Google Launches New Nest Doorbell and Nest Cam with Battery

Google has announced a new slate of Nest products, introducing a new Nest Doorbell and indoor and outdoor Nest Cam. Both are now battery-powered with an option to be hardwired and launch on August 24, 2021.

Also new is the Google Nest Cam with Floodlight ($129 CAD) and a second-gen Nest Cam (wired), coming soon.

Aside from a refreshed design, Google says object detection has been moved on-device. This means some features that required a subscription such as Activity Zones, smart alerts and person detection are now available at no extra cost. Built-in storage offers up to 3 hours of event video history, equivalent to three weeks of events if power is cut out or no Wi-Fi is available.

The new cameras are also made with Machine Learning, says Google, noting they have been trained with “40 million images to accommodate lots of different environments and lighting conditions,” leveraging a new TPU chip, allowing cameras to run on an ML model up to 7.5 times per second.

Both the Nest Doorbell and Nest Cam feature night vision, 6x zoom, and HDR images, while the Doorbell now has 3:4 ratio for a taller field of view to track your packages.

Nest Doorbell with Battery (and wired)

The new Nest Doorbell is priced at $239 CAD, is battery powered (up to 3 months) and can also be hard-wired to your existing doorbell connection. The field of view is now 145 degrees diagonal with a 3:4 ratio (versus 160 degrees diagonal with 4:3 ratio like the older Nest Hello), with HD video at 960 x 1280 pixels, up to 30 FPS.

The new doorbell has motion and person alerts, but also gains parcel, animal and vehicle alerts, unlike the original Nest Hello. The new Nest Doorbell design is white (the U.S. gains other colours, boo) unlike just black like the Nest Hello. It’s also taller and slightly thinner and cheaper at $239 CAD versus $299 CAD, available for pre-order today.

Nest Cam (outdoor or indoor, battery)

As for the new Nest Cam, it also gains a battery, or it can be wired. Along with motion alerts, people, animals, vehicles alerts are new, thanks to on-device processing. Those with a Nest Aware subscription now gain familiar faces alerts.

Video quality is at 1080p HD with HDR and night vision, while 24/7 video history is available when wired only and a Nest Aware subscription. When there’s a Wi-Fi outage, you get one hour of video recording on-device. The field of view remains the same as the previous Nest Cam outdoor at 130 degrees diagonal and a 16:9 ratio.

The new Nest Cam is priced at $239.99 CAD, $10 cheaper than its predecessor but with more features and can be pre-ordered today.

We’ll have more info about these new Google Nest products soon, stay tuned.