Nest Cam (battery) test: indoor and outdoor camera switches to Google Home

Google has kept the minimalist and rounded design of the latest models, and especially of the Nest Cam Outdoor. The new Nest Cam (battery) is thus adorned with a matt white shell drawing a perfect half-sphere on the back, while a black disc inserted in the front reveals the optics in the center. An optic which also seems quite small compared to the total diameter of the device (8.3 cm). Quite massive, the Nest Cam (battery) measures as much in depth (8.3 cm) and is not really a featherweight either (398 g).

We can therefore worry about finding in its box only a magnetic support to put it or hang it on the wall or the ceiling, but the magnet seems quite powerful. If it facilitates the flight, this system also has the merit of facilitating the charge – the battery is not removable, it is mandatory to remove the camera and then just pull on it. Note that Google advertises between 1.5 and 7 months of autonomy only – the competition is now up to a year – and that a plate must be added for installation on the wall or ceiling. It is obviously supplied, with the screws and plugs necessary to fix it itself to the wall, and simply fits on the back of the support.

On the right side, a hollow hugs the back of the camera. The whole rounded part is magnetized, which makes it possible to orient it quite freely, but not to place it horizontally or tilt it down by simply placing it on a piece of furniture. This will require investing in the optional base (€ 34.99). A wall mount to screw to the camera is also available. The fixing system has been provided below, in line with the charging connector – proprietary and also magnetic – and the speaker.

Note that Google is, as always, bypassing the microSD slot. A small memory is included in anticipation of possible power or network outages, but the company prefers to rely on its cloud storage service for the history of events. Encryption is obviously provided, but it only occurs during transfer and storage and is therefore not end-to-end (E2EE), as is now the case at Ring.

IP54 certified, the Nest Cam (battery) must be able to withstand bad weather, and we appreciate its indicator light on the front. This not only indicates when it is active, but also when someone is watching the live stream. It emits a steady light in the first case, and flashes in the second. This indicator of course remains off when the camera is deactivated. It is controlled over Wi-Fi using the Home application after a quick configuration, a QRCode helping. We did not encounter any problems during the procedure.

Unlike previous Nest Cams, the 2021 models only work with Google’s Home app. After setup, the camera appears among the devices in the room it has been paired with, with a simple icon rather than a thumbnail showing a preview as is typically seen in the competition. No action is possible from this page. We would have particularly liked to find a button to activate / deactivate the Nest Cam (battery) quickly. You must enter the camera menu for this. Activation remains fairly fast since the home page directly offers a button when it is deactivated, but deactivation still requires an additional step.

This home page is actually the live one, which must be reactivated each time you return to see what is happening in the room. We were able to observe a very low latency when viewing. A button also allows you to speak from your smartphone, but Google does not allow you to manually trigger recordings – a function however present in most competitors. Good point, however: the battery level is constantly indicated on this page, and it is therefore easy to anticipate the fuel failure.

A tab system gives access to a history in the form of a chronological timeline that can be scrolled. It is obviously possible to zoom in the images, but we would also have liked to be able to zoom in / out on the frieze itself to easily find the recordings of the previous hours and days. It is better for this to go to the full history, which allows you to select a date and filters. Google has also provided a “More” tab, which however only gives access to commands to activate / deactivate the camera. Other features may be added later.

As for the configuration options, they are all accessible from the Camera Settings. There are some video and audio settings, but also different filters to limit alerts and recordings triggered by motion detection – noise detection is not offered. The Nest Cam (battery) is able to recognize people and their faces when recorded, as well as animals and vehicles using on-board artificial intelligence. Note that motion detection is also accompanied by a sensitivity adjustment on 3 levels, as well as customizable activity zones.

All of these options are available at no additional cost, with the exception of face recognition. As with the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor, to take advantage of it, you have to subscribe to Nest Aware, which however seems more interesting to us to extend the video history, limited to 3 hours without subscription.

Face recognition is certainly effective: it only takes a pass in front of the Nest Cam (battery) for a face to be recognized, even with a mask and several meters away. And the system further promises to improve over time through machine learning. However, this recognition does not add much to the experience, unlike Netatmo’s solution. Main competitor in this field with its Smart Indoor Camera – formerly Welcome -, Netatmo not only allows you to deactivate alerts and recordings for known faces, but also to create scenarios for specific people through IFTTT.

At Google, face recognition is mainly used to enrich notifications. When a face is recognized, the name entered is then specified. A very dispensable addition, however. Notifications are accompanied by an animation showing the gist of the action that triggered it, so it’s usually possible to identify the people involved yourself without having to open Home. So hopefully Google will add more features to take advantage of face recognition in the future.

A programming function per day and time slot would not be refused either, the application only allowing integration into the “At home” and “Absence” routines to avoid having to activate / deactivate the Nest Cam (battery ) manually. Home is therefore still lacking some features common to the competition, even if the application has also been enriched with a practical “Chez moi” flow to review the important events of the day. It is easily accessible from the home page.

This is all the more frustrating as the Nest app used with previous models offered them. It also had the advantage of being available on the web, and thus allowing access to images from a browser. It is however possible to access the images of the Nest Cam (battery) from a smart display as the Nest Hub, and control it by voice.

Nest Cam (battery) includes a 2-megapixel sensor that enables it to produce recordings of 1920 x 1080 pixels. Its optics offer a 130 ° field of view and HDR processing is included, as well as night vision. Unlike many cameras in its price range, the Nest Cam (battery) does not have a projector or an advanced algorithm that allows it to offer color images with this night vision, only infrared LEDs. We must therefore be satisfied with black & white.

Note that two image qualities are offered in the application, but they do not impact the definition of the images. We did not notice any major difference by comparing the images of the two modes, but the less good one should allow to benefit from a better autonomy.

By day

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The Nest Cam (battery) delivers images that are darker than the Ezviz BC1, our benchmark for battery-powered cameras. The contrast is also less pronounced and the contours less accentuated. Ezviz’s more aggressive camera treatment allows it to reveal a bit more detail, but the Nest Cam (battery) doesn’t demerit. It also offers very good image quality and will easily identify someone in front of the house.

By night

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The night vision of the Google camera is also very effective. Here again, we find less contrasted images than at Ezviz, but the management of the brightness is generally better on the Nest Cam (battery). It thus manages to maintain a similar quality in the center and in the periphery of the image. The center of the stage is slightly overexposed with the BC1, and we see the opposite problem on the periphery. Information is lost in both cases. Even if the Ezviz camera still manages to reveal a little more detail in places, we therefore prefer the rendering of the Nest Cam (battery).

In our real-world tests, the Google camera also gave better results, since it was able to detect activity up to 9 meters. We were also able to recognize a face filmed up to 4 meters in complete darkness, and its night vision was operational just two seconds after the lights were turned off.