Best Minimalist IoT Cameras for Summer Homes in 2018

Summer 2018 has arrived! Warm weather reaches the northeast! Summer was late, but like usual, it’s in full force for the 4th of July weekend. We are spending time preparing for our new summer house. I am celebrating with posts to honor America, freedom and security. What better way celebrate freedom then capturing the top two, best, IoT video cameras of 2018 in the IoT Video market: Nest and Ring.

The Internet of Things, IoT, is a catchy title to mean stuff connected to the Internet. Really any appliance that can connect to the Internet is part of the wide category that is IoT. The security of these connections varies widely. One of the most useful IoT products are cameras.

I love my Nest cameras. And, I love my Ring Video Doorbell. And, that’s not wrong! I have two Nest cameras at the apartment in the city, and we live there! I bought an original Dropcam. It still works. That’s amazing! Plus, I added the new Nest Cam. The service is very affordable. We will definitely be adding several Nest cameras for our new summer house to keep an eye out.

The cameras are not only great peace of mind, but also provide entertainment from all the hilarious moments captured of our cats.

From a minimalist aesthetic, Nest and Ring are gorgeous. Clean, elegant lines. Simple, neutral colors. Perfect in my home, as well as on my home. Google and Ring are making it easy to buy electronics that don’t look like electronics. That is to say, electronics that aren’t ugly.

Since I know from experience that Nest is worth it, we are enjoying the discount of the 3 pack. The $200 savings over purchasing separately is substantial. We are going to need it too! The new cat super highway is ambitious!

In addition to the indoor Nest cameras, we are also adding a mix of outdoor cameras. I know these companies really want to imagine a world of platform “lock in”, but I am always going to find, purchase and use the best products. How the company who created that object imagines I will use it doesn’t really matter to me. I use Nest and Ring.

Nest cameras are far superior to Ring in most ways except one. We’ll cover the one major difference below. It was a no brainer to grab the two pack of outdoor cameras from Nest. That brings our total up to 5 Nest Cameras and our featured guest product, Ring.

Ring has the best IoT Video Doorbell on the market. I installed Ring for my family. The Pro and RVD models have been operating for over a year without any intervention from me. I’ve found the service pretty good. Now that Amazon purchased Ring , I expect their service to improve. Google hasn’t really done much to Nest and Dropcam. Dropcam is a great company as well.

For the summer home, we are going to be purchasing the Ring Elite doorbell. It’s their most ambitious doorbell. And, most expensive. The Pro was definitely good enough. But, we liked the Power over Ethernet feature. Also, I want the doorbell to be off WiFi if possible. This is the first Ring model that allow Ethernet connections.

With Ring Elite, that brings the total to six IoT video cameras for our new summer home. Remember, IoT cameras are essentially passive monitoring at this point. If you need a full security system, Nest and Ring would be complimentary products. For us, the IoT approach is perfectly minimal. The Ring camera isn’t much of a camera, it’s just the doorbell. It gets a lot more foot traffic. The front door should get more foot traffic. That’s part of the appeal of using separate companies and products. I can ignore the Ring notifications when I don’t want to answer the door, while Nest can continue remaining vigilant. And there’s no worry that I am going to miss something important.

The indoor cameras will be placed near the front hall, in the family room where we are building the cat super highway, and in the kitchen.

Six IoT video cameras are capable of saturating a lot of bandwidth. I am considering the Google Home Wifi Router setup for convenience and to manage the traffic requirements of so many WiFi cameras.

The monthly service for all these cameras is slightly more expensive because it doesn’t enjoy the price discount due to additional vendors. In our case, from Ring. That’s a worthwhile trade off. The Nest camera user experience, quality and functionality make it the clear choice. Perhaps, when the new Google doorbell is ready, the Ring Elite will no longer has a place at our new home.