Way back in October of last year, Ring announced &Ring Protect& — a modular, no contract, DIY home security system.After a few delays, a bit of legal drama and Ring being acquired for a billion dollars by Amazon, the alarm is finally about to ship — albeit with a slightly different (better!) name.Ring Protect has been redubbed as the more intuitive Ring Alarm — a better name if only because competitor Nest has both a security product and a totally different product (a smoke detector) called Nest Protect.Ring base level alarm kit starts at $199, which includes a keypad (for arming/disarming the system), one door/window sensor, a motion detector and a range extender.
You&ll probably want to add more components, and, fortunately, they&re relatively cheap: another door sensor, for example, is $20, while the motion detectors are $30.Nest competing security system packs a few tricks that Ring doesn&t (Nest combined the door/motion sensors into one, for example, and it got a fancy RFID system for PIN-free disarming), but it also costs $200 more… and that after a $100 price drop that, presumably not by coincidence, just happened yesterday.The system doesn&t require any sort of contract — but if you want professional monitoring, it&ll be $10 a month.
That a pretty good deal, especially because if you&ve got any of Ring cameras (like its smart doorbell, or its floodlight cameras), that plan includes unlimited video storage for all of &em.Ring says it got more products on the way to expand the system, including smoke/carbon monoxide detectors and flood sensors.Ring security system is up for pre-order now and, if all goes as planned, will start shipping on July 4th.