Google is back in the smart home security saddle with a new 180 Nest Cam. But can it compete with our favourite smart cameras? Let’s find out.
Okay, technically this thing is called the Nest Cam Outdoor or Indoor Battery, but for the sake of simplicity, I’m gonna call it the Nest Cam Indoor Outdoor. In this video, we’ll take a look at smart features, design, user-friendliness, and more to see how the new Nest Cam stacks up.
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G3AL9 Nest Cam:
The new Nest Cam is designed, as you guessed, for indoor and outdoor use. It costs 180 dollars and can mount either magnetically with the included wall plate screws and anchors, or you can place it on a 30 sold separate stand.
What you should not do is follow my producer’s lead and mount it with 3M tape. Even if you think it’ll be fine, that did not end well, as you can see.
It only comes in one colour. It’s 3.27 inches wide and weighs 14 ounces, which doesn’t sound like much, but given the size, it feels really heavy.
For comparison, the latest Wyze Cam weighs just shy of three and a half ounces and is only two inches across. Since it’s an outdoor model, I don’t mind that so much.
Nest Outdoor Camera 2 Pack Battery:
The magnets connecting the camera to the base and the base to a surface are strong. Still, it’s large, heavy, and it’s definitely not going to hide in the corner inconspicuously.
It’s also important to note that while the Nest Cam Indoor Outdoor is IP54 weather resistant, it’s not weatherproof. So you should still mount it in a relatively shielded outdoor location.
Outdoor Camera Battery Life:
The Nest Cam Indoor Outdoor has all the camera stats you’d expect to see, like 1080p HD video, night vision, a 130-degree diagonal field of view, six-time digital zoom, and two-way audio.
Battery life is expected to be somewhere between one and a half to seven months, depending on your selected battery settings and how often events are recorded.
I charged this Nest Cam to 100, and 24 hours later, I was down to 97, and that’s in default battery mode with the automatic battery saver enabled. Not too bad.
Now, if you want to wire this camera up, you can do that as well, but like the indoor stand, the 35-weatherproof cable is sold separately.
Indoor/Outdoor Battery Camera:
Google is sunsetting the old Nest Cams and Nest Cam IQs. A refresh to this lineup was long overdue, and we’re happy to see that Google includes more features for free.
Without a Nest Aware subscription, you’ll still get alerts for customizable activity zones, as well as motion people, animals, and vehicles. Thanks to a new machine learning chip, you’ll also get a three-hour event history.
That means that you’ll be able to see any events recorded in the last three hours. If it’s been longer than that, your clip will no longer be available.
Add a Nest Aware subscription for six dollars a month, and you’ll get familiar face detection and sound alerts, the ability to call 911 from the Google Home app, and 30 days of event video history.
Nest Aware Plus
Upgrade that to Nest Aware Plus for 12 dollars a month, and you’ll get all of those options, plus 60 days of video history.
Those upgrades might be important for people who know they’ll be recording in a high-traffic area or somewhere that really needs constant surveillance. But for most people, the free features included will be plenty to get you started.
If you’re concerned about security, Google is ready to pitch you its latest promise. Video footage on Nest Cam Indoor Outdoor is encrypted while in transit and while at rest on Nest servers.
Nest Battery Security Camera:
If you’re concerned about security, Google is ready to pitch you its latest promise. Video footage on Nest Cam Indoor Outdoor is encrypted while in transit and while at rest on Nest servers. Processing for the detection of objects and facial recognition all happen locally on the device.
That’s not the best encryption on the market, though. Ring encrypts end-to-end, but only on wired devices and only if you opt-in. The Nest Cam Indoor Outdoor does everything I’d expected it to do.
It works seamlessly with the Google Home app, and Nest Aware offers several nice feature upgrades. Still, it’s a hard sell for me at $180, unless you’re really invested in having Nest products in your home.
WyzeCam Plus:
The competition offers some alternatives. The similar yet smaller, lighter, and more weatherproof WyzeCam V3 is just $37. And if you add on the WyzeCam Plus subscription for people and object detection, you’re still well under that $180 mark at around $60.
It also includes free cloud storage for 14 days of events. Then there’s Arlo’s new $200 Pro 4 camera with a 2K resolution and a wider field of view than the Nest Cam.
We haven’t reviewed that one yet, but we plan to in the near future. All that to say, you have options these days when it comes to outdoor cameras, and the new Nest Cam isn’t the best on specs or price, but it is the googliest.
Camera Indoor & Wired:
If you have your heart set on a Nest Cam, don’t fret. This one works well, and it’s not even the only camera Google is launching this year.
There will also be a wired version for indoor-only use called Nest Cam Indoor Wired. We don’t have an availability date for that yet, but Google tells us it will cost $100, their cheapest camera offering yet.
There’s also a new Nest doorbell, and we have a video review of that up on our channel as well. What do you think about Google’s new Nest Cam? Are more free features enough to lure you in?
