The folks at Google’s (or Alphabet if you prefer) have come out with a new camera, the Nest Cam IQ ($299). So what is different between this camera which is currently available for preorder and the Nest Cam and Nest Cam Outdoor?
What’s new with the Nest Cam IQ –
- More powerful 6-core processor
- Bigger price tag – $299 (vs $199)
- Better connectivity
- Familiar face alerts with Nest Aware (currently it just recognizes if it is a person or not)
- 1/2.5-inch, 8-megapixel 4K sensor with HDR imaging (2Mbps)
- Better speaker (7x more powerful) and microphones (3-mic array)
- Bluetooth LE support
- Virtual panning (called Supersight)
- USB-C cable
Is it worth upgrading or adding this camera to your home or business? It isn’t spec’d for outdoor use so scratch putting it outside. If you are looking for an indoor camera, maybe. Would I replace a current indoor camera with this one? Nope. Not yet.
I like my Nest Cameras. They aren’t perfect, but they are good enough that I still recommend them to friends and family. With that said… Considering how few products Nest has, I am a bit surprised by the lack of innovations and additions to the product family.
- I wish that my Nest Cams would play nice with other smart devices and had time scheduling features. For example, if my camera sees a person in my yard at midnight, turn on my smart lights in the kitchen and entryway, etc…
- I wish that my Nest Cams wouldn’t alert me for items outside of my set zones. I have my yard zone perimeter mapped out but it still alerts for people walking on the sidewalk. In other words the alerts are inconsistent.
- A paralel local storage option would be nice for times when the network is down.
- A bigger discount for Nest Aware for additional cameras would be great.
