides for some users are the fact that you have to pay for Ring Protect if you want to store footage to review at a later date (which, let’s face it, you will), and access the features we’ve mentioned above. This will set you back $3 / £2.50 / AU$4 per month, on top of the already pricey camera, which costs  $249.99 / £219 / AU$379. However, if you’re an existing Ring user though and are after a smart security camera that does it all, the Floodlight Cam Wired Pro should be a top contender for sure.

Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro price and availability

•  List price $249.99 / £219 / AU$379 

The Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro can be snapped up for $249.99 / £219 / AU$379 in the US, UK and Australia, directly from Ring. 

Another cost you’ll need to take into account is a Ring Protect subscription which unlocks a premium service that provides cloud storage for video and access to some of the features to reduce unwanted alerts. You’ll have to fork out a minimum of $3 / £2.50 / AU$4 a month for the Basic plan. This covers one Ring device, so if you’re rocking multiple cameras (including Ring doorbells), then the cost rises to $10 / £8 / AU$15 for the Plus plan, which supports unlimited devices. 

You can spend a bit less overall by paying for it in one go as opposed to monthly installments. In the US, for example, that means a single payment of $100 for a year of Ring Protect Plus, instead of the $120 you'd spend after 12 months of installments. 

Design

• Large but sleek
• Easily adjustable
• May need professional installation

Measuring 9.7 x 11.8 x 7.05 inches / 24.6 x 29.9 x 17.9cm (w x h x d), the Ring Floodlight Cam Pro Wired is fairly large, thanks to the beefy camera unit and the pair of large 1,000 lumen floodlights that flank it from above. Given the fact that it’s a permanent installation, its size is far from an issue, and the fact that it’s easily noticeable is, for most people, a good thing. Sure, you might have qualms about interrupting the clean lines of your dwelling with a gadget perched on the outer wall like some kind of futuristic gargoyle, but one of the first (and best) lines of defense, security cameras offer is a visual deterrent, so it’s a win in our book.

Design-wise there’s little not to like. This is a swanky-looking security camera with a sleek weatherproof plastic build that’s sturdy, with rounded edges and swooping curves that lend it a rather modern look. It’s available in black or white too, so you can have some control over how much it blends in or sticks out if you fancy. The angle of the camera and floodlights are easily adjustable, too, letting you achieve your perfect setup with the confidence that they’ll stay where you’ve pointed them.

As we’ve already mentioned, the Ring Floodlight Cam Pro Wired has a 140-degree lens that is capable of recording color Full HD footage during the day, and at night if the floodlights are illuminated. 

When it comes to installation, things aren’t quite as simple as, say, the Ring Video Doorbell 4. If you’ve already got an outdoor light or camera set up then it’s a relatively simple job of turning off the power from the fuse box, removing the old light, and hooking up your fancy new one. If, however, you’re installing it in a location where there’s no existing wiring, then you’ll want to call in a qualified electrician.

Performance

• Clear Full HD video with wide coverage
• Excellent nighttime performance
• Built-in speaker and piercing siren

The Floodlight Cam Wired Pro’s 1080p camera offers a generous 140-degree horizontal and 80-degree vertical field of view, which should be more than enough coverage for most people’s needs. Video is crisp and clear in daylight, though we occasionally experienced a few pixellated moments if we’re viewing a live stream from the back of our house where the internet connection is at its weakest.

At night with the floodlights off, infrared night vision kicks in, which obviously provides a softer monochrome picture compared to daylight conditions. There is an option to turn on color night vision, but this won’t magically add color. Rather, areas that are lit up by ambient light will show dashes of colour. It’s not a feature that’s proven to be massively useful, though we suppose it could one day reveal the color of a suspect’s clothes for easier identification. It’s a bit of a moot point though, because when the two floodlights fire up, their 2000-lumen brightness does a superb job of bathing their coverage area with bright light, making low light footage impressively clear.

Like many Ring devices, the Floodlight Cam Wired Pro also has a built-in speaker, letting you scold suspicious cats or their burglar counterparts remotely via your tablet or phone. If they’re still not getting the message, you can tap a button to set off the internal siren too. We only dared test it for five seconds or so, and even from the back of the house, we could clearly hear its piercing wails, similar to that of a car alarm. If that doesn’t scare pests away, nothing will.

App

• Motion zones for more control
• Paid cloud storage
• Support for Alexa but not Google Assistant or HomeKit

If you’re already a Ring device owner you’ll be familiar with the Ring app and its array of features. Once set up, you can tap to view a live feed whenever you fancy, but the real magic comes when you dive into the settings and customise everything to your needs. 

You can, for example, turn the floodlight on and off manually, but it’s far easier to set up a schedule for when the lights come on, and you can leave them on all night if you like. If you’d rather conserve energy though, you can set them to come on purely when motion is detected.

On that note, the Ring apps Motion Zones feature works well, letting you choose which areas in the covered area will trigger the lights/recording when movement is detected. Anything outside these zones (trees, neighbour’s driveways etc) will be ignored, saving you from being bombarded with notifications for no reason.

The timeline of events is impressive too, letting you scrub through the past 24 hours’ worth of footage with motion events clearly highlighted. The scrolling slows down when you go over an event of interest too, so you won’t miss what you’re looking for easily. Remember, though, that you have to pay for Ring Protect if you want to record any footage at all. If you don’t, there’s almost no point in forking out this much cash, as you can spend your money on a more basic camera that just offers a live feed.

Another feature that might divide users is the 3D Motion Detection with Bird’s Eye view. This combines the built-in 3D object detection radar with an overhead view of your house (pulled up when you input your address), to create a minimap overlay showing where objects have moved during a motion detection event.

If, for example, someone walks diagonally across your driveway to the side of your house, you can trace their path as a series of dots in a map that’s not too dissimilar from the one you might find in an online FPS. Is it a clever idea? Absolutely — but it’s probably not really necessary, given that you have actual video footage that shows you where a subject is anyway. We’re not knocking the innovation here, it’s just that we wouldn’t recommend basing a purchase of this device on this one feature alone.

Lastly, if you’ve got an Alex-enabled smart display such as the Amazon Echo Show 10, you can also summon up a live view of the camera feed using nothing but a voice request. It takes a few seconds to fire up, but it works well, and there’s something rather Tony Stark-like about checking up on your outer perimeter without having to lift a finger. Sadly Google Assistant compatibility is non-existent, which might pose a problem if you’re firmly in the Google camp.

Should I buy the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro?

Buy it if...

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First reviewed August 2021

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