Nest is adding a new home security camera to its lineup: the Nest Cam IQ.

With crisper image quality and IQ in its name, the new camera is positioned as a smarter version of the Nest Cam Indoor. Instead of getting notifications every time it senses movement, the camera uses advanced algorithms to differentiate between pets and people, as well as friends from strangers.

New Look, Better Specs

Design-wise, the Nest Cam IQ resembles Luxo Jr, Pixar’s friendly mascot lamp. That’s in part due to its white polycarbonate body and the hinge, which lets the camera rotate for a 130-degree view of the room. Like the Nest Cam Indoor, you get 1080p resolution videos at 30 frames per second. The base is weighted to prevent slippage, and all the cords are hidden within the hinge for a clean look.

As for what’s inside, the camera now features a 4K image sensor (8 megapixels) capable of a 12x digital zoom and enhance. It also includes high dynamic range (HDR) imaging, as well as two 940nm infrared LEDs for better night vision. The Nest Cam IQ has three microphones for noise suppression and echo-cancellation. Its speakers are also seven times as powerful as the original Nest Cam. There’s an LED ring around the camera, which turns blue when someone is watching the feed or green when talking through the speaker.

To keep your feed secure, the Nest Cam IQ encrypts your videos before streaming using 128-bit AES with TSL/SSL. You can also enable two-step verification for your Nest account.

Intelligent Alerts

Until now, Nest’s Person Alerts were only available with a Nest Aware subscription, but that’s not necessary with the Nest Cam IQ. Out of the box, you’ll get alerts when the camera identifies a person with a zoomed-in photo of their face.

You can then access a picture-in-a-picture feed of your home, which includes a full view of the room, as well as a close-up view of whoever is in it. You can easily toggle between the two views, depending on whether you want a better look at the person’s face or what’s happening. And if you missed the alert, you can access a three-hour snapshot history from the app.

Nest Aware subscribers get a few extra features, starting with facial recognition. After identifying a new face, the camera will send you a Person Alert, and you can then save a familiar face within the app. This will enable the camera to differentiate between family members, friends, acquaintances, and total strangers. You can also get audio alerts, such as dogs barking or people talking in a room. That way, you can also keep tabs on what’s happening in locations where you might not have a camera.

The Nest Cam IQ is currently available for pre-order for $299, about $100 more than the Nest Cam Indoor ($154.93 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) . You can also order two for the reduced price of $498. The cameras are expected to ship at the end of June.

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