Google’s Nest hardware suite hasn’t seen a refresh in four years now, but the company is now gearing up for a new launch this year which includes better video quality, support for digital zoom, and some striking hardware updates.
In 2021, Google released its first new suite of Nest hardware since fully taking over the brand. This lineup included a new indoor (wired) and battery-powered cameras for indoor and outdoor use cases, as well as a new doorbell. Despite some software fumbles, the lineup worked well, but it hasn’t aged particularly well, given the speed at which Google’s competition has been improving. There have been some expansions to the lineup, but we’ve been due for updates for quite a while.
But, finally, there’s new and meaningful hardware in store.
The folks over at Android Headlines have published new images of a revamped Google Nest hardware lineup, including the new Gemini smart speaker that Google first teased at its Pixel 10 launch event last week. The new speaker is pictured in black, white, green, and bright-red colorways, while the report adds that it includes 360-degree audio.
What’s far more interesting here, though, is a new lineup of Nest camera hardware from Google. This refreshed lineup apparently includes a new wired Nest Cam (outdoor), a new Nest Cam (indoor), and a new Nest Doorbell (wired).
Interestingly, there’s no sign of a new battery-powered camera or a new battery-powered doorbell just yet. Unexpected, to say the least.
The designs on all of these new products are virtually identical, but with some new colorways available. The wired indoor camera picks up a dark green “Hazel” option as well as a striking red “Berry” in addition to the usual white. The outdoor camera gets “Hazel,” with the usual white camera apparently being limited solely to multi-camera packs.
The doorbell, meanwhile, also gets this “Hazel” trim alongside its existing white color and a new beige “Linen.” We can see this is a wired doorbell from the lack of a USB-C port for charging.
The big upgrade on all of these is video quality, as Google is apparently jumping to 2K HDR video from the existing 1080p. This also apparently includes 6x zoom which would let you focus on a specific part of the video frame. Local storage is also still in place with up to an hour of footage able to be stored on the camera in the case of an internet outage.
The report mentions that video previews are being “expanded” to 3 hours, though this has been in place since the 2021 release, with Google temporarily storing event-based video clips for users without a subscription.
Beyond that, Google is apparently doing away with “Nest Aware” and instead introducing “Google Home Premium” for cloud backup and Gemini features, with the report bringing out a “daily recap” of events from your cameras.
It’s unclear when these products will debut, but it’s likely not too far away. Also unknown at this time is what will happen with existing models that aren’t showing up in this leak such as Nest Cam (battery) and Nest Doorbell (battery).
What do you think of the new upgrades?
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