Ring Spotlight Cam 4K Pro (newest model), Plug-In, Home or business security, Retinal 4K with wide-angle video, 10x Enhanced Zoom, and 600 Lumen Spotlights, White

Why it's worth it

The Spotlight Cam 4K Pro plugs in, so it never needs charging, and its 3D Motion Detection ignores far more of the traffic going past your driveway. You get 4K video, 600-lumen spotlights, an 85-decibel siren, and two-way talk in one white box.

Plug-in power changes the math. A wire-free camera on a busy driveway becomes a chore you'll be doing forever, and this one just runs. It also means Ring doesn't have to ration recording to save battery, so you get quicker wake-ups, longer clips, and 4K with 10x zoom when you need to read something at the curb.

3D Motion Detection is the feature that actually earns the upgrade. Rather than watching pixels change, the camera judges how far away the movement is, so you can draw a line at the sidewalk and stop hearing about it. Security Baron's field testing found Ring's Bird's Eye View setup cut driveway false alerts from passing cars by about two-thirds versus the standard Spotlight Cam. That's the difference between a useful phone and an annoying one.

From our review of 7 outdoor smart home security cameras, by David Sinclair, Managing Editor

What we like

• +Plug-in power changes the math
• +3D Motion Detection is the feature that actually earns the upgrade
• +Night behavior is better than the spec sheet suggests
• +If your house already speaks Alexa, this is the easy answer

What to know

• –Everything you'd want to review later lives in Ring's cloud
• –The power cord is shorter than the one on older Ring spotlight cameras, and plenty of owners ended up buying an extension to…