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| Google's new Nest device is getting smarter |
Google has announced a new line of surveillance cameras and video doorbells under its Nest brand.
The new model includes an indoor camera, indoor and outdoor cameras, a flashlight and a video doorbell that replaces the old Nest IQ camera and Nest Hello doorbell.
The main features of the new devices are a unified design language and a lower price tag than the older models, which they replace while adding more features.
Anyone who has seen other Nest products launched in the past couple of years knows the new camera design, such as the latest thermostat, Nest WiFi smart speakers or Nest Audio.
The company switched to softer bezels and a softer color palette, and the new camera underscores this in its predictable color options.
Google is adding more and more intelligence to the camera. Thank you for advancing cross-device machine learning. The new model can identify people, animals, packages and vehicles and issue specific warnings to everyone without cloud processing.
The Familiar Faces feature, which uses cloud-based facial recognition, still requires a paid plan.
With this, the company wants to reduce noise through continuous movement reports. This is a common complaint with home security cameras and video doorbells.
The company said the new camera's tensor processing unit allows the algorithm to operate at twice the number of pixels and twice the frame rate of the previous Nest Camera.
This allows for more reliable event detection and alerts, just as the Tensor CPU improves the functionality of future Pixel 6 phones.
The camera also includes a three-hour event history, no subscription required. If the wireless network fails, its internal memory can hold up to an hour of event fragments (about a week of events).
Google introduces the new Nest device
The company is improving versatility with this line of products, as the new Nest Cam doorbell and cam can be used with either battery-powered or wired settings.
There are also a number of accessories available for wall or table mounting, or for mounting cameras indoors or outdoors.
What you won't see in the new model is 4K resolution or hardware upgrades to keep up with the specs race. The company said the trade-offs required for 4K video -- greater bandwidth consumption and higher cloud storage costs -- outweigh the benefits.
In addition, Google believes that better HDR processing and smarter notifications are more useful than simply increasing the resolution.
New devices include the Google Nest Camera for $179.99, which can be used indoors and outdoors. Google Nest Camera with Projector, $279.99. and Google Nest Camera Indoor for $99.99. The video doorbell costs $179.99.