Aqara Launches Matter-Certified G350 Indoor Camera

[Rayansb]

indoor cams, I still feel uneasy about 'em.

 

[displayblock]

Is the detection happening on-device or in their cloud? For me the advantage of paying premium for Matter-certified devices is not being tied to anyone's cloud ecosystem and having all that processing done locally.

Not sure about this specific camera, but I can confirm Aqara doorbell cams work just fine without an Internet connection after the initial setup. Pairs nicely with Apple TV as home hub and HomeKit Secure Video.

 

[rageguy]

I have the Ecobee SmartCamera which does HomeKit secure video so the storage is all on my iCloud+ plan, and I don't have to use the EcoBee at all, since it is all controlled with Apple Home app on my iPhone. Apple Home app also has detection for motion, and a push notification to my iPhone like a motion sensor already. And also since HomeKit secure video storage is capped at 1080p, going to this Aqara G350 doesn't have much compelling feature, since there is no 4k video storage anyway.

If only HomeKit can store 4k, and also has Point Tilt Zoom PTZ support for G350.

 

[Keymaster]

I have one of the Aqara G400 doorbells, and it's basically useless because it doesn't show any alerts through HomeKit. I can get alerts for events through their app, but that's not why I bought it, and I can't get it to ring the items in the house that will ring with HomeKit so that's also useless. It also won't work at our front gate, it's about 30 ft away but the connection dies (even with an AppleTV and a HomePod Mini close enough to it). I have been using it at our backdoor as a camera, but I got tired of having to call up their app to see anything. Until they actually support HomeKit as well as our Logitech doorbell I'm not buying anything else of theirs...the Logitech works fine when it's not overheated or disconnected or...sigh, I really want a doorbell that works and does HomeKit support right.

 

[parameter]

Aqara is hitting it out of the park with their well-built products. Solid construction.

I'd agree with one huge recent caveat. Which is their newest doorbell, the G410.

I have it, and it works well.
However, I didn't realize until after I bought it that it has a waterproof rating of only IPX3!

And in the last windy rainstorm we had, the rain killed it. It was completely just dead for nearly 4 days.
Then, I guess it luckily just dried out, but I definitely don't trust it. And, I have quite a decent overhanging porch on our front, which definitely already helps significantly cut down on rain.
Clearly not enough.

So yes, they make good products, but this doorbell was just made with some very bad choices (I'm assuming to lower costs, probably for the battery compartment. I don't know for sure why they did it). If it is due to the battery cover or potential water leakage, I wish they sold a hardwired version that was actually waterproof.

I mean, it is an outdoor front door doorbell 🙄

 

[parameter]

Not enough information about how the “back up to NAS” works since I could not find a link to the user manual. It says only available “via SD card”, which could mean anything, including physically carrying the card to a reader 🤷 it would be simple enough to hook up to all kinds of surveillance systems (NAS-based or otherwise) if it supported existing protocols (RTSP, ONVIF, etc.) but I suspect they did not because “cloud is awesome!”

The Zigbee+Thread compatibility is cool, though.

At least on their G410 doorbell, it does have the NAS option and RTSP preview. When I first clicked on the NAS option, it found mine and listed it pretty quickly. I didn't connect it because I'm not using that feature, but if it saw it, I'm assuming it would work.

That was for their newer doorbell though, not this camera from this article. But it's probably similar. Here are screenshots from their app, just so you can see that it at least exists for the doorbell.

 

[idrewuk]

When is Apple going to update HKSV (or the entire Home app, for that matter)? It’s getting embarrassing.

 

[Will Co]

Some of their products look interesting so I went to check them out from this post...

But when I see something this dishonest and lazy, I move on.
View attachment 2614362

That is very sloppy - clearly faked - and that's a shame because it does detract from what really is an impressive night time capability on some of their cameras. A have a few of the Camera Hub G5 units and the night vision capability really is as good as the impression given by the picture on the right. So why fake it, Aqara, and raise people's suspicions? Just show real footage.

 

[artifex]

When is Apple going to update HKSV (or the entire Home app, for that matter)? It’s getting embarrassing.

Seems like the rumored Home Hub, a revised Apple TV, and other home automation stuff and maybe some speaker updates will all be announced together, maybe in time for WWDC in June, or later in September.

 

[Mr_Ed]

At least on their G410 doorbell, it does have the NAS option and RTSP preview. When I first clicked on the NAS option, it found mine and listed it pretty quickly. I didn't connect it because I'm not using that feature, but if it saw it, I'm assuming it would work.

That was for their newer doorbell though, not this camera from this article. But it's probably similar. Here are screenshots from their app, just so you can see that it at least exists for the doorbell.View attachment 2614473

View attachment 2614474

Thanks! Good to know.

 

[Will Co]

I have one of the Aqara G400 doorbells, and it's basically useless because it doesn't show any alerts through HomeKit. I can get alerts for events through their app, but that's not why I bought it, and I can't get it to ring the items in the house that will ring with HomeKit so that's also useless. It also won't work at our front gate, it's about 30 ft away but the connection dies (even with an AppleTV and a HomePod Mini close enough to it). I have been using it at our backdoor as a camera, but I got tired of having to call up their app to see anything. Until they actually support HomeKit as well as our Logitech doorbell I'm not buying anything else of theirs...the Logitech works fine when it's not overheated or disconnected or...sigh, I really want a doorbell that works and does HomeKit support right.

It is frustrating. The closest I’ve come so far is the Netatmo doorbell. I chose it because we have other Netatmo systems that have been excellent for years. It very occasionally drops the WiFi (like maybe once a month) but does reconnect automatically. I’ve also had to reboot it a couple of times over the years but overall not bad. It plays well with HomeKit but sadly it’s not equipped with HSV. It records locally - no subscription nonsense - and you can recover footage through their app. Not perfect but better than many others from what I’ve read.

I’m hoping the rumours are true that Apple is going to do something ….

 

[txmike418]

Not enough information about how the “back up to NAS” works since I could not find a link to the user manual. It says only available “via SD card”, which could mean anything, including physically carrying the card to a reader 🤷 it would be simple enough to hook up to all kinds of surveillance systems (NAS-based or otherwise) if it supported existing protocols (RTSP, ONVIF, etc.) but I suspect they did not because “cloud is awesome!”

The Zigbee+Thread compatibility is cool, though.

The fine print says no third party devices for sigbee and thread, only their products..

 

[svish]

Looks different. Would have been nice if it came in more colors.

 

[Itinj24]

Let’s see if Apple ever even implements Matter 1.5. Matter has been supporting home appliances for a while now and all Apple took from that standard was robo vacs. Lazy and lagging far behind the competition. They’ve been that way for a while.

 

[Oberhorst]

Ears are optional, just in case anybody was wondering.

 

[Running with scissors]

Edit: it does have HKSV. my bad!

No HKSV, no buy. As simple as that. I’m not opening my home to anything that does not encrypt on LAN before going to WAN.

Still, in the past I found that to use their remote controls requires it to be connected to their cloud app - so that’s back to security concerns.

 

[macwhiztech]

While HKSV support is better than proprietary (questionable) cloud, I would've liked to see industry-standard ONVIF support too, which would let you attach the camera to a standard network video recorder (NVR). If you're gonna put a camera inside your house, it's best to make sure the video stays inside the house too. If you want to access it from outside the house, use a VPN—that way a hacker first has to get "inside your house" via the VPN before they can break into the NVR to get at the video. (And ideally, the cameras should be on an isolated network so you have to break into the NVR to get to a live camera...)

 

[Mr_Ed]

The fine print says no third party devices for sigbee and thread, only their products..

Good catch! Disappointing, but it figures, I guess. Some are making devices that claim "open standards" compatibility (Zigbee, ZWave, Thread, Matter, HK, etc.) for marketing purposes, but implement some of the features as "custom data" on top of the standards so you might be able to achieve some basic functionality via the standards, but the fancier features only work with their own solutions. They just can't help themselves when it comes to locking in users.

It's the reason "home automation" remains a mine field for the average consumer who may only go as far as checking for the "open standards" compatibility claim.

 

[Keymaster]

It's the reason "home automation" remains a mine field for the average consumer who may only go as far as checking for the "open standards" compatibility claim.

That's a reason to hope that Apple actually steps up their home system, if they took it seriously instead of treating it like a hobby, and brought their ability to integrate things (which is still there if not as good as it was), then home automation might become a lot easier for the average consumer. We'll see this year if they are actually going to do something real.

I’m hoping the rumours are true that Apple is going to do something ….

I am holding out for the Apple doorbell as well, but we can't wait that much longer on it as the Logitech really rarely connects now, especially with all the heat we have been having. I may just have to make the Aqara one work for the moment, however half assed that is, so we can at least have a functioning doorbell for now.