Ring Stick Up Cam Battery vs. Nest Cam Battery
Battery-powered and weather-resistant, the Ring Stick Up Cam Battery and theNest Cam Batteryare bothsolid connected security camerasmade to be used anywhere. Made by Amazon and Google, the two cameras share a lot in common — but at an MSRP of $180, Google’s offering costs nearly twice as much, and that’s beforeAmazon Prime Daybrings the Ring’s price down even more. So how do the two cameras compare, and which is right for your home? Let’s discuss.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery
Nest Cam Battery
Resolution
Field of view (diagonal)
Night vision
Lasts “months between recharges with normal use”
“About 3 months” on average
Operating temperature
–5°F to 122°F
–4°F to 104°F
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery vs. Nest Cam Battery: Hardware
The Ring Stick Up Cam Battery is a cylinder a little larger than a can of soda. It’s available in black or white, and can be set on any flat surface or mounted using connectors on its back or underside. It’s IPX5 certified, so it’s rain-proof, and it can officially operate at temperatures of –5°F to 122°F.
The Nest Cam Battery is a little larger with a curvier, more modern design that only comes in white. It includes a fancy magnetic mount that makes adjusting its position and removing the camera to charge a breeze, but you’ll have to buy a separate stand if you want to set it on a flat surface like a shelf. It’s IP54 certified, which means it’s nominally less water-resistant than the Ring camera, but it’s also officially dust-resistant. It has an operating temperature range of –4°F to 104°F.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery vs. Nest Cam Battery: Image quality
Both the Ring Stick Up Cam Battery and the Nest Cam Indoor/Outdoor feature 1080p sensors with a 130-degree field of view. By modern standards, 1080p video is just okay — it looks fine full-size, but things are going to get blurry if you have to zoom in on either camera.
Google markets the Nest Cam Battery as capable of recording HDR video; Ring makes no such claim about the Stick Up Cam. They do both have infrared night vision, though — and the Ring camera gives the option to artificially colorize night vision video.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery vs. Nest Cam Battery: Features
The Ring Stick Up Cam Battery and the Nest Cam Battery broadly share similar features. Each records video when it detects movement, uploads that video to the cloud in real time, and makes it available to view in its app — and each offers options to customize that functionality.
Both Ring’s and Nest’s cameras let you specify exactly where in their fields of view you want them to monitor for motion — so if you’ve got a camera pointed at your back door, for example, you can choose to be notified only when it sees motion within a couple of feet of the door, rather than in your whole backyard. They can both identify people, animals, and vehicles, with the option to only record when one is spotted. Nest cameras can also learn individual faces over time to better tailor activity alerts; Ring doesn’t offer a similar feature.
Each camera lets you view live video, and you can even use either camera as an intercom to talk to people near it. How long video of recorded events is saved depends on your subscription to either Ring Protect or Nest Aware (more on that below). The Nest camera can be connected to a power source to record video continuously; the Ring camera can be wired to power with additional hardware but doesn’t provide a 24/7 recording option.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery vs. Nest Cam Battery: Apps and ecosystems
The Stick Up Cam Battery is controlled using theRing app; the Nest camera usesGoogle Home. Neither app is outstanding, but the Google Home app has become increasingly crufty and convoluted in recent years. By contrast, Ring’s app is purpose-built for Ring products, and will typically be less frustrating to interact with.
Being made by Amazon, Ring cameras are most closely tied into the company’s Alexa ecosystem. You can configure yourEcho Showdisplays to show feeds from Ring cameras when they’re activated, and getting a video feed on demand is as easy as asking Alexa to show you the room your camera is in. This functionality isn’t possible using Ring cameras with Google Assistant displays.
The Nest/Google Assistant experience is similar, though not as robust. you’re able to ask your Google Assistant display to show you the feed from your Nest Cam, but your display can’t automatically notify you of events your Nest camera sees. (This functionality is strangely only available through Nest doorbells.)
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery vs. Nest Cam Battery: Battery life and charging
The Ring Stick Up Cam Battery and Nest Cam Battery each monitor for activity continuously when they’re turned on. However, they only save and upload video clips when certain conditions are met — for example, when the camera sees a person inside a zone you’ve specified. Because of the sporadic way the cameras use power, it’s hard to give a useful and accurate benchmark for battery life.
Ring says the Stick Up Cam Battery “can go months between recharges with normal use,” but also notes battery life “is dependent on a number of factors in your home’s environment such as the local weather and the number of activities captured.” When it needs to be recharged, the Stick Up Cam’s removable battery pack plugs in by MicroUSB.
Google is slightly more straightforward in its estimates, saying the Nest Cam will last between one and a half and seven months on a charge, depending on how many events it records per day. When the battery’s tapped, you remove the camera from its magnetic base and charge it with a proprietary charger. Google also sells an outdoor version of that charger that can also be connected while the camera is in operation, enabling 24/7 video recording (though that feature is only available with the more expensive Nest Aware subscription).
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery vs. Nest Cam Battery: Subscriptions
Ring and Nest each gate some camera functionality behind paid subscriptions.
Ring Protect comes in three tiers: Basic ($3.99/month), Plus ($10/month), and Pro ($20/month). Basic covers a single Ring camera and includes essential smart camera features like video history and person alerts. Without this subscription, the Stick Up Cam Battery can only be used for motion alerts and to broadcast live video — you won’t get recordings of events, so if you miss something as it happens, you miss it forever. With the subscription, clips are saved for 180 days. The Plus subscription extends these features to all of your Ring cameras.
Ring Protect Pro is a more fulsome home security subscription meant to be used with the Ring Alarm Pro security system. It doesn’t unlock any additional camera functionality, but it does include the option to back your video up locally if you buy the required hardware.
Nest Aware is available in two tiers. The basic subscription costs $6 a month and includes 30 days of video recording history, plus optional notifications for seen familiar faces and the sounds of smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, and glass breaking. Unlike with Ring, the base subscription extends to all of your Nest cameras. Another key difference: recordings are saved even without a Nest Aware subscription, but the short three-hour window isn’t very useful.
Nest Aware Plus doubles the price to $12 a month, but also doubles video history storage to 60 days. It also allows for continuous 24/7 video recording if you keep your Nest Cam plugged in. You’ll get a rolling 10 days of recordings saved.
Ring Stick Up Cam Battery vs. Nest Cam Battery: Pricing
At MSRP, the Ring Stick Up Cam Battery costs $100. The Nest Cam Battery is significantly pricier at $180. With similar video capabilities, durability, and software features, which is best for you is going to depend on some specifics.
The biggest deciding factor for most households will probably be which ecosystem they’re already invested in. Amazon-owned Ring cameras work best with other Amazon products; Google’s Nest cameras fit in better with other Google gadgets. It’s entirely possible to use a Ring camera in a Google-filled house (or vice versa), but the experience won’t be as smooth.
It’s important to remember that either camera will be largely useless without a subscription to its respective plan, starting at $4 a month for Ring and $6 for Nest. The Nest Cam Battery also has a $12-a-month tier that enables 24/7 video recording if your camera stays plugged in; Ring doesn’t offer a comparable feature.
Buy the Ring Stick Up Cam Battery if…
Buy the Nest Cam Battery if…
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