Gabe Turner: Hi, folks.
This is Gabe at Security Baron.
Today we're reviewing the Nest Cam Indoor.
If you were wondering, "Hey, how well does Nest actually integrate with Google?
How easy is it to set up?
How is its night vision?
How is its storage capacity?"
These are all questions that we're going to answer.
Let's get started.
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Gabe: If you'd like to see a list of our favorite cameras, Google "Security Baron best security
cameras."
If you have a question about today's review, leave us a comment below, and we'll get back
to you.
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Gabe: Nest was acquired by Google a few years ago and then, in the big Alphabet reshuffling,
was pushed to the periphery.
In the past year, they were reintegrated with Google, so let's hope for a seamless experience.
Let's talk about some of the features that Nest boasts right on the package.
Of course, they have the 1080p high definition video and the two-way audio.
The real bread and butter for Nest is Nest Aware, which does things like 24/7 live continuous
streaming and person alert that'll let you know if someone actually is in the home and
whether or not they're a familiar face.
Right out of the box, I have to say that I find the Nest Cam Indoor very aesthetically
pleasing.
It has this gunmetal color.
Not only is it gunmetal, but it's actually made of metal, while the lens and the camera
are in this glossy black plastic, which you can actually rotate.
It actually feels weighty, substantive, like it's not going to break.
There's this rubber backing and, on the bottom, you have a rubber perimeter and this magnetic
base.
One thing I'll note is that I find the white micro USB cord and adapter a little bit jarring,
especially considering how sleek the rest of the camera is, but it is highly mobile.
You can go like this.
You can do this.
Overall, I really like the design of the Nest Cam Indoor.
If you'd like a more detailed analysis of its construction, check out our Nest Unboxing
video.
Design not withstanding, we need to know how well the Nest Cam Indoor actually works.
For that, let's put it to the Security Baron Necessary Features Test.
Here at Security Baron we think that every camera should have stellar video, two-way
audio, night vision, local and cloud storage, smart platform integration, artificial intelligence,
value, and convenience.
Security Baron, necessary feature of stellar video, the Nest Cam Indoor comes through.
It has 1080p high definition video, 8X digital zoom, and 130-degree field of view.
While we've seen better fields of view, this is at least the minimum that we think a camera
should have, of 130 degrees.
While we've seen as much as 16X digital zoom, 8X definitely works.
In terms of the Security Baron's necessary feature of stellar video, we give the Nest
Cam Indoor full marks.
A Security Baron necessary feature is two-way audio.
We love two-way audio here at Security Baron because it allows you to talk to whoever is
in the room that you're monitoring.
Now, the Nest Cam Indoor comes with two-way audio, but it has this really funny feature
where it plays a chime beforehand.
I'm not sure if that's to prevent people from being scared, but I feel like chimes are just
as scary as someone's voice, a horror movie and a grandfather clock goes off.
It's definitely that chime that gets you to jump, but it's cool and you can turn that
feature off.
When it comes to the Security Baron necessary feature of two-way audio, we give the Nest
Cam Indoor full marks.
Security Baron necessary feature of night vision is really important for all of us who
actually care about security.
Now, the Nest does really well because it has eight high-powered infrared LED sensors
that can give you a really crystal clear vision of whatever's going on in a particular room
in the dark.
However, you can also integrate Nest with the Phillips Hue light.
When it detects motion, it'll turn the light on in the room.
That's pretty cool and definitely allows us to give it full marks for the Security Baron
necessary feature of night vision.
Security Baron thinks that a necessary feature for all cameras is local and cloud storage.
Now, here, the Nest does not have any local storage options.
You can only do the cloud.
Of course, as we have found with a lot of the cameras, there are tiers to it for what
you can do, depending on whether or not you subscribe to Nest Aware.
If you want to do cloud storage with continuous live streaming and video clips that are stored
for about a month, you need to go with the Nest Aware.
Overall, we give it half marks for having a pretty robust cloud storage system, but
definitely lacking in terms of having no local storage.
Nest is a Google-owned company.
When it comes to the Security Baron necessary feature of smart platform integration, of
course they do admirably.
They come with all of the skills of Google Assistant, but also Google Chromecast and
even integrates with your Phillips Hue lights.
When we're talking about Nest Cam Indoor and smart platform integration, we have to give
it full marks.
A Security Baron necessary feature is artificial intelligence.
While the Nest won't tell you exactly who someone is, it does have person detection
and can do person alerts.
When it comes to artificial intelligence in the Security Baron Necessary Features Test,
we give it full marks.
A Security Baron necessary feature is value because you don't want to spend so much on
the camera that you can't afford anything [laughs] else afterwards.
The Nest Cam Indoor has tons of great characteristics and features, but it does come in a bit spendier
than its competitors.
The Amazon Cloud Cam, which has very similar features, comes in at $120 whereas the Nest
Cam Indoor is around $175-200.
Additionally, if you do the subscription Nest Aware Plan, if you want 30 days of cloud storage,
that's $30 a month or $300 a year.
Of course, you can do just 10-day cloud storage and that'll be $10 a month or $100 a year.
That's about what we've seen from the other companies, but we do want to note that it
is three times as expensive just to get a month of cloud storage.
All that being said, we do think the Nest works really well and integrates so well with
Google Assistant platform that it may merit and warrant the extra cost.
Overall, we still give it full marks for value.
A Security Baron necessary feature is convenience.
The Nest Cam Indoor really boasts that you can set it up within a minute.
We have to say that is absolutely true.
This has got to have been one of the easiest setups that we've ever had here at Security
Baron.
It was really a one, two, three setup.
We plugged it into the power outlet.
We installed the app.
Scanned the QR code and we were ready to go.
It also very easily integrated with our Google Assistant, our Phillips Hue, and our Google
Chromecast.
Overall, we have to give it full marks for convenience.
Of course, any camera is only as good as its app, so let's jump into that right now.
Let's take a look at the mobile application for Nest.
Nest of course has a host of products, but today we're looking at the Nest Cam Indoor.
When you open it up, you've got a Home and Away right above a video of the live stream.
That's important because you always want to be able to jump right into the live stream.
We jump in, you can actually see what's happening.
Below that, you have the option to decide on what has taken place throughout the day.
Now, we've set up various motion zones inside of our room.
You can also do person detection, but this allows you to decide what things you want
to see.
I can turn off one motion zone if I knew that something was going to be happening in a particular
area.
Maybe it's where the dog stays or where the cat likes to play.
I can just look at whatever I think I want to focus on for the moment.
If we get out of here, you can go into settings.
From there you can turn on the Home and Away if you don't have it set up on a schedule.
You can also go into Spaces.
Spaces will allow you to see everything inside of the Nest app and other products.
If you have a Nest thermostat, you can get all these things to work in conjunction in
the Spaces part of that.
Family allows you to add other people.
You can add people that you want to be able to have video access and you want it to start
to recognize.
Let's jump into Nest Aware, which is the subscription service for the Nest Cam Indoor.
This is where you can really see all of the elements that come along with that system.
You got person alerts to let you know when people are coming in.
You have continuous video storage, so you can do up to 30 days of video.
You can do close-ups.
It recognizes that someone's in the room.
You can look at the close-up of them and, of course, you can look at the activity zones
that you've set up.
Notification is where you actually would set up that activity zone.
There, you can draw a little box or a circle that allows you to have a specific zone that
the camera's paying attention, and you could ignore everything else or vice versa.
You can change all the colors inside the zone.
Just fun to play around with.
I had a good time making motion zones in this room.
This is all available under the Notification's application.
Activity zones is only something you can use to reiterate in Nest Aware.
In settings, you would also set up a schedule.
In Schedule, you can be like, "This is when I'm gonna sleep.
This is when I wake up.
This is when I go to work."
The camera gets an idea of when it can expect to be viewing something or not and will alert
you to that activity.
This may be if you don't want to have to daily go through the idea of Home and Away or if
you're not using any type of geo-fencing, it'll automatically say, "OK, this person's
gone right now."
Additionally, you can jump into the microphone element and you can change the sensitivity
of the microphone.
That's useful.
We have ours on 75 percent because we want to be able to pick up everything that's going
on.
You can also control the status lights of the Nest.
What's interesting is that not only do you have control over all the elements inside
the app, but you also have some control over the hardware.
Maybe you don't want it to look like you're recording.
You can actually turn off the light of the camera whenever it's recording.
You can also have a light come on when a live stream has started.
These are just interesting elements of controlling the actual camera itself so that people do
or don't know that you're recording them.
There's another part of the settings where you can actually change the video quality.
You have about 120 gigabytes of cloud storage space, but, if you wanted that to go further,
you can change the quality of the high definition video.
If I'm taking a video and I take the quality down a certain amount, I will also be able
to put more footage into the cloud storage.
You can actually rotate the view of the camera inside the app.
The camera is upside down and it's giving you a weird look, you can actually rotate
it inside the app itself.
Finally, there's an element in Camera Settings that allows you invite various family members.
That's our look at the Nest Cam Indoor mobile application.
This is the 1080p on the Nest Cam Indoor.
As you can see, it picks up everything pretty well in a room, but you also may notice it
only has 130-degree field of view.
Typically, you might be able to see a little bit more in this room if you had a 145, but
this is pretty good.
On top of that, you've got the digital zoom.
What's cool is that, in the bottom corner, you see what's happening in the wide screen.
You never don't have a vision of what's happening in the aggregate in a room.
If you tap on that, boom, it jumps right back to the full screen on the large part of your
phone.
To can see how it picks things up, give it our old globe test.
See where we stop today.
Oh.
In the ocean.
Look at there, right in the ocean.
Right everywhere.
Anyway, that's the 1080p on the Nest Cam Indoor.
This is the night vision on the Nest Cam Indoor.
While it may not be the best night vision, the eight infrared LED sensors do a good job
of picking up what's going on.
In addition, it can integrate with the Phillips Hue to actually turn the light on when it
detects motion.
Of course, you've got the digital zoom with the little aggregate picture in the left-hand
corner.
It works pretty well.
You can see what's happening here.
I'm using the pan and the zoom.
We can go in on our globe, see what's happening.
It's picking these shots up pretty well.
We're on Australia.
Overall, we like the night vision on the Nest Cam Indoor.
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Gabe: Let's jump into an overview of how the Nest Cam Indoor scored on the Security Baron
Necessary Features Test.
Stellar video, full marks.
The Nest Cam Indoor has 1080p crystal clear quality video.
Two-way audio, full marks.
You can go back and forth on the Nest Cam Indoor.
Night vision, full marks.
The Nest Cam Indoor has an amazing eight high-powered infrared LEDs.
Local and cloud storage, half marks.
While it does have a number of cloud storage options, the Nest Cam has no local storage.
Smart platform integration, full marks.
Nest is a Google company, and it really shows it with all the compatibility and integration
it has with the Google Assistant.
Artificial intelligence, full marks.
The person detection alert with the Nest Aware subscription lets you know when someone is
in your home.
Value, full marks.
Despite it being a little bit expensive, the Nest Cam Indoor comes chock-full with viable
features.
Convenience, full marks.
The Nest Cam Indoor was maybe the easiest cam we've ever had in terms of setting it
up.
Ultimately, the question we want to answer and, in this particular case, answer for the
Nest Cam Indoor is whether or not this is the camera for you.
If you find yourself more of an Amazon person and you don't want to spend around $200 for
a camera, then you're going to want to look at another option.
However, if you like using Google Assistant and you want a camera that simply works, you'
definitely want to give the Nest Cam Indoor a try.
That's our review of the Nest Cam Indoor.
If you appreciated this video, give us a like and hit that subscribe button.
As always, this is Gabe at Security Baron.
Be secure.
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