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While we tend to think that most networks can benefit from the addition of a network attached storage device (aka a NAS box), not every home or office will get enough use to justify the cost. One increasingly popular NAS use for home users is for storing and serving up personal media collections to all their different devices. 

For some, this means running a Plex server to stream all their legitimately backed up or created content (ahem) to a smart TV, phone, tablet or PC. In the past, if you wanted to stream 4K content – especially to multiple TVs or devices at once – that meant using an actual computer as a server. But now NAS boxes such as the DS418play are more than powerful enough to handle this kind of media duty, as well as the traditional tasks of backups and a whole range of other services. 

Media-focused NAS devices are also becoming more popular to store self-created video and pictures. Most higher-end smartphones can record 4K footage and take excellent pictures. But popular storage options such Google Photos only lets you store 1080P video for free – not 4K. Even if you pay for extra space, streaming from your cloud storage to a TV can be a struggle on all but the fastest internet.

And that’s where a multimedia NAS box comes in handy. The DS418play allows you to store huge amounts of video and photos, and then easily stream them all to any device on your network (or even remotely, if you have the bandwidth) without impacting your internet connection. It also provides an extra backup option for precious memories, and has loads of other functionality built in. 

That said, when you combine this enclosure with several NAS drives, it is an expensive network upgrade, so it’s important to weigh up the pros and cons to figure out if the DS418play is right for you.

Synology DS418play price & availability

The DS418play is typically sold diskless, allowing you to install the specific drives you desire. That said, if you want the latter pre-installed, some retailers do sell this NAS box with drives, but at a rate that’s often more expensive than if you did it yourself.

The diskless DS418play is sold in just one variant, with 2GB of RAM – which will set you back $370/£450/AU$660.

If you want to upgrade the memory yourself (an easy job), 4GB of suitable RAM costs around $35/£30/AU$50.

It’s highly recommended to use NAS hard drives – a single 4TB Seagate Ironwolf Pro drive costs $180/£120/AU$260, and you will want at least two at first.

Design & features

The DS418play is built around a now slightly dated Intel Celeron J3355 dual-core CPU, which can burst up to 2.5GHz. While the CPU does technically include Intel Graphics, there are no HDMI outputs. The NAS comes equipped with 2GB of RAM, plus an empty slot that can handle an additional 4GB, for a total of 6GB. While the NAS handles itself well with 2GB, it’s well worth the effort to add at least an extra 2GB. It’s also very easy – just pop out the drive bays and the RAM slot is easily accessible. 

Round the back, the 418play has dual Gigabit LAN ports, which support both link aggregation and failover. Link aggregation is especially handy in this case, because it means that with the right network setup, you can double the available bandwidth to the NAS. The 418play also has dual USB 3.0 ports (one in front and one back) that can be used to connect external storage devices.

The four drive bays are tool-less and hot swappable, and can handle both 2.5” and 3.5” drives. They are also lockable with an included key, but this isn’t that secure and can easily be jimmied open with a small flathead screwdriver. The NAS supports Btrfs and EXT4 file systems, and with support for up to four 12TB drives it can house a massive total of 48TB total storage. 

The 418play also offers hardware-based AES-NI encryption, and doesn’t lose any appreciable performance with it’s switched on.

The NAS box itself is quite compact, and while not exactly what we’d call a looker, it’ll easily blend in next to your modem or router. It does use a seperate, and fairly hefty power brick that can be a challenge to hide away. On the plus side, included in the box are two LAN cables, so there’s nothing extra you need to buy aside from drives. 

While it has decent ventilation, the dual 92mm fans can be noisy under load compared to a single larger fan. There is an option to run them in quiet mode, albeit at the expense of higher temperatures for your hard drives.

Setup & software

Getting the Synology DS418play up and running is dead simple. Slide in some drives, plug it in to power and your local network, and then point a browser at http://find.synology.com. To make it completely foolproof, included is a printed-out quickstart guide with instructions and diagrams. 

Chances are, if it’s connected to the internet, the DS418play will want to download a system update during this initial setup, which is important to do. These initial steps also prompt you to choose your RAID type, including the Synology hybrid RAID system that optimises for storage capacity while giving solid redundancy. It also makes it easy to swap out older smaller drives and replace them without having to rebuild the entire RAID array. 

The Synology NAS operating system is one of our favourites, and it’s well laid out and easy to use. While the hardware side is important, having a great user interface makes it much easier to get all the different features set up and working. Synology even has an online demo of its interface so you can try it out before buying at https://demo.synology.com/en-global.

Aside from the media focus, Synology also provides a huge number of apps that can be downloaded and run on the NAS. Of course, it backs up your computers and mobile devices, can record footage from networked security cameras, act as a personal cloud, file server, and more. Sadly though, unlock some other Synology NAS boxes, the DS418play can’t run virtual machines, which can be a handy way to experiment with different operating systems, or run software that’s not supported by the NAS. 

While the web interface is an excellent way to manage the NAS, Synology also offers apps for smartphone or tablet control. Rather than putting all the functionality into a single app, Synology has built more than 10 separate ones which cover everything from file management to taking notes. While it can be mildly annoying that you need separate apps to stream videos, music and photos, having them seperate does mean you only need to grab those you need – and that any updates for one can’t break functionality for the others. The apps themselves are generally excellent too, and well worth exploring.

Multimedia capabilities

The key features of the DS418play all revolve around handling media. Most importantly, the device has the ability to transcode two 4K video streams at the same time. If you’re wondering why exactly you might want to do that, or aren’t already very into serving up your own media, then you probably don’t need this kind of feature. But as 4K video content becomes more popular, it could certainly be a great option to have for future-proofing.

So what exactly is transcoding? Well, on a NAS without it, streamed media is sent to the playback device (be that a TV, computer or smartphone) which then decodes it and plays the content. The problem (especially with older TVs and lower-end smartphones) is that some devices won’t be able to play specific codecs, or will play them poorly. Additionally, only fairly recent model TV and smartphones can even play back 4K video at all, and not always well.

With transcoding, the NAS itself handles the codec support, and re-encodes (or transcodes) video content in a format the playback device can actually handle. For example, if you shoot a 4K video on your smartphone and store it on your NAS, your TV might not actually be able to play it back. With the DS418play, it can adjust the resolution of that video to suit the playback device – for example, transcoding that 4K footage to 1080p. This also helps avoid any scaling issues, and can reduce network bandwidth use by not needing to send the entire 4K file. This is especially handy when streaming to a smartphone over a 4G data connection.  

The DS418play also supports Plex, which is by far one of the most popular ways to access your media. If you have not experienced it already, check it out at Plex.tv. Plex is supported by loads of media players and smart TVs, and gives an excellent, Netflix style interface to your media. The Plex server app is available for download from the Synology App Package Centre, or you can grab the very latest files directly from the Plex website and install them manually.

So in other words, the DS418play can store all your media, and happily stream it to all your devices. Being able to handle two streams could be a boon for larger households, as you’re not limited to playing back on only a single device at once.

Performance & testing

We tested the Synology DS418play equipped with 2GB of RAM, using 4x Seagate IronWolf Pro HDDs, and running Synology’s hybrid RAID. To emulate a typical network, we tested using a Gigabit Ethernet LAN, with connections running to the NAS, a desktop computer and Hisense smart TV.

With a full load of four drives, the throughput is mostly limited by the network connection itself. That won’t be a problem for most typical users, as even two 4K streams won’t saturate the available bandwidth. That said, for more advanced users, having the option to aggregate the two network ports together is great. 

The DS418play performed well, and had no issues streaming media to multiple devices at once. Transcoding worked flawlessly too, although it took a bit of fiddling to get Plex up and running. The DS418play happily maxed out our network with large file transfers, at 108.5 MB/s reading and 109.2 MB/s writing. 

As mentioned, we found that the NAS can get a little noisy under load, but it does a pretty decent job of containing the hard drive noise considering its compact size.

Final verdict

The Synology DS418play is an interesting NAS box, in that it’s highly geared towards lovers of 4K media but omits related functionality such as an HDMI port. For many, that’s a good thing, as they won’t be paying for features that will go unused. 

But then, with that limitation, you might expect Synology to have been a bit more competitive on the DS418play’s price, especially since it’s close to a year old at the time of this review. But despite the fact the Synology OS and user interface is one of our favourites, at $370/£450/AU$660 the DS418play faces stiff competition from it’s rivals.

Still, if you want a premium media-serving experience and only need the specific features that this particular NAS offers, the DS418play is OK value on the whole.

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Media playback is unsupported on your device

Nearly 200 years after the birth of photography, the art form is experiencing a technological revolution.

Smartphones are using multiple cameras and software-based smarts to deliver images that seemingly transcend the limits of their small lenses and sensors.

And while handsets have devastated sales of point-and-shoot cameras, the prospects for more advanced models are seemingly bright thanks to an innovation of their own.

In recent weeks, the industry’s biggest two manufacturers – Canon and Nikon – have both unveiled their first full-frame mirrorless cameras, having already seen Sony have great success with the format.

Getting rid of the mirrors traditionally placed inside high-end cameras gets the lens closer to the sensor and paves the way to several innovations.

And on the eve of Photokina – the industry’s giant trade fair in Cologne – Panasonic has just unveiled a body that could prove the most disruptive of all.

Dedicated digital camera sales grew by 5% in 2017 to $9.9bn (£7.5bn), according to market research firm Futuresource, the industry’s first gain since 2010.

It was driven in large part by demand from enthusiasts and professionals for existing mirrorless models costing upwards of £1,000.

With a rush of new models – and their accompanying native lenses – manufacturers have an opportunity to prosper if they can convince consumers that the technology is worth the investment.

What does mirrorless and full-frame mean?

Mirrorless refers to the fact that the device does not include the flippable mirror found in digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs) to show what the lens sees through the viewfinder.

Instead, a small digital display is used to preview the image.

In the past, using such a display involved lag – meaning the image was slightly delayed – and appreciably lower resolution than an optical viewfinder.

But modern viewfinder displays have mostly addressed these issues, while also offering the benefits of being able to preview the effects that changes to camera settings make, as well as showing 100% coverage of the scene rather than the partial view shown by many DSLRs.

The downside is that using an electronic display eats into battery life – reducing the number of shots possible on a charge.

There are other benefits to mirrorless.

• Camera bodies are typically smaller and lighter than DSLRs
• There is scope for manufacturers to offer higher-speed burst modes, in which images are quickly taken one after another
• DSLR lenses can be adapted for use on mirrorless bodies – but the reverse is impractical
• Cameras can be operated more quietly than most DLSRs, which can be useful at weddings
• The viewfinder can be used in video mode

Full-frame refers to the fact that the imaging sensor is about the same size as a frame of 35mm format film.

For comparison’s sake, the full-frame Sony A7 III’s sensor is more than 18 times the size of that of the rear camera on the Galaxy S9 handset.

The principle benefit of making a sensor larger is that it captures more light.

This can be used to

• produce higher-resolution images
• offer better low-light capabilities
• deliver shallower depth-of-field pictures – where the background has a pleasing-looking blur – without having to simulate the effect via software

The downsides include cost and the fact a larger sensor means a bulkier camera.

So, what’s the appeal of dropping thousands of pounds on a mirrorless camera and associated gear when a smartphone can capture perfectly decent snaps and auto-enhance them?

There are clear advantages for professionals – sports photographers need high-quality zoom lenses, for example.

Commercial photographers depend on the extra resolution required for large ad printouts.

Fashion specialists rely on the cameras’ superior colour science.

And architectural specialists appreciate the extra dynamic range – which helps avoid details being lost in the shadows and brightest parts.

“Pros will use whatever is the best tool,” said Kaiman Wong, a self-declared photography nerd and YouTube reviewer.

“They don’t seem to care about brands, so long as it gets them the shot, and some I know have already gone mirrorless.”

No-compromise Instagram

But for manufacturers to justify the R&D costs required to drive mirrorless cameras forward, they also need to attract a lots of hobbyists.

Kim Stone is one early adopter.

Two years ago, the North Devon-based resident bought a Canon EOS M3 – a mirrorless camera but one with a smaller sensor than the forthcoming EOS R.

She uses it to take landscape photographs for her Instagram account despite the extra steps involved in getting them online.

“It’s the ability to be able to adjust the precise settings in the picture set-up,” she explained.

“Phones on the market don’t offer you as much ease of control over the ISO [light sensitivity], white balance, shutter speed, and aperture. Smartphone lenses are also more restricted.

“Ultimately, you can still only get such good results from a dedicated camera.”

Competing cameras

Photokina offers the chance to compare the latest full-frame mirrorless models, several of which have yet to go on sale.

Nikon’s Z7 offers a class-leading 45.7 megapixels – useful for delivering huge prints or to tightly crop into an image after it is taken.

When it comes to autofocus, Canon’s EOS R may have the upper hand, thanks to its 5,655 manually selectable focus points.

Both firms, however, have been criticised for providing only a single card storage slot. That prevents owners being able to create back-up copies of their photos and videos on the fly, which could be a problem if the data gets corrupted or lost.

Panasonic, however, is teasing a model that promises to combine several cutting-edge features.

The S1R’s specs include

• 47MP resolution
• two storage slots – one for SD cards, the other XQD
• in-body image stabilisation that works in combination with lens stabilisation
• 4K video at 60 frames per second
• an LCD screen that can be tilted across thee axes, helping owners compose portraits as well as landscapes

“Panasonic’s move into the full-frame mirrorless segment is particularly interesting because of its collaboration with Leica and Sigma – both companies with a strong photographic heritage,” Futursource analyst Arun Gill told the BBC.

“By adopting Leica’s L-Mount, Panasonic’s cameras will have an immediate advantage of being compatible with several existing high-quality lenses.”

However, the firm has yet to say how much it will cost and the product will not go on sale until “early 2019”.

That leaves Sony.

Its A7 III has been a runaway success, managing to hit a feature-price sweet spot. Indeed, the biggest complaint has been a lack of stock.

Many thought the Japanese firm might unveil a video-centric A7S III at Photokina, but the highlight of its press conference was instead the promise of automatically focusing on animals’ eyes in the future,

Rumour sites, however, suggest Sony is biding its time ahead of an October event.

Video and stills

But while there’s much to be excited about with mirrorless now, the format may take some time to deliver on its true potential.

One tantalising possibility is that it will eventually become possible to take photos in much quicker succession for longer periods of time, without having to sacrifice autofocus or picture quality.

“If you can get 25 to 30 frames per second in full resolution, that’s basically video,” Mr Wong explained.

“There will probably come a point when we are just taking video.

“You’ll take a frame out of that, and that will be the photo.”

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You could argue that the age of the smartphone is largely what has inspired PC, and especially laptop, makers to drive toward getting users to actually using their devices faster. Now, our friends at Tom’s Hardware have taken this concept to its limit, building a computer that boots to Windows 10 in just 4.9 seconds.

For the record, that’s nearly five times as fast as the time it took an iPhone XS in our offices to reach its home screen from a cold boot (hitting the power button when the system is completely off). 

Granted, these are two wildly different devices, but if smartphone-like boot times are what PC makers are after (i.e. Qualcomm and its partners) these days, Tom’s Hardware just tweaked the bar considerably. So, how did they do it?

Getting a PC to boot faster than an iPhone

The Tom’s Hardware team has detailed its journey to this lightning fast PC in a comprehensive article, but its strategy largely consists of three factors: the solid-state drive (SSD), the motherboard in use and overclocking the processor.

First, the SSD in use here was the Intel Optane 905p (960GB), which Tom’s Hardware is now saying is the fastest SSD it has ever tested with these results as proof. This is a drive using the NVMe storage format, which Tom’s recommends for the fastest speeds (and we agree).

Next, the motherboard is shown to have a massive impact on boot times through the work of Tom’s Hardware. There is so much preparation the motherboard needs to get through before the contents of your SSD, e.g. the operating system, even begin to load. However, not only did Tom’s Hardware use the ASRock Z370M Pro4 motherboard with Microsoft’s Fast Boot feature, but the team tweaked the motherboard to bypass certain checks it would normally make before beginning the OS boot process.

Finally, the Tom’s Hardware overclocked the processor in use, the 3.7GHz Intel Core i7-8700K, way beyond its base clock speed to a whopping 5.1GHz, which shaved 0.57 seconds off of the boot time.

So, while we definitely won’t be seeing laptops, PCs or even smartphones that boot in under five seconds on the regular anytime soon, leave it to Tom’s Hardware to show us that it’s possible and therefore raise the bar.

• These are the best PCs we’ve tested this year

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Nvidia just announced the GeForce RTX 2070 will be available starting on October 17th.

Up until now, we’ve known that Nvidia was aiming to release its mid-range graphics card some time in October, but thanks to an official tweet from the company, we now have a firm date.

The GeForce RTX 2070 is currently the most affordable GPU in the Nvidia Turing lineup at a $499 (£380, AU$690) starting price, and $599 (£569, AU$899) for the Founders Edition.

Beautiful any way you look at it. The GeForce RTX 2070 will be available on October 17th. #GraphicsReinventedShop starting at $499 ($599 Founders Edition) → https://t.co/ammFWibyFy pic.twitter.com/IsScoXm5rZSeptember 25, 2018

In terms of specs, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 features 2,304 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR6 video memory. The GPU is also clocked at a 1,410MHHz base frequency that can boost as high as 1,620MHz (plus an additional 90MHz on the Founders Edition).

Nvidia has yet to reveal any numbers on how the RTX 2070 will compare with its predecessors: the GTX 1070 and GTX 1070 Ti. However, given our experience with the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti, we fully expect this Turing-based GPU to run laps around its Pascal predecessor.

• Meanwhile, all is quiet on the AMD Vega front

Via PC Gamer

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Chuwi is one of the up-and-coming Chinese brands that have flooded the alternative PC hardware market. Thanks to generous subsidies from the Chinese government, Chuwi (as well as dozens of other manufacturers) are able to ship devices to scores of territories for free, often undercutting better-known brands in the process.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve tested almost a dozen Chuwi products, most of which have been above average. The latest to hit our labs is the LapBook SE, the third member of the LapBook family after the LapBook Air and the LapBook 12.3.

This is Chuwi’s first Gemini Lake laptop and it is the first device we’ve received that takes its inspiration from the Apple MacBook rather than the MacBook Air or the MacBook Pro range.

Design

You immediately notice that there’s something different about the LapBook SE the moment you open the lid. There are plenty of cues from Apple’s MacBook laptop as well: the bigger than usual Escape key, the black bezel, the long central hinge, and most conspicuous of them all, the backlit, borderless keyboard.

The designers at Chuwi have opted for a curvier chassis, something that’s very noticeable around the edges, both for the base unit and the display. The latter is covered by a bezel-less glass with a full 0.2mm lamination process – that means unlike rival laptops where the display is framed, there’s no chance of dust or food particles causing havoc.

Chuwi opted for an aluminum alloy as the primary material and the LapBook SE benefits from a space grey finish, one that bolsters its premium looks. Less impressive is the fact that there’s a Chuwi logo that glows around the back – a superfluous addition if you ask us, which uses precious battery life for no real reason.

Despite its size (317 x 215 x 15.9mm with a weight of 1.44kg), the LapBook SE manages to pack two full-size USB 3.0 ports (no Type-C connectors here) plus a mini-HDMI connector, a microSD card slot and a headphone port.

The bottom of the laptop hides four rubber feet, as well as a populated M2 slot hidden underneath a removable flap – there’s no grill as the CPU is passively cooled.

Specifications and performance

The LapBook SE is a well-balanced device overall. It is well documented that Gemini Lake CPUs are a step up from the Apollo Lake chips of yesteryear, and coupled with LPDDR4 system memory, Chuwi’s latest thin-and-light laptop significantly outpaces laptops based on the Celeron N3450 for example (the LapBook SE uses the N4100). Both CPUs have the same amount of cores and threads, but the newer CPU doubles the on-board cache and boosts its maximum speed by 200MHz.

As with the Jumper EZBook X4 – which has a similar hardware configuration – we noticed that video benchmark results were lower than those seen on older N3450-based laptops.

That’s surprising to say the least given that both the UHD Graphics 600 (on the N4100) and the HD Graphics 500 (on the N3450) are very similar, and in theory, tweaks, driver updates and access to faster memory should have given the N4100 the edge. That was not the case, though.

Chuwi has bundled a 12V/2A power supply unit that’s noticeably smaller than your average PSU, which is great if you have to lug it around.

The biggest disappointment, though, has to be the fact that while the LapBook SE has two drives, Windows is stored on the slower and smaller of the two. Not only does that affect performance (the 32GB eMMC 5.1 primary drive is less than half as fast as the bigger 128GB SSD), the size of the system drive means that Windows 10 updates won’t install.

Sure, DIY’ers will be able to reinstall Windows 10 on the other larger drive, but that’s not the point. This is simply poor judgement which could cause the casual or less tech-savvy user a good deal of frustration.

The on-board battery is a 5Ah (33.7Whr) model, while wireless connectivity is provided by an Intel Wireless-AC3165 module which, as its name implies, delivers 802.11ac Wi-Fi compatibility, plus Bluetooth 4.2.

Unlike the Apple MacBook, though, this laptop uses a 13.3-inch Full HD IPS display. The pixel density is much lower but still usable for most tasks. There’s no issue with colour uniformity or brightness bleed as far as we could see, although even at 100%, the screen brightness appeared dimmer than what we’re used to.

Last but not least, there are four downward-firing speakers, a 2-megapixel (Full HD) front-facing camera, and a pair microphones to make the most of Microsoft’s Cortana feature.

Usage

Designing a keyboard for a form-factor such as Chuwi was shooting for here usually comes with a fair share of compromises. However, the LapBook SE isn’t affected as much as you might think in this respect thanks to its borderless design.

The key sizes are generous (top marks for full-size cursor keys), there are dedicated Home, End, Pageup and Pagedown keys, and the keyboard layout doesn’t feel cramped. It’s a shame about the small Shift key, though.

Even better, we didn’t detect any flex during our brief typing test, and the keys have a surprisingly comfortable spring, which is great if you’re a touch typist.

The touchpad was larger than what we’d expect on a laptop of this size and worked well with one or two fingers. The system was as responsive as one would expect.

Battery life was better than anticipated – almost within spitting distance of six hours playing a YouTube count-up video at 100% brightness (with the battery slider up to best performance). The result of 5 hours 45 minutes is a tad less than this notebook’s closest competitor, the EZBook X4.

The competition

There are a growing number of Gemini Lake laptops making their way to online retailers. Unfortunately, very few of them are available for the UK or US market.

The Jumper EZBook X4 is the obvious candidate for those wanting an alternative to the LapBook SE as they both cost the same. Our Jumper review sample had a dodgy touchpad but that might be a one-off. Also, it doesn’t have an additional 32GB eMMC drive, and it is slightly bigger in size while sporting a more prosaic design.

If you don’t mind using a tablet PC with a keyboard and are happy with a smaller display, then the Alldocube KNote 5, with a Surface Type Cover-esque keyboard, may well fit the bill at $310 (around £235). You can’t upgrade the system memory, though, and connectivity is limited – but at least you get 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

Jumper’s EZBook 3S comes with an older N3450 CPU but has 50% more RAM, is marginally more expensive and packs a much bigger SSD (256GB). This makes it a better choice if you want more storage capacity, obviously. A cheaper version with 64GB of eMMC storage exists – the savings on the EZBook 3 Pro are worth it as you could invest in a separate M.2 SSD.

The Great Wall W133x has a remarkably similar set of components to the Chuwi LapBook SE. It is more expensive though – by about 10% – and comes with a Type-C connector and a 6Ah battery (compared to 5Ah on the LapBook SE).

The business take

One big design flaw prevents us from recommending the LapBook SE for consumers or businesses alike. Had Chuwi used the 128GB SSD as primary system storage, we’d wholeheartedly recommend this notebook, but as it stands – unless you want to manually switch the OS installation onto the other drive yourself – it’s hard to shortlist this device.

However, make that simple change and the LapBook SE suddenly turns into an exceptionally nice laptop with some serious credentials.

Beyond this (and aftersales considerations), there are no real business features on the LapBook SE that differentiate it from consumer products. In truth, it doesn’t market itself as a business device, but this laptop certainly wouldn’t be out of place in a boardroom surrounded by ThinkPads and MacBooks.

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Ring is one of the better-known contenders in the video doorbell market, though it now has some competition from the Nest Hello. It lets you answer your doorbell and keep an eye on visitors (invited or otherwise) from wherever you are on a phone, tablet or laptop, with positive implications for both convenience and security.

Ring’s range of video doorbells includes the original Ring Video Doorbell (£89), Video Doorbell 2 (£179), Video Doorbell Pro (£229) and (£449). All are available from online stockists including Amazon, Currys, Argos, John Lewis and itself.

Is the Pro worth the extra money?

We tried the Video Doorbell Pro as an upgrade to the original video doorbell, and immediately noticed the improved video quality from 720p HD to 1080p Full-HD. The Video Doorbell 2 also supports Full-HD, of course, and comes with two interchangeable face plates while this Pro has four – silver, bronze, black and what looks like a dirty white.

That’s not the only difference between this model and the cheaper versions. The Pro kit is supplied with the Ring Chime, which you might think you don’t need until you go out and the kids don’t hear the postman ringing the doorbell, or you’ve left your phone upstairs and miss the notification. And you may not notice it, but the Pro supports dual-band Wi-Fi, whereas the standard model is limited to 2.4GHz.

But the best new feature in the Pro is easily the customisable motion sensors. With the Doorbell 2 you select zones to monitor, and it requires a bit of trial and error as you try to work out exactly how those zones correlate with the area around your front door. With the Ring Video Doorbell Pro you can drag and drop points to select a precise area for motion detection using the camera view, and this makes configuration so much easier.

Ring has pretty much removed the possibility of false-positive alerts with the Pro. We found it would trigger a notification when our neighbour’s security light activated, but at all other times if it went off it meant someone or something was in the vicinity of the front door.

We also noted much longer record times – whereas our original Ring Video Doorbell would record a short 30-second clip, which often wasn’t quite long enough, the Pro will record around 1 minute 5 seconds. That recording also starts earlier – before the motion is visible in the video, which suggests it is recording constantly.

This is almost certainly why the Ring Pro must be hardwired. If you want to run your doorbell off battery power you’ll need the original Video Doorbell or Video Doorbell 2.

Ring Video Doorbell Pro: Installation, set up and use

The Pro requires professional installation, so factor this into your budget. How much it costs depends on where you buy from, and ours was arranged via Argos for £100. We note that right now on Amazon the usual price of the installation has been knocked down from £110 to £66.

We *thought* the PR was being a little OTT when they insisted on this installation, since our existing Ring Doorbell was hardwired and we figured it would be a straight swap, but we’re glad they put their foot down. The Pro requires a 24V transformer, which is supplied in the box, but we wouldn’t have known what to do with it.

If you opt for the professional installation the engineer will do all the hard work for you, from affixing the Pro to the outside of your home (at 114.3×46.7×20.3mm it’s sleeker than the Video Doorbell 2, but still too bulky to go on the door frame) to connecting it to your home network, helping you set up the mobile app and configuring the device to work how you want it.

Our engineer swapped over the doorbells and then waited for the Pro to recharge its battery before he was able to continue. This took nearly an hour, but he assured us that in all the installations he had done this had happened only once before and the process is usually complete in a few minutes. He suggested our sample may have been sitting in an office for a while, and if I had bought it from somewhere like Amazon the battery would likely be more fully charged.

No matter, he was a friendly chap and the weather was nice. We used the time to speak about the differences between Nest and Ring, with the Hello also offering facial recognition and full integration with Google Home. We’re a little bit jealous, but we can’t fault the performance of the Ring Pro, which does work with IFTTT and Amazon Alexa and .

With either service you’ll find storing recordings in the cloud is not free, and with Ring you’ll need to pay an additional £2.49 per month or £25 per year if you want to take advantage of this following the 30-day free trial. Of course, this is nothing new in today’s cloud-connected security cameras.

When the Ring Pro was finally ready to go we were able to get into its configuration in the app. At first glance it looked exactly the same as we’d seen with the original Ring Doorbell, but gone is the bit that shows you how much battery remains. You can still individually control rings and motion, and you can view the feed from previous events or a live view.

There’s an option to add Shared users, which lets you add other members of your household. They get a slightly stripped back view, so aren’t able to mess around with all the features the main account holder has access to: a good thing.

Dig into Motion Settings and you’ll find you can control the sensitivity so that the doorbell picks up only people or all activity, with ours set roughly in the middle. Motion Zones is the aforementioned ability to draw points on screen and select the exact area you want to cover, while Motion Schedules lets you disable Motion Alerts during certain periods, which is very handy when your neighbours are having new carpets fitted.

With the key settings managed it’s a case of set and forget. If you’re away from home and the doorbell rings you’ll get a notification on your phone. Tap this to answer the call and you’ll find two-way audio with crystal clear reception and a sharp video recording with 160-degree view. This is the case even at night, with infrared sensors offering full night vision.

As with all the video doorbells in its range, the Pro is fully specced up for a life outdoors, weather resistant and able to withstand temperatures between -20 and 50°C. There’s a two-year warranty, and should anyone pinch it from your doorstep you’ll not only catch them doing so on camera but Ring will replace the device for free.

Read next: Pair this with the Ring Floodlight Cam

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Google has announced it is reversing its decision to ban advertisements for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

The online giant blocked such adverts back in March as part of a security crackdown, but has now apparently changed its mind and will allow cryptocurrency ads on its services from next month.

The news was detailed in a change to Google’s October 2018 financial products and services policy, which says that the terms will be “updated” in order to allow regulated cryptocurrency exchanges to advertise in the United States and Japan – although they can be based anywhere in the world.

Google cryptocurrency ban

However companies looking to advertise will need to be certified with Google for the specific country in which their ads will serve, with applications opening once the new service launches next month.

“We don’t have a crystal ball to know where the future is going to go with cryptocurrencies, but we’ve seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm that it’s an area that we want to approach with extreme caution,” Scott Spencer, Google’s director of sustainable ads, had said at the time of the initial ban.

The block had also affected third-party websites, and meant that companies looking to advertise rolling spot forex and financial spread betting also needed to obtain certification from Google in order to advertise through AdWords. 

The turnaround follows a similar decision from Facebook, which began re-allowing cryptocurrency adverts back in June following its own ban.

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