Alphabet’s Nest Labs is back with a new indoor security camera: the Nest Cam IQ. It uses Google Photos’ AI to both recognize familiar people in the frame and identify strangers, the company said on Wednesday. It costs $299, and it starts shipping this June in the U.S. and the U.K.
Nest’s return has been received with open arms by tech press and users alike, after nearly a year out of the spotlight with no new products to show. It was only a few months ago that Bloomberg reported the company planned a comeback this year with a new roster of home security gadgets.
The Nest Learning Thermostat is one of the best-selling IoT products in the market, and it is expected to get an overhaul this year along with the debut of a new alarm system and a smart doorbell. News about these products should come soon after the Cam IQ launch.
The IQ has great specifications and a familiar design
The Nest Cam IQ is the latest security camera in the lineup, a sort of spiritual successor to the Nest Cam Indoor, except it adopts the aesthetics of the popular Nest Cam Outdoor.
It comes in a white polycarbonate body, and it has a flexible swivel mount that can either plug into the wall or act as a traditional vertical stand. Like other cameras of the family, it just needs to be connected to a power outlet, connected to the internet via Wi-Fi and paired with your mobile device.
Powering the cam there is a hexacore processor and an 8MP, 4K sensor that enables the Cam IQ with close-up tracking view. The 12x digital zoom on the new Nest security camera can record 1080p HDR footage in a 130° diagonal field of view.
The Nest Cam IQ: Price, subscription, and availability
With a Nest Aware subscription, however, you can unlock one of the coolest features of the Nest Cam IQ: facial recognition using Google Photo’s artificial intelligence engine. That way your camera can send smart alerts to your phone or tablet if it detects someone it has not seen before.
On top of that, the Cam IQ has a speaker and microphone array seven times more powerful than cameras of the last generation. A blue LED light ring on the front lights up when users talk remotely with other people in the house.
The subscription costs $10 a month, and it is not automatically renewed, so you can sign up for only two months of vacation if you are going away for a while, for example. You can also pay for the entire year in advance for $100.
The Nest Cam IQ costs $299, and it is available for preorder in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands right now. It starts shipping in late June when it will also become available in Spain, Italy, Austria, and Germany.
Source: Nest Labs