Customer Ratings & Reviews

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.

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.

This is a great upgrade compare to last versions. For the price worth the upgrade and would love to change all my cameras. Google provides long lasting products and tech affordable and cutting edge now with AI features. 2k is far superior then older models. Also you can tell speed and loading has improved.

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

Nice upgrade to 2k and great new color, integrates well with Google Home

Excellent quality and love the color. Having 2k at this price point is great. Comes with wall mounting hardware if you choose.

The video on the Google Nest Cam (wired, 3rd gen) is excellent 2K HDR quality — sharp and clear, significantly sharper than what’s produced by the average 1080p camera. You can zoom in without it fuzzing out, which is very useful for me when I want to check and see whether the dog is curled up on the couch or one of the cats are getting crazy on the table. The wide viewing angle captures most of a room, and night vision is surprisingly effective in dark or dimly lit rooms. Setup was fast and painless. Plug it in, hook up to Wi-Fi and you’re good to go. Because it’s wired, you don’t have to worry about recharging batteries, but where you put it is contingent on having an outlet nearby. I mounted mine near the entrance to my great room where it can soak up all the action. The clean look works with the room’s decor; subtle, yet modern. By far the best is Gemini integration. The AI-driven alerts and summaries are more than just bodily motion detection. I receive targeted alerts for motion in specific zones (like the pet area), and it even tells me what caused the motion! When I travel for business, an app opens and within seconds all is well in real time on my screen. The app interface is no-frills, and the two-way audio feature does indeed work — I’ve used it to speak with the pets a handful of times. Video playback is decent, provided you have a good Wi-Fi connection. The only downsides are that it’s an indoor-only camera (so you wouldn’t want to use it outdoors), and some of its smarter features do require a subscription plan if you want full access to history and advanced alerts. Final Thoughts: If you want to use high-resolution video and helpful smart features to keep tabs on your home or pets, the Nest Cam Indoor (3rd Gen) is a good bet for any price. It feels as solid and premium as it looks, with high image quality, ease of setup, and reliability. I've grown to rely on it for peace of mind — particularly when I'm away for the day or traveling. It’s one of the most practical gadgets in my smart home setup because I can check in on the dog and our little trio of cats in real time, receiving clear video and smart notifications.

I love these little Google cameras. We had a previous model and it worked great until it took a fall it didn't survive but otherwise these hold up to life with kids and pets pretty well. This is probably the fastest and easiest device setup I've experienced with testing various brands and styles. The Google home app is pretty straightforward and it takes a couple mins to get things set up and updated. After that you've got a solid camera that doesn't look like an ugly home security device ready to go. The cord is nice and long and allows for mounting pretty much anywhere without worries. I like how clear the picture is even when zooming in. Might vision is clearer on this camera than any other option I've tried in the past. It's easy to manage multiple cameras with the app if you'd like as well. The red color was too hard to pass up, it adds a nice little touch. We ended up using this one as more of a security camera and have it facing our front door. This is used to double check doors are locked as needed and also alerts if someone were to enter the home unexpectedly. I like these so much I've purchased some to share with family.

There’s always a tradeoff when it comes to buying into an ecosystem. In this case, Google’s device ecosystem can be both a blessing and a curse. Unfortunately for the Nest Cam Indoor, it’s the latter. That isn’t to say that the hardware is bad. It’s the functionality of the camera and the software that runs with it. The good part is the camera itself works great and integrates well with Google’s Home ecosystem. The video quality is good with a pretty high field of view. But what you gain in tight integration with Google’s ecosystem, you lose out in small conveniences. There is no way to save clips to an alternative storage device (ie. a NAS). And lengthy video storage requires a subscription. As an indoor camera, the functionality is fairly basic if you choose to not subscribe to Google’s “Home Premium” subscription. Yet despite its basic featureset, it handles motion sensing and notifications as one expected for an indoor camera. It handles motion zones so that activity is only picked up within the defined zone. There’s no recognition at all and is locked behind Google’s Home Premium subscription. Sadly there are competing alternatives that can almost match the hardware specs this camera has with better prices. Additionally, those alternatives can potentially utilize local storage (built in or SDcards) or NAS for video storage. With these in mind, it’s very hard to recommend the camera at all. If you’re heavily invested in Google’s ecosystem, perhaps all the drawbacks won’t matter. Still, there are good reasons to seek a different indoor camera that doesn’t rely on cloud storage and a paid subscription. The Good: Wide field of view, tight integration with Google Home app The Bad: no local or NAS storage, subscription optional The Ugly: the thought of having a big pile of service subscription bills Verdict: not recommended, unless you already have many Google/Nest hardware

I cant rant about this google indoor nest camera enough! My husband works out of town alot so when we go stay wherever he is working we love to have eyes on our home and our belogings.... pretty much everything we have worked so hard for over the years. I was rushing to leave one day when i needed to get this camera set up. It took me about 15 minutes to get it setup and placed in the area i wanted. I put it in my living room facing at an angle that would catch both openings, one into my kitchen and one into my dining area. There is a back door in the kitchen that i wanted to make sure i had eyes on because the knob is broken. This small camera caught every angle of my living and into the other two rooms giving me a perfect clear view had anyone broke in. I loved that i was able to control it through the app on my phone, i was able to watch it 24/7 while not at home, it showed clups of any movement in the home and gave me clear live feed anytime i opened the app. It also has clear sound. Overall i was very please with this camera, how well it captured angles, wuality of the camera and the easy install.