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Nest Doorbell 2nd Gen vs the Original Nest Hello: What Actually Changed

2022 · From the Tech with Asher channel · Watch below or read on

The Nest Hello stood the test of time. Mine has been on the front door for years, and it earned its keep, though the protective covering eventually started peeling and cracking, an issue plenty of owners raised with Google. So when the second generation wired doorbell arrived, I put them side by side and went digging, and because Google's own compare tool would not line these two up, that meant digging through the manuals.

The camera went backward on paper

The original Nest Hello has a 3 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom. The new doorbell has a 1.3 megapixel camera with 6x zoom, a lower resolution than the doorbell it replaces. Google says software changes actually make the picture clearer, and there is a manufacturing logic too: the wired and battery models now share one camera, which simplifies the supply chain. But if you buy on spec sheets, know that this line went down, not up.

Everything else went up

• Field of view: 145 to 160 degrees. The practical difference is the ground. When someone sets down a package or picks one up, you can now see it at floor level in frame. That is most of what people want a doorbell camera for.
• Weather sealing: IPX4 to IP54. Ingress Protection is the rating for what a device keeps out. The old rating handled splashes; the new one adds dust and depth protection, better for a device that lives outside year round.
• Cold tolerance: minus 15 C down to minus 20 C. Five degrees does not sound like much until an Oklahoma ice storm parks on your porch for a week.
• The body is slightly larger, sleeker, without the old speaker grilles at the bottom, and the mounting changed at the top.

The variable nobody rates: your Wi-Fi

With a different internet connection and different Wi-Fi strength at the front door, the same doorbell delivers very different picture quality. Before blaming the camera, check what the signal looks like where the doorbell actually hangs. A doorbell at the far edge of a weak network will disappoint no matter which generation you buy.

Should you upgrade?

If your Nest Hello is working and intact, keep it; the resolution story does not justify replacing a working unit. If yours is peeling, cracking, or dropping connection, the second generation is the sturdier, wider-seeing, colder-hardy replacement, and I have a separate walkthrough on the channel showing the actual swap from Hello to the new unit.