Aqara’s Indoor Safety Digital camera E1 is the little sibling to their glorious 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 sturdy indoor safety digicam with a fantastic function set and stable video efficiency in each daylight and nighttime situations. I’ve just one minor grievance. We’ll contact on that shortly.
Aqara Digital camera E1: Value and availability
The Aqara Indoor Safety Digital camera E1 is at present obtainable solely via Amazon.com for $59.99. Though worth 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 certainly one of their finest indoor cameras, however in the event you’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 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 possibly can 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 things fairly clearly with this 2K, f/2.0 digicam, which appears to be like nice in good lighting and low-light circumstances.
Related to Apple HomeKit, the E1 has Safe Video help for storing incident movies within the cloud. Nonetheless, you can even document regionally 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 straightforward; simply slide the digicam’s tilt lens up, revealing a microSD slot on the backside of it.
One of many options I cherished enjoying 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 aspect 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 large, so it ought to simply match on a bookcase shelf or most different places. It might even be mounted to the ceiling, after which you possibly can go into the Aqara Dwelling app and reorient the video.
The digicam 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 doubtless by no means hear it panning.
Aqara Digital camera E1: Ease of use
Organising the Digital camera E1 is straightforward, because the Aqara and Apple Dwelling apps accomplish that with a QR code. When you’ve got all the things essential, you’ll be up and operating in only a few minutes. On this case, having all the things essential 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.
Organising the privateness options within the Aqara Dwelling app is a breeze, and although there’s a little bit of a delay, the guide pan and tilt options work nicely. You must know that after you bind the digicam to HomeKit, or in the event you select to forgo Aqara Dwelling 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 received’t be capable of set these privateness positions and also you lose the power to set as much as three occlusion zones. For the privateness options, you’ll should set these up in Aqara Dwelling as scenes first, that are then uncovered to Apple Dwelling. Then, you possibly can set off them utilizing automation in Apple Dwelling with no need the Aqara Dwelling app.
One vital facet of the privateness options is that they’re processed regionally. The E1 has a built-in neural processing unit that allows particular person and sound detection on the machine.
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 potential 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, specifically 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 help HomeKit Safe Video are few, however there are two different cameras value trying out. 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 web site and Amazon.
VOCOlinc Opto HomeKit Indoor Digital camera can also be an choice at a decrease value, obtainable on their web site for $49.99. It additionally has pan and tilt performance however is just operating 1080P video which is ok due to the HKSV limitations when binding 2K cameras just like the E1. HomeKit knocks 2K video right down to 1080P in Apple Dwelling 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 to your use case
- You don’t want all the Digital camera Hub G3 options
You should not purchase this if…
- You could 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 particular person and sound detection and strong privateness options make this a fantastic choice to be used instances the place what’s on digicam at sure instances is a priority. Wi-Fi 6 means you’ve got extra dependable reside video feed entry in houses with dozens of different Wi-Fi devices, and 360-degree rotation means you possibly can see nearly all the things.
There aren’t many pan and tilts at this worth level with this function 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, 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 help HomeKit Safe Video, however of those who do, the Digital camera E1 is without doubt one of the finest.
