Google Nest Cam with battery review-CNET

Contemplating the Nest Cam with Battery in 2023?

Google launched the $180 Nest Cam with Battery rather less than two years in the past. Right now, it stays as one in every of Google’s greatest and most up-to-date house safety cameras. As such, it is price contemplating, particularly if your house is already outfitted with different Nest or Google Assistant gadgets. 

Alternatively, if you happen to’re not devoted to Google gadgets, chances are you’ll discover different, cheaper but equally as succesful, house safety cameras that higher fit your wants. Learn our up to date Nest Cam with Battery evaluate, initially printed on Aug. 24, 2021, beneath for particulars on what to anticipate from the digital camera, in addition to the way it compares to comparable cameras from different producers, that will help you resolve.

Nest Cam with Battery evaluate

Google jumped again within the good house safety saddle with its $180 Nest Cam. It is battery-powered, rated for outside or indoor use and stands to rival Arlo and Wyze for good options and tech specs. However is it actually one of the best?

At $180, it isn’t essentially the most or least costly. The specs are additionally midrange and par for the good cam course. What you do get from Google for the primary time are free good alert options, exercise zones and on-device processing, because of a brand new machine studying chip. In the end, it is laborious to advocate over its aforementioned opponents — until you are dwelling in a Nest-only family.

Design

Technically, the Nest Cam is known as the “Nest Cam (outside or indoor, battery),” however that is a handful to sort, so we’ll confer with it merely because the Nest Cam on this evaluate. 

The Nest Cam is designed for indoor or outside use. It is IP54 rated, which suggests whereas it is climate resistant, it isn’t waterproof. It is available in one shade (snow, learn: Google white) and you may mount it both magnetically or with the included wall plate, screws and anchors. It’s battery-operated, however you should buy a $35 weatherproof energy cable to go along with it if you happen to’d moderately go for a wired outside set up.

The digital camera itself is magnetic and snaps onto the included base simply. Although this factor is sort of a pound at 14 ounces, the magnet feels sturdy sufficient to firmly preserve the digital camera on the bottom. The Nest Cam is 3.27 inches huge, about 1.25 inches bigger than the Wyze Cam V3.The design is smooth and easy, however these stats add as much as one chunky feeling gadget. 

Should you’re choosing indoor use (I would not; extra on that later) you’ll be able to place it on a $30 sold-separately stand that comes with a charging cable to behave like a dock of types.

Specs and battery life

This Nest Cam has all of the digital camera stats you’d count on to see, like 1080p HD video, evening imaginative and prescient, a 130-degree diagonal area of view, 6x digital zoom and two-way audio. These aren’t standout specs. No, you actually do not want higher tech than that to surveil your yard. 1080p decision will serve you nicely and the evening imaginative and prescient works simply superb.

I might’ve preferred to see a wider area of view, particularly for the reason that digital camera on the magnetic stand is not very adjustable. I needed to discover simply the precise peak shelf to be able to view my lounge and never the ceiling. The indoor stand improves this barely.

Battery life is the massive query with good house gadgets like cameras, locks and doorbells. Remembering so as to add AAs to your August lock is annoying and so is having to recollect to cost your doorbell or safety digital camera. Google informed me the Nest Cam’s battery life is dependent upon elements like exercise, temperature, and digital camera settings. 

Google estimates the battery to final someplace between 1.5 and 7 months relying on these elements. I charged our digital camera to 100% and 24 hours later, I used to be all the way down to 97% in default battery mode with the automated battery saver enabled. That is about 4 months of battery in these precise circumstances. There are alternatives within the Residence app to regulate frequency of occasion recordings, video high quality and size of clips. There are additionally three battery modes to select from if you happen to do not need to cherry-pick energy settings. 

The Google group offered these estimates for battery life: 

• Busy: About 1.5 months battery life (about 20-25 recorded occasions per day)
• Typical: About 3 months battery life (about 9-12 recorded occasions per day)
• Quiet: About 7 months battery life (about 2-4 recorded occasions per day)

Function freebies

With no Nest Conscious subscription, you may nonetheless get alerts for customizable exercise zones. You’ll be able to set these up within the app — in a menu buried deep within the digital camera settings. Every zone can have its personal group of alerts. For instance, you’ll be able to set half the view to inform for animals and the opposite half to inform for automobiles.

That degree of specificity is sweet if you happen to’re monitoring a big space with a number of areas. I can think about making a zone that alerts me if the canine leaves the yard and escapes onto the driveway. There are additionally alerts for individuals and common movement. That is all because of a brand new machine studying chip onboard the Nest Cam.

Included with none subscription, you may additionally get a three-hour occasion historical past and you may obtain every clip. That seems like lots, and at first I used to be impressed. Then I believed concerning the Wyze Cam V3 I exploit at house, which incorporates 14 days of occasion historical past totally free. A number of instances throughout my testing, I encountered an occasion that I used to be notified for and made a psychological be aware to have a look at later, solely to understand that it was now not obtainable by the point I remembered to test.

In a single occasion, I used to be solely in a position to watch half a clip as a result of I simply occurred to be viewing it because it expired, at 2:59:30-ish. That might be a private drawback for certain, however I am most likely not the one one who will get busy and forgets to obtain the clip.

That is the place the Nest Conscious subscriptions kick in. Subscribe to Nest Conscious for $6 monthly and you will get acquainted face detection and sound alerts (smoke, glass breaking and carbon monoxide), the power to name 911 from the Google Residence app and 30 days of occasion video historical past. Improve to Nest Conscious Plus for $12 a month, and you will get all of these choices plus 60 days of video historical past and 10 days of 24/7 video recording in case your Nest Cam is hard-wired. 

The included free good alerts are possible loads for most folk. Acquainted Faces is a pleasant contact, however positively one thing I might categorize as a luxurious. Add Acquainted Faces and your digital camera will notify you of individuals by title, as synced in your Google account. Sound alerts for alarms are maybe extra sensible, particularly if you happen to journey typically and need to know when one thing’s not proper. I am glad these are included within the $6 choice and are not behind the Nest Conscious Plus paywall.

What actually makes the Nest Conscious subscription nearly obligatory is the boundaries of the free, three-hour clip storage. Going from three hours to 30 days will make a world of distinction for many customers. It eliminates the psychological load of getting to recollect to obtain a clip rapidly earlier than it is gone. 

Privateness and safety

Should you’re involved about safety, Google is able to pitch its newest promise. Video footage on the brand new Nest Cam is encrypted whereas in transit and whereas at relaxation on Nest servers. Based on the Google group, these are essentially the most weak factors within the information lifecycle. 

Processing for these animal, individual and car detections — in addition to Acquainted Faces recognition — all occur domestically on the gadget. The Nest Cam’s machine studying chip handles all that. There is no cloud processing. That is not the strongest encryption in the marketplace. Ring encrypts end-to-end, however solely on wired gadgets and provided that you choose in. 

A inexperienced LED gentle lets you understand when the digital camera is processing or streaming video to a viewer. Add the digital camera to your Residence and Away routines, and you may select to solely file video while you’ve left house. Residence and Away presence detection is powered by both your cell gadget or sensors in choose Nest merchandise. 

One different safety associated factor caught my eye on the Google Retailer’s web page for the brand new Nest Cam. If somebody removes your digital camera (simple to do with the magnetic camera-to-base utility) they’re going to change it totally free. What is the catch? You may have to file a police report and supply Google with a replica inside 30 days. You’ll be able to learn extra about digital camera theft replacements on the Google help web page. 

What else is on the market

You might have choices lately relating to outside cameras. Google’s Nest Cam is not one of the best relating to specs or worth.

The same, but smaller, lighter and extra weatherproof Wyze Cam V3 is simply $37 and contains 14 days of clip storage. Even if you happen to add on the Wyze Cam Plus subscription for individuals and object detection, you are still nicely underneath that $180 mark at round $60 for the digital camera and a yr’s subscription. 

Then there’s Arlo’s $200 Professional 4 digital camera with a 2K decision and wider area of view than the Nest Cam. We beloved the Arlo Professional 3 and but, the brand new Professional 4 is even higher than its predecessors. Not solely does it include nice options and dependable service, but it surely’s truly our favourite outside safety digital camera of the yr. You’ll be able to learn our full evaluate of the Arlo Professional 4 digital camera right here. 

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Should you buy it? 

If you have your heart set on a Nest Cam, don’t fret. The Nest Cam does everything I’d expect from it. 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. 

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