The Nest Cam is a weatherproof camera that can be used indoors or outdoors. It has a built-in rechargeable battery, and it records clear 1080p video. The Nest Cam also detected motion, in both people and animals, in tests.
Nest Aware is a service that requires a Nest Aware subscription to view recordings older than three hours and to use its face detection feature. Our Editors’ Choice winner, the Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight Camera, costs $20 more but offers 2K video and more features in addition to compatibility with a much wider range of third-party devices. In the end, it’s difficult to recommend it over the aforementioned rivals unless you reside in a Nest-only household.
Google Nest Cam Battery review: Design
The Google Nest Cam (battery) is a small home security camera that has dimensions of 8.3 x 8.3 x 8.3 cm (3.27 x 3.27 x 3.27 inches). The glossy black fascia complements the matte white appearance and houses the 130-degree Full HD camera lens, along with a speaker and microphone that let you communicate with anyone in the camera’s field of vision and an LED that turns green when motion is detected. The Google Nest Cam (battery) can be used indoors or outdoors and is weatherproof.
The Google Nest Cam is a Wi-Fi enabled camera that can be mounted on a wall or freestanding. It comes with a magnetic plate to adjust the angle, and a rechargeable battery. It also comes with a 3.3-foot/one-meter indoor mains cable, but if you want to mount the camera outside, you can purchase a weather-proof cable for $34.99/£29.99/AU$59. ..
The Google Nest Cam is a camera that records video and stores up to 60 minutes of footage locally in case the power or Wi-Fi goes out. This video will be uploaded to the cloud and viewable in your timeline of events once the camera is back online. It was relatively easy to set up the camera using the Google Home app, and we were impressed that during the process, we were given many helpful tips for mounting the camera on the wall and were asked to choose how the camera operates when we’re at home or inside the building.
Features
The Google Nest Cam IQ Indoor is unique in that it offers up to three hours of event video history right out of the box - without the requirement for a subscription. This is fantastic news because it records and stores video of everything that happened in the three hours prior. You will then need to subscribe to Nest Aware for continuous video recording for up to 10 days if you require more coverage than that. ..
The Google Nest Cam (battery) will continue to detect events and save clips, so we’re happy to report that it can continue to operate normally even if the network goes down. With our router unplugged, we put this to the test. This is particularly helpful because it won’t become inoperable if the power or Wi-Fi network are interrupted. Additionally, the Nest Cam (battery) will continue to provide smart warnings based on what it sees. You can also check our article on Google Nest Cam Battery review.
The app has been very effective in distinguishing between people and animals and informing me about their activities, as well as detecting automobiles when used outdoors. However, it is not perfect and there are some potential issues that we have noticed. For example, the internal speaker might produce loud and clear sound indoors but outside noise might be heard, which could compromise the app’s performance. Overall, we appreciate the app’s ability to personalize notifications and its two-way audio for communication.
Google Nest Cam Battery review: Audio Performance
Nest’s new security camera system, called Nest Cam, offers noise cancellation so that criminals can’t hear you. This is a great addition to the safety of your home, and it’s something that other security cameras lack. Congratulations on taking this step forward!
Video performance
The Nest Cam is a security camera that records video at 1,920 x 1,080 resolution in a 16:9 aspect ratio with a 130-degree FoV. It has a night vision capability and supports HDR for sharper shadows and highlights. The Nest Cam’s video quality is adequate for security cameras. Although it doesn’t set any industry-wide gold standards, it does the job.
Nest’s 4K camera offers a resolution of 1080p, but most individuals won’t require anything higher than that. A 1080p resolution also helps control battery life. The camera has a 6x digital zoom capability. The visual quality decreases as you zoom in, as one might anticipate. We would want to avoid positioning the camera in a situation where you would have to use the zoom to record video, but if you do, it is available.
The night vision feature is undoubtedly helped by the HDR support. Even though night vision on cameras can occasionally make it difficult to see details, this is not a major issue. It’s disappointing that Google didn’t include a colour night vision mode here, especially given that competitors do so at a lower cost. When you consider how well Night Sight performs on Google’s Pixel smartphones and how well it might have performed for this camera, it becomes even more puzzling. ..
Google Nest Cam Battery review: Software
Google has announced that the Nest Cam (battery) will only work with the Google Home app from now on. This is good news because it unifies all of our smart home appliances. An events page with a list of all event triggers, animated preview clips, and detection type is accessible through the app. ..
We were disappointed to find that the Google Camera app does not offer any options to take a photo or video while watching the live video feed. This is a common feature in many cameras, and we hope that Google updates the camera to support this essential feature.
Battery life
The Nest Cam’s battery can last up to three months between charges.
The Arlo Ultra 2 and the Arlo Pro 4 both have built-in batteries that can be swapped out, but we’d prefer to see a battery that can be swapped out so that the camera is always operational.
Price and availability
The Google Nest Cam is a camera that plugs into your home’s Wi-Fi and records live video and audio. It costs $179.99/£179.99/AU$329 right now, but it’s available for $199.99 in the US and the UK. If you have the Google Nest IQ Indoor or Google Nest IQ Outdoor, you can order the Google Nest Cam as a replacement for them.
The Google Nest Cam Indoor is the company’s most affordable home security camera, and it will cost $99.99 / £89.99 (roughly AU$130). The Google Nest Cam with Floodlight is the company’s mains-powered security camera flanked by two LED lights, and it will cost $279.99 / £269.99 (about AU$370).
Conclusion
The Nest Cam is a welcome addition to the Nest lineup of smart home products, but there are some shortcomings. The battery life is disappointing, and the video quality has declined since the last model. However, Alexa integration and three hours of event storage are both welcome additions. ..
There is currently no web portal alternative for Google Home as there is for older Nest Cams, and the Google Home app needs improvement to be on par with the Nest app. You might be persuaded that the Nest Cam (Battery) is the security camera for you if you don’t own those older models but do have at least one Nest Hub smart display and are content to reside inside Google’s walled garden.
