Site icon Gadget Review

Nest Cam IQ Indoor review, Not Cheap but Worth!

Kate Rine

Whether you want to keep an eye on things during your absence, or want to know what your children or pets are doing; then you can think of the Nest Cam IQ security camera. This is for indoor and outdoor. We extensively test the camera in our Nest Cam IQ Indoor review.

Nest Cam IQ Indoor review

Manufacturer Nest has been acquired by Google for several years. Nevertheless, the companies operate independently and we have seen beautiful products from Nest recently. Nest focuses on home automation products; smart products for the home. That is what we see back at the Nest Cam IQ Indoor security camera that we have extensively tested for several weeks.

Nest has put several security cameras on the market; including the April release of Nest Cam IQ Outdoor, a similar model but for outdoor use. In addition, there is the Nest Cam Indoor, also for indoor but slightly less extensive than the IQ version, which we test here in this review. What is the benefit of the Nest IQ Cam Indoor and how does the camera perform in practice? You can read that in our extensive review.

Sales package

The Nest Cam IQ Indoor sales package consists of the camera itself, a 3-meter long power cord with USB-C connection, a power adapter and some paperwork. At the bottom of the camera there is a threaded opening with which you can screw the device somewhere. The bottom is also provided with anti-slip so that the camera stands firmly. The connection of the USB-C cable is very neatly concealed in the camera itself; so that it does not stand out too much.

Nest Cam IQ Indoor has a flexible head that can be tilted by 160 degrees and rotated 180 degrees. Images are captured with a field of view (angle of view) of 130 degrees; so you get a lot in the picture. The outer edge is a luminous ring that lights up when the call function is switched on. Here we will soon be back in the review.

The Nest camera only works on the mains, not on a battery or on batteries.

Installation

The installation of the Nest Cam IQ Indoor is really a breeze. First you can download the Nest app on your Android or iOS device. Then you put the camera where you want it, plug it into the socket and follow the steps in the app. Pairing the camera is fast because you scan the QR code from the Nest app on the camera. The camera is connected via a WiFi network.

Possibly it is possible to change the placement later or put it in another room, without having to reset the Nest camera. I was surprised about the simplicity of setting up the device. The application provides the useful information and helps you set up perfectly.

Features and app

Nest Cam IQ Indoor requires the Nest app. You can of course download it for free from the Play Store (or App Store). Setting up your device is not possible via the computer, but certain features can only be used via the computer. You can put together video fragments and make time-lapse of them. In addition, there is a detailed video history, for example per minute or even second. You can also create activity zones via the website of your Nest product. Notifications for these zones can be adjusted via the app.

In the night the camera can also make very clear images, without the need for lighting. The Nest camera uses infrared for this, which is not visible to the human eye. The images are admittedly in shades of gray, but very clear.

notifications

It is precisely the settings in the field of reports that score significant advantages in our Nest Cam IQ Indoor review. You can indicate fairly accurately which notifications you want to receive. First you can choose whether you want to receive notifications when you are at home or not. You can then indicate whether you want notifications when the dog barks, a person talks or when other (loud) noises are heard.

You can adjust a lot to the reports. You get a preview in the report, for example when a person is seen, without having to open the entire app. You can receive notifications as a notification on your smartphone, but you can also choose to receive them as e-mail. Unfortunately you can not indicate that you want to ‘ignore’ the movements of your cat. The reports we received were therefore mainly about the cat in the house.

What we encountered during a week of vacation is that we suddenly got a message in the cottage that movement had been detected. I quickly grabbed my smartphone and looked at the images. There was nothing to see. This happened a few times; and there was always nothing to see. It seems that the camera sometimes perceives a change in light too much and sees it as movement. Also, an incident lamp or the like can put the camera on the wrong leg.

Home- Away

A very nice feature that you can find in the Nest app is the Home / Away function. Allows you to set the camera to turn on when you are away, and turn off when you are at home. Incidentally, you can also run the camera 24/7 or let it run when you are at home.

This works in practice without problems and when we step inside the camera is neatly switched off. For this the app uses your location (from your smartphone) and activity sensors. You can also manually switch between Home and Away in the app. If there are more people at home, you can add them as family members; so that they can also adjust these settings.

Scheme

Another useful function is making a schedule; you can also simply use the app under the heading ‘camera’ and select the relevant camera. For each day of the week you can set a schedule for the camera to switch on and off again. You can switch the camera on and off a maximum of 32 times a week in this way. This function also works easily.

Supersight

Supersight on the Nest Cam Indoor is a useful addition. When the camera detects a person, it automatically zooms in and is automatically followed by the camera during walking. For this it should be easier for you to identify the person. This also works for example with a cat, we noticed. This is all software; the camera itself does not move.

The Nest Cam IQ Indoor face detection feature works pretty well. If a not yet registered person is in the field of view of the camera, you will receive a notification. You can then indicate that it is ‘good people’, so that the camera will not sound ‘alarm’ next time. With a familiar face you can also add a name. In the app you can see how many times the person has already been spotted, and also see the photo cutouts. Are you just watching television; then the camera will also recognize those faces.

Microphone

Another addition of the Nest camera is that there is a speaker, and also a microphone. If you see that your child is sneaking from the just baked apple pie, you can immediately intervene via the Nest app. You can tap ‘talk’ while viewing the images. If desired, a sound signal sounds, the light ring lights up and you can talk to hear directly through the camera.

The videos recorded with the indoor camera are provided with high quality sound. The Nest Cam IQ Indoor is sensitive to sounds (positive) and so you can listen to it accurately.

Family members

If you live with several people in one house, you can add family members. For example, your partner can also receive notifications. In doing so, everyone can decide for themselves which notifications you want and do not want to receive.

Nest Aware

The camera comes with a 30-day trial of Nest Aware. This is the name of the subscription model that you can close with your Nest device. This allows you to get even more out of the Nest Cam IQ. For a fixed amount per month you can retrieve images over a longer period and look back at moments.

You can choose from 5-, 10- or 30-day video history. For this you pay 5, 10 or 30 euros per month respectively. If you want to pay per year, you benefit from a lower price; this will cost 50, 100 or 300 euros per year. You can use activity zones, create clips and timelapses and get even better reports. The person alerts are extended with ‘familiar face notifications’ where you can get a notification when a family member is spotted by the camera.

With activity zones you can mark places that you find important. Think of a window or a cradle where your newborn is in. When something happens there, the camera can send special notifications for this. It is a considerable sum, for a camera that already has a nice purchase price.

Without Nest Aware you still get notifications and you can review the video history. However, you can only look back three hours; this could have been more extensive in our opinion. Especially when you consider that when there is a break-in and you only find out in the morning, the images without Nest Aware may already be gone.

Statue

The image quality of the camera is very good. The images are sharp and thanks to the 130 degree angle you get a lot of pictures. Nest indicates that the images will be recorded in 4K, but that they will be reset to 1080p Full-HD thanks to HDR and algorithm. Security has also been thought of; the images are secured with 128-bit AES with TLS / SSL encryption.

In the application you can also specify in which quality / bandwidth the images are stored. The camera must always be connected to the internet because it stores the images for you online; so you can always access it. You can choose from three levels, with the highest (1080p Full-HD) with 24/7 activity consuming 400GB per month and the lowest (360p) 100GB per month. If you choose to save images in a lower resolution, you can also view them only in that resolution; so not in the highest resolution.

It is not possible to save the security images only locally, ie on your device. This is possible as an extra, but you can not switch off the images stored in the cloud; this is in fact the whole idea of ​​Nest; that you can access your images in multiple places.

Specifications at a glance:

Rating

The Nest Cam IQ Indoor is a great camera, we can be short about that. There is no major drawbacks and the ease of installation is a big plus. You can set a lot in terms of notifications and switch on and off automatically. Although the camera is really smart, it is not smart enough to ignore the movements of a cat. The image quality is excellent and this camera can also be combined with other Nest devices in the house.

De prijs ligt echter wel heel hoog, op moment van schrijven 349 euro. Voor dit geld krijg je wel een betrouwbare, geavanceerde beveiligingscamera vol mogelijkheden. Echter heb je voor 139 euro de Nest Cam Indoor (zonder IQ); deze heeft een ander design en is minder flexibel. Daarnaast heeft de normale Nest Cam Indoor een 3MP sensor, 8x digitale zoom en geen mogelijkheid tot het volgen van personen. Het grote verschil zit hem erin dat de IQ personen kan herkennen en zo bij onbekende gasten kan waarschuwen.

So, with the Nest Cam IQ indoor, you are absolutely ready for the future. Without Nest Aware you are more limited, but the camera is certainly not immediately unusable. We would have preferred to have Nest take you back for more than three hours. Whether you have that money for it is personal; The camera is absolutely not a bad buy

Exit mobile version