So we’re after spending the last week getting some hands-on time with the newly launched Nest Cam, its Android App and optional online back-up service, Nest Aware, here is what we thought.
The new Nest Cam can be seen as an evolutionary upgrade to its predecessor, the Drop Cam (which Google/Nest bought last year) with a more refined and sleek look. The Nest Cam has some impressive specs in comparison to its competitors such as its class-leading 1080p video quality, excellent night-vision mode and an online back up service called Nest Aware that lets you watch back over your recorded footage and even make a short timelapse video of what you’ve captured!
Set Up
Setting up the Nest Cam was extremely easy and we had our device up and running in less than 2 minutes. The device itself is nice and weighty whilst still being sleek and unobtrusive. The camera must be connected to the mains at all times so take this into consideration when you plan on placing your camera in a remote part of your home. It also connect to your internet via Wifi only so this is another consideration when thinking of placement options.
Features
You can access the Nest Cam either through its mobile app or by logging in to the official site. Through the app, you can pretty much do everything you can do on the desktop site although it’s slighty trickier to look back through your recordings on Nest Aware. Speaking of Nest Aware, this is a optional yet highly recommended subscription service which works out at €10 a month to backup all of your recordings from either the last 10 or 30 days along with advanced motion sensing and the ability to save and share clips. Thankfully, for all new Nest Cams, there is a 30 day free trial of the service to help you decide if it’s right for you.
Although you can’t currently integrate Nest Cam with third-party products or services, you can link it to the Nest Learning Thermostat via the “Home & Away” feature in the Nest app. When you enable this feature, your Nest Cam will turn on when you set the Nest Learning Thermostat to Away and off when you set it to Home.
Usability
Admittedly, I don’t have many reasons to own a Nest Cam as I don’t have any pets or young children living in my house but in terms of the security aspect of the camera, it really helps to give me piece of mind now when I’m away from my apartment. There are areas that still need improving though, such as the notification time period for sound and motion detections within the camera’s field of view as it currently only notifies you every 30 minutes but I imaging this can be fixed with a simple app upate.
Conclusion
Overall, the Nest Cam is an very strong contender in the DIY home security category and points the Nest brand in a very positive direction. Once it gains more third-party integration, the Nest Cam really will be one of the best home monitoring cameras you can buy.
