Google Nest Doorbell (Wired, 3rd Gen) Disappoints With Video and App

I bought the Google Nest Doorbell (Wired, 3rd Gen) expecting a true flagship upgrade, but it’s been a massive disappointment. Between degraded visual quality, unreliable video/smart features, and an infuriating app experience, this camera routinely fails at basic security. The Bad & The Frustrating: Camera Quality is a Step Backward: Don't let the "2K" label fool you. The core optical quality is technically and noticeably worse than older hardware. Google seems to have crammed hyper-aggressive HDR on top to mask subpar sensor performance. The result? Harsh, over-processed, and blown-out footage that looks terrible, even in broad daylight under ideal lighting. "Smart" Detection That Gets Everything Wrong: The AI detection is practically useless. It routinely fails to capture familiar faces (or faces at all) and misidentifies events with inaccurate descriptions. Yet, somehow, it triggers constant nuisance notifications for distant pedestrians or cars far away down the street. Useless Without a Top-Tier Subscription: Unless you cough up money every single month for a top-tier subscription which currently is the Google Home Premium Advanced (not confusing at all), this camera loses almost all functionality. Without paying, you get a uselessly brief cloud-history window and zero meaningful features. The Google Home App is Atrocious (And Google knows it): Moving away from the old Nest app before the new experience was ready, was a costly mistake. The Google Home app lacks basic granular controls, UX/UI principles, innovation, etc. It routinely shows live view as "offline" when the camera is powered fine, and it forces you to factory-reset the entire device just to update your Wi-Fi credentials. I could go on and on about how terrible this app is but I'll continue. Night Mode & Distortion: The ultra-wide field of view causes heavy fisheye distortion near the edges. At night, unless you have bright porch lights on, the infrared illuminators struggle, leaving faces dark and smeared beyond recognition at normal walkway distances. The Only Positive, An Extra Screw in the Box: In a rare moment of foresight, Google included a second security screw in the box which came in handy after I dropped and lost the first one during installation. The Verdict: A security camera’s primary job is to be dependable the exact second someone walks up to your door. Between the blown-out video processing, false/missed notifications, cloud lock-in, and terrible app software, this product simply isn't reliable. Skip it and look for an alternative with local storage, better optics, and no mandatory paywall.