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Add to SafariWhen comparing Nest Cam vs Samsung SmartCam HD Pro, the Slant community recommends Nest Cam for most people. In the question“What are the best home-security cameras?” Nest Cam is ranked 3rd while Samsung SmartCam HD Pro is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose Nest Cam is:
The 1080p resolution allows plenty of detail to be captured, and because it's a wide-angle lens you'll get a wide 130 degree picture. If you need to, you can zoom up to 8X to investigate small details. The night vision feature works surprisingly well in low light, or even pitch black. There are 8 LEDs surrounding the lens which can illuminate the scene.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro High quality video, even in pitch black
The 1080p resolution allows plenty of detail to be captured, and because it's a wide-angle lens you'll get a wide 130 degree picture. If you need to, you can zoom up to 8X to investigate small details.
The night vision feature works surprisingly well in low light, or even pitch black. There are 8 LEDs surrounding the lens which can illuminate the scene.
Pro Scheduling
You can schedule the camera so it isn't constantly recording your everyday activities, or sending you alerts.
Pro Talk and listen capabilities
While not exceptional quality, you can hear the audio picked up through the Nest Cam play through your iPhone. You can also speak into your iPhone, and have the Nest Cam play the sound.
Pro Integrates with other smart phone appliances
If you own a Nest thermostat, the Nest Cam will automatically turn on when you set the thermostat to 'away'. If your Nest Protect (the smoke detector) goes off, your Nest Cam will activate to show you what's happening although the placement of the cam may or may not be useful.
Nest Cam also integrates with other third party smart home products such as Philips Hue smart bulbs (if the Cam detects motion it can turn these bulbs on). Other products that can work together are: SkyBell (smart doorbell), Mimo (baby monitor), August (smart lock), and Petnet (smart pet feeder).
Pro Recreational use
The Nest Cam can act as more than just a connected security camera. You can take time-lapse videos with it, or use it to capture images or video for social media as well.
Pro Well designed
The camera looks sleek and compact, yet includes all the useful features you would expect from a high end security camera. The base is magnetic, helping to keep it stable (it also has a wall/ceiling mount), and the hinge allows enough movement to make sure you can place it virtually anywhere you'd want to.
Pro Customizble features
You can manually adjust the speaker and microphone volumes, as well as wide dynamic range settings to balance the brightness of the video. Sensitivity of both motion and audio sensors can be adjusted as well.
Pro Night vision
The SmartCam HD Pro is equipped with infrared LEDs. These illuminate dark rooms for the camera, while being invisible to human eyes.
Pro Speak and listen capable
You can have a conversation with somebody through your phone while they're in front of the SmartCam. This is useful as it allows you direct communication with babysitters, contract workers, house sitters or anybody else around your camera.
Pro Local storage
There is a SD slot which allows for local storage. This means that as video is captured, it is recorded straight onto the local storage, while most cameras don't offer local storage (instead they upload it directly to a cloud service, and often charge a monthly fee to download these videos).
Cons
Con Inconvenient viewing of previous recordings
Previous recordings will be kept in the cloud for up to 10 days (30 days with the subscription), however when viewing these recordings there is no option to scrub through the video, leaving you no option but to view the entire clip.
Con Annoying artifacts makes activity detection less robust
When switching to night vision, the camera momentarily goes all black, causing notifications to get fired. This should be avoidable by software handling
Con False alarms
While not frequently occurring, some false alarms will happen. On a particular windy day, trees blowing in the wind may cause an alarm, and sometimes the sun lighting up sections of a room can also cause false alarms.
Con No local storage
All video is immediately uploaded to the cloud, and there is no local storing happening on the Nest Cam itself.
Con Some features require a subscription
The Nest Aware App has a subscription ($10/month) which unlocks additional features. The subscription promises less false alarms, allowing for more advanced algorithms. It also allows for a history of notifications and alarms as well as continuous recording for up to 30 days.
Con Legacy designed app
The app looks like it was created more than 3 years ago. There are different tabs and menus, and often times features aren't where you'd expect them to be. There are also few labels - icons dominate the app, and it isn't always obvious what the icons do.
Con Uninspiring build
The design of the SmartCam HD Pro is polarizing. While it looks functional from a distance, getting closer to it will reveal its physical shortcomings. It's bigger, chunkier, and feels like it's made out of cheap plastic. The glossy plastic front panel makes it feel much cheaper than it actually is.
Con Sub-par video quality
While it has a 1080p camera, the recordings don't match the same quality as other slightly more expensive 1080p cameras. This makes detail harder to make out, although it's usually still clear enough to figure out what's happening in the picture.
