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 digital camera with an ideal function 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: Value and availability
The Aqara Indoor Safety Digital camera E1 is presently obtainable solely by way of Amazon.com for $59.99. Though value drops on this unit don’t occur usually, 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 should you’re invested within the Apple ecosystem, an Aqara hub will 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 provides 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 strong privateness options by including masking zones. You may 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 digital camera will pan and level towards a wall or different privacy-focused space. The privateness choices are an ideal function as a result of you will notice every little thing fairly clearly with this 2K, f/2.0 digital camera, which seems nice in good lighting and low-light circumstances.
Related to Apple HomeKit, the E1 has Safe Video assist for storing incident movies within the cloud. Nonetheless, you can even report regionally as a result of it has a microSD slot for as much as 512GB of native video storage. That is particularly helpful should you activate the digital camera’s 24-hour recording with timelapse mode. Accessing that slot is easy; simply slide the digital camera’s tilt lens up, revealing a microSD slot on the backside of it.
One of many options I liked enjoying 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, regardless that 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 could actually even be mounted to the ceiling, after which you’ll be able to go into the Aqara House app and reorient the video.
The digital camera stays out of the best way 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 seemingly 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 accomplish that with a QR code. When you have every little thing needed, you’ll be up and operating in just some minutes. On this case, having every little thing 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 House app is a breeze, and although there’s a little bit of a delay, the handbook pan and tilt options work properly. You must know that after you bind the digital camera to HomeKit, or should you select to forgo Aqara House and solely use HK, you lose entry to many privateness options, in addition to handbook pan and tilt management. It would nonetheless monitor people and detect movement, however you received’t have the ability to set these privateness positions and also you lose the power to set as much as three occlusion zones. For the privateness options, you’ll need to set these up in Aqara House as scenes first, that are then uncovered to Apple House. Then, you’ll be able to set off them utilizing automation in Apple House while not having the Aqara House app.
One vital facet of the privateness options is that they’re processed regionally. 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 automated pan and tilt is finicky. I’ve discovered that placement impacts its capability to trace, similar to the Digital camera Hub G3. When the digital camera is positioned round hip top (I’m 6’ tall), I’ve discovered it a bit sluggish to pan with shifting objects, specifically me. Place the digital camera greater 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 price testing. 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 website and Amazon.
VOCOlinc Opto HomeKit Indoor Digital camera can also be an choice at a decrease value, obtainable 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: Do you have to purchase it?
You should purchase this if…
- You need pan and tilt at an ideal value
- The privateness options are important in your use case
- You don’t want all the Digital camera Hub G3 options
You should not purchase this if…
- You have to 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 digital camera for an ideal value. Onboard particular person and sound detection and strong privateness options make this an ideal choice to be used circumstances the place what’s on digital camera at sure instances is a priority. Wi-Fi 6 means you may have extra dependable stay video feed entry in properties with dozens of different Wi-Fi devices, and 360-degree rotation means you’ll be able to see virtually every little thing.
There aren’t many pan and tilts at this value level with this function set, so the Digital camera E1 must be in your shortlist should you’re after PT performance. Even should you don’t want the hub however PT is important, think about 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 comply with, however it follows you!
You do not have dozens of pan and tilt cameras which assist HomeKit Safe Video, however of people who do, the Digital camera E1 is likely one of the finest.