Computer Shopper - UK (2019-08)

SECURITYCAMERAS

ISSUE 378|COMPUTERSHOPPER|AUGUST 2019 105

SESECURITYCAMERAS

THENESTCAMIQ (Shopper363), with its 4K
sensor and facial recognition, proved to be
the best-quality and smartest security camera
we’d ever tested at the time.The Nest Cam IQ
Outdoor sees the company back with more of
the same,this time in aweatherproofmodel.
Nest joined the outdoor security market
with the rather neat Nest Cam Outdoor,which
was the easiest external camera we’d ever
installed. Thanks to its magnetic mount and
use of an outdoor power socket, it could be
installed in amatter of minutes; unfortunately,
this also made it easier to tamper with.

CABLETIED
With the Cam IQ Outdoor,Nest has made the
model harder forthieves to remove,but also
slightly trickier to install. Now the camera has
to be powered by the internal USB Type-C
power adaptor,which means drilling ahole
through your wall. Formaximum security,
you can feed the 7.5m cable through the
rear of the camera’s mount, leaving nothing
visible from the outside.
The alternative is that you can run the
USB cable outside forabit, although this
means that someone could more easily cut
the power to it.
With the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor,ahex key
must be used to remove the camera from its
mount; this kind of tampering is going to be
noticed and recorded on video.
Although the body of the camera is IP66
rated, making it water-resistant and capable
of operating in temperatures from –40°C to
45°C, the internals are the same as those of
the Nest Cam IQ.
That means that you get a4Ksensor.
Although video is recorded in 1080p,having a
4K sensor has two main advantages. First, the
video quality should be better,asmore detail
is captured. Second, you get a4xzoom into
a1080p picture.Nest uses that with its
Supersight tech, which automatically zooms
in and tracks suspicious activity.
Cleverly,the camera captures both the
zoomed-in view and the full image,soyou
can switch between the detail and the full
picture.Aswith the Nest Cam IQ,the
Outdoor version handles this brilliantly,
creating adynamic image that lets you see
exactly what’s going on.
Video quality is outstanding, too. Thanks
to HDR and that 4K sensor,there’s ahuge
amount of detail in the picture,making this
by farthe best-quality outdoor camera that
we’ve tested.

NEST

CamIQOutdoor

★★★★★

£Τι˰•From nȝͭΛ.com΍uk

VERDICT

Anexpensive,butsuper-smart,well-designed
outdoorcamerawithexcellentimagequality

At night, the Nest Cam IQ

Outdoor switches on its IR

LEDs to light up the night.

There’s aslight reduction in

visual range,and the image

gets alittle softer, but quality

and sharpness is still better

than with rival 1080p models.

GETTING ID’D

Buy aNest Aware subscription and you

get additional features, including the ability

to createmotion zones and Google’s facial

recognition tech to distinguish friend from

foe. Faces that you recognise can be marked

as such, adding aname to the person, and

faces already recognised with the Nest Cam

IQ can be carried over as well.

With this information, the Nest Cam IQ

Outdoor can send you notifications that

specify if aknown or unknown person is

spotted; there’s acatch-all person alert, too,

forwhen no face is detected.

Facial recognition is very powerful, picking

us up from avariety of angles with and

without glasses on. The more the camera

spots you, the better it works. But Nest Aware

can and will get it wrong, such as by detecting

aknown face as anew person. More often at

night, the camera can struggle to pick out

faces, generating aperson alert.

Nest has improved the detection alert

settings. Now,with aNest Aware subscription,

foreach activity zone that you set to monitor,

you can choose the type of alerts that you

want: people and general motion. That way,

you can narrow down the number of alerts

you get. It’s ashame,however,that you can’t

choose to be warned only about strangers,

ignoring recognised people.

To give the camera its credit, motion

detection is spot on, avoiding false positives

when it spots general movement (such as

foliage blowing in the wind) and accurately

picking up people.

There’s also sound detection built in, and

you can set the camera to listen out forany

combination of general noise,people talking

and dogs barking. Again, this is impressive,

and we weren’t flooded with false alerts.

SUPER SUB

Nest Aware used to be expensive,but the

entry-level subscription now gives you five

days of constant video recording for£4a

month, or £40 ayear.That’s more than

enough formost people.Unfortunately,ifyou

try to get by without asubscription, you’ll

only be able to watch footage from the past

three hours in the app,soyou’ll need to be

quick if you do catch acrime on camera.

Still, Nest Aware is the best cloud service

we’ve tested, with the app letting you

effortlessly scroll through your video history,

or find aspecific alert using the alert view.

The Nest Cam IQ Outdoor is undoubtedly

expensive,but it’s also the best-quality

external security camera we’ve tested. With

the new cheaper Nest Aware subscription,

it’s an easy camera to recommend.

The NestCam IQ Outdoor is undoubtedly expensive, but it’s

also the best-qualityexternal securitycamerawe’vetested