Ring Alarm (2nd Gen) review: Still the best DIY home security system

Ring Alarm has been our favorite home-security-focused smart home system since its launch, and the second-generation system is even better. That said, Ring hasn't yet delivered on its implied promise to make the Ring Alarm the unifying core of a complete smart home system. Fulfilling that promise--which Ring Solutions president Mike Harris spoke of in 2018--would have bumped up our bottom-line score by a half point. I'll assume, however, that your primary interest in reading this review is to learn about Ring Alarm as a home security system. So, I'll focus on that aspect first and summarize its shortcomings as a smart home system later. This is an in-depth review of a complex system, written after living with the product for a couple of months with the professional monitoring option enabled.