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• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Great camera but best for Google Home Subscribers

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 50 Contributor

  I’ve always thought that the best smart home devices depend on the user, their particular ecosystem, and what they’re willing to put up with in terms of different manufacturers’ devices working well together. I’m a Google user, but I’ve acquired a number of different devices over the years (Wemo, Hue, Arlo, Nest, etc.) and while Google Home does a great job of organizes all your devices, far and away, Nest devices work the best. To be more direct, I have difficulties accessing my Arlo cameras within the Home app (they take forever to refresh and it’s inconsistent). Meanwhile, my Nest Floodlight camera works like a charm each and every time I look at it within the Home app. I mention this because despite the features a particular device might have, the ease of use, management, and setup, is a critical component. A smart home device that becomes a burden to use becomes more trouble than it’s worth. If you are a Google user, or at least willing to jump in, the Nest cameras are phenomenal. They work well and offer lots of smart and helpful features. And they’re relatively straightforward to adjust settings (which I can’t say for all smart home products as many features/settings are buried in a convoluted app).This is especially true if you have any Google Home smart devices. These items just work well together and almost without fail. But I might think twice if you have a a variety of smart home devices already. If you are heavily invested in say, Arlo, I’d stick with that same ecosystem. But if you’re starting fresh or wanting to transition, I think the Google Nest cameras are a terrific route - especially given the price point (although most smart home cameras have dropped in price substantially since they first hit the market en masse). IN THE BOX AND DESIGN Like most Google products, the camera is well designed and packaged. Inside the small box you’ll get the camera, a lengthy USB-C cable, an unnecessarily large USB charging brick and some mounting hardware. Basically all you need to get going and nothing else. I like the design of the camera, although it’s a little bulky. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a big camera, but I’ve seen smaller designs and the camera housing just seems bigger than it needs to be. But for those worried about privacy, it is something that’s noticeable and difficult to completely conceal, so maybe that’s a benefit. I love the red color and it’s very sturdy. It has some heft to it which prevents it from tipping over when placed on a flat surface. The power cord is plenty long for most circumstances. In fact, the bigger problem is concealing the extra cable but that’s all very subjective and depends on your circumstances. The USB charging brick, however, is awkwardly shaped and large. I wish it was a smaller brick that didn’t extend beyond the outlet which could, in some instances, make it difficult to use. But that’s a minor quibble. SETUP Setup is a breeze. There’s a QR code you scan that’s on a sticker attached to the lens. You scan that with your phone and your walked through the setup process through Google Home app. You can give it a name, and place it in any rooms you’ve already created within the app. The app is where you’ll make any adjustments to the settings. It’s easy to mount with the included screws and anchors, so no issues there, again, a lot depends on your house and where the outlets are in relation to where you want the camera and how much effort your willing to undergo to hide the cable. PERFORMANCE The video is 2K resolution with HDR images. It provides crystal clear images. When viewing it live, it may not be as sharp, but recorded portions are of really high quality that allow you to zoom in closely of your video without losing fidelity. There are a lot of smart features, which are unfortunately, tied to a Google Home Premium subscription (this camera does come with a trial). The Google Home Premium subscription gives you historical event recording (which is in my opinion necessary since there’s no local storage). A premium subscription also gives you features such as familiar or unfamiliar face recognition. So if it detects a face that is familiar - generally determined by your Google Photos - it will let you know. And if it detects an unfamiliar face, it will alert you to that as well. I found the notifications to be smart and reliable and not too burdensome. For example, it won’t constantly ding your phone if one person is walking back and forth in the room. But if someone leaves for a little while and then comes back, it might alert you again. I found the notifications to be almost instantaneous with little delay (something I can’t say for Arlo cameras). My only concern was TV shows. I noticed that it will detect characters on the TV assuming a TV is in view of the camera and the camera is on. Obviously, choosing your notifications is up to you, I have mine set up to where I’ll only get notifications when it detects that no one is home. What I’ve noticed is that when I’m gone for the house all day, it will give me one notification at the first detection of someone. If they’re familiar, then it won’t give me any more notifications because it’s detecting someone is home. But this feature is difficult to truly test out absent catching a burglar. There is unfortunately no ability to pan and tilt the camera. You can manually adjust it obviously, but there’s no way to look around from the app which other competitors have. It’s also a bummer that there’s no local storage. It’s no big concern of mine since I’m a Google Home Premium subscriber, but for those that don’t want to purchase it, it really limits its utility/value. PRIVACY I’m very concerned about having indoor cameras. I don’t like the idea of spying on anyone in my house. I use mine as a quasi security camera, but primarily to keep tabs on my little ones. There is a setting to turn off the microphone which is beneficial as I don’t want to be storing all my audio with Google. There is a green light on the camera that lights up whenever the microphone is active, but for those that are way more conscious about their privacy and data than I, you’d have to take Google’s word at that… CONCLUSION This is a terrific performing camera for a certain subset of people. Those are Google users/adopters and those that have or are willing to pay for the subscription service. Absent that, it’s tough to recommend to the broader public as the full features of what makes this camera one of the better performers is tied to a subscription. But it does get points for ease of setup and the quality of the image.

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  Posted 1 month ago by callmeageeth

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Nice upgrade

  • Incentivized
  • Verified Purchaser

  Easy to setup and connect to Google account. Picture is much clearer than previous generations.

  Posted 2 weeks ago by KiSc

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  2nd Google Nest Cam

  • Incentivized
  • Verified Purchaser

  This is my 2nd new camera that I have purchased from Google Nest Cam. This camera works very good. The picture is very clear and it recognizes faces very well. I think it will work a lot better if I sign up for the $20 monitoring package.

  Posted 1 month ago by Sonya