Nest Hello Video Doorbell Now In Stores

Google has finally joined the doorbell camera fray with the Nest Hello. First introduced way back in September, they’ve met their first quarter target as the $229 units are now available at a variety of retailers, including select Home Depot and Fry’s… although the official street date is supposedly tomorrow, March 15th. I find Nest camera hardware and service pricey, compared to much of the competition and for similar functionality (with continuous recording something of a deficit in my estimation), so I’m awaiting Adam’s thoughts when he (temporarily?) swaps his Ring Pro, as I have no intention of making a purchase.

11 thoughts on “Nest Hello Video Doorbell Now In Stores”

  1. Why is continuous recording a deficit? As long as it doesn’t impact any data cap you might be under or swamp your connection then it has to be a positive in my mind.
    Also Nest has a $5/month or $50/year 5 day plan now. So the price/value relationship with competitors has been completely reset.

  2. @mike – yes, the $5/$50 plan is a nice option, but it’s only 5 days of recording vs Ring’s 60. That said, I do agree that continuous recording is a huge plus. It’s my understanding that Nest has a nice browsing experience (intelligent bookmarks, etc) so you don’t get swamped by 24 hrs of recording.

  3. Mike, agree the new entry level plan closes the gap. But still inferior to Arlo’s free tier and Ring’s paid tier. Continuous recording is a sledge hammer approach and most folks don’t have cap-free FiOS. Even if you don’t blow through your cap, you’re putting additional load on your home network and ISP connection… which goes up as you add devices. The continuous recording is probably also why their plans hadn’t been cheaper, they must be burning through a ton of storage. Of course, the flip side with continuous recording is that you’ll never miss the start of something as my battery-powered Arlos do.

  4. I saw a new doorbell from Vivint at CES. Vivint also claims to be doing smart recognition but I can’t find any information on service pricing on their web site, and am still unclear if you can buy and install it yourself or only by requesting a quote from them (perhaps including installation and sales pitch for their other related security products and services?)…

  5. Adam isn’t impressed thus far and if meaningful updates don’t come soon he’s going back to Ring Pro. Related to continuous recording, he feels it’s something of a motion detection crutch and Nest Hello notifications are slower than Ring.

  6. As far as your home network, how much data can it be using? I’m using over a dozen 1500P(2000×1500 and 2600×1500) cameras that send video 24x7x365 and the total video stream from all cameras only averages around 50Mb/s with H.264. And the Nest only has a resolution of 1600x1200P which is an even lower resolution. So that isn’t much data at all streaming on the home network. Although if it were constantly uploaded. It could be a concern, Even FiOS has a soft cap. Although it’s a generous 10TB soft cap,.

  7. Re: “Peephole works for me” — a peephole only works if you’re home and able to look through it when you need to. Doorbell cameras allow video to be captured whether or not you’re home and in some cases even “answer” the door using your phone from just about anywhere.

  8. Is there a way you can get a notification if there is motion? I don’t want to wait until my doorbell is rang before I get a notification.

  9. Jjohn, according to Nest (and some of the video reviews I’ve watched on YouTube), the doorbell with notify you even if someone does not ring the doorbell.

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