Aqara’s Indoor Safety Digicam E1 is the little sibling to their glorious Digicam Hub G3, aimed 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 digicam with an ideal characteristic set and strong video efficiency in each daylight and nighttime eventualities. I’ve just one minor grievance. We’ll contact on that shortly.
Aqara Digicam E1: Worth and availability
The Aqara Indoor Safety Digicam E1 is presently obtainable solely by means 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 Digicam E1: Specs and options
Aqara’s Digicam Hub G3 is certainly one of their finest indoor cameras, however when you’re invested within the Apple ecosystem, an Aqara hub is probably not what you’re after. That’s the place the Indoor Safety Digicam E1 is available in. For $50 much less, you get a lot of what the G3 gives and a few up to date options in a smaller 4-inch tall package deal.
The E1 helps Wi-Fi 6, whereas the Digicam 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 occasions when the digicam will pan and level towards a wall or different privacy-focused space. The privateness choices are an ideal characteristic as a result of you will note all the pieces fairly clearly with this 2K, f/2.0 digicam, which appears nice in good lighting and low-light situations.
Linked to Apple HomeKit, the E1 has Safe Video assist for storing incident movies within the cloud. Nonetheless, you too can report regionally as a result of it has a microSD slot for as much as 512GB of native video storage. That is particularly helpful when you activate the digicam’s 24-hour recording with timelapse mode. Accessing that slot is easy; simply slide the digicam’s tilt lens up, revealing a microSD slot on the backside of it.
One of many options I beloved taking part in 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 facet of the picture. Your youngsters, your important different, your pet, discuss to everybody!
Aqara Digicam E1: Construct and appears
The Digicam E1 feels well-built, regardless that it’s primarily plastic. It’s tiny, measuring 4 inches tall by 2.68 inches vast, so it ought to simply match on a bookcase shelf or most different places. It may well even be mounted to the ceiling, after which you’ll be able to go into the Aqara Dwelling 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 Digicam E1: Ease of use
Organising the Digicam E1 is easy, because the Aqara and Apple Dwelling apps achieve this with a QR code. In case you have all the pieces vital, you’ll be up and working in just some minutes. On this case, having all the pieces vital 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 handbook pan and tilt options work nicely. You must know that after you bind the digicam to HomeKit, or when you select to forgo Aqara Dwelling and solely use HK, you lose entry to many privateness options, in addition to handbook 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 flexibility to set as much as three occlusion zones. For the privateness options, you’ll must set these up in Aqara Dwelling as scenes first, that are then uncovered to Apple Dwelling. Then, you’ll be able to set off them utilizing automation in Apple Dwelling without having the Aqara Dwelling app.
One important side 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 Digicam E1 is that the human-tracking computerized pan and tilt is finicky. I’ve discovered that placement impacts its potential to trace, similar to the Digicam Hub G3. When the digicam is positioned round hip top (I’m 6’ tall), I’ve discovered it a bit sluggish to pan with transferring objects, specifically me. Place the digicam greater the place its AI can decide up faces, and your human monitoring improves.
Aqara Digicam E1: Competitors
Pan and tilt choices that assist HomeKit Safe Video are few, however there are two different cameras price trying out. We reviewed and appreciated 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 Camera can also be an possibility at a decrease price, obtainable 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 Dwelling and for video recorded to the cloud.
Aqara Digicam 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 the entire Digicam Hub G3 options
You should not purchase this if…
- That you must mount it on a vertical floor like a wall
Aqara Digicam E1: Verdict
With the Aqara Indoor Safety Digicam E1, you get fairly a little bit of digicam for an ideal value. Onboard particular person and sound detection and strong privateness options make this an ideal possibility to be used circumstances the place what’s on digicam at sure occasions is a priority. Wi-Fi 6 means you could have extra dependable stay video feed entry in houses 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 value level with this characteristic set, so the Digicam E1 ought to be in your shortlist when you’re after PT performance. Even when you don’t want the hub however PT is important, take into account trying on the Digicam Hub G3, which has extra dependable monitoring, built-in facial recognition, and an alarm uncovered in HomeKit.
Aqara 2K Indoor Safety Digicam E1
Robust act to observe, 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 Digicam E1 is likely one of the finest.
