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 worth. However don’t let that idiot you! The pan and tilt E1 is a strong indoor safety digicam with an incredible characteristic set and strong video efficiency in each daylight and nighttime eventualities. 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 way of Amazon.com for $59.99. Though worth 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 all their finest indoor cameras, however if you happen to’re invested within the Apple ecosystem, an Aqara hub is probably not 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 gives and a few up to date options in a smaller 4-inch tall bundle.
The E1 helps Wi-Fi 6, whereas the Digital camera Hub G3 is Wi-Fi 5. The E1 ups the G3’s sturdy 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 an incredible characteristic as a result of you will note all the pieces 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 assist for storing incident movies within the cloud. Nonetheless, 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 if you happen to 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 utilize 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, despite the fact that it’s primarily plastic. It’s tiny, measuring 4 inches tall by 2.68 inches large, so it ought to simply match on a bookcase shelf or most different areas. It could even be mounted to the ceiling, after which you may go into the Aqara House app and reorient the video.
The digicam stays out of the best way with an infrared backlight, which you gained’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 House apps achieve this with a QR code. When you’ve got all the pieces vital, you’ll be up and operating in only a few minutes. On this case, having all the pieces vital 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 House app is a breeze, and although there’s a little bit of a delay, the guide pan and tilt options work nicely. It is best to know that when you bind the digicam to HomeKit, or if you happen to select to forgo Aqara House and solely use HK, you lose entry to many privateness options, in addition to guide pan and tilt management. It should nonetheless monitor people and detect movement, however you gained’t be capable to set these privateness positions and also you lose the flexibility to set as much as three occlusion zones. For the privateness options, you’ll should set these up in Aqara House as scenes first, that are then uncovered to Apple House. Then, you may set off them utilizing automation in Apple House with no need the Aqara House 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, identical to the Digital camera Hub G3. When the digicam is positioned round hip top (I’m 6’ tall), I’ve discovered it a bit gradual 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 assist HomeKit Safe Video are few, however there are two different cameras value trying out. We reviewed and favored Eufy’s Pan 2K which is now the 2K Indoor Cam E220 and proper now its worth can’t be beat at solely $35.99 on Eufy’s website and Amazon.
VOCOlinc Opto HomeKit Indoor Digital camera can also be an choice at a decrease value, accessible on their website for $49.99. It additionally has pan and tilt performance however is just operating 1080P video which is okay due to the HKSV limitations when binding 2K cameras just like the E1. HomeKit knocks 2K video right down to 1080P in Apple House and for video recorded to the cloud.
Aqara Digital camera E1: Must you purchase it?
You can purchase this if…
- You need pan and tilt at an incredible worth
- The privateness options are important to your use case
- You don’t want all the Digital camera Hub G3 options
You should not purchase this if…
- It’s essential 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 an incredible worth. Onboard particular person and sound detection and sturdy privateness options make this an incredible choice to be used circumstances the place what’s on digicam at sure instances is a priority. Wi-Fi 6 means you’ve extra dependable dwell video feed entry in properties with dozens of different Wi-Fi devices, and 360-degree rotation means you may see nearly all the pieces.
There aren’t many pan and tilts at this worth level with this characteristic set, so the Digital camera E1 must be in your shortlist if you happen to’re after PT performance. Even if you happen to don’t want the hub however PT is important, contemplate trying 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 observe, however it follows you!
You do not have dozens of pan and tilt cameras which assist HomeKit Safe Video, however of those who do, the Digital camera E1 is likely one of the finest.
