Perfect for any smart home

The TP-Link Tapo Video Doorbell Camera D235 could well be the perfect video doorbell: good video quality, AI driven smart detection, and no subscription fees.

As with most battery powered models, this one is a chunky doorbell. It comes with huge 10,000mAh battery, which can last up to seven months, although this will be less in a busy area. And, there’s no need to remove the doorbell, as it can also be trickle charged via a standard doorbell transformer.

This model ships with a plug-in chime for indoors, which is loud and easy to set up.

Recording directly to an SD card, the TP-Link Tapo Video Doorbell Camera D235 needs no subscriptions. And it’s smart: it can detect people, pets, vehicles and packages, so you only get alerts about the events that are important to you.

Image quality is excellent from the 2K sensor, with the doorbell able to record full colour until it was practically dark. At night, its IR lights do a great job of maintaining quality.

For the range of features at the excellent price, the TP-Link Tapo Video Doorbell Camera D235 is hard to beat.

If you’ve been tempted to set up a smart home ecosystem, or dismantle your current one to start again from scratch and restructure things, then the Aqara Doorbell Camera Hub G410 is an excellent place to start. As you might have guessed from its name, the G410 works both as a highly competent video doorbell and as a smart home hub, from which you can tie together all manner of devices through Thread, Zigbee and Matter, not to mention all of the automations you can set up thereafter.

While we’re enamoured by any piece of tech that can work a double shift like the G410 can, Aqara has made sure that although the device works brilliantly as a smart home hub, it hasn’t lost any of the core features that make a video doorbell competitive in the current market. On this front, one of the best things the G410 has going for it is the inclusion of mmWave radar.

With this feature in tow, the G410 is far more accurate in its reporting so you won’t have to deal with quite so many false alerts, which can often be a problem with lesser video doorbells. In terms of the footage itself, the camera can record 2K video which offers up plenty of detail so you can get a better understanding of what’s happening in front of your home. Admittedly, this does drop down to 1080p if you’re using Apple’s HomeKit Secure, but you get added security benefits with that method’s end-to-end encryption so there is a trade-off to be factored in.

As you’d expect, there’s two-way audio so you can quickly converse with someone at the door, and there’s a good amount of flexibility when it comes to powering the device. You can go down the battery route which offers up to five months of use at a time, so more than enough if you decide to go away for a long holiday, or you can hardwire the thing so you’ve got 24/7 coverage and total peace of mind that you won’t miss a thing.

With a tag of £130, the G410 is very reasonably priced against the competition, but we would have liked to see proper waterproofing here – the IPX3 rating just doesn’t cut it. The design is also a bit on the bulky side, so if you’re someone who’s obsessed with the appearance of your home or any tech you have, then you may want to check out some of the other options on this list, but as far as we’re concerned, the G410 ticks so many boxes that it’s easily one of the best you can buy.

The original smart doorbell manufacturer, Ring is the biggest name in this market for a reason: its products are great. The wired Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 is the pinnacle of the company’s technology, packing more features than anywhere else, including 3D Motion Detection.

Using radar, 3D Motion Detection lets you set the detection limit of the doorbell. Used in combination with standard activity zones it means that you won’t get troubled by alerts taking place outside of your front door.

As this model doesn’t have a battery, it’s slim enough to fit onto most door frames. You get a compatible transformer in the box, which may require professional installation. The downside of this model is that it can’t sound an internal chime.

However, you can buy plug-in chimes and you can also make Amazon Echo speakers sound when someone presses the doorbell, answering directly from Echo Show devices.

Image quality is excellent thanks to the high 1536 x 1536 resolution and lens that captures people head-to-toe. That’s great for talking to callers, but also increases this doorbell’s use as a security camera.

Video clips are saved to the cloud via a subscription (you can use this as a doorbell without recording for free), and you can pay one subscription to cover all of your Ring cameras. A subscription also lets the doorbell answer automatically with a message of your choice, recording the answer.

When it comes to video doorbells, Ring Doorbells are practically synonymous with the technology at large, and with good reason. Amazon’s home security brand consistently puts out some of the best devices that we’ve ever tested, and that sentiment only stretches further with the Ring Wired Video Doorbell 2nd Gen. This is a great buy that makes use of new AI features and Amazon’s ecosystem, but it’ll cost you in the long run.

Where this particular Ring doorbell excels is in video quality. Thanks to an all-new square format sensor, the Ring Wired Video Doorbell 2nd Gen is able to provide what the brand describes as ‘Retinal 2K’ which might sound like a bit of marketing jargon but in real-world use, it looks incredible. The 1920 x 1920 resolution packs so much detail that you don’t have to worry about losing too much visual fidelity when you want to crop into a shot.

What takes the video quality even further though is the addition of HDR video recording, so any shadows in the doorbell’s line of sight are less likely to be an issue when viewing live footage or a recording. Beyond the video quality, the Ring app is worth writing home about for how intuitive it is to use. Amazon has been refining the app over quite some time and it’s now better than ever with quick access to both the live feed for your doorbell and the previous timeline so you can catch up on anything that it may have caught earlier in the day.

As you would expect from the Ring brand, integration with the Alexa ecosystem is top-notch so if your smart system already makes use of Amazon’s smart assistant at its core, then you’re better off picking up a Ring doorbell as it’ll be a fairly seamless addition. For instance, you can have notifications pop up on a compatible Amazon Echo smart speaker, and even use that same smart speaker to engage in a two-way chat with someone who’s turned up at the door.

There’s a lot to like about the Ring Wired Video Doorbell 2nd Gen, but the key thing to factor in is the long-term cost of having a Ring subscription, which is almost essential to making the most out of the doorbell in question. There are options that cost as little as £5/$5, but without access to the service, you won’t be able to see a live view from the doorbell, nor will you get real-time alerts either. So long as you’re happy to pay for the added features, you’ll get on great with this doorbell.

For the longest time, there’s been a fair few caveats to concede when siding with a battery powered Ring camera, but those days are almost long gone with the stellar Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus.

This is a seriously capable battery powered doorbell, with the ability to now capture video at 1536p resolution. That’s a marked improvement over the Doorbell Plus’ predecessors, and well worth the upgrade if you’ve been dismayed by the previous caps on video quality.

You can now also set activity zones within the Doorbell Plus’ field of view so that you aren’t constantly bombarded with notifications of nearby movement. You don’t get the 3D Motion Detection found on some of Ring’s wired video doorbells, but there is package detection so you can know exactly when an item has reached your doorstep.

Ring claims that you can get up to six months of use out of a single battery before needing to recharge or swap out for a different one, but our testing found that three months is more likely if you have a decent amount of activity being picked up by the doorbell. Even so, Ring’s quick-swap system makes it incredibly easy to pop in a new battery when needed, so you won’t have to worry about any major downtime.

For an accessible video doorbell that also rings in with an affordable price tag, the Abode Wireless Video Doorbell is well worth your attention. This battery powered pick is incredibly easy to set-up, so if you’re put off by the idea of getting too entrenched in any DIY work then you’ll appreciate the design here.

As mentioned, Abode’s Video Doorbell has a budget-friendly RRP of just £99.99, but to sweeten the deal even further, it includes a dedicated Chime at no extra cost. This accessory usually requires a separate purchase elsewhere, so to have it included here from the jump is great value for money.

Abode’s feature-set isn’t groundbreaking by any degree, but it definitely gets the job done. There’s crisp 1080p recording, but no ability to set activity zones so you may get pinged more often here than with other picks on this list. Luckily, there is an object detection mode that helps to alleviate this somewhat.

It’s also worth mentioning that to make the most of this device, there’s a £7.99 a month subscription service which throws in advanced motion detection and 10-days of cloud video back-up. This is a bit stingy compared to the usual minimum offering of 30-days of storage from other companies like Ring, so it’s definitely something to keep in mind.

Thanks to its second camera, the Eufy Video Doorbell Dual can spot and keep an eye on your packages in a way that other video doorbells can’t. With its high-resolution main camera, quick response times and no subscription fees, the Eufy Video Doorbell Dual is a fine alternative to the bigger names in video doorbells.

With two cameras inside it, plus a battery, the Eufy Video Doorbell Dual is a little bigger than other doorbells, but will still fit on most door frames. The doorbell can be wired to a transformer, which will keep the internal battery topped up.

Rather than connecting to Wi-Fi, the Eufy Video Doorbell Dual connects to the Eufy Homebase wirelessly. The Homebase connects to your home network via Ethernet, and setup is straightforward and quick.

The main camera shoots video at 2K, while the bottom camera shoots at 1080p. During the day, the video is well exposed and detailed, and you can see what’s going on right into the back of the frame. At night, the camera can shoot in colour if there’s enough ambient light, but it usually switches to black and white with IR. Close-up with people approaching your door, the camera maintained a good degree of sharpness and detail.

That second camera is a lot more useful than it may initially sound, particularly when used with the more advanced package detection options. High-quality video and no subscription charges make this a great video doorbell for those that don’t want ongoing costs.

While most video doorbells require you to have a subscription, the Eufy Video Doorbell 2K is different. This battery-powered doorbell connects wirelessly to the provided base station, which has its own 16GB of storage onboard. There’s no way to upgrade this storage, but even so, you should get at least two weeks’ footage before it’s full and older clips start to get overridden.

There are two advantages to this system. First, you don’t pay for cloud storage. Secondly, if the doorbell is stolen, the footage is safe and sound inside your home. The base station also acts as an internal chime, although you can have your Echo speakers sound, too.

As the camera can record when there’s motion, it’s good to see options that restrict the number of recordings. First, there are activity zones, so you can focus on the areas you want to monitor; secondly, there’s a human-only detection mode, so you’ll only get pop-up messages about people. Both together worked well and we mostly got relevant notifications only.

Incoming calls are quickly routed to a phone, and the two-way chat is clear on both sides. The camera shoots with a 2K resolution (2560 x 1920) with Wide Dynamic Range. During the day, footage is exceptionally sharp, with lots of detail. At night, the IR lights turn on and the image gets quite soft: you can still see who you’re talking to, but events happening away from the door are harder to spot.

Considering the range of features and quality of video, the Eufy Video Doorbell 2K is a great alternative to the big names, and ideal for anyone that doesn’t want to pay for cloud storage.

If you’ve already got other Ring devices (cameras, alarm), then the Ring Battery Video Doorbell (2024) is a great budget option, costing under £100.

This model uses an integrated battery, so it’s wider than the Ring doorbells that use a battery pack. You will need a wide door frame to fit it, and Ring doesn’t include any angled wedges in the box.

An integrated battery means that the doorbell has to be removed to be charged, although you can wire it up to a doorbell transformer for trickle charging.

You’ll need a Ring subscription for this doorbell, but once you pay, you get the same quality app and cloud storage features that you get with the company’s other products. Features include people and package detection, which cuts down the number of alerts you get.

Recording at a resolution of 1440 x 1440, the Ring Battery Video Doorbell (2024) captures footage head-to-toe. Image quality is a bit basic, with slightly soft images in the day, and night footage losing detail at range. However, for seeing who’s at the door and talking to them, this doorbell works well.

There are better Ring doorbells, but they all cost a lot more, making this one something of a bargain.