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 sturdy indoor safety digicam with an important 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: Worth and availability
The Aqara Indoor Safety Digital camera E1 is presently obtainable solely by means of 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 considered one of their greatest indoor cameras, however should 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 affords 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 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 an important function as a result of you will notice the whole lot fairly clearly with this 2K, f/2.0 digicam, which seems to be 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. Nonetheless, you can even document domestically 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 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 need to use it as a telecom to speak to whoever’s on the opposite aspect of the picture. Your children, your important 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 huge, so it ought to simply match on a bookcase shelf or most different places. It will probably even be mounted to the ceiling, after which you possibly can 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 accomplish that with a QR code. If in case you have the whole lot needed, you’ll be up and operating in only a few minutes. On this case, having the whole lot 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 effectively. You must know that after you bind the digicam to HomeKit, or should you 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 can nonetheless monitor people and detect movement, however you gained’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 House as scenes first, that are then uncovered to Apple House. Then, you possibly can set off them utilizing automation in Apple House with no need the Aqara House app.
One important facet of the privateness options is that they’re processed domestically. The E1 has a built-in neural processing unit that allows individual 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 skill 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 greater the place its AI can decide 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 worth can’t be beat at solely $35.99 on Eufy’s web site and Amazon.
VOCOlinc Opto HomeKit Indoor 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 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 important worth
- 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…
- 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 important worth. Onboard individual and sound detection and sturdy privateness options make this an important choice to be used instances the place what’s on digicam at sure instances is a priority. Wi-Fi 6 means you may have extra dependable stay video feed entry in houses with dozens of different Wi-Fi devices, and 360-degree rotation means you possibly can see virtually the whole lot.
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 should you’re after PT performance. Even should 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, 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 likely one of the greatest.
