Google Nest Hello Smart Wi-Fi Video Doorbell

The unit is connected to a transformer that I installed in a wall about 3’ from the Nest. Everything works great! The only exception is the fact you cannot adjust the sensitivity of the microphone. If you set the unit up to acknowledge and send notifications from either the sound or motion you will receive hundreds of messages a day showing very slight movements or micro sounds that are barely heard by the human ear. I am looking into making some type of covering to help with the sound sensitivity. Otherwise it works just fine! Dondi

Sophisticated with numerous features (if you have a Nest Aware account), high-quality construction, but quite expensive, and, it’s struggling show people’s faces clearly enough for its face recognition to work, or, for me to see who is at the door. And since its installation, the weather has been cloudy and overcast…hardly a high-contrast situation – can’t imagine what it’ll look like on a bright, sunny day. I turned up the camera quality to High, with no effect. Not aware of any other ways to improve the picture quality. Interestingly, the camera in my 4 year old Google Pixel XL has no problem showing face detail in the same location as the Nest Hello. So, not sure what I can do…

Great price point, quick delivery and EZ-PZ installation! I had already done my homework and found that my current doorbell transformer was compatible with the Nest Hello, so I ordered it and once I started the installation process, it took me less than 45 minutes to complete the job. I already had Nest cameras outdoors, so this was an add on. The app walks you right through the steps after you “Add Product” – it was SO easy!! Hardest part was cracking off the old doorbell! The camera is great along with the notifications. The 4:3 ratio is perfect for the view – my porch comes in top-to-bottom on screen so you can see the entire person or package etc. So happy we did this and now wondering why it took so long.See more

I ended up finding this for $50 cheaper on Walmart! I’m a Google guy so when I bought my house this was a no brainer. Syncs and runs flawlessly with Google Home. Nests app make installation incredibly easy. If you have wires running to your doorbell and your chime isn’t battery operated, it’s a 20-30 minute ordeal. I plan on buying more nest devices in the future.See more

I have three of these – front door, back door, and pool door. I can see my entire front, back, and side (pool) area. They are very accurate at detecting a human, and if that human has a package (Amazon, UPS, Pizza, etc). It can learn faces and report who is at your door. They see well at night. You can zoom in, the quality is ok. These aren’t James Bond Spy cameras and you can’t read a license plate, but I am happy with its ability. You can access the video from anywhere and the yearly subscription is $120 no matter how many I add to Nest. I bought a power adapter and did not connect to my doorbell. A push of the button alerts my phone and I can talk to the visitor. It will detect lizards, burds, spiders, etc., but it does not alert you on a visitor. Just can’t say enough good about these. I wont be installing cameras because of how well these work.See more

This is easily the best video doorbell out there. It’s durable and made of high quality materials. WiFi/network config is a snap. Physical installation is easy too. I love the 4:3 aspect ratio as it makes great sense for the location of a doorbell. The wedge to let you change the view angle 15 degrees is helpful but will not fully compensate if your bell is in a recessed corner or on a porch. Also it does not do a great job with packages, mainly because with standard height, it can’t fully see the floor space directly in front of it. This could probably be corrected with lens curvature but they didn’t want to do that it seems for the doorbells, as opposed to the standalone Nest cams. I’m sure i could lower it, but this is more difficult due to the location of the hole for the existing doorbell wire. I imagine many users will have this problem as well. Doorbell cams have a way to go, but Nest is the best one out there by far.

Well, I tried – I really Tried.But it turns out my expectations were way too high.I was mesmerized by the commercials, captivated with visions of my gruff, electronically-brazened voice calling out over the speaker “Hey! Whutter you doin’ on my porch! Put that package down, the police are on their way!”But it doesn’t work that way out here in Suburbia, not in the real world.Oh, I tried, I really tried. I poured through the meek User Guide that came with the kit, graduated to the FAQs on the Ring website, and made so many calls to Ring Tech Support that I cringed each time in expectation that Ring would announce “You’re exceeded your limit!” But of course, they didn’t. They patiently answered my questions, helped me understand about 30-second versus 60-second video clips and the lag or buffering issue and zones and sensitivity. I learned about Device Health and Speed Test and download and upload speeds.I moved my mailbox out of the way of the video doorbell. I bought a new porchlight that didn’t cast its ubiquitous glow onto the doorbell. I climbed into a 110-degre attic, swam through an ocean of blown-in insulation to find and replace a doorbell transformer. Because who among us has the tools or the skills to measure the output voltage of your doorbell wires? BTW, your local hardware store does not stock a doorbell transformer that matches the exact specs of the Ring Video Doorbell Pro, I had to order one online.From a patient cable internet technician, I learned about updating the firmware on my wireless router (“You gotta do this 1, 2 times a year!”). But it was worth it, because now my download and upload speeds are in what Ring calls “the Good Range”. I also purchased and installed the Ring Chime Pro, even though my house is what I would call Small by today’s standards – under1,000 sq. ft.But none of that helped. Even though when I go to Live View and can see all of my yard in vivid color (or stark black-and-white at night) and see every twig movement and hear far-away roosters crow, it still won’t detect and alert me to a person walking up my driveway, until they are actually standing on my porch directly in front of the camera. Oh, it will do it once in a while, maybe twice in a while, but it won’t do it every time, it won’t do it even a majority of the time. The only time it does it 100% is when the person is actually standing on my porch. I am confident that an intruder could roam my yard at will, do as they will to the cars in my driveway, as long as they don’t climb onto my porch. Well, I can go to Live View and watch every movement, but the Ring Video Doorbell Pro will NOT detect and alert me.And that myth about me actually speaking to the person on the porch? Well, the ghost of that ship has done sailed, honey, far out into the sunset and ne’er to return. Only the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Home Improvement Salesmen are willing to stay on my porch after they have rung the doorbell, waiting while it takes 10-15 seconds for the alert to hit my phone, and then the 2-5 minutes it takes for the video to become available for me to view. So no, my expectations were not met.So, I will keep the new porch light, my wife likes it better than the old one. And I should have moved that mailbox long ago, it is much easier to empty in its new location. And I’ll keep the new doorbell transformer, it is a sturdy, handsome fellow even though it is buried beneath an AC return duct and 16 inches of powder insulation.But my old doorbell is going back on my porch, and this Ring Video Doorbell Pro is going back to Amazon. It is too unreliable, and does not, can not, WILL NOT work as advertised.

This works well. The install is easy. I have one very major complaint. The blurb on Amazon does not explain that you have to pay for a cloud subscription to store and retrieve the short videos of motion events. The promotional material and install instructions are structured such that you do not catch this ¨gotcha” until the unit is installed and you use it for a day or 2. There is no provision to store these videos locally on your own computer. I am giving this just one star because they are not up front about the need for a paid subscription and the lack of a local event video storage option.

When I first got the device in July we immediately installed the product. Install went great and was super easy. For the first month the product worked great. We were super happy with it and even purchased the extra service through them to save our videos for longer. Shortly after that we started getting constant motion detection alerts. Sometimes it was something blowing by but more frequently it was simply the camera shifting from night vision to day vision for no apparent reason triggering a motion detection alert. Then for whatever reason in the end of September it simply quit working.I have tried to contact the company but was told that I needed to verify the make and model of my chimes (only have make no model on them). They said there was nothing they could do. Now I am stuck with a doorbell that doesn’t work and service I can’t use because they couldn’t verify the chime compatibility. Nowhere in the installation instructions was their anything about a chime compatibility and I am not sure that has anything to do with why it quit working.Save your money and don’t buy anything from a company who doesn’t stand behind their product.