The Nest Cam IQ is smart enough to recognize faces for $299
Nest was once one of the hottest tech startups in the industry, but they haven’t done much lately. Their focus has been security cameras. After launching an outdoor camera last year, Nest is back with a new and improved camera. It’s called Nest Cam IQ, and it’s a lot smarter than previous models.
The design of the Nest Cam IQ looks similar to the outdoor camera, but it’s a little more petite. The head is on a hinge that can be moved in any direction. A ring of LEDs encircles the camera. They light up green when someone is viewing the feed and flash blue when someone is talking over the speaker.
The big upgrade is the new 8MP camera capable of 4K HDR video with 130-degree wide-angle. The footage is never actually in 4K, but that allows the “Supersight” feature to zoom in and track motion without losing quality. Another big feature is facial recognition, which logs faces in the app. You can tag them as friends or family and be notified when an unknown face is in your home. There’s also audio alerts for things like dog barking and people talking.
The Nest Cam IQ is not cheap. The device itself is $299. If you want fancy features like facial recognition and audio alerts, you’ll need the Nest Aware subscription, which costs $10 per month or $100 per year. That can add up pretty quickly, but it might be worth it for the upgraded specs and features.