Google Nest Cam Wired Indoor Security Camera - Snow

I have had this Nest Cam for a few weeks now and I’m very impressed. The install out of the box was super simple. I downloaded the app and it walked me through each step and my camera was setup in less than 15 minutes. I had no problems with adding this camera to my home network. I love that there are no cables to run! When I first turned on the camera, I was so impressed with how clear and detailed the picture was! No matter what time of the day, the images are super clear and the quality is great! I like that this camera has the 2 way audio, the sound is very clear and loud. The motion detection works perfectly and alerts me immediately. This camera also offers face recognition for up to ten people which is definitely a great feature. The batteries last for quite ... MoreI have had this Nest Cam for a few weeks now and I’m very impressed. The install out of the box was super simple. I downloaded the app and it walked me through each step and my camera was setup in less than 15 minutes. I had no problems with adding this camera to my home network. I love that there are no cables to run! When I first turned on the camera, I was so impressed with how clear and detailed the picture was! No matter what time of the day, the images are super clear and the quality is great! I like that this camera has the 2 way audio, the sound is very clear and loud. The motion detection works perfectly and alerts me immediately. This camera also offers face recognition for up to ten people which is definitely a great feature. The batteries last for quite some time and when they are running low you can easily recharge them with the provided USB cable. I have this camera outside of my home and it feel so much more at ease knowing I have the added security of this camera. I plan on buying more of these cameras to install in other areas outside of my home. If you’re looking for extra security, I would highly recommend this camera!

A little better than blink?

I’m a camera installer by trade. A customer really wanted to try the Nest cameras, so we picked up ten cameras of a few models and gave it a shot. The take always are not good. I cannot recommend these cameras to anyone.- it’s at best just one quarter the resolution you can find in similarly priced 4K cameras.- the clarity does not live up to the expectation or the hype-the cameras have comparably limited features. The frame can only be rotated 180 degrees, there is no option for 90 degrees, every professional camera system I work with has those options, and many more.- the 134 degree lens would be useful if it had higher resolution, but that’s just too wide a field of view for a decent picture at 1080p.- the camera housing articulation does not give you the ... MoreI’m a camera installer by trade. A customer really wanted to try the Nest cameras, so we picked up ten cameras of a few models and gave it a shot. The take always are not good. I cannot recommend these cameras to anyone.- it’s at best just one quarter the resolution you can find in similarly priced 4K cameras.- the clarity does not live up to the expectation or the hype-the cameras have comparably limited features. The frame can only be rotated 180 degrees, there is no option for 90 degrees, every professional camera system I work with has those options, and many more.- the 134 degree lens would be useful if it had higher resolution, but that’s just too wide a field of view for a decent picture at 1080p.- the camera housing articulation does not give you the same flexibility that a proper 4K camera would give you. Inevitably you will have a few wonky pictures if doing 5 or more cams.- loading the cameras into the google home app is exceptionally time consuming, with literally dozens of unnecessary prompts. If your phone and the camera are not connected to the same access point at the same time, the cameras will not connect. So you must be physically next to the camera to pull them into google home.- google did not improve their 2nd generation product, meaning that the 2nd gen cameras have lower performance specs than their predecessors.-huge bandwidth problems. 10 cameras can chew up to 50Mbps of upload, which nobody without fiber service can achieve.-the Internet service providers get twitchy when you’re pulling that kind of upload bandwidth 24/7. If they have the ability to throttle you, they eventually will.All in all this appears to be the folly of a search engine trying to be a surveillance manufacturer, when there are existing surveillance manufacturers in the market who are simply better at what they do.

Better options out there

I picked one of these up about a year ago. I'm a big Google fanboy and I'm very much engrained in the Google ecosystem. My house has several Nest/Google Home Speakers, a hub, a few smart clocks, Chromecasts, Google TV devices, etc. I'm very tech savvy and have no problem setting up, using, and troubleshooting devices in general.Short version is: These are almost unusable. Despite having a Nest Wifi mesh network across my house, and trying this camera in multiple locations (including about 15 ft from the primary router with a direct line of sight), it's almost not even worth having. I can connect to the camera and view the stream, but it only takes about 30 seconds before the stream freezes and then shows a spinner. Sometimes it'll recover, only to pause again ... MoreI picked one of these up about a year ago. I'm a big Google fanboy and I'm very much engrained in the Google ecosystem. My house has several Nest/Google Home Speakers, a hub, a few smart clocks, Chromecasts, Google TV devices, etc. I'm very tech savvy and have no problem setting up, using, and troubleshooting devices in general.Short version is: These are almost unusable. Despite having a Nest Wifi mesh network across my house, and trying this camera in multiple locations (including about 15 ft from the primary router with a direct line of sight), it's almost not even worth having. I can connect to the camera and view the stream, but it only takes about 30 seconds before the stream freezes and then shows a spinner. Sometimes it'll recover, only to pause again shortly after, but most of the time it disconnects completely and says it's unable to display the video feed. If you try again, most of the time it will just continue to say it can't display the video feed until you wait and try again later. And forget trying to talk through it.This is on a home network with gigabit fiber internet (tested at about 800mbps down & up), with practically no other device activity (no one is even home), and confirmed to not suffer from bufferbloat or anything. It doesn't matter what quality setting you use, what device you view from, or how good your internet connection is on the client. I can close the Google Home app, and check my $50 Eufy camera, and get a quick, reliable video stream. It's farther from the router, and honestly the quality is better too.The only reason I didn't give this 1 star for quality is because the actual physical hardware presentation is nice. It feels like a high-end product. It just doesn't perform like one.

Far better than Ring, but horrible setup process

Years ago, I started off with Ring cameras, but after upgrading one camera to Google Nest, I had to upgrade them all. The quality of the motion detection is far superior, but the setup process is horrible. The nest devices do not support 5GHz Wi-Fi and to get them to connect, after wasting a couple frustrating hours and starting over and over, I found that temporarily disabling 5GHz during setup resolved this. The worst part is that google support only provides useless fake/canned responses. They are so obviously canned auto-responses as they repeat your question in their useless response and do not answer the question and mark the topic as closed so that you cannot even follow up. Also, they still rely on BOTH the nest app and the home app to get multiple devices ... MoreYears ago, I started off with Ring cameras, but after upgrading one camera to Google Nest, I had to upgrade them all. The quality of the motion detection is far superior, but the setup process is horrible. The nest devices do not support 5GHz Wi-Fi and to get them to connect, after wasting a couple frustrating hours and starting over and over, I found that temporarily disabling 5GHz during setup resolved this. The worst part is that google support only provides useless fake/canned responses. They are so obviously canned auto-responses as they repeat your question in their useless response and do not answer the question and mark the topic as closed so that you cannot even follow up. Also, they still rely on BOTH the nest app and the home app to get multiple devices to work together, and you cannot find this anywhere in their documentation. They are far better than Ring, but they have a long way to go a leave a lot to be desired.

Forced subscription

The camera has some great features, but also some significant drawbacks.Likes:One feature I really appreciate is the ability to set up a routine so that when my phone is away from home, the camera automatically turns off privacy mode (starts recording), and when I return, it stops recording. This "presence detection" automation adds a nice level of convenience and was my main reason for purchasing the Nest. Now, I no longer have to remember to manually turn my camera on and off.Dislikes:There’s no pan and tilt functionality, which really limits the camera’s coverage and flexibility. Additionally, the camera only stores up to 3 hours of event history, not a rolling 3 hours like I expected (and like with all my previous cameras). Instead, it only saves events ... MoreThe camera has some great features, but also some significant drawbacks.Likes:One feature I really appreciate is the ability to set up a routine so that when my phone is away from home, the camera automatically turns off privacy mode (starts recording), and when I return, it stops recording. This "presence detection" automation adds a nice level of convenience and was my main reason for purchasing the Nest. Now, I no longer have to remember to manually turn my camera on and off.Dislikes:There’s no pan and tilt functionality, which really limits the camera’s coverage and flexibility. Additionally, the camera only stores up to 3 hours of event history, not a rolling 3 hours like I expected (and like with all my previous cameras). Instead, it only saves events from the last 3 hours. E.g. if someone breaks in during the night, by the morning the recordings have already expired. To access more, you have to pay for a subscription.Overall, while the camera has some helpful features, the limited event storage without subscription makes it hard to fully recommend.

Google Software/Service is TERRIBLE

The hardware is fine, but Google's software and service are abysmal.I got two cameras thinking "Google software is usually pretty good", and promptly got the highest subscription tier thinking it would do everything I would expect. Boy was I wrong. Below are a few of my frustrations.-Want to view camera history and download clips from a desktop computer / web browser? Well that isn't a thing. You can view a live feed on desktop and NOTHING ELSE. Users have been asking Google for a better desktop interface for years now and they haven't done anything about it. You'll be stuck with the mobile app which sucks for actually reviewing historical video. Why am I paying $16 per month for this?-Get a new wifi router? Bad news, you can't just update the wifi settings in ... MoreThe hardware is fine, but Google's software and service are abysmal.I got two cameras thinking "Google software is usually pretty good", and promptly got the highest subscription tier thinking it would do everything I would expect. Boy was I wrong. Below are a few of my frustrations.-Want to view camera history and download clips from a desktop computer / web browser? Well that isn't a thing. You can view a live feed on desktop and NOTHING ELSE. Users have been asking Google for a better desktop interface for years now and they haven't done anything about it. You'll be stuck with the mobile app which sucks for actually reviewing historical video. Why am I paying $16 per month for this?-Get a new wifi router? Bad news, you can't just update the wifi settings in the Google Home app like you'd expect. You will have to delete your home profile, start fresh, and factory reset all your cameras. Very convenient. Why am I paying $16 per month for this?-Think your monthly subscription will have relative price stability and result in new features being added on a regular basis? Well you thought wrong again! Google just increased the price of my subscription by 25% to $20 per month, mere months after I bought the cameras and started using their horrendous service. And forget about regular updates because Google has funneled most of their devs to work on their broken AI chatbot which is also functioning terribly.In conclusion, why would you pay $20 per month for a product that is objectively worse than Ring? Not a clue! But I'm definitely switching ASAP and will never buy any Google hardware ever again.

Great but not perfect!

There are a lot of choices in the market when you're looking for a security home camera/indoor, and variations of it. I won't get into the classifications, but just know there are 1080p, 2k, 4k, wired, wireless, indoors outdoors, weather, etc.The nice thing about this product is it's supported by google and well integrated into the ios/android app environment. Pop up the app, and click all cameras, and the neat little app nicely shows all your cameras. You can control things like night vision, off/on, sound, etc, but you won't be able to move the camera/rotate the camera, just be aware.Another thing to be aware of is the subscription vs non subscription for this and all the competitors, and what they bring to the table, I recommend do a little search on it ... MoreThere are a lot of choices in the market when you're looking for a security home camera/indoor, and variations of it. I won't get into the classifications, but just know there are 1080p, 2k, 4k, wired, wireless, indoors outdoors, weather, etc.The nice thing about this product is it's supported by google and well integrated into the ios/android app environment. Pop up the app, and click all cameras, and the neat little app nicely shows all your cameras. You can control things like night vision, off/on, sound, etc, but you won't be able to move the camera/rotate the camera, just be aware.Another thing to be aware of is the subscription vs non subscription for this and all the competitors, and what they bring to the table, I recommend do a little search on it before settling on the brand also.Finally, the picture quality is great, I would give it a 8.5/10. The speed/update/responsiveness is industry standard, and it's not great, but it's not bad either. I wish all the cameras of all brands are more responsive, or pull data from the camera or the cloud faster, but in time hopefully that improves but not right now.Overall, still a good price to performance ratio, highly recommend it.

I Wouldn't Bother With Anything Else

If you're already part of the Google/Nest Home ecosystem, then this is definitely the camera for you. I have two properties that I monitor, 500 miles apart. I previously used Arlo battery-powered cameras connected to solar panels. Both cameras suffered the same hardware failure after less than two years of service and I replaced them with these. What a difference. I changed the monitoring location to a more sheltered area where these camera could be plugged into AC mains all the time (as they must be). That solved all the environmental problems I used to have with the Arlos' batteries being either too hot or too cold to charge properly. That also solved the problem of having to do hard resets with battery pulls. I also experienced a 7-second-plus lag when monitoring ... MoreIf you're already part of the Google/Nest Home ecosystem, then this is definitely the camera for you. I have two properties that I monitor, 500 miles apart. I previously used Arlo battery-powered cameras connected to solar panels. Both cameras suffered the same hardware failure after less than two years of service and I replaced them with these. What a difference. I changed the monitoring location to a more sheltered area where these camera could be plugged into AC mains all the time (as they must be). That solved all the environmental problems I used to have with the Arlos' batteries being either too hot or too cold to charge properly. That also solved the problem of having to do hard resets with battery pulls. I also experienced a 7-second-plus lag when monitoring the Arlo cameras, both locally and at the remote location. With these Nest cameras, it's less than a second, effectively negligible. The video quality is superb. The data throughput is peerless. And finally, the facial, object and motion recognition is both more accurate and less prone to false notifications. You can designate familiar faces, so that you don't have to check the video feed every time you get an alert. You simply get an alert that says "Your annoying neighbor Cletus detected on Front Door camera." (Don't have to check the feed.) Or, "unfamiliar face detected." (DO have to check the feed.) In short, a tremendously reliable, fast, useful camera. Highly recommended.

Not for security

We are replacing our Google Nest cameras with a real camera system. The face detection seldom works, video clips are nearly impossible to review and export, and are often unavailable right when needed urgently. Google seems to make very little effort to develop or enhance the application and capabilities of the app, seemingly more focused on getting a little bit into a million things rather than actually making a product with good user experience. The doorbell can be useful at times but overall we regret investing in the over priced Google devices instead of a real camera system where we can access the cameras in real time and easily review and export footage of critical events. I would definitely not want to depend on the Google devices for security, they are more ... MoreWe are replacing our Google Nest cameras with a real camera system. The face detection seldom works, video clips are nearly impossible to review and export, and are often unavailable right when needed urgently. Google seems to make very little effort to develop or enhance the application and capabilities of the app, seemingly more focused on getting a little bit into a million things rather than actually making a product with good user experience. The doorbell can be useful at times but overall we regret investing in the over priced Google devices instead of a real camera system where we can access the cameras in real time and easily review and export footage of critical events. I would definitely not want to depend on the Google devices for security, they are more for convenience only to know when a package is delivered.

i bought two and it looks pretty good

so i got two of these new nest cam wired versions, i'm gonna be clear and say that for the price its OK, i do miss the older models that had a better megapixel then these and the images looked better on those when you zoomed in for a close up of a person, but these are not that bad for indoor use but inside of my basement where i have 16 very bright led 5000k led light bars i did experience a lot of banding, now what is Banding You Ask? (Banding) is those black static bars or lines you see scrolling down on your screen whenever someone makes a video with lighting conditions that a camera cant handle and though for cameras like Mirroless, DSLR's and GoPro's you can simply adjust your shutter speed, ISO and Exposure Value (EV) and fix it and if that doesn't work you ... Moreso i got two of these new nest cam wired versions, i'm gonna be clear and say that for the price its OK, i do miss the older models that had a better megapixel then these and the images looked better on those when you zoomed in for a close up of a person, but these are not that bad for indoor use but inside of my basement where i have 16 very bright led 5000k led light bars i did experience a lot of banding, now what is Banding You Ask? (Banding) is those black static bars or lines you see scrolling down on your screen whenever someone makes a video with lighting conditions that a camera cant handle and though for cameras like Mirroless, DSLR's and GoPro's you can simply adjust your shutter speed, ISO and Exposure Value (EV) and fix it and if that doesn't work you can go a step further and use ND Filters to fix that. unfortunately this nest cam has its limitations as its intended to be a security camera and nothing more. so adding an ND filter to fix that is not gonna be easy but its possible you just need to make sure not to block the IR sensors for the Night Vision Feature which is super awesome! however if yiu end up using some kind of ND filter and hot glue it on to your nest cam to solve that poor lighting banding issue, you will be sacrificing some of the night vision brightness, in other words the night vision will look a bit darker, i tried this with my go pro hero 10's Polar Pro ND8 filter which solved the banding problem immediately but darkened up the night vision clarity during my testing. i had a video for you guys on that but unfortunately i am limited to images only.anyways for what it is and for its price this is a great camera,somethings to be aware of is that these new cameras cannot be accessed from the nest app, they can only be seen from the google home app which does give you access to all your nest cameras but only through the mobile app. you cant see the footage from your pc like you can with the nest website. so please keep that in mind, i also have the yearly nest aware plus subscription so i have the full access to the cameras. you can still save video footage from the camera but now instead of 1 minute video clips like from nest, with google i was able to get a 5 minute clip saved to my smartphone! that's a BIG PLUS!since i could add the short video i made of this i figured i would add screen shots from it instead. i hope the pictures help with identifying my experience.anyways that's it for my review.