Nest Cam Review: High-Res Spying on Your House—or Puppy

June 23, 2015 1:50 p.m. ET

I run a covert spy operation. I really shouldn't even be talking about it.

You see, a few months ago, when I decided my new puppy wasn't to be trusted, I installed a Dropcam Pro webcam in my living room.

Now through the app, I have eyes on the little guy 24/7. While at work, I can check in to make sure he hasn't pooped on the carpet or, you know, invited his comrades over to play poker.

Then last week I found out my surveillance (or shall I say, furveillance?) system is totally obsolete. Nest, the Google-owned company that acquired Dropcam last year, released the brand new $200 Nest Cam. It's ostensibly a Dropcam Pro replacement with crisper 1080p video recording, better night vision and a new design—because everything in this world needs to be slimmer, even our webcams.

The new Nest Cam—or any of the dozens of competing do-it-yourself security webcams—isn't just for us pet snoops. Despite the apparent creepiness of having a running Web recording of our private living spaces, the connected cams have become popular for monitoring everything from the front door to the baby's crib. If you haven't bought one yet or even considered it, the promise is being in two places at the same time. These little cameras can be your eyes and ears.

So does the Nest Cam now make my old Dropcam look like dog poop? And, with competing cameras such as the $200 Simplicam bringing talents like family-member face recognition, is Nest even the best? After testing it against its closest competitors, the Nest Cam is at the top of my recommendation list. However, the monthly recording cost is a lot to swallow and the camera's motion detection still cries wolf far too often.

A Webcam You Can Admire

Next to each other, the Dropcam Pro and the Nest Cam look like a weight-loss ad's Before and After. The Nest Cam shares the Dropcam's shiny black-plastic finish, but it does look like it underwent liposuction treatment in the mid-region.

Cosmetics aside, there is some practical benefit to the slim design with rotatable neck. It's much easier to position and the magnetic base can be easily stuck to a fridge. It still needs its 10-foot power cord, but at least the cord is long enough for the camera to sit a good distance from an electrical socket.

Figuring out where to place the Nest (and how to get that perfect angle) is the hardest part of the setup. The rest—getting the camera on Wi-Fi and then getting started with a live feed—is a cinch with Nest's new app. Overall, I prefer the app to others. It's faster and easier to navigate (and now, even people with earlier Dropcam models can use it).

One thing Nest didn't fix? How hot the camera gets when it's on for more than a few hours. The company assures me this is normal and that there haven't been any customer issues reported.

Capturing Higher Quality

But see all your belongings in crystal clear 1080p! Right? Truth is the higher resolution isn't everything it's cracked up to be.

There's little difference between a 1080p camera and a 720p camera if you are just monitoring your pet. That's especially true when the camera is 5 to 10 feet away and you tend to view the footage streamed over the Internet on your phone's little screen.

When streaming to mobile devices over cellular connections, the Dropcam and Nest Cam transmit lower-resolution video to save on bandwidth and battery. Still, even with my iPhone 6 on Wi-Fi, I couldn't spot any significant quality difference between the 720p Dropcam and the 1080p Nest. In the instances where I thought there was a slight difference, it didn't matter much. Both 130-degree lenses clearly captured my puppy eating a toilet-paper roll. Quick, call National Geographic!

You would see the benefits of the higher resolution if you used it as a security camera, especially streamed to a computer monitor.

In the name of science, I dressed up as a burglar and stood exactly 15 feet away from each of the cameras during the day. When I downloaded the full-resolution clips and zoomed in on them on a high-resolution laptop screen, the Nest Cam's footage was slightly more detailed than with my old Dropcam and the 720p Simplicam. I could better make out my facial features and even some details on my shoes.

The Nest Cam defaults to 720p recording, mostly to save your home broadband bandwidth, but I didn't notice any network degradation when I used 1080p. If you stick with 720p, you'll still get the Nest Cam's superior night vision. When the fake burglar appeared at midnight, it was again easier to see facial details with the Nest.

Like many others, the Nest has a microphone and speaker for two-way, walkie-talkie-like communication using the Nest phone or Web app. The Nest's speaker was the loudest of my test subjects. Warning: Yelling into the microphone when your spouse is home alone will land you in the doghouse.

Motion Detected… Again

The original Dropcam's motion detection has evolved. Today, it's reasonably good about motion and sound alerts, as is the Nest that inherited it. I have noticed fewer pop-ups when my dog is at his water bowl or when the sun rises. But it still has far too many slip-ups. In the past week, I still got alerts triggered by shifts in the room's sunlight and movement on the TV. I end up ignoring these notifications—and the important ones, too.

Obviously, I really only want these notifications when I'm away. Dropcam could tell when you were gone, but Nest killed this geofencing feature. Now, I have to manually tell the app that I'm headed out the door—or buy the motion-sensing, pattern-recognizing Nest thermostat for that.

This is where I think this entire category of devices needs to keep evolving. The Simplicam, made by Arcsoft, has the right idea. The app gives you more control over notifications, and once I tweaked the sensitivity, its software was better at puppy detection. It has rudimentary facial detection that is supposed to identify family members so you aren't alerted every time the camera spots them. Yet after I registered my face, the app continued to say that an "unrecognized person" was in my apartment.

Simplicam is solid and ambitious, but I preferred Nest for the fundamentals: video quality and app design. I just wish Nest had Simplicam's more competitive pricing. For $200, you get the camera and a year of one-day recording. That means footage is kept for review in the app for a day; after that it is deleted.

Nest offers a 30-day service trial. But, like Dropcam before it, Nest Cam costs you $10 a month to review and rewind footage. That plan includes 10 days of recorded footage and there's no cheaper option.

I am cognizant of the security and privacy implications of having a camera aimed at my family, especially one that's constantly uploading footage to servers in the cloud. Nest requires a strong password and encrypts all video. The company also assured me that there have been no known instances of Nest products being hacked remotely.

That said, I do find the camera provides peace of mind and that's why I keep paying the monthly fee. I'd consider upgrading to Nest Cam if my Dropcam Pro died. For now, though, I don't need the extra specs to keep up with my pup.

Source: Nest Cam Review: High-Res Spying on Your House—or Puppy