Nest Cam, the first connected camera to come from the union of Nest and Dropcam, is remarkably similar to previous Dropcam products. This was mostly expected, especially when you consider Dropcam's lineup was great and already worked well with Nest products. The most interesting thing to come from the Nest Cam announcement was the Nest Aware service, which takes the already great Dropcam software and improves it in a couple of cool ways.
The hardware, however, is very similar to the previous versions of the hardware. The casing is nearly identical, save for branding on the front of the device. We know that Nest Cam is a 1080p camera, which is an improvement over the 720p camera in the Dropcam Pro, and we know the microphone and speaker are slightly improved, but you wouldn't know any of that with these two devices sitting side by side.
As you can see, the most significant changes in Nest Cam are in the cradle that holds the camera. The slimmer ring separates into two pieces for those who want to mount onto a camera screw mount, and the base is magnetic. While the box includes a metal mounting plate for the magnet to attach to, it's strong enough to comfortably connect to most metal objects. The added swivel thanks to the screw in the base also gives you some additional flexibility when positioning the camera, instead of the single hinge found in the Dropcam Pro.
It really is fascinating to see how similar the casings for these cameras are. You can even put a Nest Cam in a Dropcam Pro casing, if that's your thing. If you're trying to decide between the two cameras, or wondering if the upgrade is worth the $200 for a Nest Cam, you can see the answer lies in the mount and the ability to record at 1080p. It's also important to remember you have the ability to enhance video you record with Nest Aware, which can be a huge benefit when looking at video you've captured or zooming in on something in your video feed. If that doesn't appeal to you, chances are the Dropcam Pro will do you just fine, especially if you can get it on sale.
