Ring Video Doorbell 2 vs. SkyBell HD - Which Is the Best Doorbell Camera?

  AUTHOR: Jon Welling
 UPDATED: January 28, 2024

UPDATE: The Skybell HD now requires a subscription to Alarm.com service. It will not work as a standalone product.

Most home robberies occur in the middle of the day, while most people are at work. Thieves will ring the doorbell to check if anyone is home before they break in.

Doorbell cameras allow you to check who’s at the door remotely, via an app on a smartphone. They can also record a video of the person at the door and save it to the cloud. These features, plus so many others, make doorbell cameras a must have product for the safety and security of your home.

The Ring Video Doorbell 2 (link to Amazon) and the SkyBell HD (link to Amazon) are two popular doorbell cameras on the market today. Both offer similar features, so deciding which one to buy can be a somewhat difficult task.

But don’t worry, we are here to help! In this article we’ll go through some popular doorbell camera features and compare what the Ring Video Doorbell 2 and the SkyBell HD have to offer.

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Video Resolution

The Ring Video Doorbell 2 and the SkyBell HD both offer 1080p video resolution. Both doorbell cameras have very similar picture quality and they both offer digital zoom as well. Having 1080p resolution provides a clearer, sharper image, although that really depends on the lighting conditions.

I looked through hundreds of pictures and videos posted online from many different users. I wanted to get a feel for how both doorbell cameras performed in different environments. Both of them had difficulties depending on how much light was available. They had a hard time taking a clear, quality photo with the sun shining into the camera. And they both had trouble adjusting the white balance in low lighting conditions.

These problems are typical for any digital camera, however. It’s more the nature of the camera technology, than it is a fault of the products.

Power Source

Both the Ring Video Doorbell 2 and the SkyBell HD can be hardwired to an existing power source from an old doorbell. If you are replacing an existing doorbell, installing either doorbell camera is super easy. You would simply connect the existing ground and power wire to the proper connections at the back of the new doorbell camera.

If you don’t have existing doorbell wiring, the Ring Video Doorbell 2 and the SkyBell HD offer different solutions. The solutions alone might dictate which product you purchase.

The Ring Video Doorbell 2 can be powered with its removable, rechargeable battery pack. Ring claims the battery can last for more than a month, but by most accounts, the average charge lasts a couple of weeks.

The Ring Video Doorbell 2 uses various battery saving techniques to minimize how often the battery needs to be recharged, including only recording video when motion is detected. If you live in the city, a car or person walking down the street may set off the doorbell camera, effectively reducing its battery life to a week or two, at best. With that said, the motion detection sensitivity can be adjusted from the Ring app.

Recharging the battery pack is easy enough. It pops out of the bottom of the doorbell and it charges with a standard micro USB charger. Charge time is typically a couple of hours.

The SkyBell HD, on the other hand, doesn’t have the option to use batteries. It must be hardwired to a power source. If you don’t have a power source available at the door, then you’re going to have to run some wires. Depending on how handy you are, this may or may not be an issue.

Field of View

Both the Ring Video Doorbell 2 and the SkyBell HD offer a 180-degree field of view (FOV). However, in the images I reviewed, neither doorbell camera felt like that had a full 180-degree view. Still, the view gives you a wide enough picture from your front door that it doesn’t matter.

Having a wider FOV in any security camera is important. You want to be able to capture footage of someone approaching your front door as quickly as possible. You don’t want people to be able to sidestep around the camera’s view.

Night Vision

It would be silly if the SkyBell HD and the Ring Video Doorbell 2 didn’t offer night vision. Night vision is a standard feature in most smart home security cameras today, especially at the price point of these two products. So which doorbell camera has the best night vision?

The SkyBell HD comes with full-color night vision out of the box, while the Ring Video Doorbell 2 only provides night vision in monochrome. We should note that Ring is planning to deploy updates which will enable a full-color night vision mode in all of its doorbell cameras, in the near future.

Both products use infrared night vision technology. What that means is that these doorbell cameras can detect infrared light and use that light to produce an image when it’s dark outside.

Night vision video quality on both devices was about equal. Depending on the positioning and lighting, images either looked clear, or washed-out and grainy. They both appeared to do well when the foreground had no immediate objects to focus on.

However, if someone was standing close to the doorbell camera, the automatic color and white balance (on both cameras) would adjust to that person and the background would go completely black. Both doorbell cameras had difficulty adjusting and tracking someone if they ran from the camera quickly at night.

For more information on how night vision technology works in security cameras, check out our article on the subject here. It’s an interesting read that explains different night vision technologies and how they work.

On-Demand Video

The SkyBell HD and the Ring Video Doorbell 2 are capable of streaming live, on-demand video. This means you can view live video of your front door area even if no one rings the doorbell. Both doorbell cameras require a minimum of 1mBps bandwidth to acheive this.

If someone does ring the doorbell, both devices will send notifications to their smartphone apps and will start a live video feed. The SkyBell HD and the Ring Video Doorbell 2 allow you to share control and access of the video feed with others. Although, only one person can view the live video feed at a time. Both doorbell cameras can record and save video to the cloud and you can also download saved videos and view them from the app.

Subscription Costs

There is one key difference between the SkyBell HD and the Ring Video Doorbell 2: a subscription cost.

While a subscription isn't required for the Ring Video Doobell 2, you will need a subscription to store videos on their cloud server. The subscription allows you to store videos for up to 60 days. After 60 days, any stored videos will be automatically deleted.

Details and pricing for the Ring subscription service is available on their website.

If you don’t want to pay the subscription fee, you can still receive notifications and view the video feed, but only for real-time events. Here’s the catch, the Ring Video Doorbell 2 considers an event a “real-time event” for only a few seconds. After which, it's considered a past event. Once a recording is considered a past event, you can’t view it, unless you subscribe to Ring’s subscription service.

I found plenty of people online complaining that they didn’t receive notifications fast enough or weren’t able to open the app fast enough to view the live video. This could pose an issue for those that don’t want to pay a subscription fee.

The SkyBell HD, on the other hand, does require a subscription to the Alarm.com service. This may be a deal breaker for some. You can get more information on their subscription service by contacting an Alarm.com service provider through their website.

Two-Way Audio

One of the many cool features that doorbell cameras offer is an intercom system, which both the Skybell HD and the Ring Video Doorbell 2 and have. You can talk to people at your front door from the app on your phone.

Two-way audio is initiated whenever someone rings your doorbell. This feature is handy if want to tell the UPS delivery guy to leave the package on the front steps. Or, you can make it seem like you’re home, when you’re not (the app lets you talk to people even when you’re not at home).

Motion Detection

Both the SkyBell HD and the Ring Video Doorbell 2 have motion sensors and can send motion-activated text alerts to their apps. They both use PIR (Passive Infrared) motion sensors which detect motion by monitoring infrared radiation (heat) in the detection area. When motion is detected, the doorbell camera will start recording video and send a phone notification.

Interchangeable Faceplates and Customization Options

I wanted to include a quick blurb about the customization options that both the Ring Video Doorbell 2 and the SkyBell HD offer, because who doesn’t like color?

Unfortunately, if bright colors are what you're after, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Both doorbell cameras come in an array of neutral colors – the Skybell HD comes in silver or bronze and the Ring Video Doorbell 2 comes in satin nickel and venetian.

The Ring Video Doorbell 2 comes with two removeable faceplates, so if one happens to break, or you decide to change colors, it can easily be swapped. The SkyBell HD only comes in either of its two color options. So, once you buy one, you’re stuck with it.

Installation

Now, we have one of the most important factors to consider in a doorbell camera: installation.

Basic installation is simple. Both doorbell cameras will mount to a plate that is screwed into a wall. The process can be completed with a simple screwdriver, but if you have a powered screwdriver, I would highly recommend using that. It will make the process quicker and easier and save some pain on your wrist.

If you currently have a hardwired doorbell button, you’ll need to remove that first. The new doorbell camera will mount over the space the old doorbell button used to occupy, so you won't have to worry about painting or scraping any trim.

The next step is a little more complicated (I use the word complicated loosely here). You’ll need to remove the power wires from the old doorbell button and attach them to the new doorbell camera.

Thankfully, these are low voltage wires, so the risk of injury is extremely low (about the same as licking a 9-volt battery, though I wouldn’t recommend doing that).

The power wires are wrapped around screw terminals. Just unscrew the terminals slightly from the old doorbell button, remove the wires, and then do the reverse on the new doorbell camera. Both the Ring Video Doorbell 2 and the SkyBell HD include installation manuals that will help you identify the wires. It’s very simple and straightforward.

If you don’t have an existing doorbell button, things can get a little more complicated, at least for the SkyBell HD. You’ll need to run electrical wire to the SkyBell HD since it doesn’t have a battery pack. The easiest way to do this is to drill a hole through the door frame by your front door and run an electrical wire from a nearby outlet, through that hole and into the SkyBell HD. You’ll also need to wire an additional resistor to the power source. The resistor is included with the Skybell HD.

The Ring Video Doorbell 2 has an easier option if you don’t have existing doorbell wiring. You can simply mount the doorbell camera to the wall and use the included battery pack for power. When the battery is depleted, you remove it, charge it, and reinstall it. You can purchase an additional battery pack and keep the extra one charged.

Whichever doorbell camera you decide to buy, both are easy enough to install that you won’t need to pay someone to do it for you.

Well, there you have it. The features and benefits of the Ring Video Doorbell 2 and the SkyBell HD compared head to head. I hope this overview gives you a clearer picture of which doorbell camera is right for you.

In the end, both the Ring Video Doorbell 2 and the SkyBell HD are great products. Their popularity proves that. Either one of these doorbell cameras will help make your home more safe and secure.

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