Ring Smart Lighting is an affordable nervous system for your house
The new motion-activated outdoor lights can send you an alert or trigger your Ring cameras to start recording whenever they detect motion.
- 10 years product testing experience with the CNET Home team
Originally published Jan. 7.
Update, December 19: A Ring data breach exposed the personal details of over 3,000 customers, according to reports. We are removing all Ring products from recommendation.
Smart security and smart lighting go hand in hand. After all, most bad guys don't like it when you shine a spotlight on them. And hey, floodlights will do the trick just as well, as will step lights and path lights...
And wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what the Amazon-owned video doorbell startup Ring brought to Las Vegas for CES 2019. Specifically, it's a new, full lineup of motion-activated LED lights for the exterior of your home: Spotlights, floodlights, step lights and path lights. If someone creeps by at night, they'll turn on automatically. If you want, they'll also send you an alert, trigger your Ring cameras to start recording, or trigger other Ring lights around your house to turn on, too.
Everything is available for preorder today on Ring's website and on Amazon , and is expected to ship in May of this year. Here's the full list of what's coming:
- Hard-wired Ring Floodlight (2,000 lumens bright, $70)
- Battery-powered Ring Floodlight (600 lumens bright, $50)
- Battery-powered Ring Spotlight ($40)
- Battery-powered Ring Pathlight ($30)
- Battery-powered Ring Steplight ($18)
In addition, Ring is also launching a couple of accessories to go with the lights. First is a standalone, battery-operated Ring Motion Sensor that doesn't have its own light or camera but instead triggers your other Ring lights and cameras. That'll cost $25.
You can put Ring's battery-powered outdoor smart lights just about anywhere you like.
There's also a new Ring Bridge that acts as a hub for multidevice setups -- it costs $50, and you'll need one plugged in if you want one Ring gadget to be able to trigger another one when it detects motion.
One other retrofit option is the $100, low-voltage Ring Transformer. It's designed to replace older transformers to enable smart control of existing landscape lighting. That should be an appealing choice for folks who already like the lights they've got.
All of the new Ring Smart Lighting products will work with Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa , letting you ask your Echo smart speaker or any other Alexa-equipped device to turn things on and off. You can also ask Alexa to notify you if motion is detected from a particular sensor. I'm guessing we should expect further integration with the Ring Alarm home security system, too -- as well as with Alexa Guard, which will already turn your Alexa-compatible smart lights on and off when you're away to make it look like you're home.
What's interesting is that none of these products have cameras in them like the Ring Video Doorbell or the newly announced Ring peep hole camera do. Then again, Ring already sells a camera-equipped floodlight, as well as a spotlight cam . Those start at around $200 each, so the new, camera-free versions will do quite a bit to lower the cost of entry to a Ring-lit home. And since most of the new lights are battery-powered, you'll have a lot more flexibility over where you mount them.
No word yet from Ring on just how long those batteries will last between charges, but I'll be sure to visit them here at CES and update this space if I get an answer. Ring does say that it expects to sell its smart lighting products in select countries outside of the US later this year -- that $18 to $100 price range for the lights and accessories converts to about £14 to £80 in the UK, or AU$25 to AU$140 in Australia.
Ring tells us that solar-powered versions of the lights are in the works, too. We'll hunt down more details on that front as soon as we can, along with the scoop on other new products and services expected from Ring in 2019, including a new video doorbell and new Ring Alarm accessories. Do stay tuned.
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