Aqara’s Indoor Safety Digital camera E1 is the little sibling to their wonderful Digital camera Hub G3, aimed 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 a fantastic function 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: Value and availability
The Aqara Indoor Safety Digital camera E1 is presently accessible solely by means 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 every of their greatest 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 presents 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 digicam will pan and level towards a wall or different privacy-focused space. The privateness choices are a fantastic function as a result of you will note all the pieces fairly clearly with this 2K, f/2.0 digicam, which appears to be like nice in good lighting and low-light situations.
Related to Apple HomeKit, the E1 has Safe Video assist for storing incident movies within the cloud. Nevertheless, you may also report regionally 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 straightforward; simply slide the digicam’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 aspect of the picture. Your youngsters, your important 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 places. It may even be mounted to the ceiling, after which you’ll be able to go into the Aqara House app and reorient the video.
The digicam stays out of the way in which 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 seemingly by no means hear it panning.
Aqara Digital camera E1: Ease of use
Establishing the Digital camera E1 is straightforward, because the Aqara and Apple House apps achieve this with a QR code. When you’ve got all the pieces needed, you’ll be up and working in only a few minutes. On this case, having all the pieces 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 guide pan and tilt options work properly. It’s 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’s going to nonetheless observe people and detect movement, however you gained’t be capable 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 must 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 with no need the Aqara House app.
One important side of the privateness options is that they’re processed regionally. The E1 has a built-in neural processing unit that allows individual and sound detection on the gadget.
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 means 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 gradual to pan with shifting objects, particularly me. Place the digicam larger 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 preferred 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 be an possibility at a decrease price, accessible on their website for $49.99. It additionally has pan and tilt performance however is barely working 1080P video which is okay 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 House and for video recorded to the cloud.
Aqara Digital camera E1: Do you have to purchase it?
You can purchase this if…
- You need pan and tilt at a fantastic worth
- The privateness options are important in your use case
- You don’t want the entire Digital camera Hub G3 options
You should not purchase this if…
- You might want 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 digicam for a fantastic worth. Onboard individual 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’ve gotten extra dependable dwell video feed entry in properties with dozens of different Wi-Fi devices, and 360-degree rotation means you’ll be able to see virtually all the pieces.
There aren’t many pan and tilts at this worth level with this function 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, take into account 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
Powerful act to comply with, but it surely 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 among the greatest.
