Nest has unveiled a bunch of new smart home products at a press event in San Francisco, including a wireless video doorbell called Nest Hello, an outdoor version of its Nest Cam IQ, and a comprehensive security system for protecting your home named Nest Secure.
Everything plugs into the existing Nest ecosystem, giving the Alphabet-owned company a suite of smart home gear that now covers security, heating, safety and more.
Nest Secure is the name of the new, fully fledged security system, which includes a motion sensor and hub called Nest Guard, sensors for doors and windows called Nest Detect, and a key fob called Nest Tag that acts as an authentication token, so when you tap on the Guard, it knows you're home and disables the security setup accordingly.
You can give out tags to kids, dog walkers, and friends, so the system doesn't get spooked if someone you know walks in. As a backup, a passcode can be entered.
None of these products look head and shoulders above smart home gear we've already seen from some of Nest's rivals, but they significantly extend Nest's portfolio and make its overall offering one of the most comprehensive smart home packages around, especially when you add in the Nest cameras, the Nest Thermostat and the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector.
As always with Nest, everything can be managed from an app on your phone, so you can check up on security alerts, arm or disarm the Guard alarm, and so on. There's an added bonus too in the form of the Google Assistant, which Nest says is coming to its indoor Nest Cam IQ in the near future.
A Nest Secure starter pack (with two tags, two sensors and the Guard) will set you back US$499, with additional sensors $59 each and tags $25 each. For US customers, pre-orders are open now and products are shipping in November. A European and Canadian roll-out is planned for next year.
Nest is also getting into the smart doorbell market, following the likes of Ring with a doorbell you can monitor and respond to from your mobile – that means you can see who's at the door and even start a chat with them whether or not you're at home.
Nest Hello, as the doorbell is named, will be going on sale early in 2018 though Nest hasn't yet confirmed a price. It can be trained to recognize faces so you know whether the person at the door is friend or foe, and as well as two-way audio it offers a 160-degree field of view, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, and an LED ring for illuminating the scene outside.
Lastly, Nest also revealed an outdoor version of its existing Nest Cam IQ, the smart security camera that can tell the difference between strangers and familiar faces, and automatically follow moving objects around a room (or in this case, the garden).
The outdoor version adds some tough weatherproofing so you can stick it on a wall or garden shed. Like the outdoor camera Nest already sells, it streams in 1080p HD, and includes two-way audio. Again, pre-orders start now with shipping in November, and the suggested retail price is $349.
Source: Nest
