Nest Doorbell: New battery-powered version is smarter and more flexible

Google’s Nest Doorbell has been given a bit of an overhaul. The updated version of the device is more flexible and smarter, bringing a whole new host of features out of the box.

It still has everything you’d expect: the ability to drop in live at any time; notifications when someone is at your door; and the two-way talk so you can speak to your visitors if you can’t come to the door. If you don’t want to do that, there are prerecorded responses you can select, although you can’t add to them yourself just yet.

But the new features are what makes it appealing. The original Nest Hello was for wired-only homes, so you had the option of getting a wired doorbell installed or looking elsewhere. The latest version, on the other hand, includes a rechargeable battery, although you can wire it in to your existing power and chime. You can get weeks of battery life out of a full charge, and notifications that someone is at the door can be delivered to your Google Home speakers or straight to your smartphone.

Not only is it an option for homes where a battery-powered bell is the best option, but it also means if you lose power you don’t necessarily lose eyes on your front door. That’s because the Nest Doorbell also has some local storage, so in the case of a wifi or power outage, it will continue to record footage for up to an hour that you can review later.

Smart alerts

Because it now has on-device processing and some storage, you get smart alerts without having to shell out for any extra subscriptions.

For example, the doorbell will distinguish between a person at your door and an animal crossing your driveway. It will also pick out packages being dropped off – or collected.

While you may not want that level of detail, it provides you with the means to weed out the alerts you don’t want, or allows you to capture the footage and store it just in case you need it later.

It makes a huge difference. Every morning at about 6am, a neighbourhood cat walks across our driveway. It’s part of its routine. The original Nest doorbell triggered multiple alerts for that journey, cluttering up my video history with useless footage. Not to mention the various spiders , moths and, on one occasion, a bee that crossed the video camera’s field of vision. Then there were the sweeping car lights and moving vehicles that also triggered activity alerts. It got to the point where I was starting to ignore the alerts because they were rarely anything I needed to be aware of. Now, my notification clutter is way down.

Another out of the box addition is the zones. Before, you had to pay the subscription to get the ability to designate different zones to monitor for activity; now you can set it up without any extras.

And you now get access to three hours’ worth of events, with still images for each event in your history.

Paying for the Nest Aware subscription gives you a bit more: access to 60 days of events; and video clips rather than still images. But it is possible now to use the Nest effectively without having to pay for extras, as long as you are on the ball in terms of checking your camera.

All that can be accessed through the Google Home app; the Nest app is being retired. You can scroll through the full event history and download the various clips to your device if you need them for later.

Charging

There are some disadvantages to the battery option. The obvious one is that you will have to remember to charge the bell, but you can get several weeks out of a single charge even on the most sensitive setting.

Less obvious is the fact that it doesn’t provide access to 24/7 continuous video history, even with the Nest Aware Plus subscription if you wire the doorbell. That is a step back from the original Nest Hello doorbell, which allowed you to scroll back through 10 days of video with the Plus option.

It is also a lot bigger than the original Nest Hello. That should be a given though, considering it now has a battery, on-device processing and an hour of storage to squeeze in. However, if you want subtle, the Nest Doorbell isn’t it.

The good:

A smarter device means fewer unwanted notifications, and the Nest Doorbell has cut out most of the aggravations of having a motion-activated system. No more will you be plagued by tree branches waving in the wind or the local wildlife crossing the camera’s field of vision.

You can ask the system to notify you only about packages and people, and save everything else quietly in the background. And you don’t have to pay extra, unless you want a longer window for video history or have the clips instead of stills.

The not so good:

Considerably larger than the original, and no longer allows 24/7 continuous video history with the Nest Aware Plus subscription.

The rest:

The video aspect ratio has been changed from 4:3 to 3:4, and the video angle has gone from 160 degrees to 145 degrees.

The verdict:

More flexible and smarter than before, the Nest Doorbell cuts through the notification noise.