When it comes to smart home accessories, there are a few companies that truly stand out among the rest. Philips is known for its Hue lightbulbs, Nest has become iconic for its security cameras and thermostats, and Ring still has one of the best smart doorbells on the market. Home security is huge in the smart home world right now, and Ring is looking to step things up a notch with the announcement of the Ring Protect.
Ring Protect is an all-new home security solution from Ring, and the heart of the system lies with a base station that powers and connects all of its many accessories. A wall-mounted keypad is used for arming and disarming said accessories, and these include a motion detector, infrared camera, contact sensors for windows and doors, and even an extender for increasing the range of these gadgets.
Ring Protect can be controlled and monitored through the accompanying smartphone app, allowing you to get real-time alerts if a window or door has been opened, when motion is detected, etc. This is all stuff that we've seen before with other, similar solutions, but Ring has a big advantage when it comes to price.
Ring's substantially lower price could cause some trouble for Nest.
You'll need to shell out $199 for the Protect Security Kit, and this will get you the base station, keypad, contact sensor, motion detector, and range extender. You can choose to leave your costs at that, but if you want to also have access to Ring's 24/7 video recording and monitoring services, you're looking at a subscription fee of $10/month. For that price, you'll get 24/7 monitoring of your home by security professionals, unlimited cloud storage for any recordings from your Ring devices, and a discount of 10-percent on additional hardware that you buy from Ring.
Nest's 24/7 security services also cost around $10 per month, and while its performance compared to Ring's has yet to be seen, the starter kit for Nest Secure cost considerably more at $399.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Ring's CEO Jamie Siminoff said:
All the other companies in this space are thinking about how to maximize value out of each person, and the prices show that. If you look at what Ring is charging for this, in terms of the $10 per month and $100 per year, we are breaking the sound barrier on pricing around home security.
The Ring Protect is available for preorder starting today, and it will be arriving in retail stores later in October.
