Aqara 2K Security Indoor Camera Hub G3 AI Facial and Gesture Recognition Infrared Remote Control 360 Viewing Angle

Aqara builds some really cool stuff. This was the second solid camera we’ve purchased from this brand. I was very impressed with the quality, especially the night vision camera. They’ve also added a number of software features that let you do things like track objects/people in a room. The app is solid and straightforward to use. We primarily got ours to embedded with our existing HomeKit network — and it was a breeze to add. Recommend installing through the app first, so you can set some of the customizations and have access to it later second, add it to HomeKit. It seems like when you do the reverse it’s harder to add it to the app. This ended up replacing a short-lived experience with the Ecobee inside smart camera move to say the night vision camera on the Ecobee was among the worst I’ve seen in a reasonably priced security device. Read more

This is a quality device. HomeKit compatibility is great. Image quality is nice. I had some issues binding to HomeKit but restarting my WiFi network seemed to solve the issue. My G2H wasn't compatible with SD cards over 32gb so I have not bothered to try a higher capacity card on this product (G3). The SD functionality seems to work great, but it is worth noting that if you insert an SD card it will disable iCloud video storage which removes your ability to scrub through video history from the Home/HomeKit app. Using HomeKit still works for live video stream, you just can't access history when SD card is in use without using the Aqara app. I like the Aqara app features so this is an ok compromise for me. Read more

It partially works. Face detection does work and trigger but unknown face does not so for security it's useless. 1. Unknown face detection trigger won't work 2. No chat support or phone support only email. Upgraded to 4 stars as they offered a replacement or refund since it appears to be an app issue. BTW I got support faster here at Amazon than I did at the site itself so if you do have an issue contact the seller directly here from Amazon. As long as you do not require unknown face and just person detection this will do it for half the price as Eufy since you have to buy the home base to do the same thing as what this can do. Also Eufy does not have unknown face at all either this one did and hopefully in a future app update they will fix it now that they are aware it's detecting unknown face as person detection instead. Read more

EDIT: Lol I immediately purchased a 3rd camera after I wrote the previous review…..annnd of course the third one DID NOT work right out of the box. I think this has something to do with Apple and not the camera itself but I’m not quite certain. Basically it dropped out while pairing, and HomeKit decided it wasn’t going to let me add it after resetting it. It kept saying the device was already added. After talking with Apple it was determined that it could potentially be a faulty unit and not truly resetting to factory settings, so I returned. Other 2 cams are still working great off my HomePod Mini***This could also have something to do with the 3rd camera since I’m just running a mini…will update once I get 3rd and have time to set up. TLDR; If you have an AppleTV/Homepod/Ipad already (required to work with HomeKit without anything else) and you’re looking for a HomeKit camera without 3rd party apps; do yourself a favor and just click buy now. This simply works. This is the third camera I’ve landed on and it is absolutely the best by far and large. I initially started with eufy, because it was, well, cheap. I ended up having to download a third party app, then jump through what felt like countless additional hoops, and ultimately ended returning because it was the opposite of seamless, and knowing I would need additional cameras, it was not a process I wanted to repeat. After the eufy experience, I decided I’d give Blink a try and skip Homekit altogether because the third party app experience was so terrible with eufy, I figured why not give our guys and gals at amazon a shot. Also, because it was cheap. This experience was notably better at first. App was easy enough. First camera connected quickly. Second and third camera however we’re a different story…I started running into an error were the app was swearing up and down that I was entering my wi-fi password incorrectly. However, It was showing me the password I entered so I know that it was accurate. Long story short, 15 power cycles and camera resets later, ended up not being able to hook up the last camera, returned, which brings us to this cute little camera here. Now, the reason I mention these previous experiences is because it is critical in understanding exactly why this camera is worth every single penny. Aqara’s arrived, I unboxed, plugged in, hit the + icon in Homekit, scanned QR code, and it worked. That simple. Nothing else required. It simply worked. The entire process took me maybe 5 minutes for both cameras. In comparison, the previous 2 experiences mentioned were both 30+ minutes with negative results. The camera quality is great. Very sturdy and well built. Do yourself a favor and stop looking and buy this. It’s worth it, and it even comes with adorable little ears on the camera…common now, what more could you want? Read more

I like the camera. It’s replacing an old Eufy camera. I always received camera offline notifications in Apple HomeKit with the Eufy camera. So far the Aqara has been solid. It seems faster to load when I want to view videos and also I receive notifications faster. My problem was with setup. I want to have the camera connected to both the Aqara Home app and Homekit. I’d prefer to only use HomeKit but there is functionality (like pan and tilt, human tracking etc) not available in HomeKit. I went through the factory reset process so many times before I found an order of operations that worked. First, connect your phone to the WiFi network you want to use. I have a separate IoT network I use for my cameras etc. Second, power on the camera and add to HomeKit FIRST. Finally, open the Aqara home app and it should automatically detect the camera. Add it to the app when prompted. For the first 20 attempts I always connected it to the Aqara app first. But after a while, the camera would go offline permanently in HomeKit but still work in the Aqara app. It was frustrating. I bought another Aqara camera now that I have the first one working great. I love the pan and tilt and human tracking. It’s very snappy to respond in Apple home. Read more