Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Good at first, then becomes terrible VERY quickly once your return/trial period is over. Really wanted to like this item, and I would have written a glowing review during the 30 day Nest Aware trial period. Installation was relatively easy (more on that later), and the app worked wonderfully, as did viewing of historic footage. Clearly my home internet was quite capable of delivering the upstream needed, and I viewed the cam from a number of different apps and internet connections without issue and with very limited buffering (1-2 seconds at the most, one time). Alerts worked great. After the trial period ended and Nest charged me for my first month of service, everything went downhill. Alerts stopped firing. Viewing live was impossible. Viewing historic footage became impossible. The buffering wheel became my best friend. Nest said it was my internet connection, either on the camera or wherever I was connecting from. Nothing had changed on my home network, and I was accessing the camera over 50+ gig LTE and from a business fiber connection, same as before the paid period started, along with the issues. This was NOT on my end, but they refused to continue to help me because it was an internet issue "on my end". Throughput on my home network is the same as it was a month ago. My downstream speeds are the same at the other locations as they were a month ago. From here, Nest basically ignored the issue, and a quick search reveals this is NOT an uncommon problem. Think about millions of these cameras, each uploading 300 GB of data per month, and millions of users trying to stream that data--I just don't think Nest has the hardware infrastructure to serve that sort of data load, and the company just gives you a "priority lane" during the trial period to fool you into thinking the service is reliable until your return period has ended. As to installation--Everything was easy and straightforward except for the power cable design. On one end is a huge white block of plastic--the camera. On the other, a huge white block of plastic surrounding a USB plug in the interest of weatherproofing it. This is a wire you're going to have to pass through an opening in your house's structure, and they made the thing nearly an inch in diameter, requiring you to drill a MUCH larger hole than is actually necessary. Luckily, I was able to go in through a plastic attic vent in the eave and down through sheetrock, but it was far more complicated than it should have been, since I was replacing a camera with a normal DC barrel connector wire and had to enlarge all the pass-throughs. Also, watch your fingers around the magnet mount.