Google Nest Cam Indoor – Wired Surveillance Camera

Easy to instal

Just bought this on Amazon right before going on a Cruise and wanted to be able to keep track of the house and the dog while we were away. It worked great! Set-up was very easy. In less than 5 minutes I had it out of the box, plugged in and linked to our nest account (we already have had two Nest thermostats for several years), and was able to monitor the cam on my laptop, iPhone and iPad with no trouble. You get a free 30-day cloud storage account so I was able to scan back through time at motion triggered events. Both the web interface and the iPhone interface through the app allow you to do this. Simply by clicking the skip back button on the interface, I was able to scan through events, or look at a list of them and pick from there. I like having access to the camera through the same app that we always use to run the Nest thermostats. While on vacation we were able to check on activity in the house and hear what is going on, both live or recorded.

The camera worked flawlessly with no problems. The only slight issue I had was through the web interface in safari when I tried to activate the microphone. A flash player pop-up window tries to allow you to grant access to the website to control your computers microphone, but I could not click on the pop-up box to change the settings. This was easily fixed though by accessing the Flash Player Control panel in system preferences and granting access to the home.nest.com website there. I also think think the microphone activation screen in the iPhone app could be better designed as it covers up a significant portion of the screen when activated, but this is minor and does not affect how well it works.

Overall I am very happy with my purchase.

UPDATE: After 3 weeks with the Nest Cam I’m liking it more and more. I felt compelled to comment after seeing all these negative reviews. The cam continues to work flawlessly and I have had no issues at all. I moved it to our front door and have since purchased a 2nd cam. Another feature I love is the ability to set up multiple motion zones through the interface. I noticed it was detecting motion after every car past by in the field of vision which includes the street in front of our house. I set up a motion zone so it would only flag motion near the front door. When you go back to the interface and scroll back through time, it puts dots on the progress bar and they are color code to match the zone that was triggered. So I can actually skip through each event triggered by a car passing by, or the different colored events triggered by someone coming to the front door. I can also add more trigger zones which are then represented in the progress/history playback bar by their own unique color.

I have had no issues with bandwidth. I do have relatively fast internet service (30Mb down and 2Mb Up) so maybe that’s why I have had no bandwidth issues while others have. I’ve been running at 720p. I set it to 1080p for awhile and yes, the picture quality was terrific, but even at 720p it’s pretty darn good.

Maybe I’m lucky, but the device has been great for me and I remain happy.

Awesome camera, good features, easy to use app, simple setup and makes home automation simple.

I have wanted a camera for the home for a while but was on the fence for some time. I currently have the Nest Thermostat and a few Nest Protects in the home, which I have been really pleased with and when Nest came out with the camera it was a no brainer. I have to say I am very surprised by the negative reviews, which I don’t understand.

So these are my thoughts:

Pros: Easy to setup, clear picture, awesome night vision, great app, easy to use app, love the notifications and full integration

Cons: The unit gets a bit warm, an outdoor version would be nice

If you are on the fence about getting a camera this is the chance you’ve been waiting for, or at least it has been for me. The price is what it is, at this time they are $200, but all things considered that is great I think. With it being new I think they can get away with charging $200 but $150 would be just right. Take a step back and realize what you are getting… a tiny camera, that hooks up to wi-fi, small foot print, gets awesome wide views and great picture… all while delivering it straight to your phone… that is phenomenal. Think about where this possibility was 10 years ago or even 15… the setup, hardware and it was terrible… now for a small cost you get a tiny footprint, small hardware, great video quality straight to your phone all while being able to set it up yourself in less than 30 seconds!!! What else do you want?

Are there other products like this? Yes. Are they cheaper? Yes. But I would put my money on Nest and Google as a company to put some serious R&D and continue to add features to it and believe they will do a better job than any competitor out there. If they don’t then they’ll probably buy them out, LOL.

Let me say this though about the complaints I have seen, specifically with connection issues. Before I set off on my home automation journey I realized I would have to have a killer wi-fi connection in order to pull this off, no taking short cuts on this at all. The wi-fi router in my opinion is the heart of the system you want to install. I went with what I thought was the best router out there at the time which was the Linksys WRT AC1900 dual band wi-fi router. http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-Dual-Band-Wireless-Anywhere-WRT1900AC-FFP/dp/B00K91DB7Y It is not cheap but you don’t want to go cheap in this category and if you even begin to think that your cable provided router is good, it is not. You have to realize whatever they provide you are light years behind the Linksys by far. When I had the Verizon provided junk router I kept having connection issues with my Nest Thermostat and the Nest protects. In the evening with the family on their devices we would have two iPads, two iPhones, computer and all the wireless systems (printers, Nest Protects, Thermostats, Camera, cloud drives) and always had issues because of the demand on the router. Now with dual bands, I setup automation on one and family devices on the other and the system is flawless.

I can’t stress to take your router in to consideration when you hear these complaints. If you want a good experience not only with this camera but whatever you do with home automation the router quality will have to be at the heart of the system, invest money there. As for folks who say they have 75/75 internet, lets be real… that is at best… after that the signal has to be put out thru your router and that is the weak point, you don’t actually get the true power.

I hope this review is helpful to some and answers your concerns posed by others.

Thank you!

Bought this to monitor a vacant home under renovations. I am so happy with it. It us so easy to set up and works great.