Nest Cam IQ Outdoor launches in UK with cheaper Nest Aware subscription

After announcing it back in September 2017, the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor is finally available in the UK as of today. Designed to be the smartest and sharpest outdoor security camera, Nest is hoping to entice new users with a new lower-cost Nest Aware cloud storage subscription.

The Nest Cam IQ Outdoor is effectively the outdoor version of the excellent Nest Cam IQ. With a 4K sensor and HDR recording, the Nest Cam IQ proved to be the best-quality security camera that we’ve ever tested; if the quality is replicated outdoors, the Cam IQ Outdoor is going to be seriously impressive.

Nest already has one outdoor model, the Nest Cam Outdoor, which was the easiest external camera we’ve installed, using an outdoor power socket and magnetic mount. The ease of installation also made that camera easier to steal, so Nest has made its new camera more secure.

This time around, the 7.5m USB-C cable, which powers the camera, has to be passed through a wall and connected to the power adaptor located inside your home. The cable can either be threaded through the wall-mount, leaving no cable visible, or run externally and then through the wall. The former is more secure.

A new mount requires a hex tool to remove the camera so that the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor can’t be quickly pulled off of a wall. The camera is waterproof with IP66 certification and can operate at temperatures between -40C and +45C.

The Nest Cam IQ Outdoor has the same smarts as its indoor brother. That includes Facial Recognition (powered by Google) if you have a Nest Aware subscription so that it can tell you if it’s seen a Familiar Face or Unfamiliar Face. Familiar Faces recognised by an existing Nest Cam IQ are carried over automatically.

While video is recorded at a 1080p resolution, the 4K sensor should give a boost in image quality over 1080p-only cameras. And that sensor is also used by Supersight technology, which uses the full 4K sensor resolution to zoom in and track suspicious activity. This worked brilliantly on the indoor model, so we expect the same quality outside.

One downside of Nest cameras has been the high subscription costs to Nest Aware, which gives you cloud recording and more advanced features, such as motion Activity Zones and the aforementioned facial recognition.

With the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor, a new £4 a month (or £40 a year) subscription is available. This gives you five days of continuous cloud recording and the advanced features; effectively, homeowners can cut their subscription costs in half. And, the new subscription package is available for all Nest cameras.

We’ll have a full Nest Cam IQ Outdoor review soon. In the meantime, the camera is available now and costs £329.