- Hey there, this is Seth Williams from the REtipster blog
and in this video, I'm gonna be giving you a quick review
of the Nest Cam Outdoor.
Now chances are you've probably heard of the company Nest,
but if you're not familiar with these guys,
this is an outfit that has brought some really cool new
innovations to the market just in the past few years.
Things like smart thermostats, home security cameras,
both indoor and outdoor, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms,
and a lot of other third party products.
And what's really cool is that they can all be controlled
remotely from an app on your phone.
Because your phone has the ability to track where your
location is at any given time,
the system knows when you're at home and when you're away
and this can come in handy especially when we're talking
about outdoor security cameras like the Nest Cam.
For your own peace of mind, it's really nice to always
be able to see what's going on
and even get recordings and notifications of what's
going on, specifically when you're not at home.
So the first thing we'll start with is the packaging.
This camera comes in a very nice clean-looking box.
Kinda reminded me of the experience of opening up
an Apple product.
After I opened this thing up, it was by far the most
beautiful piece of trash that I threw into my garbage
that week so if you're someone who geeks out about packaging
I think you're gonna like this.
When it comes to the installation, this thing was pretty
darn easy to install, even for a completely helpless
and incompetent handyman like myself.
I know sometimes even the thought of having to install
anything is kind of intimidating for some people
but I'm telling you, if you're even willing to try,
Nest has made it really, really easy to do this
and even if you don't wanna do it,
Nest has also made it really easy to find a local
handyman through their website to come and install
this thing for you so if you really don't wanna touch it
it is possible to get this thing up and running
without you lifting a finger.
Once I got my Nest Cam installed,
my first impression was that I thought
it looked pretty cool.
Judging by how small today's cell phone cameras are,
I kinda thought it could stand to be a little bit smaller,
but that's a pretty small gripe.
I know this thing has been out for a while now
at the time of this recording so it's almost
not even worth mentioning.
The camera itself has a really nice wide field of view
which is exactly what you want in a camera like this.
I could see about 80% of my backyard
the second I put it up which was pretty impressive.
The Next Cam Outdoor is built to handle just about any
weather that you're gonna encounter
which makes good sense for an outdoor camera like this.
It's got a very clear 1080 HD image
with really good night vision as well.
I actually know one person who uses this exact camera
as a baby monitor for their child because the night vision
works so well and they can use it with their phone
which is really, really convenient.
When you pair this thing with the Nest app on your phone,
it has a really cool notification feature
where it will vibrate or ding on your phone
if and when it detects any motion.
You can also set your preferences so that it notifies you
only when it detects a person, not just any motion,
and it even has face recognition,
so if you're waiting for a specific person to show up
at your front door, it even has the capability of letting
you know that, so that's pretty impressive.
It's kinda funny, the first night after I set this thing up,
there was a notification that came through
at two in the morning of a little critter in our backyard,
and I actually didn't even hear the notification so I just
saw the recording of it through Nest Aware when I got up.
Nest Aware is another optional service you can use
with the Nest Cam.
It's currently $10 a month for a basic plan
or you can pay for that annually for $100 a year,
and that's for one camera.
For every additional camera you add to your system,
it's either an additional $5 a month or $50 a year
if you pay annually for that.
And basically what Nest Aware does is it will
record the video footage from your cameras for up to 10 days
so say if something happens and you weren't there to see it
at the moment it actually happened,
you could see a recording and it makes it very, very
easy to pinpoint when the action happened
and you can even save the video clips to your phone
if you want so if you wanna monitor what's going on
but you don't wanna sit there staring at your phone
24 hours a day, Nest Aware is the way to make that happen.
Another really cool thing about this camera is that
it's got some pretty cool audio capabilities.
The thing has a microphone and a speaker on it
so you can hear whatever is going on around the camera
and you can even talk to people through it
through the Nest app on your phone.
I can't say I've used this feature a lot
and I don't know if I'm going to but if the need ever arises
that's kinda cool that you can use it
for that if you want to.
One other thing I discovered when I was shopping for my
Nest Cam was apparently there's a third party company
that makes these skins that you can put over your Nest Cam.
So say, for example, if you don't like the white look
of the camera against the background of your house,
say if your house is like a really dark color
or just any color that isn't white and you don't want it
to have contrast like that and stick out like a sore thumb
against the side of the building,
these skins make it pretty easy to sort of
disguise the camera.
It's obviously not gonna disappear but it's definitely
going to pop out less than if you just left that white
camera on a dark color background so
I actually picked one up just to see what it looked like
and to show you in this video.
And as you can see it looks pretty good.
It's kinda subtle in my case because the side of my house
is sort of a beige color which isn't a huge contrast
from the camera itself but kinda gives you an idea
for how it can change the aesthetic look of the camera.
So being a real estate investor who also owns some
rental properties, another question that just came to mind
for me was does it ever make sense to purchase
this kind of thing and install it at the rentals that I own?
Well, I think there's a few things just to keep in mind
if you ever wanna go there.
I'd say first of all, these cameras do have to be
within range of a wifi signal,
so if you've got tenants who are constantly gonna be
coming and going and changing that wifi signal,
then it probably doesn't even make sense,
I wouldn't even think about it.
However, if you've got a property with some common areas,
say like a parking lot or an entrance or a lobby
or something like that and if you actually control
that wifi signal, then yes, this could totally work for that
and it could be a pretty good way just to keep an eye
on the premises and make sure nothing fishy is going on.
I'd also keep in mind that as a landlord
you don't wanna invade your tenants' privacy in any way.
So if you were gonna put this on one of your properties,
you'd only wanna put it in a place that's already
sort of a public area and doesn't encroach on their
private space and also just personally, I would only buy
this kind of thing for my rentals if I had a valid, ongoing
concern that warrants the extra money and trouble
for this kind of thing, say if I was like an out of state
landlord and there was no easy way for me to get to my
property and see it, this could be one solution to just
sorta help you keep an eye on the place
when you're not there.
For the most part, I've gotta say the Nest has been
just an absolute joy to open, install and use,
and if I had to think of any complaints,
the only thing I could think of would be probably
the ongoing cost of Nest Aware.
And believe me, I totally get why it costs money,
and it's not even a bad deal for the service
considering what it can do, but it also kinda gives you
one of those yeah, aww moments where
the camera seems so cool but then when I realize
there's an ongoing cost it was kind of a bummer.
Something else I didn't really like about the installation
process was having to drill holes
into the vinyl siding of my house.
Kinda wish there was a less permanent way to affix
the mounting plate to the exterior walls.
Even if there was an option to use like a semi-permanent
sticker, that kinda would have been preferable
to having to actually drill holes
through the siding of my house.
Another thing that kinda bugs me about this type of product
and it's just the nature of using electronics like this
is that I can virtually guarantee that one day,
probably not long from now,
it's gonna be replaced by a newer version
that is gonna render this one not necessarily obsolete,
but it's gonna seem a lot less cool than the new thing.
And granted, I think this camera is still gonna be an
awesome piece of equipment that I'm going to use a lot,
especially because I work in the basement of my house
all day and if somebody happens to be at the front door,
this gives me a really good way to first of all
be notified that somebody's at the door
and also see who it is without having to get up,
walk upstairs and walk to the other side of my house
just to answer the door.
This kinda camera makes that kinda thing really easy
and I can also say I was actually on vacation with my family
this past week and while we were on our week long trip
more than two hours away from where we lived,
I was able to see at any point in time
what was going on at our house
and if we had packages on the door
and if anybody had shown up while we're gone
and it was just kinda cool to be able to do that so easily
just with the phone in my pocket
and that's something that just wasn't possible
a decade ago so I think this is really cool technology.
It's awesome to see the kind of innovations that continue
to come to the market.
This is not a sponsored or paid endorsement of the Nest Cam.
Nest has no idea that I'm making this video.
I just thought it was a pretty cool product
that I've been using lately and I wanted to let you guys
know about it.
If you have any desire for any kind of
home security system, even if it's just to see what's going
on when you're not there, I can tell you that I've had
a really good experience with this product so far.
I've got very, very few complaints and the ones I do
have is as you've heard are pretty minor.
If you wanna check it out, I'll have an affiliate link
beneath this video and if you purchase it through that link,
it will send a very teeny tiny commission to the REtipster
blog and we obviously appreciate all the support we can get
so that pretty much sums it up for the review.
I appreciate you watching,
and hopefully I'll talk to you again soon.