Nest Cam IQ review: Face recognition, for a price
Our Verdict
The Nest Cam IQ is a step above Nest'due south previous models, offering first-class audio, good to very good video quality and intelligent, intuitive software. However, it's expensive, and requires a cloud subscription to access your video history and other cardinal features.
For
- Excellent sound quality
- Very proficient video quality
- Intelligent Familiar Face detection
- Well-designed, intuitive software
Confronting
- No local storage
- Fundamental features, including video history, require deject subscription
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Nest Cam IQ is a step above Nest'southward previous models, offering first-class audio, good to very proficient video quality and intelligent, intuitive software. However, it'southward expensive, and requires a deject subscription to access your video history and other key features.
Pros
- +
Excellent audio quality
- +
Very skilful video quality
- +
Intelligent Familiar Face detection
- +
Well-designed, intuitive software
Cons
- -
No local storage
- -
Key features, including video history, crave deject subscription
Nest's newest security camera – the Nest Cam IQ – looks a lot like the Nest Cam Outdoor. However inside, Nest has made a number of changes, including higher image resolution, improve dynamic range and significantly improved audio compared with the previous model. Nest's app has some absurd new tools, such as facial recognition, making it 1 of the best Google Home compatible devices effectually. What hasn't changed is its ease of use and comprehensive features – and the lack of of import services, including video history and Action Zones, unless y'all subscribe to the company's cloud service.
Editor'due south note (Aug. 2021): Nest has discontinued the Nest Cam IQ. In its place is the Nest Cam (bombardment), which has a 1080p camera and includes for costless three hours of rolling video storage too as person, beast, and vehicle detection. For more details, delight bank check out our Nest Cam (bombardment) review.
Nest Cam IQ: Pattern
The sleek Nest Cam IQ is a solid, well-constructed white polycarbonate device about 5 inches alpine. Its conical camera caput, three inches in bore, rotates 180 degrees horizontally and 160 degrees vertically on a thin i.five-inch leg, but stays firmly in whatever position you place the head. The 3-inch deejay base of operations is nicely weighted, helping to keep the camera in place on horizontal surfaces.
Alerts are signaled by an eye-communicable electrical-blueish ring low-cal that encircles the black camera bevel, plus a small status light under the camera. Two-style audio is provided via a iii-microphone array to the left of the lens and a speaker that's on the back. Two 940nm infrared LEDs on either side of the lens provide practiced illumination for nighttime capture.
The IQ has no local storage and no batteries. Its 10-pes power cablevision plugs into a large round cake that spreads out to obscure an next electric outlet.
Nest Cami IQ: Motility and sound detection
Nest has fabricated a few dainty additions to its intelligent, customizable motion and sound detection. However, key features such as Activity Zones, sound analysis and Familiar Face detection are available simply if yous subscribe to its cloud service (more than on pricing below).
One of the dainty new features is that the camera automatically zooms in on the area of the room where an action has been detected, which makes it easier to apace identify the source of the alert. Text and electronic mail notifications include a screen capture of that zoomed-in view. However, if the activity is virtually the periphery of the frame, it oftentimes doesn't trigger the zoom.
If yous subscribe to the Nest Aware cloud service, when the app detects a face, it volition ask you lot to name who it is. These stored Familiar Faces are used to identify the individual who triggers an alert when you receive notifications. In our tests, the software was very proficient at recognizing most people whose faces we had named.
Nest claims the IQ can distinguish between people and pets; however, we frequently received person alerts when our cat Rascal passed through the dining room. Unlike detected human faces, the software has no manner to teach the camera to recognize Rascal. Similarly, though the new audio analysis supposedly distinguishes between a person speaking and a dog barking, it failed to recognize barking even when our dog was within three feet of the microphones.
Nest Cam IQ: Video and audio quality
The IQ's 1/ii.5-inch, 8-megapixel (4K) CMOS sensor with 12x digital zoom has a significantly college resolution than previous Nest cameras and compares favorably to the Arlo Pro's 720p videos. In addition, the IQ's firmware combines daylight video files to create a high dynamic range (HDR) image. The effect is a very good quality daylight 1080p video that is make clean, crisp and bright with ameliorate particular in the shadows.
When in nighttime mode, the two 940nm LEDs apply an infrared cut filter that doesn't emit the telltale blood-red glow that gives away many other cameras. They provide a nice level of illumination even in a completely dark room, though with some vignetting forth the periphery of the 130 caste field of view. We were able to easily recognize faces in our night mode videos, though movement tends to be blurred.
Recorded audio and live two-way communication are dramatically improved in this model. The three-microphone assortment combined with the new noise suppression and echo cancellation produces sound that is loud, articulate and distinct, regardless of the person's position in relation to the camera. While the speaker is on the dorsum of the camera, its sound is clear and easy to empathise, enabling smoothen conversation via the mobile app to and from the camera.
Nest Cam IQ: Cloud storage
While Nest has added a few useful features to its Nest Enlightened cloud service, it remains a poor solution for the user. That'due south because after the one-calendar month free trial, yous will take no continuous recording, Familiar Confront detection or Activity Zones unless you pay a monthly fee. Most important, different the Arlo Pro, the IQ has no local storage, so you will also have no admission to your video history. Instead, you will exist able to view but snapshots from the past 3 hours.
More: Elevation-Rated Wireless Abode Security Cameras
Nest updated its Nest Aware cloud storage plans for its habitation security cameras and video doorbell; now, for $half dozen per month (or $60 annually), you can store 30 days of event history from an unlimited number of cameras at one location; if you upgrade to Nest Enlightened Plus ($12/month, $120 annually), you get lx days of rolling deject storage, plus 10 days of 24/7 video history.
Nest Cam IQ: Installation
The Nest Cam IQ's simple, problem-complimentary installation follows the industry standard of downloading the app to your phone and scanning a QR code (conveniently on the base of the device) to pair it to the software.
Most other cameras crave being placed near your network hub for installation and and so moved to their monitoring location, which can sometimes cause network connection bug. The IQ tin can be plugged in where y'all want information technology then installed. The app immediately institute the photographic camera.
Nest Cam IQ: Mobile apps & web portal
The Nest software is easy to navigate and empathize, and the features tend to be deep and intelligent. For instance, the interface for scheduling the times when your photographic camera is on or off is both flexible and convenient, allowing yous to set a number of periods within each twenty-four hours of the calendar week or set the same period for several days at once. Similarly, you lot can define several irregularly shaped Activity Zones by only dragging on the 8 nodes of the shape.
The iPhone and Android mobile apps are clean, with only a scattering of icons. Most controls are centralized in Settings. Car rotate between the horizontal and vertical views is responsive, equally is the two-finger compression/spread, which takes advantage of the 12x digital zoom.
The web portal is just as accessible and well-designed. However, given the portal'south actress screen existent manor, it offers improve viewing of timeline details. Other differences in the portal (compared to the apps) include greater control over clips and the ability to define and manage Activity Zones. On the other hand, Family sharing of the photographic camera is enabled only through the mobile app.
Finding specific events in the library and (if you subscribe to Nest Aware) playing dorsum the related video is very piece of cake. Both besides display dots colour-keyed to defined alerts, such every bit motion or audio detected within a defined Action Zone. Release your mouse or remove your finger to play the video from that point onward.
Subscribers can also save a clip of the selected video from the apps and the portal.
However, the portal has more than functionality in editing and managing the clips. In the portal, you lot tin you fix the beginning and end points of the saved video, also every bit download your clip, link to it and share it to Facebook, NestDoor or Twitter.
Across integrating with Nest's Smart Home products, the IQ too works with the best Google Domicile smart speakers, Wemo, LiFX, SkyBell and the Repeat Evidence. That compares favorably with the Arlo Go, which integrates with SmartThings, Wink, Telguard, Stringify, IFTTT and Alexa. Even so, Smart Home integration for all security cameras is still evolving, with new protocols existence added by virtually vendors on regular basis.
Nest Cam IQ Indoor: Verdict
The Nest Cam IQ has very practiced twenty-four hour period time paradigm quality (it's pretty good at nighttime, also), splendid audio, and its software is one of our favorites among security cameras. However, information technology's expensive -- $100 more than than previous Nest cameras, as well equally our favorite outdoor photographic camera, the Arlo Pro.
In addition, given that admission to your video history is a primary purpose behind having a security photographic camera, the IQ's lack of any local storage forces the user to pay for a monthly deject plan. For those two reasons, the Netgear Arlo Pro cameras are a better bargain, but the Nest Cam IQ is also worth your consideration.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/nest-cam-iq,review-4593.html
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