How To Keep Nest Cam Online 24 Hours
Our Verdict
The Nest Cam Outdoor offers high-quality video and audio with easy-to-use apps, simply yous'll demand a pricey subscription plan.
For
- Continuous 24/vii live video streaming
- Weatherproof design
- Clean, piece of cake-to-navigate spider web portal and mobile apps
- Good image and sound quality
- Multiple sharing options
Against
- Not worthwhile without pricey Nest Aware subscription
- Sharing options divide between mobile apps and spider web portal
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Nest Cam Outdoor offers high-quality video and audio with easy-to-use apps, but you'll need a pricey subscription plan.
Pros
- +
Continuous 24/7 live video streaming
- +
Weatherproof pattern
- +
Make clean, easy-to-navigate web portal and mobile apps
- +
Good paradigm and sound quality
- +
Multiple sharing options
Cons
- -
Non worthwhile without pricey Nest Aware subscription
- -
Sharing options split between mobile apps and web portal
The Nest Cam Outdoor ($199) is a solid, well-made security webcam that captures good to high-quality video and audio. Designed for outdoor use, information technology'south weatherproof, and because it's wired rather than battery-powered, it will monitor your dwelling continuously, capturing 24/7 video.
The Nest Cam Outdoor is paired with highly attainable, easy-to-use mobile apps and a web portal. The photographic camera is one of many Nest-compatible products including the Nest Learning Thermostat, and the Nest Protect smoke warning.
Unfortunately, virtually of the Nest Cam Outdoor's best features won't piece of work unless you pay for the pricey Nest Enlightened deject-storage plan (starting at $half-dozen per month). But, for some, the cost will be worth it.
Editor's note (Aug. 2022): Nest has discontinued the Nest Cam Outdoor. In its identify is the Nest Cam (bombardment), which has a 1080p camera and includes for free three hours of rolling video storage besides every bit person, animal, and vehicle detection. For more than details, delight check out our Nest Cam (battery) review.
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Nest Cam Outdoor: Design
The Nest Cam Outdoor is a sleek, conical device with a white weatherproof shell and a black face. It's fairly large (xi ounces and 2.8 10 3.v inches) and heavy (eleven ounces) compared with some other recent Wi-Fi security cameras, and information technology attaches to a small round magnetic base that can be screwed into any apartment surface.
Eschewing the battery power of other outdoor cameras (such equally Arlo Pro 2), the Nest Cam Outdoor has a generous 25-foot ability cord that plugs into a USB port at the bottom of the unit. This gives the photographic camera the power it needs to capture 24/7 continuous video, which would drain a battery quickly.
Cable clips secure the power cord to the wall. Nest says this setup will deter theft of the camera, still nosotros could envision a thief popping off the clips with a pair of shears or a flathead screwdriver.
We don't have a preference for either wired or bombardment power, but potential customers should offset check whether their houses or apartments have outdoor outlets the Nest could plug into. Those with large houses may need to add extension cords to reach locations optimal for both viewing angles and Wi-Fi point strength.
The speaker and microphone are placed in front end of the USB port, so that when the camera is installed high up on a wall, they are closest to the people below. The eight infrared LED lights (for night vision) frame the lens in the blackness bezel. The status light, which tin exist turned off via the mobile app or spider web portal, is directly above the lens.
The camera is rated for temperatures ranging from minus 4 degrees to 106 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 to 40 degrees Celsius). Information technology has an IP65 hardiness rating, meaning it is dust-proof and rainproof but may not survive submersion in floodwaters.
The Nest Cam Outdoor supports 802.xi a/b/g/north Wi-Fi networks at two.four GHz and five GHz, and encrypts data using the common TLS/SSL standards. Customers will need broadband internet connections of at least 2 Mbps (DSL may non meet that standard) and a smartphone or tablet that supports Bluetooth 4.0/Bluetooth Low Energy.
Nest Cam Outdoor: Installation and setup
The installation of the Nest Cam Outdoor follows what has become an industry-standard process, involving downloading the app, using a QR lawmaking to pair the camera with your mobile device and connecting to the Wi-Fi network. Information technology was a quick, trouble-free process.
The camera is rated for temperatures ranging from minus 4 degrees to 106 degrees Fahrenheit.
When nosotros unplugged the photographic camera temporarily to motion it to our monitoring-examination location, the live video feed was well-nigh immediately available later we plugged the camera back in. If we had installed it exterior permanently, we would accept likewise used the supplied cable clips to braze the long string to the wall, which would accept added to the time and effort involved.
Nest Cam Outdoor: Mobile apps
Nest's mobile apps are make clean and like shooting fish in a barrel to navigate, with few icons and no pregnant differences between the Android and iOS versions. The apps control not only the Nest Cam Outdoor, but Nest's entire line of smart domicile products.
The Home screen displays feeds from all connected cameras, also as circular avatars from other connected Nest devices. Tap on the Nest icon above these to indicate whether you lot're home or abroad. (Tapping on Dwelling turns off your cameras.) There's a gear icon for controlling options related to your overall account, such every bit enabling family sharing.
Tapping on each camera'southward feed on the Home folio brings you to the Sightline screen, a rundown of what'south going on with that camera. The unproblematic Sightline interface hides a prissy level of features and controls constitute primarily through the Settings gear icon in the upper-right corner.
In Sightline's vertical mode, 2-thirds of the screen (below the alive feed) is filled with a scrollable timeline of alerts and related thumbnails. If you subscribe to the Nest Aware cloud programme, you can tap anywhere on the timeline to play a portion of the 24/7 continuous video recording. Non-subscribers have admission to the by three hours of notwithstanding snapshots triggered by audio or motility events.
Auto-rotate works about immediately in Sightline when you lot're viewing either the live feed or an archived video. The horizontal view is cleaner than the vertical one, because the live feed fills the screen without showing the timeline.
In both views of the live feed, you can tap the [+] icon to enable a two-finger pinch/spread and apply the 8x digital zoom to expect more than closely at details. Tap either the clockwise or counterclockwise icon in the centre of the view screen to play the xv seconds previous to or after the current displayed moment. Printing the microphone icon at the bottom of the entire screen to talk with anyone nearly the camera.
The web portal at Nest supports Net Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Safari, every bit long as Flash is enabled. It's quite similar to the mobile app, and simply equally piece of cake to master, but a scattering of features and controls are available but in ane or the other. For example, yous'll ready full admission to Family accounts in the mobile app, but you'll utilise the spider web portal to provide non-Family unit members with admission to live-feed links.
The web portal uses a traditional horizontal timeline. Click on the buttons in the lower-left corner to gear up the timeline to hr, minute or second increments. You tin can use the vertical scroll bar to zoom in, and the portal as well has standard video buttons for play, pause, fast-forward and back.
Unique to the web portal are Zones and Clips. Tap on the Zones icon in the lower-correct corner to create, edit or select action zones. If you subscribe to a deject plan, you can tap the Clips icon to easily salve and share a portion of your video history.
Nest Cam Outdoor: Motion and sound detection
Movement and audio detection on the Nest Cam Outdoor works well, though with important limitations related to whether you lot pay a monthly subscription fee for a Nest Aware deject plan.
If you lot're a Nest Aware subscriber, you can define upwardly to four irregularly shaped Zones for monitoring motion. All users can turn overall move or sound detection (to monitor the unabridged frame) on or off.
Another Nest Aware-only feature is the person-detection feature, which volition alert you if the camera sees (or thinks information technology sees) a human being being. In our tests, the Nest Cam Outdoor idea our cat jumping on the counter was a person. The camera was more accurate (though not 100 per centum) with its notifications when information technology really did see a person.
You lot tin choose when and how to get notifications: via e-mail and/or on your mobile device, all the fourth dimension or only when no ane is home, or only for selected Zones and/or sounds or motions not in any zone. When a photographic camera goes offline, such equally when the net or electricity goes downwardly, yous'll also receive an alert.
A rather useful feature is Home/Away Assist. It turns on your Nest photographic camera(s) automatically when you leave the house, as long every bit you accept your phone with you. The cameras will turn off when you (or someone with some other recognized phone) return.
Nest Cam Outdoor: Video and audio quality
The Nest Cam Outdoor's 1/3-inch, 3-megapixel CMOS sensor, combined with the 130-degree wide-angle glass lens, captures good- to high-quality 1080p video. In good light, faces were generally easy to discern. Details tended to be lost with the 8x digital zoom, but we were even so able to recognize faces that were within 8 feet of the camera. Beyond that, zoomed-in faces tended to blur and pixelate.
However, in low light, such as at twilight, at dawn and on very cloudy days, faces tended to be indistinct. Nosotros recommend installing a good exterior light that volition stay on 24/7 almost the area the photographic camera volition be monitoring.
The eight infrared LEDs effectually the lens helped capture night-vision video over the full field of view — not only when visible light was quite low, but also in pitch-black darkness. However, if you lot have any outdoor lights inside the frame, the camera'south sensors can exist confused and may not turn on night vision automatically. Figures in motion tend to be blurred in night-vision style.
By default, the Nest Cam's video resolution is set to Motorcar, and volition switch among 1080p, 720p and 360p depending on the speed of the internet connection. (Nest told united states that its priority is to be sure the photographic camera is always continued and uploading video.) You can manually set up the resolution to remain at a specific level.
Captured audio was clean and clear, while the live audio from the Nest Cam Outdoor tended to exist soft simply usually audible. On the spider web portal or in the mobile apps, a person speaking within a ten- to 15-foot range of the camera was mostly quite clear and understandable.
When we used the web portal to speak to people (or pets) through the photographic camera, our words were very loud and clear if we stood correct in forepart of the camera. Every bit the listener moved around the room, the volume softened, but even 9 feet away and at a 90-caste angle from the microphone, words were quite aural.
When we used the mobile apps to speak through the photographic camera, the sound was a bit deadened. However, the words were still quite understandable with decent book.
Nest Cam Outdoor: Scheduling
Because this is an outdoor camera, Nest doesn't recommend scheduling off periods, because "you might miss something important." Just both the web portal and the mobile apps each have rather good scheduling available for all connected devices, including the Nest Cam Outdoor.
The Scheduling window, which is nearly identical on the mobile apps and the web portal, is quite like shooting fish in a barrel to use in one case yous empathize its logic. You tin fix dissimilar times to plough the camera on and off for each day of the week, or repeat a certain time flow for several days. Unlike many other cameras' schedulers, Nest'due south lets you bridge a selection over midnight to encompass the evening and morning time of adjacent days.
Nest Cam Outdoor: Cloud storage costs
Considering the Nest Cam Outdoor has no memory-bill of fare slot, you lot're dependent on the deject for all video storage. Unfortunately, that means that after the initial gratuitous 30-solar day trial period ends, you lot'll no longer take access to your video history unless you subscribe to a Nest Aware cloud plan. You'll too lose person alerts, definable activity zones, and the ability to salvage and share video clips or time-lapse clips.
Without Nest Aware, you'll still get alive feeds and live alerts, simply you'll have archive access just to still images that were recorded when the camera was triggered by a noise or motion — and only for the past 3 hours.
For $6 per month (or $60 annually), you can store 30 days of event history from an unlimited number of cameras at i location; if you upgrade to Nest Aware Plus ($12/month, $120 annually), you get sixty days of rolling cloud storage, plus 10 days of 24/7 video history.
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Nest Cam Outdoor: Library and playback
With the mobile apps' Sightline view, you can coil upwards and downward through a timeline of continuous video recordings. Wherever yous cease, the video history volition play — if you lot're a Nest Aware subscriber.
When an alert is generated, a still snapshot thumbnail is pulled from the related portion of the video, often zoomed in to show what, exactly, triggered the alert. Colored dots and dashes betoken which defined activity zone or type of detection was involved. The size of the dot or dash forth the timeline shows how long the alarm lasted.
In the web portal, the size of a colour-coded dot has no relationship to the length of the result, unless it's ready to intervals of seconds. Hover your cursor over a dot to come across an event thumbnail, which volition be a still snapshot for non-subscribers and a video clip for paying users.
Unfortunately, the valuable information offered by Nest's 24/7 continuous video feed, the very nice clip library and the great playback features are all negated unless you subscribe to Nest Aware. All non-subscribers will get is the past 3 hours of triggered-event still snapshots, which, after the trial catamenia ends, volition have no link to the associated video.
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Nest offers both kinds of access sharing that nearly consumers would want: Family accounts that include full authoritative privileges and playback admission, and links (with or without a password) that provide not-family members with access only to the live feed. However, as mentioned before, Family unit accounts are set up in the mobile apps, and live-feed-link sharing is washed in the web portal, which can be confusing.
Nest Cam Outdoor review: Verdict
Both the hardware and software for the Nest Cam Outdoor offer a quality experience with proficient video capture and audio, and very good functionality and ease of use. However, at that place'southward no local-storage option, and the key features for which Nest is famous are available merely to Nest Aware subscribers.
Amongst the all-time outdoor security cameras, the Blink Outdoor and the Wyze Cam Outdoor are less expensive options, while the Arlo Ultra provides the best in image quality. But the Nest Cam Outdoor is a good photographic camera for those invested in the Google ecosystem.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/nest-cam-outdoor,review-3978.html
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