I just saw that the price for Ring 2 has dropped to $169 until May 11th, so that's better. But I'd still like to hear if people think the higher resolution is worth the difference, especially since we need 2 of them.

I feel the increased resolution is worth the price. My original ring was black and white, ring 2 is color in addition to higher res. The battery is also different, original ring the battery was part of the unit, I had to remove the unit to recharge, ring 2 uses a battery pack.

FWIW, my response time is slower than the television commercials, probably depends on your WiFi speed.

I also have the bell, requires electrical.

I have the original doorbells and chime in my house, wired. So I presume I don't have to buy the ring chime, is that correct?

Jim Mat, thank you for that real life review.

The other thing going on that I'd like to fix when I install the Ring is that the previous owners installed these ugly wooden blocks. I guess there was a mismatch between the hole and the original doorbell that they were trying to cover up when replacing with a new one. But I think they are ugly. I'm wondering if I could replace that with something cleaner looking such as a piece of metal (maybe something like a metal plate that you sometimes see behind house numbers?).

I've tried to post a pic of the ugly wooden piece, but it's not working, so I'll try again in a bit.

Re bell, a ring chime is required, your existing wired bell is probably not WiFi compatible with ring. The ring bell plugs into an electrical outlet.

I have a Ring Pro, which I know you are not asking about. I have had it since December and love it. The Pro is on sale at Costco right now for $199. The benefit of paying a bit more is the Costco deal comes with one year of free monitoring. Otherwise you will end up paying $3 per month for the monitoring and still end up with the same out of pocket expense as the Ring 2 mentioned above. You have to sign in to see the Costco price.

On the other hand, Best Buy has the Pro, chime, and a 3rd gen. Echo Dot bundle for $229. The Echo Dot shows as a free add on after you add the Chime and Pro bundle to your cart.

I purchased my Ring Pro from Best Buy and could never get the chime to connect. My Pro works perfectly without the chime.

Steve, thank you I was thinking since our chime works fine and is hard-wired that I wouldn't need to buy the Ring chime.

We do have some wi-fi issues and DH is researching how to fix that. Maybe a booster somewhere in the house will help.

You'd likely need additional access points or a network extender placed near your front door(s), or look into wireless mesh products. The Chime Pro also has a network extender built into it.

Regarding the resolution, look online for pics from the two models and see if they're good enough for you. if you're just needing them for casual person identification, then the lower 720p (which is still very good) resolution should be just fine. But if you deal with package theft or want to use the video for any type of legal or crime assistance, then the higher resolution would be more than worth it in the end. Also, the night vision on the 2 gets an upgrade.

Re ring working with existing wired bells. It only works if you hardwire your ring. My ring is not hardwired.

my ring is mounted to my front door, using the existing door bell button location would not provide a front view of someone at my front door.

Jim, yes, that's what I meant by "as long as they're still functioning and wired properly."