Ring Indoor Cam review: An impeccable security camera for your home

We’ve seen cheap security cameras before, but not really from big manufacturers, which makes the Ring Indoor Cam something of a treat. Priced at £49, this is one of the lowest-cost Full HD cameras we’ve seen. While the price may be low, Ring has managed to keep the features up, making this one of the best-value security cameras ever.

One of the reasons Ring has managed to keep the cost down is because the Indoor Cam is, as the name says, an indoor-only model. Everything else in the line-up is suitable for use outside, requiring an additional layer of weatherproofing that’s not needed here.

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Ring Indoor Cam review: Design

Ditching all of that means the Indoor Cam is a lot lighter and smaller than its siblings. It feels slightly cheaper as a result, but don’t let that initial impression put you off, as this has all the flexibility and quality that we’ve come to expect from Ring.

While the body is light, the Indoor Cam is well designed generally. Point it fully down, for example, and it won’t topple over, as cheap cameras tend to do. The power cable doesn’t pull the camera out of position, either.

You’ve got options beyond placing the camera on a shelf, too, as the stand acts as a ceiling mount. You can reposition the stand to the back of the camera, turning it into a handy wall mount. These options make it easier to put the Indoor Cam exactly where you want it.

There’s one minor annoyance, however: the setup button is placed right on top of the camera. Lean past it or try to reposition the view and it’s all too easy to enter it back into setup mode, disconnecting it from the app. Placing this button around the back would have made a lot more sense.

Ring Indoor Cam review: App and features

If we had one issue with Ring’s cameras before, it was the lack of control. While you could schedule when a camera could and couldn’t send notifications to you, the cameras always recorded. Thanks to the addition of Modes to the app, this has changed.

Modes were introduced with the Ring Alarm, and give you three options for your home: Disarmed, Home and Away. For each mode, you can configure what each camera in your home does: if it can record video and if the live view is enabled.

If you don’t have a Ring Alarm, you can set the mode manually through the app (though there’s no scheduling function, sadly); if you have a Ring Alarm, modes are set through the control panel. This is exceptionally powerful: as you go out and turn the alarm on, your indoor cameras spring to life, capturing anyone that may break in; when you come back, your cameras turn off, giving you privacy; and when you go to bed and turn on Home mode, a selection of cameras can protect you at night.

Beyond modes, you can set activity zones to watch for motion, and schedule when you do and don’t want motion alerts. Ring further helps cut down on notifications with its new People Only detection switch, which only warns you when a person is spotted.

Footage from the Indoor Cam can be saved to the cloud if you have a Ring Protect plan. This costs a reasonable £2.50/mth (£25/yr) for 30-day history per camera. Ring Protect Plus is £8/mth (£80/yr) and covers all the cameras in your home, while also providing cellular backup and assisted monitoring for your Ring Alarm.

When you select your Indoor Cam from the app’s home page you get the timeline screen. From here you can see the live view (if allowed by the current mode), which triggers a recording, and have a two-way chat with anyone you see.

Using the timeline, you can swipe back to see recorded events. You can filter by the event type (live view, motion or favourites), as well as jump to a specific day. However, scrolling backwards is cumbersome. An Event History section in the app gives you a filterable list of events, but this doesn’t have thumbnail images, which can make finding one event a bit tricky.

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Ring Indoor Cam review: Image quality

Footage is very good, with the Indoor Cam’s 140-degree lens picking up most of a room. Recorded at a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080, we found that video quality was a little soft, but that there was still plenty of detail in people’s faces. At night, the camera shoots with its IR lights in black and white, which makes the image softer still, although you can still see clearly what’s going on.

You can also use colour night vision, which uses a combination of the IR lights and a colour sensor. Quality depends on the level of ambient light available; in our test room, there wasn’t much, so footage just looked a bit grey. It’s fine for the price, however.

Ring Indoor Cam review: Verdict

The quality of the footage, its flexibility and the excellent value make the Ring Indoor Cam a great choice for anyone. If you also have a Ring Alarm system, the integration with Modes makes it an even better option.