Aqara’s Indoor Safety Digital camera E1 is the little sibling to their wonderful Digital camera Hub G3, geared toward those that don’t fairly want all of the bells and whistles or the upper value. However don’t let that idiot you! The pan and tilt E1 is a sturdy indoor safety digicam with a fantastic characteristic set and strong video efficiency in each daylight and nighttime situations. I’ve just one minor criticism. We’ll contact on that shortly.
Aqara Digital camera E1: Worth and availability
The Aqara Indoor Safety Digital camera E1 is at present accessible solely by means of Amazon.com for $59.99. Though value drops on this unit don’t occur typically, it was $44.99 in December 2023. On the time of this writing, Amazon is providing a ten% off voucher within the US.
Aqara Digital camera E1: Specs and options
Aqara’s Digital camera Hub G3 is one in every of their finest indoor cameras, however in the event you’re invested within the Apple ecosystem, an Aqara hub might not be what you’re after. That’s the place the Indoor Safety Digital camera E1 is available in. For $50 much less, you get a lot of what the G3 presents and a few up to date options in a smaller 4-inch tall package deal.
The E1 helps Wi-Fi 6, whereas the Digital camera Hub G3 is Wi-Fi 5. The E1 ups the G3’s strong privateness options by including masking zones. You’ll be able to add a black block to your video feed, so these areas are actually blacked out. That’s along with an automatic privateness mode, which lets you set particular instances when the digicam will pan and level towards a wall or different privacy-focused space. The privateness choices are a fantastic characteristic as a result of you will notice every part fairly clearly with this 2K, f/2.0 digicam, which appears nice in good lighting and low-light circumstances.
Linked to Apple HomeKit, the E1 has Safe Video help for storing incident movies within the cloud. Nevertheless, you may also file domestically as a result of it has a microSD slot for as much as 512GB of native video storage. That is particularly helpful in the event you activate the digicam’s 24-hour recording with timelapse mode. Accessing that slot is easy; simply slide the digicam’s tilt lens up, revealing a microSD slot on the backside of it.
One of many options I beloved taking part in with is the 2-way telecom system. There is a speaker and microphone constructed into the E1 so you should use it as a telecom to speak to whoever’s on the opposite facet of the picture. Your children, your vital different, your pet, speak to everybody!
Aqara Digital camera E1: Construct and appears
The Digital camera E1 feels well-built, though it’s primarily plastic. It’s tiny, measuring 4 inches tall by 2.68 inches broad, so it ought to simply match on a bookcase shelf or most different areas. It may well even be mounted to the ceiling, after which you possibly can go into the Aqara Residence app and reorient the video.
The digicam stays out of the way in which with an infrared backlight, which you received’t discover throughout lights out if that is in a bed room. The motor is whisper quiet, so that you’ll probably by no means hear it panning.
Aqara Digital camera E1: Ease of use
Establishing the Digital camera E1 is easy, because the Aqara and Apple Residence apps achieve this with a QR code. You probably have every part needed, you’ll be up and operating in just some minutes. On this case, having every part needed would imply you personal an influence adapter as a result of the E1 doesn’t include the brick within the field, simply the USB-C cable.
Establishing the privateness options within the Aqara Residence app is a breeze, and although there’s a little bit of a delay, the handbook pan and tilt options work effectively. You need to know that after you bind the digicam to HomeKit, or in the event you select to forgo Aqara Residence and solely use HK, you lose entry to many privateness options, in addition to handbook pan and tilt management. It’ll nonetheless monitor people and detect movement, however you received’t be capable of set these privateness positions and also you lose the flexibility to set as much as three occlusion zones. For the privateness options, you’ll must set these up in Aqara Residence as scenes first, that are then uncovered to Apple Residence. Then, you possibly can set off them utilizing automation in Apple Residence without having the Aqara Residence app.
One vital facet of the privateness options is that they’re processed domestically. The E1 has a built-in neural processing unit that permits particular person and sound detection on the system.
As I alluded to earlier within the piece, my solely gripe with Aqara’s Indoor Safety Digital camera E1 is that the human-tracking computerized pan and tilt is finicky. I’ve discovered that placement impacts its capability to trace, similar to the Digital camera Hub G3. When the digicam is positioned round hip top (I’m 6’ tall), I’ve discovered it a bit sluggish to pan with shifting objects, particularly me. Place the digicam increased the place its AI can choose up faces, and your human monitoring improves.
Aqara Digital camera E1: Competitors
Pan and tilt choices that help HomeKit Safe Video are few, however there are two different cameras price trying out. We reviewed and favored Eufy’s Pan 2K which is now the 2K Indoor Cam E220 and proper now its value can’t be beat at solely $35.99 on Eufy’s web site and Amazon.
VOCOlinc Opto HomeKit Indoor Digital camera can be an possibility at a decrease price, accessible on their web site for $49.99. It additionally has pan and tilt performance however is barely operating 1080P video which is ok due to the HKSV limitations when binding 2K cameras just like the E1. HomeKit knocks 2K video all the way down to 1080P in Apple Residence and for video recorded to the cloud.
Aqara Digital camera E1: Do you have to purchase it?
You should purchase this if…
- You need pan and tilt at a fantastic value
- The privateness options are important on your use case
- You don’t want all the Digital camera Hub G3 options
You should not purchase this if…
- You must mount it on a vertical floor like a wall
Aqara Digital camera E1: Verdict
With the Aqara Indoor Safety Digital camera E1, you get fairly a little bit of digicam for a fantastic value. Onboard particular person and sound detection and strong privateness options make this a fantastic possibility to be used instances the place what’s on digicam at sure instances is a priority. Wi-Fi 6 means you will have extra dependable reside video feed entry in properties with dozens of different Wi-Fi devices, and 360-degree rotation means you possibly can see virtually every part.
There aren’t many pan and tilts at this value level with this characteristic set, so the Digital camera E1 needs to be in your shortlist in the event you’re after PT performance. Even in the event you don’t want the hub however PT is important, think about wanting on the Digital camera Hub G3, which has extra dependable monitoring, built-in facial recognition, and an alarm uncovered in HomeKit.
Aqara 2K Indoor Safety Digital camera E1
Robust act to comply with, however it follows you!
You do not have dozens of pan and tilt cameras which help HomeKit Safe Video, however of those who do, the Digital camera E1 is without doubt one of the finest.