Yale Smart Video Doorbell review: a Ring alternative with no cloud storage fee

Independent

06-02-2025

Unlike the sprawling and sometimes complicated range of video doorbells offered by Ring, Yale keeps things simple. It makes just one model of video doorbell, which arrived in 2024 and has all of the features you'd expect from such a product.
This includes Full HD video with a wide field-of-view, greyscale night vision for clarity after dark, a microphone and speaker for two-way audio (so you can speak to visitors, or ward off trespassers), and a Wi-Fi connection for communicating with a free smartphone app.
The doorbell comes with everything you need to install it yourself. This includes a mounting plate, screws and wall plugs, plus a wedge-shaped plate for optionally mounting the doorbell at an angle, and a set of wires for hooking it up to your existing doorbell's wiring. This uses the power supply that previously went to the chime of your traditional doorbell and uses it to power the new one.
Yale also includes a USB charging cable but, because the battery cannot be removed, you have to take the entire doorbell off its wall mount to plug it in. Also included is a pin-like tool for removing the doorbell from its wall mount. Installation is quick and easy, with only a drill required, and I liked how the Yale smartphone app uses clear, simple language to talk you through the process. There's no jargon at all, which is welcome.
The doorbell locks onto the mounting plate and can then only be removed by inserting the included tool into a discreet pinhole. It's worth noting that this isn't a key – I found the SIM card tray removal tool included with most smartphones also did the job. This mechanism is common for most video doorbells, though a neat feature is how the doorbell sends a notification to the app when it senses it is being interfered with. My smartphone pinged with an alert whenever I removed the doorbell from the mounting plate. Yale says the doorbell has a battery life of between four and six months, depending on usage, and it has IP65 water resistance, so it'll survive being rained on.
Camera
The Yale Smart Video Doorbell records Full HD video at 1080p through a 154-degree lens. Video is created with a 16:9 ratio that, while good for movies, is less helpful for doorbells as footage is wide and shallow. Unlike some other video doorbells, which produce a square image that extends all the way to the ground, the Yale doesn't. Instead, your view of visitors is wider than it is tall, so generally only shows from above their head to their chest. This also means packages left on the doorstep are out of shot.
Footage fills the screen when viewed in portrait on a phone, like a video call, but this is produced by cropping in tightly on the widescreen image, so the overall quality takes a hit. This feels like a bit of a shortfall, since a visitor easily disappears from the cropped-in portrait view if they move slightly to one side, but it's not a deal-breaker.
When viewed in landscape, and therefore not aggressively zoomed in, footage is sharp and clear, with good detail. Audio quality is fine; good enough to have a conversation with a visitor, but nothing special.
Features and connectivity
I liked how visitor alerts arrive on your phone like a video call. When the doorbell button is pressed, your phone responds like it's receiving a call instead of merely a notification, so it's less likely to go unnoticed.
However, the doorbell doesn't come with a chime. If you want it to make a 'ding-dong' sound (or one of seven others) you'll have to buy Yale's chime, which costs £29.99 and plugs into any power socket. Up to six chimes can be added, ensuring they'll be heard no matter how big your house is.
Infrared night vision is automatically enabled when ambient light levels fall, and produces a high-quality greyscale image from up to six metres away.
Unlike some rival products, like video doorbells from Ring, the Yale includes AI-powered human detection as standard. This helps it distinguish between people and other types of movement, so you're less likely to be alerted to a tree branch moving in the wind. Customisable privacy zones and scheduling are also included as standard, with the former useful for blocking out things you don't want to record, like the house opposite or other private property.
I experienced a couple of small issues while testing this doorbell. On one occasion, the camera failed to switch back from night vision to normal, and because this happened during the day it made footage incredibly bright and almost unusable. I also had a couple of issues trying to connect to a Wi-Fi network extender, but both of these problems were solved with a reboot of the doorbell.
Storage and subscription
In a world where some video doorbells can't even save footage without you paying for a monthly subscription, the Yale's internal storage is a major advantage. It can save between two and four days of recordings, which are available to view through the app, since the doorbell is connected to the internet via your Wi-Fi network. Yale says this means it can save approximately 35 10-second recordings at 1080p resolution, or around 75 when using the lesser 720p.
If you need more, Yale charges a £3.50 monthly fee. This unlocks a cloud storage service that holds recordings for 30 days before they are deleted, and also adds extra AI-powered functions, like the ability to detect vehicles, pets and packages. The doorbell comes with a one-month free trial for the subscription service.