Ring Stick Up Cam PRO + Solar Panel hands-on review

Keeping tabs on your home has never been easier. Ring’s Stick Up Cam Pro Battery can give you video coverage wherever you need it to keep an eye on your home security.  Ease of set up and user-friendly operation are two major reasons Ring Stick-Up Cam Pro Battery are so well received. The idea is to mount it or stick it up a wall or ceiling and you’re good to go. While that’s handy you do need to charge the batteries every couple of months. If you want to avoid that bit of maintenance, or you’re placing your camera somewhere that it’s not very accessible, the solution is to use one of Ring’s solar panels to power it.

In this review I’ll take a look at what you’re getting with the Ring Stick Up Cam Pro including what you get that gives it that “pro” designation. I’ll take a look at the video quality and the different mounting options and see if the solar panel really does keep it charged and ready long-term. I’ll wrap things up by checking out the pros and cons and letting you know if I think I can recommend this camera kit for you.

What is Ring Stick Up Cam Pro?

Before we get too far it’s worth diving into what you’re getting with the Ring Stick Up Cam Pro. This is a wireless indoor or outdoor home security camera with high definition or HD resolution and colour night vision. You can listen to what’s happening within range in the camera or speak as well and even set off a piercing alarm. It pairs with the companion Ring app to give you full remote viewing over your space and alerts when something happens. Ring cameras are extremely customizable. You can view recordings or take a live look at any time. You can also adjust motion settings to make them more or less sensitive, get alerts any time there’s motion or simply record them in case, as well as share access with anyone you need. It’s worth noting that if you want cloud recording for saving your videos, you do need to pay Ring’s monthly fee… Which we’ll get to.

It also probably goes without saying but this camera is weather resistant.

What’s so Pro About It?

Ring has two tiers in their Stick-Up Cam lineup – the standard Stick-Up Cam and the Pro. Both come with motion detection, two-way audio, siren, and water resistance. The Pro has a few features you won’t find in the standard Stick-Up Cam. Let’s look at those.

Bird’s Eye View and Bird’s Eye Zone

The radar-powered Bird’s Eye View feature essentially sends out waves that bounce back to tell it how far something is from the camera and how fast it’s moving. It illustrates this in the app by borrowing s snapshot of your property from Google Earth and lays the data on the bird’s eye view . This means camera sees and tracks the exact whereabouts of movement and how it got there.

This feature lets you create a more precise motion detection area Ring calls the Bird’s Eye Zone that lets you decide which areas you want the camera to detect motion from a top-down view. This could help reduce false alerts which is useful if you’re using the camera in a busy section of your home.

HDR Video and Color Pre-Roll

If you’re only looking at the resolution, then you may be unimpressed by the Pro as it has the same exact 1080p as the standard Stick-Up Cam. However, where Ring decided to pour their focus on is in adding HDR. This feature enhances the range of colors that the camera can process which significantly adds to the depth of detail it can capture.

The Stick-Up Cam Pro also has a Pre-Roll feature that saves a low-resolution video that begins a few seconds before the camera actually detects motion which will then trigger full-res video recording. These few seconds can be crucial in determining where and how an intruder got into frame.

Dual-Band Wi-Fi

This is not the kind of feature that most people get excited about, but if you have a busy Wi-Fi network at your home, having dual band Wi-Fi can mean the difference between getting timely alerts and finding out about some thing after the fact. Dual band Wi-Fi consists of two bands; 2.4 GHz is the old reliable when it comes to Wi-Fi signals; it’s fast enough and can cover more ground but it can get a bit congested. On the other hand, there’s the 5 GHz, a faster and stabler signal that doesn’t get as easily bogged down by other devices. The only downside is that it doesn’t travel as far or through walls as well. While the 2.4 GHz band is plenty for transmitting 1080p videos, being able to switch to 5 GHz, especially if you’ve got a ton of gadgets, can help keep your camera’s video feed smooth and glitch-free.

Solar Panel Add-On

Those notable features are great but all these things on can take its toll on the camera’s battery. While Ring says you can get 6-12 months out of a single charge, this largely depends on factors like which features are turned on and how often the camera gets triggered. In some cases, users have had to charge their batteries after just a couple of weeks of setting up their devices, particularly if you don’t configure your motion zones and your camera spends days capturing a tree branch waving in the breeze.

The solution is to create a reliable power source for your camera. As long as your camera is in a relatively sunny location the Ring solar panel should work for you. I have installed ring solar panels even on shadier sides of my home (east side) and I can confirm it’s able to harvest enough power to keep my camera running 24-7-365.

Set up & Installation

By now, I think I’ve set up dozens of Ring cameras and devices. Every one has been ultra easy. In this case charge the battery fully, even if you’re going to use the solar panel. Once charged pop the battery back in the camera and open up the Ring app. The app will search for your camera and add it to your lineup. A few more steps will take you through a few configuration options where you can make adjustments but then that’s it and you’re ready to go. I opted to place my camera in the yard so I could keep an eye on my dogs when they’re out playing.

If you are opting for the solar panel you can connect it now.

The camera has a couple of different options for mounting and it’s flexible mounting bracket allows you to use it as a stand, or anchor it to any flat surface or a wall. An optional ceiling mount is also available. Since I wanted to test this camera in several different locations around my house I chose not to mount either it or the solar panel, but the solar panel also comes with mounting accessories that will allow you to place it and capture the sun easily the solar panel kit also contains an adaptor for different types of ring device power.

Ring Protect Plan

I don’t want us to get too much further into this review without underlining that getting the most from your Ring camera does require a subscription. Ring has monthly cloud recording and storage plans known as Ring Protect plans. If you don’t opt for one of these plans you really only get the ability to take a live look at your cameras. While the basic protect plan costs just about $5USD per month, it only allows you to operate one camera or doorbell. Any more than that and you will need to upgrade to a more robust plan (Plus gives you unlimited cameras for $10USD/month). I have had a Plus plan for years and I think it’s been worth it.

Video Quality

1080 HD resolution cameras are par for the course when it comes to video quality, and that’s what you’re getting with this camera. It’s a good balance of clear image quality and efficient bandwidth usage, but identifying faces outdoors beyond about 5 feet away might be a little difficult because of the limited resolution. I’d love to see ring come out with a 4K camera sometime very soon, but for now HD is largely as good as it gets. I’d say the video quality is just fine for keeping basic tabs on your home, but if you’re hoping to capture extremely fine details this will probably not do the job.

Seeing faces at a distance is hard.

Stick Up Cam Pro has a wide field of view for maximum coverage, with a 130°diagonal, 110° horizontal, 57° vertical field of view.

Ring cameras use Advanced Motion Detection with Customizable Motion Zones to alert you to any motion within range of the camera. You can set your camera to alert you to any motion or just at certain times of day or certain types of motion. Plus, the camera has Color Night Vision to help you see better in all types of spaces.

Real time alerts

I will say the alerts from Ring cameras come to my phone fairly quickly. Well there are sometimes they are delayed a couple of seconds, it’s not usually a problem. And of course if you’re subscribed to one of the Ring protect plans you’re going to get recorded video footage of that stuff anyway so you’ll have a chance to review it after the fact. Yet another good reason to subscribe to the plan.

Watch the Ring Stick Up Cam Pro with Solar Panel review on YouTube

Overall review: Ring Stick-Up Cam Pro with Solar Panel

Overall this is a great camera package for those who want something wireless. Like all the Ring devices I have reviewed this one is easy to set up and integrates perfectly into my Ring and Alexa-enabled home. The resolution is standard for home security cameras of this ilk and includes night vision. This camera is a simple no-fuss home security monitor that also comes with helpful extras like colour pre-roll, dual band Wi-Fi, and the birds eye view option. The app is easy to navigate and find things and I like that I can get alerts. The different mounting options are also very handy.

When it comes to the downsides, on its own merits I can’t really think of anything that’s troubling me about this camera. While I would love to see Ring introduce a 4K resolution camera for better detail, that’s not an option yet.

I like Ring cameras and I find they give me a lot of peace of mind, both when I’m at home and particularly when I’m traveling. Ring Stick-Up Cam Pro sells for about $179USD.

Pairing it with the solar panel and the bundle is priced at $209USD.

If you’re looking to expand your home security horizons, I think I’ve reviewed almost every product in rings arsenal. You can check out some of the most popular components… Right now.

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