Nest Cam IQ - Review 2022 - Wilder Yesso1979

The new indoor security photographic camera from Nest Labs, the Nest Cam IQ ($299), is its first to offer confront-recognition technology. It uses a Supersight automatic zooming and tracking feature to identify people in its field of view, and match their image to pictures in your library then you can go on track of who is coming and going, and when. It besides offers many of the same features found in Nest'south other cams, including motion and sound detection, push and email alerts, two-style audio, and the ability to interact with other smart abode devices. It's a fantastic security photographic camera, but at $299, it'south one of the more expensive ones out there.

Blueprint and Features

The Nest Cam IQ looks very similar to the Nest Cam Outdoor, just is strictly intended for indoor apply. It has a curved white housing and a round adjustable stand, and measures 4.9 inches tall, 2.ix inches wide, and 2.9 inches deep.

The camera delivers live 24/7 1080p video on demand and is always recording, has a 12x digital zoom, a 130-caste field of view, and an 802.11ac Wi-Fi radio that works on the two.4GHz and 5GHz bands. It also has embedded motion and audio sensors, a thin LED calorie-free ring around the lens that glows blue when you power information technology upward, an assortment of microphones, a speaker, and support for two-manner audio communication. Information technology comes with a 10-foot USB power string and power adapter, and a quick start card.

There are a few significant upgrades from other Nest offerings. The camera uses an eight-megapixel 4K HDR sensor, equally opposed to the 3-megapixel sensor in the Nest Cam Indoor and Outdoor (video is streamed at 1080p just all the same images are captured in 4K). It also contains two ultra-modest (940nm) infrared LEDS that provide up to xv feet of dark vision. They are so small, in fact, that I was unable to detect them in a completely dark room.

Also new is Nest'south Supersight applied science, which automatically zooms in on people who enter the camera's field of view, and facial recognition engineering science that sends alerts when the photographic camera recognizes a face up (and also tells you when information technology spots an unrecognized face). With Supersight yous don't have to get up shut to the photographic camera for it recognize y'all like yous exercise with the Tend Secure Lynx. When a confront is identified, an app notification will say that the camera spotted someone, while an email notification tells yous who information technology saw and offers a link to the video.

Nest Cam IQ

Whereas the Nest Cam Indoor and Outdoor models require a Nest Enlightened subscription to receive an alert when the camera spots someone, the Nest IQ provides those alerts out of the box. Nonetheless, you will need Nest Aware to take advantage of many other features, including Supersight, Familiar Face up alerts, Intelligent Audio alerts (people talking, dogs barking), activity alerts, video sharing, and the ability to create a fourth dimension-lapse, which condenses up to 24 hours of video into a xxx-, 60-, or 120-second clip. Nest Aware subscriptions are $10 per month/$100 per twelvemonth for 10 days of continuous video storage, and $thirty per month/$300 per yr for 30 days of continuous storage.

Nest Cam IQ

The camera tin can be accessed using the aforementioned mobile app (Android and iOS) and spider web portal as other Nest devices such equally the Nest Thermostat, the Protect smoke alarm, and the Indoor and Outdoor cameras, and it interacts with all of them. It tin can too work with other smart devices using If This And so That (IFTTT) recipes, and you lot can view video clips on the Amazon Repeat Show using Alexa voice commands.

The app opens to a screen that displays all connected Nest devices. Tap the Nest Cam IQ to launch a live stream and the Sightline, which is time-lapse record of all activities that you tin can swipe through to discover a specific point in time. Once you've found your desired moment, tap the moving-picture show icon to record and save it to the cloud. You lot tin also share it and save information technology locally on your mobile device. At that place are three buttons along the bottom of the screen; one displays a 10-day history of video clips, one launches a alive feed, and i displays a list of new people spotted by the camera. Here you lot tin decide if you know the person or not, add them to your library, or delete them.

Tapping the gear icon in the upper correct corner takes yous to a screen where you can turn the camera and the microphone on and off, gear up a recording schedule, enable notifications and the Familiar Face features, and view Nest Aware subscription details. There are also settings where you can turn night vision and close-upwards tracking on or off, dial back video quality for more than bandwidth, and enable Domicile/Away Assistance, which uses your phone'south location service to trigger the camera automatically depending on where y'all are.

Installation and Functioning

To test the Nest Cam IQ, I downloaded the iOS app, created an business relationship, and plugged in the photographic camera. After entering my address and assuasive notifications, I tapped the plus push button to add the device. I was prompted to scan the QR code on the lesser of the base, selected a location for the photographic camera from the listing, and striking Continue. The photographic camera was recognized within xx seconds, at which fourth dimension I was prompted to select a Wi-Fi network to connect to. Later on another 15 seconds or so the camera was connected and ready to become.

Nest Cam IQ The Nest Cam IQ delivered outstanding daytime video in my tests. The 1080p live stream is sharp, with very good color detail and no evidence of pincushion or butt distortion. Night vision video is likewise highly detailed and shows good dissimilarity with uniform lighting out to around 20 feet. The camera's microphone and speaker combo deliver the best ii-way audio quality of whatsoever photographic camera I've reviewed to date. Conversations are loud, free of racket, and have almost no lag.

Motion and sound detection are also peak-notch. The camera has no problem differentiating between people and other move from pets and passing cars, and facial recognition works wonderfully. Thanks to the Supersight automobile zoom characteristic, there was no need to become upwards close and personal for the photographic camera to recognize a face. The IQ always notified me when my dog was barking, and when it detected a person talking, and recorded video was but every bit sharp as the live feed. My only gripe is that the mobile push button notifications don't tell you who the photographic camera saw; you take to play the clip or go to your email to see if information technology was someone from your Familiar Face library.

Conclusions

There's a lot to like nigh the Nest Cam IQ. Its Supersight zooming characteristic does a great chore of tracking visitors and matching them to your Familiar Confront library, and it's smart enough to know the difference between a person and other moving objects. It'll fifty-fifty tell you lot if it hears people talking or dogs barking. Alive and recorded video are sharp and colorful, and the photographic camera responds to motion and audio events quickly with push button and email notifications. That said, this is one of the about expensive habitation surveillance cameras out at that place, and you can programme on spending fifty-fifty more than for a Nest Aware subscription if you lot want to take advantage of all of its neat features.

For users that already own one or more than Nest devices, the Nest Cam IQ is an excellent add-on. If yous use Z-Wave and ZigBee devices to control things like lights, air conditioners, and garage door openers, our Editors' Selection, the Icontrol Networks Piper nv, pulls double-duty as a habitation automation hub, delivers abrupt 1080p video, and has built-in temperature and humidity sensors. It'll tell you when it detects move, but it won't tell you who or what is moving around inside your home similar the Nest Cam IQ will.