Federal Communications Commission filings from Ring on Wednesday may indicate the imminent refresh of two products in the company’s smart home device lineup: a slightly redesigned Stick Up Cam Wired and Video Doorbell Elite. The moves come a little under a month ahead of CES 2020, where the company is expected to debut a wide array of both new and redesigned devices.
Since FCC filings focus on the radio frequency aspects of devices, it’s hard to tell much about their functionality. We can say a few things about what we’re seeing from the pictures supplied, which we’ve shared below.
The devices will use both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands. The moves fit a pattern of past filings, which have or had added the 5GHz band, such as the current generation Ring Doorbell Elite. While it’s purely speculation, this could be an effort to improve performance and video quality across the line.
With “4K quality” (we put that in quotes because the picture quality is technically 4K in resolution, but not in sharpness) security cameras starting to appear, this could also be a move to prepare for that. We will caution that we haven’t seen anything just yet that leads us to believe 4K Ring devices may be on the way, but we’ll keep looking.
The new wired Stick Up Cam appears to have a new hinged mounting base that seems similar to the Wyze Cam’s in how it works, perhaps magnetic. The rest of the camera looks relatively similar. It’s harder to tell with the Video Doorbell Elite, although there are subtle differences in how the front looks, including what appears to be a small light in the bottom left of the faceplate.
The cameras appear to be similar otherwise with their current-generation counterparts, so we don’t necessarily expect drastic changes in the functionality of either device. As with any other filing, since Ring doesn’t comment on individual filings, we’re left only to speculate what may be changing.
We’ll continue to monitor the FCC filings for new possible products. If the last month or so is any indication, there is likely to be more in the near future.
