At CES 2020, Ring announced several new products, including new additions to its already-impressive line of wired and wireless smart lighting products. This year, the focus on lighting was on solar power and security fixture bulbs.
Solar Power and Better Designs
First up: redesigned solar-powered path, step, and security lights. The new Solar Pathlight looks somewhat similar to Ring’s existing Pathlight with one major exception. The battery, solar charger, and light source are all in the (now removable) canopy. This makes the design look a little top-heavy, but it solves a problem we disliked in the original product. With the light source shielded from your line of sight, the Solar Pathlights are less glary than their predecessors. But they’re—amazingly—just as bright at 80 lumens each. Ring says you can expect about six months of full brightness before needing to boost the charge via USB.
Ring is also changing some of the options you’ll have for scheduling lights. In addition to the dusk-to-dawn low-level lighting option, you’ll also be able to schedule when you want lights on (maybe to turn them off around bed-time, for example). Ring hasn’t addressed our other concern about these lights, which is the color temperature. In our tests against other outdoor lighting brands, the Ring lights looked harsh compared to the warmer lighting tones typically for garden and path fixtures.
Ring also redesigned the Solar Steplight, wisely abandoning Mr. Beams’ legacy design for a more contemporary, angular design. The new design introduces a larger flat surface for the solar panel. It’s the same brightness as its predecessor and comes in both black and white finishes.
Finally, Ring’s Solar Floodlight rounds out its new sun-powered products. This is less of a redesign and more of a repackaging. The Solar Floodlight, comes bundled with Ring’s rather large, flat solar panel and a lengthy cable.
Don’t want to replace your fixtures? No problem.
Ring also introduced two new smart bulbs. These are if you already have security or perimeter lighting fixtures you don’t want to replace. No need. Just replace your existing flood lamps with these wet-rated Ring PAR38 Smart LED Bulbs. There’s also a standard A19 so you could tie your front door fixture into the system. The PAR38 comes in black and white finishes, so it fits with your home, even if the bulbs are exposed.
Ring also showed a new gate controller, a rebranding of pro-oriented products, and more. All-in-all, it’s obvious that Ring has been listening to customers (er, “neighbors,” as they call them) to better understand their security lighting needs. Expect all of these new products to be available this Spring.
