A bright addition to Ring's lineup

The Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro delivers excellent HD video, accurately detects motion, and is bright enough to light up most yards.

The Ring Floodlight Cam impressed us back in 2017 with its sharp image quality and ability to work with other smart devices, but at the time, its companion app was a bit buggy. With the Floodlight Cam Wired Pro ($249.99), the app is no longer a hindrance and Ring has enhanced the camera with welcome features such as HDR video, dual-band Wi-Fi, 3D motion detection, and a bird’s-eye view of motion events. The $199.99 Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight Camera remains our Editors' Choice winner thanks to even sharper 2K video and greater third-party compatibility, though the Ring is good alternative if you're looking to illuminate your entire yard.

Available in a black or white finish, the IP65 weather-resistant Floodlight Cam Wired Pro measures 7.7 by 12.8 by 8.5 inches (HWD). It uses two adjustable LED lamps that each put out 2,000 lumens and have a 3,000K color temperature. For comparison, the lights on the Eufy Floodlight Camera each have a brightness of 2,500 lumens, while the lights on the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera each reach 3,000 lumens. In any case, the Cam Wired Pro's lamps were bright enough to light up my backyard in testing. The Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight, meanwhile, is aptly named in that it shines a spotlight on whatever is moving around on your property, but it isn't going to light the whole area up like a floodlight will.

The camera enclosure sits just below and in between the two lamps. It houses a 1080p HDR sensor with a 140-degree horizontal field of view; a speaker and microphone; a 110dB siren; and six infrared LEDs for black-and-white night vision. If the floodlights are on, the camera can deliver color night vision, too. It uses a dual-band Wi-Fi radio to connect to your home network. The camera interacts with other Ring devices, supports Alexa voice commands, and connects with many third-party smart home devices via IFTTT. That said, it doesn’t support Apple's HomeKit platform or Google Assistant.

The Floodlight Cam Pro uses the same 3D motion radar technology that Ring first introduced with its Video Doorbell Pro 2. In a nutshell, the 3D motion detection feature lets you create custom motion zones with distance thresholds. When the sensor detects an object, it measures the distance between the object and the camera and sends an alert if that distance exceeds the threshold. This technology also powers Ring’s Bird’s Eye View feature that lets you see where visitors to your home traveled while on your property. These events appear as dots on an aerial map and show the path of the visitor. 

As with every other Ring camera, the Pro 2 requires a Ring Protect subscription in order to view recorded video and access some of these more advanced features. The Basic Plan gives you 60 days of rolling storage for one camera and goes for $3 per month or $30 per year. The Plus Plan costs $10 per month or $100 per year and provides 60 days of storage for all of your Ring cameras.

The Floodlight Cam Wired Pro uses the same mobile app (available for Android and iOS) as every other Ring device. The app opens to a dashboard screen that lists all of your Ring products; this section also shows shortcuts for Neighbors (the community app that lets you share pictures and video of captured events), History (a list of event-triggered videos that you can view by tapping on them), and more. Touch the Edit panel to add or remove shortcuts. 

To view a live video feed from your camera, tap the Floodlight Cam Pro panel and then the Go Live arrow. Just below the video panel, the app displays the time of day, an End Live button that ends the stream, a microphone button, and a speaker mute button. To view the video in full-screen mode, press the square icon in the lower right corner. Once the live stream ends, a timeline of motion events appears below the video panel. Simply scroll through the timeline to find and view event clips; the Bird’s Eye View feed shows up in the upper left corner.

Tap the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen to access the settings menus. Here, you can turn the lights on and off, sound the siren, and enable motion detection or motion alerts. A motion warning button enables you to play a recording through the camera's speakers to warn whomever (or whatever) is out there that they are being recorded.

Additional tiles allow access to specific categories of settings. For instance, mode settings allow you to enable geofencing and configure Home, Away, and Disarmed states. Motion settings let you configure motion sensitivity, enable 3D Motion and Smart Alerts, and set up motion alert schedules. Head to the Device section to tweak light settings (such as brightness and motion zones), enable color night vision, set the default video recording length, and configure notifications. Other settings allow you to link the floodlight to other Ring devices, configure network settings, and update the firmware.

To install the Floodlight Cam Wired Pro, you first need to download the Ring app and create an account. The installation process is relatively easy, but requires working with high-voltage electrical wiring. If you aren't comfortable with that, you should hire a professional to install it.

I got started by tapping the three-bar icon in the upper left corner of the app’s dashboard and then selecting Set Up a Device. I then chose the Security Cams tab, scanned the QR code on the bottom of the box, and gave the camera a name. At this point, you can view installation instructions or skip them if you’ve already installed the device.

Before removing my existing floodlight fixture, I shut off the circuit breaker. With the old fixture removed, I installed the metal Ring mounting bracket to the junction box and attached the plastic mounting plate to the metal plate. I used the included fabric strap to hang the device on the mounting plate and the wire nuts (also included) to connect the camera wires to the wires in the junction box. I slid the fixture onto the plastic plate, attached it using the included cap nuts, and restored power to the circuit. 

After the LED began to flash, I followed the instructions to connect the fixture to the Ring app and my Wi-Fi network. The app immediately connected to my network once I entered my Wi-Fi password, and the camera showed up in the app and my Alexa device list without delay. During the setup process, the app also installed a firmware update for the device.

The Floodlight Cam Wired Pro delivered crisp 1080p video with excellent contrast, rich colors, and fine image detail in testing. I didn't notice any obvious barrel or pincushion distortion, and the wide viewing angle covered most of my backyard. Black-and-white night video looked sharp and well lit, as did color night video, but as expected, the colors in the latter mode weren't quite as vibrant as those during daytime captures. The two LED lamps were more than bright enough to light up my backyard.

Both the 3D Motion detection feature and Bird’s Eye View aerial map worked without a hitch. When I enabled the Smart Alerts setting, the camera correctly identified motion caused by human movement and ignored everything else. I also created an Alexa routine to have the camera trigger a U-tec Ultraloq U-Bolt Pro smart lock when it detected motion, and the lock never failed to engage. Additionally, the Floodlight Cam Pro responded quickly to Alexa voice commands to stream video to an Amazon Echo Show.

We like many aspects of the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro—its HDR camera delivers excellent video quality, while both its 3D Motion detection and Bird’s Eye View features work flawlessly. The light may not be as bright as you get with some competitors and the camera doesn’t work with Google Assistant or HomeKit, but it was still bright enough to illuminate my backyard in testing and you do get Alexa and IFTTT suppor. Ultimately, the Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight delivers more functionality for a lower price, earning it our Editors' Choice award, though it won't illuminate your entire yard. For much less money, meanwhile, we also like the Wyze Cam Floodlight, which doesn't support HomeKit or offer voice control, but costs just $84.99. If you already own other Ring devices, however, the Floodlight Cam Wired Pro is a worthy addition for enhancing your outdoor security.

The Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro delivers excellent HD video, accurately detects motion, and is bright enough to light up most yards.

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I’ve been working with computers for ages, starting with a multi-year stint in purchasing for a major IBM reseller in New York City before eventually landing at PCMag (back when it was still in print as PC Magazine). I spent more than 14 years on staff, most recently as the director of operations for PC Labs, before hitting the freelance circuit as a contributing editor. 

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