Google Clips review: A smart, but unpredictable camera
A few months ago, I met my favorite dog. I was standing in my friend's living room when Tassie, a little black and white chonzer puppy, came sniffing by my feet. She looked up at me, got up on her hind legs and placed her two front paws on my shin. A second later, she leaned forward, crossing her paws behind my calf and hugged my leg.
I froze, my heart stopped and I melted into a puddle on the floor. I didn't dare to move in case she stopped hugging me. But then I thought, "This is a moment I want to memorialize!" So I reached for my phone, and as I shifted my weight slightly, Tassie walked away. I tried to get her to hug me again, but to no avail. My heart had been won, but the moment was lost.
If I had had a Google Clips with me then, that story might have ended differently. I'd have had a shot at recording that moment for posterity. It's kind of like Snap's Spectacles in the body of a GoPro, being told when to capture bursts of video by built-in AI. Google is calling it a smart camera, and named it Clips, because it records ... clips. Get it?
It's a $250 accessory designed to help you capture moments you might otherwise miss when reaching for a phone. Google is quick to emphasize this isn't meant to be a wearable or always-on camera; it's intended for a pretty specific audience -- parents of human babies and fur-babies.
Hardware
Kids and pets tend to be careless with gadgets, so it's a good thing Clips is pretty durable. It survived a few falls during my testing from between 3 and 5 feet high, thanks to its sturdy build and the Gorilla Glass 3 covering its lens.
Twisting that lens turns the camera on, and one of three white LEDs blinks to indicate it's watching. When it thinks something interesting is happening, it'll capture a seven-second burst of video. There's also a shutter button you can press to take a shot, but the idea is that you shouldn't have to use it often. Google's built-in AI is supposed to be smart enough to recognize scenes that are exciting.
Google includes a sturdy clip case that doubles as a stand so you can attach the camera to the back of a chair or your diaper bag or set it on an uneven surface to get more angles. I found myself using it as a stand most often.
There's also a reset button on the camera's bottom, as well as a USB-C charging port, but there's no screen on the device. You can use your phone as a viewfinder, though. That's it physically -- a lens, some lights and a shutter button -- super simple.
In use
The setup process is relatively fuss-free, too. The camera is compatible with both Android and iOS. The main difference between the two is that you'll have to press a button on your iPhone to initiate a file transfer, while that happens automatically with Android. Pairing your phone to Clips is straightforward -- download and launch the app, press the camera's shutter button when instructed, and that's it.
I had significant connectivity issues when using Clips with a Huawei Mate 10 Pro, and it turns out only iPhones, Pixels and the Galaxy S7 and S8 work with the smart camera right now. Google will add more compatible phones over time, although which ones and how long that will take isn't clear. When I switched to a Pixel 2, my experience was much smoother. If you're not using an iPhone, Pixel or Galaxy, you might want to hold off on buying a Clips.
Once you're done setting up, you can start having fun! The system will recognize people, dogs and cats, and when it notices something interesting happening, it will trigger a recording. To be clear, this seven-second clip is actually a series of still images stitched together. The camera shoots at 15 frames per second and does not record sound (no mic onboard). This not only keeps file size relatively small, it also makes it easy to pull out individual frames that you can export as a picture.
I didn't use that feature much, though -- I prefered the videos. I especially liked the app's built-in editor that lets you crop into a specific part of the frame and control when to start and end the video. It was supereasy to focus on what I wanted and export just those parts. When it comes to sharing these clips, Google's also made it very simple. You can save your selection as a GIF, an MP4 or a Live photo, which you can then publish on basically any platform.
Source: www.msn.com
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