Nest Doorbell Battery Review: Solid Wireless Option?

Nest Doorbell Battery Video Review

Before we begin with our detailed review, we thought you might want to watch our video review first. Check it out if you want to see the Nest Hello in action, but note that Nest no longer sells Nest Secure, their security system.

In this video, our Chief Editor Gabe Turner unboxes and installs the Nest Doorbell Battery, step-by-step.

What’s Included

You know that satisfying feeling when you unbox a premium Apple product? The Nest Doorbell Battery delivers that same premium experience. The weight and presentation of the packaging oozes quality from the moment you pick it up. After carefully opening the box, we found these essential components:

• Doorbell
• Base plate
• Release tool
• Anchors and screws
• Wire connector
• 20-degree wedge and wedge screws
• Spacers
• 3-foot charging cable
• Quick-start guide

Now, let’s get this doorbell up and running.

Installing the Nest Doorbell Battery

We could’ve paid Nest $100 for professional installation, but we chose to do it ourselves and save money. Since the doorbell runs on battery power, there’s no electrical wiring to worry about. It’s perfect for renters or anyone wanting to avoid electrical work. Here’s how we installed our Nest Doorbell:

1. Since we’ve already tested the Nest Doorbell, we already had a Google account set up and the Google Home app downloaded on our phone. We used to use the Nest app to control our Nest video doorbells, but it seems to have been phased out. Google Home app it is!
2. Next, we scanned the Nest Doorbell Battery’s QR code to add it to our app.
3. We plugged in the Nest Doorbell Battery via its USB cord and connected it to our Wi-Fi network.
4. Now for the physical installation. We mounted our Nest Doorbell Battery 4 feet high after testing that it was close enough to our router for high speeds. If you need help mounting, the wedge will come in handy here.
5. We mounted the base plate using spaces for uneven surfaces.
6. We attached the Nest Doorbell Battery to the mounting plate, waiting until we heard a click and then touching the release tool.
7. Using our Nest Hub as a chime, we set up quick responses. Learn more about Nest’s smart displays in our Nest Hub review or our Nest Hub Max review.

Performance and Features

Once we clicked the Nest Doorbell Battery into place, we were eager to check out the features. After connecting it to the mobile app, we spent nearly three hours testing every component. Here’s how they performed:

Weather Resistance

The Nest Doorbell Battery can operate in temperatures from -4 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. It also carries an IP54 rating. This means it won’t break down after the first sign of dust or water. It’s not fully waterproof, though. For most climates, this level of protection handles rain, snow, and dust without issues.

Video

The Nest Doorbell Battery delivers crisp 960 x 1280 resolution with an impressive 145-degree diagonal field of view. The 3:4 aspect ratio is particularly clever. We could see visitors from head to toe, as well as any packages at our doorstep. HDR technology prevents overexposure and shadows, even in harsh midday sun. We could also clearly make out faces and read license plates from over 20 feet away.

Night Vision

Four infrared LEDs provide clear night vision up to 10 feet from the camera. Combined with PIR motion sensors and proximity detection, the doorbell reliably spotted nighttime visitors approaching our door. The infrared footage has enough detail to identify faces and distinguish between people and animals, even in complete darkness.

Two-Way Audio

We were impressed with the doorbell’s two-way communication through the Google Home app. Noise cancellation technology delivers crystal-clear audio that we think is better than most competitors. We could have natural conversations with delivery drivers or visitors without shouting or repeating ourselves.

We did notice occasional audio sync issues during nighttime testing. The audio sometimes lagged behind the video by a second or two. This could also be related to our Wi-Fi connection rather than the doorbell itself.

Ringing the Doorbell

We got alerted whenever anyone approached our Nest Doorbell Battery, not just when they rang the actual doorbell. In either case, our chime let us know of their presence, along with our Nest Hubs and Nest Mini smart speaker. When we signed up for Google Home Premium, our Nest Mini even announced who was at the door with Familiar Faces alerts, which brings us to our next point …

Intelligent Alerts

The Nest Doorbell can distinguish between people, animals, vehicles, and packages. Given that package theft affects millions of people, these smart alerts proved invaluable. Instead of getting bombarded with notifications for every passing car, we only received alerts for people and packages.

With a Google Home Premium subscription, you unlock Google’s facial recognition feature. After the doorbell scans and saves a visitor’s face, you can assign them a name in the app. If or when they come back, it will trigger personalized notifications like “Jordan is at the front door” instead of generic person alerts. This was useful for tracking when family members arrived home.

Motion Zones

We used activity zones to focus on our property and ignore street traffic. This significantly reduced false alerts. We only received notifications for motion in designated areas like our porch and walkway. Notifications arrived within a couple of seconds of motion detection, fast enough to catch package deliveries or answer the door remotely.

Storage and Recordings

Google has improved their storage options since earlier Nest products. The Nest Doorbell Battery includes three hours of event-based video history without a subscription. Plus, if your Wi-Fi goes down, the doorbell continues recording to local storage, ensuring you never miss important footage. The only downside is the clips max out at three minutes.

More on Google Home Premium in a bit.

Smart Home Integrations

Google owns Nest, so it didn’t shock us to find out that we could command the Nest Doorbell Battery using Google Assistant. But it also worked with Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant. Here are the commands we used through each virtual assistant.

Alexa:

• Alexa, show me my front door.
• Alexa, show me the feed from the backyard camera.
• Alexa, hide the backyard camera.

Google Assistant:

• Hey Google, show me who’s at my back door.
• Hey Google, show the back door on the Nest Hub Max.
• OK Google, show the front yard on Chromecast.
• OK Google, turn off the backyard camera.
• Hey Google, turn off the backyard camera.
• Hey Google, is the backyard camera on?

As you can see, we could do more with Google Assistant than we could with Alexa, making the Nest Doorbell Battery better home security for Google Home versus Alexa-compatible home security.

Works With Nest

Our smart home integrations didn’t stop with the voice assistants. Nest products, including the Nest Doorbell Battery, work with a ton of other smart home devices, including these:

• Tile Mate and Slim Bluetooth trackers
• Netatmo indoor cameras
• Swann 4K cameras
• Schlage smart locks
• Kasa Spot camera
• LIFX smart bulbs
• Philips Hue smart lighting2

If Nest security camera pricing is too high for you, for example, you could replace the Nest Cam Indoor and the Nest Cam Outdoor with some more affordable cameras from Swann or Netatmo. You could also create home automation triggers like we did, having our smart lights turn on when our Nest Doorbell Battery detected motion from a person.

Pricing

We’ve already said how the Nest Doorbell Battery costs only $179.99, which is pretty affordable compared to some of the best video doorbells on the market. We could’ve stopped there, but we decided to pay more for a Nest Aware subscription.

Google Home Premium

To unlock the doorbell’s full potential, we subscribed to Advanced for $20 monthly. Let’s take a look at what’s included in both Google Home Premium plans.

While not the cheapest option available (Ring’s Basic plan starts at $4.99 monthly), Google Home Premium offers excellent value with its AI-powered features. Compared to traditional security companies like ADT charging up to $49.99 monthly for monitoring, Nest’s pricing is competitive for both equipment and cloud storage.

The Google Home App

We’ve used the Google Home app to manage everything from Nest thermostats to the discontinued Nest Secure system. For the Nest Doorbell Battery, the Google Home app lets us:

• Receive notifications when someone was at our door.
• Check in our live video footage.
• Review our old footage.
• Set up automated triggers with other IoT devices.
• Speak through two-way audio.

We tested out the Google Home app on our iPhones, where it has a 4.4 rating, and rightfully so: The app isn’t buggy and made the setup process very straightforward. The app didn’t fare quite so well on Google Play, but with a 4.1 rating, it’s still easy to use in general. In sum, you shouldn’t have any issues controlling the Nest Doorbell Battery with the Google Home app.

Recap

The Nest Doorbell Battery impressed us with its combination of smart features, video quality, and reasonable pricing. We think it excels at protecting homes from package thieves, monitoring visitors, and integrating with smart home ecosystems. Whether you’re dealing with delivery drivers or unexpected guests, the Nest Doorbell Battery will let you know instantly.

But is it right for your home? Let’s break it down even further.

To learn more about how to shop for a video doorbell, read our complete doorbell camera guide.