Remember the Nest Cam IQ that came out earlier this year? The new Nest Cam IQ Outdoor is pretty much that but, as the name suggests, for outdoor use. You get the same specs, including a 4K sensor with a 130-degree FoV and Night Vision, plus the same facial recognition tech, all in a more rugged outdoor-oriented package. You can preorder it now for $349, and it'll ship this November.


Camera dimensions 5 in x 3.7 in x 3.7 in (12.8 cm x 9.3 cm x 9.3 cm)
Camera weight 20 oz (568g)
Cable length 25ft (7.5m)
Power adapter input 100-240V AC, 50/60Hz, 0.65A
Power adapter output 15V DC, 1.87A
Camera input 15V DC, 1.0A
Camera 1/2.5-inch, 8-megapixel (4K) color sensor, 12x digital zoom
Video Up to 1080p (1920 x 1080) at 30 frames/sec, HDR, H.264 encoding
Field of view 130° diagonal
Audio High-quality speaker, Microphone array
Lights RGB light ring and status light
Night Vision High-power 850nm infrared LEDs
Operating temperature -40–113°F (-40–45°C)
Ingress protection IP66 rating ("weatherproof")
Security 128-bit AES with TLS/SSL
Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4GHz or 5GHz (WEP, WPA, WPA2 encryption supported), Wireless Interconnect 802.15.4 @2.4GHz, Bluetooth Low Energy

Like its indoor forebear, although it has a 4K sensor, you don't quite get 4K video. Instead of giving you the full resolution, you get a 1080p feed with enhanced digital zoom via Nest's so-called "Supersight," which zooms in and follows movement without as much loss of detail.

As you'd expect, it works with the Nest app, and any recorded content is well protected and encrypted before it gets to you or Nest's servers, should you use their cloud storage functionality via Nest Aware. That'll let you store up to 30 days of video remotely for a regular fee.

"Familiar face" alerts, and most of the truly "intelligent" functionality, also require a Nest Aware subscription. The facial recognition tech lets you know if a person on screen is someone it recognizes or not, presumably allowing you to filter out notifications that would otherwise be false alarms.

The only unfortunate thing about Nest Aware is the cost, which most of you are probably already familiar with. It'll run you $10 a month or $100 a year for 10-day history, and $30 a month or $300 a year for 30-day history. Mind you, that's just for the first camera, you'll be paying an extra $5 a month or $50 a year per camera after that. And without Nest Aware, functionality is highly limited.

The biggest reason to spend the extra $50 on this over the standard Nest Cam IQ is the IP66 rating. That's enough water resistance for general outdoor use, (Nest markets it as "weatherproof") and that makes the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor a much smarter choice for exterior home security. Nest's last outdoor camera was just IP65, so this is a decent little bump. It's also $50 more, though.

As you'd expect, the camera also works at night, via an array of high-power infrared LEDs. Like the IQ-less Nest Cam Outdoor before it, it has both a mic and speaker so you can accost trespassers remotely via the app. And that speaker is 15x more powerful than the Nest IQ.

If you are in the US, Canada, or Europe, you can preorder the Nest now, but it won't be shipping until November. That should give you a bit of time to plan out the install.