- Sup, my name is Alex.
Welcome to TechFlow.
So one thing that I have figured out,
throughout this entire smart home endeavour
that I've been on ever since I bought
my new house, is that smart homes need
to be smart for one reason, and
that's to make things easier.
But one thing that isn't easier is having numerous apps
to control your entire house.
One app for the cameras on the inside,
a different app for the lights on the inside,
a different app for the lights
on the outside, in the garden,
and then a different app for the doorbell,
if you have a video doorbell, as to which
that is what today's video is about.
I've partnered up with Nest, and they've sent
me out a hell of a load of their cameras,
including the Nest Hello doorbell,
and I love how seamlessly it
all works together in one app.
Guys, let's take a look today at the Nest Hello doorbell.
(doorbell rings)
- There's somebody at the door.
There's somebody at the door. (laughter)
(lively electronic music)
- So guys, this Nest Hello doorbell retails,
here, in the UK, for around 200 pounds.
Now, it's around the price I have seen it,
and I will link the best I can find
down there, in the description.
As I've mentioned, I'm looking
at for Nest, too, have sent this
out for review, and for me to keep
on my house, which I am super, super privileged about.
So you've paid your 200 pounds.
You've got your doorbell.
You've installed it.
Now, I wanna take a second to talk
about the installation of this thing.
So I actually installed this doorbell myself.
It was really, really, really simple,
and easy to do, because my house
already had a doorbell here.
The one thing I had to do was change the transformer
to a transformer that was kicking
out somewhere between 16 and 24 volts,
because this is what this thing runs on.
There's no internal battery option
like there is on Ring video doorbells.
But that is for a good reason.
Some features on this doorbell,
because of that constant power supply,
can't be found on the Ring doorbell,
as to which we will go through that.
But the paid features.
You have to buy what's called Nest Protect,
and that's gonna run you about 40 pounds per year.
And with that, you get some awesome features.
This thing, unlike the Ring doorbell,
is essentially a full-blown, always recording,
not just on motion, CCTV camera, as well as your doorbell.
Now, the picture from the camera is
really, really, really sharp, as you guys can see on-screen.
It looks absolutely awesome.
So let's start with what happens when you ring the doorbell.
I suppose that is one thing that
everybody is gonna want to know.
So (doorbell rings) ding-dong from this,
and then on my phone, I get a notification.
And also, on my Apple Watch,
I get a push notification, with a picture
of whoever rang the doorbell.
As you can see, it says doorbell, front door.
Someone is at the door.
And as you can see, well, there's
me, looking like an absolute plonker.
And as well as getting that push notification
to my mobile device in my pocket,
as to wherever I am in the world
with an internet connection, and/or
on my smart watch, if you have a,
well, home assistant, like I do.
I have both Amazon's Alexa, and Google's Home,
you get a little--
- (dings) Someone's at the front door.
- And if you guys have the pleasure
of owning a Google Home Hub, you will hear,
and much rather, see, something along the lines of this.
(dings)
As you guys can see, - Someone's at the front door.
- We get a verbal message to say
someone's at the front door.
As you can see, there is Jet outside,
looking around, and I can give him a few quick responses.
I can say, hey, I'll be right there.
- Just a sec, we'll be right there.
- Or I can do a few others.
You can leave it, or no one can come to the door.
- Hi there.
No one can answer the door, right now.
We'll be notified you stopped by.
- But the way, guys, I think the majority
of you will be interacting with
your Nest Hello doorbell, if you do manage
to get one, will be via your mobile device.
It's always accessible, and always with you in your pocket.
So as you guys can see, there's mine,
but I've actually got the Ring video doorbell app open,
right now.
Now, the Ring video doorbell is another
really famous smart doorbell, going head-to-head
with the Nest Hello, and I wanna show
you guys two reasons, real quick,
as to why I prefer the Nest Hello
to the Ring, which is actually installed
on another one of my family's houses.
So as you can see, I'm on the app,
and I'm gonna click on the live view.
Now, I want you guys to notice
how long this takes to load up,
and then when it is finally loaded up,
look how bad that quality is.
You can't even see anything, and it has
these black rings around the outside,
and then, when you zoom in, the quality is
just absolutely vile.
Now, the Ring does have two-way communication.
So does the Nest Hello.
So as you guys can see, I'm on my home screen
of my phone, I'm not even in the app.
We're gonna go ahead and open the Nest app,
and as you can see, literally, within seconds,
we've got ourselves a live view of the front door.
As well as it being super, super quick,
if we do turn it landscape, you can see
how insane the quality is, of this,
and it even has, down here, in the bottom corner,
a little Enhance button.
So if you were to, let's say, zoom
in on something, and you wanted
to really get the quality of it,
you just click the little Enhance button,
and then it makes the quality much better
for that specific area.
Now, as you guys can see, this isn't normal,
conventional 16 by nine video.
They actually have the sensor on the Ring video doorbell
in a four by three aspect ratio.
So as well as being able to see a nice wide field
of view, if somebody is stood there,
you get to see all of them, right
down from their feet, on the floor,
to the top of their head.
Now, the camera also has different features
like advanced HDR.
Usually, if you have the doorbell,
let's say, in a, or you have a little house,
that comes over the top of the doorbell,
and then someone's stood there, and
they're really dark, but the background is the sky,
and it's really bright, it has the HDR
to sort of counteract that.
You guys understand what HDR is.
It just makes things that are dark a lot brighter,
so everything will be exposed properly,
whether it's the delivery man stood
at the door, or the bright sky behind.
Also, this is a perfect example
of the two-way audio communication.
I'm currently talking into my phone,
and then it's coming out of the doorbell
to, well, simulate me talking to the postman,
telling him to leave the post round the corner.
But this is what the audio sounds like
if I was the postman talking back to you,
and it'd be coming out of my mobile phone.
Please bear in mind the wind conditions today are
very, very harsh, so this is the worst
this doorbell will ever, ever sound.
It is so windy today.
Now, guys to wrap this up, a few things to know.
If you are going to struggle to instal this,
or don't have a doorbell,
you can hire a professional Nest pro installer
to come and instal this for you,
if you don't think you are up to the task.
So that is an option.
So please don't let the installation
of this device put you off in any way, shape, or form.
The only thing that would slightly put
you off is what I'm gonna get onto next,
which is the Nest Protect monthly or yearly subscription.
Now, as I've already said, it's 40 pounds a month.
I currently don't pay for it, because
it doesn't really benefit me in any way.
I have a 24/7 security system already recording
around my house, but if you wanted the Nest Hello doorbell
to be your, well, full-time, 24/7 recording sort
of solution, for the front of your house,
then if you pay for the Nest Protect,
you will get 24-hour recordings,
and a few days of it, at that, as well, which is awesome.
Without the Nest Protect, all I'm getting is snapshots
of when it sees motion, and that is it,
or snapshots of when somebody rings the doorbell.
It doesn't even play me a short video.
All I'm getting is a snapshot.
Now, obviously I have live view when I go onto the app.
I can still have access to, well,
the automatic commands back to the doorbell,
the ones that we showed you earlier,
like we cannot come to the door,
and I also get, obviously, the push notifications,
and I can do two-way communication.
But all of those sort of 24/7 recording features,
and also the recognition that this doorbell can
also recognise who is at the door, if that floats your goat.
So the Google Homes around your house can
then say, Alex is at the front door,
instead of saying somebody is at the front door.
All of that stuff comes with the Nest Protect subscription,
something that I don't personally pay for,
but something I think will be really worth it
for you guys, if you were to buy it.
So I really wanted to make you guys aware of that.
You don't get all these features out the box.
Currently, I do not pay for Nest Protect,
but as I say, if you want the 24/7 recording,
and a few of the other extra gizmos
and gadgets that this thing can do,
then the Nest Protect subscription,
for 40 pounds a year, is definitely worth it.
Now, I know this sounds like a sales pitch.
It's not.
This is a review of the doorbell,
and I absolutely love it, to be honest with you.
I don't know what else to say.
It's far better than the Ring.
I've used the Ring for years, far, far better than the Ring.
It's small, it's compact, it looks nice,
it's compatible with smart devices.
I get a chime in every single room
that I have a Google Home Mini, and my, obviously,
Google Home display brings the live feed up.
I love the entire ecosystem.
It works really, really well.
Can't fault it for anything, other
than its tricky installation,
and no batteries, or what-have-you.
But obviously, with no batteries,
you get the 24/7 recording.
There you guys go.
That is my entire thoughts of the doorbell.
Guys, if you want to check out
some more videos on security systems,
we've done loads on TechFlow, so
you can check them out right there.
And if you'd not subscribed, than that's right there.
But as usual, we thank you for watching,
and we will see in the next video.
(upbeat electronic music)