REVIEW: Nest's new $499 home security system is simple to install and made me feel a lot safer

First, there's the Nest Guard, a hamburger-sized hub for the system.

A lightweight device that's about the size of two hockey pucks stacked on top of each other, the Guard is the primary way to arm and disarm the Secure. It has a number pad on top where you enter a PIN to activate the system.

You can assign each person in your home his or her own security code. If you do, the Nest app can use them to tell you who came and left your home and when, a feature that could come in handy if you have kids.

Google intended the Guard to be attractive, because it designed the device to be placed in an entryway or vestibule. You can either set it on a flat surface or hang it on a wall with a screw.

The most clever bit about the Guard is that it doubles as a motion sensor. Once the Secure system is armed, the Guard will trigger an alert if somebody walks past it.

The Guard includes a battery backup that's designed to last 12 hours, so the system can keep running even in a power outage.

Next are the Nest Detect devices, the most important parts of the system.

The Detect devices can sense when a door or window is opened. They also serve as motion detectors.

The Secure system comes with two Detects. If you need more, Nest sells them for $59 a pop.

The devices are way easier to install than I thought they would be. Assuming you to use one to monitor a window or door, you just place it in the upper corner of the window frame or door frame using an attached adhesive strip or an included screw, depending on how secure you want it to be. The Nest app walks you through the process and helps you test the Detects to make sure you installed them correctly.

I was able to install the ones that came with my kit on my front and back doors in less than half an hour. They were so easy to install, I thought about grabbing more to monitor the windows in my house, too.

But you don't have to use them to guard the openings to your house. You can instead attach them to your walls and use them as room-sized motion detectors.

A side-benefit to the Detects: They turn into nightlights when it's dark.

You can just push the glowing button you see here to temporarily disarm a Detect so you can open a door, say, without waking anybody up. Once the door closes again, the Detect will reactivate.

Finally, there are the Nest Tags, which let you arm or disarm the system with a touch.

You can can arm or disarm the Secure in several ways. You can enter a code, as you would with a traditional security system. Or you can use Nest's smartphone app.

But the quickest way is with a Tag, a fob you can attach to a key ring. To activate or deactivate the system, you just touch a Tag to the Guard.

The Secure system comes with two Tags. You can buy additional ones for $25 a piece.

If you use multiple ones, you can assign a name to each. Just like it can with personal PINs, the Nest app can keep track of which Tags are used to arm and disarm the system, allowing you to see who entered your house and when.

No matter how you activate the Secure, you have some time before the system arms. By default, you have a minute, but you can adjust that to as little as 30 seconds or to as long as five minutes.

Nest's app offers several different settings for the Secure system

The app is the main way to interact with the Secure. It offers three basic modes for the system:

— "No Guard," where it's off entirely.

— "Home & Guarding," which activates if a door is opened but turns off the indoor motion detectors.

— And "Away & Guarding," which activates everything.

The app also offers you the status of your various sensors. That's something I appreciated. Even when I was at work, I could triple-check that yes, I had closed the back door when I took the dog in from the yard.

The biggest problem I had with the Secure was simply remembering to activate it, whether when I left the house or at night.

You can configure the app to monitor your phone's location and send you a push alert if you leave your house without turning on the system. But that feature isn't turned on by default, and you'll have to find it in the settings to activate it.

So what happens when the system goes off?

Under its most basic level of service, the Secure will shoot you an alert if it detects anything. From there, it's up to you to do anything about it, including calling the police.

But you do have other, pricier options.

For $24.99 a month on a three-year contract, you can get professional monitoring from MONI. When the Secure triggers an alert, MONI representatives will try to determine what happened and alert authorities if need be.

You can also get cellular service for the Secure, so it can send out alerts even if your home internet access goes down. Nest and T-Mobile are offering service for the system for $5 a month or $50 a year.

You can enhance the Secure system with a Nest Cam.

Nest offers both indoor and outdoor security cameras that you can integrate into a Secure system. The Nest Cam IQ Indoor pictured here is $249.

If the Secure sends you an alert, you can quickly check out what's going on via a Cam.

The integration between the Cam and Secure is pretty shallow. But it's nice when you get an alert to immediately be able to see what happened.

The Nest Secure succeeded in the most important way: It made me feel safer.

I liked the Secure. It's well-designed, simple to install, and offers a sufficient number of features.

I trusted it. Which is good, because I rely on it to guard this guy.