- Is the Aqara G2H is the best HomeKit camera yet?
Let's talk about it.
(upbeat music)
Welcome back friends.
If this is your first time here,
my name is Eric.
If you're into smart homes,
home automation, especially HomeKit,
you're definitely in the right place.
Today's video is a part of my HomeKit series.
And for full disclosure,
Aqara did send this out to me for a full, honest review.
But that's not gonna sway my opinion
in one way or another.
If I don't like something
I'm definitely gonna let you know.
I'll also be leaving a link down below
to my full pros and cons list on my website.
So if you wanna get update
on this product six months from now or a year from now,
I do update that on a regular basis,
so definitely check that out.
The Aqara G2H is probably
one of the best HomeKit cameras out there,
if not the best.
Not only is it a HomeKit camera,
but it's also a Zigbee 3.O Hub
for all of the other Aqara products.
So not only are you getting a camera,
but you also getting the Hub,
which connects to like their flood sensors,
their motion sensor,
their switches,
and exposes them all to HomeKit.
Normally these Hubs for Aqara run about $50 or $60.
So for an extra what, 20, 30 bucks,
you're also getting a camera.
And I think that is well worth it.
How good of a camera is it?
Well, it is a 1080p camera.
There are other HomeKit cameras that run at 2K.
To me, I didn't see a difference
which I will be comparing these cameras in the footage
in a upcoming video.
If that video is available, I'll put a card right up there.
But this is a 1080p camera
running at 24 frames per seconds
with a 140 degree field of vision.
This is night vision test about
three feet away from the camera,
this night vision test about 10 feet
and now the night vision about 15 feet away from the camera.
Another nice feature that this has
which is also a must have for me personally,
is a way to record 24/7.
Aqara does have a Micro SD card slot
at the bottom of the device.
If you go into the Aqara app
you can turn on that 24/7 recording.
But if you only wanna use HomeKit Secure Video,
I understand that also.
But I do really like that 24/7 recording option.
To the 24/7 recordings,
it did record without internet access
so you don't have to worry about that.
You can access the footage either on the Aqara app,
or you can actually pop out the card
and put this in your computer.
I did find when I did look at the file
on the computer is a little bit confusing.
I kind of felt like it was a little bit disorganized
but if I sat there a little bit longer
I'm sure I could figure out what was what.
But if I was looking for something very specific,
it probably would take me a while to figure it out.
On the front of the device is the microphone,
and on the back is the speaker
so you can have two-way audio.
I did find the speaker to be clear and loud
but I did find in the Home app
when you did talk and it was at the loudest level,
you did get a little bit of feedback.
That's on the G2H,
I am getting a little bit of feedback, not too bad.
All right , that's the sound test at 50% volume.
Now I am not getting any feedback at all.
How do I sound?
You do have a single button,
which is used for syncing other Aqara devices,
at the bottom of my device, you do have this awesome stand,
so you can get that perfect angle.
You can actually rotate it 360 degrees
and tilt it any which way that you want.
Bottom is also magnetic
so you can pop this onto something metal.
Actually they include this nice little metal plate,
so you can screw that down.
Or a 3M Double sided adhesive
that you can place this camera anywhere.
Also comes with a Micro USB wire.
Yes, I did say Micro USB.
Even a brand new device in 2020
is still coming with Micro USB.
I wish these companies would get with the times
and make all these devices USB-C
but it is what it is
and honestly, I still love the camera.
Now when it comes to price,
unfortunately I can't tell you what that is just yet.
I can tell you the Chinese version,
which is available on Banggood is about $60,
and there's not much difference between the two versions.
You do wanna pick the U.S version up if you're in the U.S.
I'll be leaving affiliate links down below
where you can check on the pricing.
Currently in the U.S it's only available in white,
but in their future the other colors will all be available.
You can get royal blue, red,
or this yellow,
which to me kinda looks like a little minion.
(minion laughing) (upbeat music)
(minion buzzing tongue)
So now let's go ahead and jump into Aqara app
to see what this looks like in the Aqara app
even though I have a feeling
most people are not gonna be using the Aqara app.
You're gonna be using HomeKit
which I'll put a time stamp right there
if you just wanna see what it looks like in HomeKit.
Like I mentioned that camera's also a Hub.
So that's a huge benefit in my opinion,
where you can connect other Aqara devices
as you can see here.
Going into the camera you can see how quickly it loads.
At the very bottom you do have the timeline.
You can zoom in and out
so you can focus on that particular area.
Anytime it's a different color,
that just means it picked up some motion.
And now quickly jumping into the important settings.
Most importantly, is that SD card slot
where you can activate 24/7 recording.
You can also record to the SD card
just based off motion.
I think it's really beneficial to have that 24/7
it really makes this camera stand out.
You also have an option of activity zones,
or detection regions.
So if you don't wanna get notified
of all movement in the camera,
you can identify specific areas of the footage
that you want to get notified of movement.
And then the last feature I'm gonna point out
is the Alert Frequency.
And what this is,
is the cool off period between notifications
so if you get a notification of a delivery,
look at it
and you're just like okay,
it's a delivery guy
and you turn off the notification,
next thing you know
we come home and the package is missing.
The thing is that you look at the footage
and a thief was right around the corner
and took that package within that three minute period.
I'd likely heard of that happening is very slim,
but it would be nice to have a little bit more customization
where you can take that time down
all the way to something like 30 seconds.
But if you're gonna be using this
with HomeKit Secure Video,
the cool down period in HomeKit Secure Videos
is a lot shorter.
I couldn't figure out if it's 30 seconds,
Sometimes it was 10 seconds,
so I'm not quite sure how that algorithm works,
but it was definitely a much shorter period.
Now jumping into the Apple's Home app,
I think this is where the camera really shines.
Now I am using iOS Beta 5.
Not everyone's gonna be on iOS when this video comes out.
if you're still using iOS 13,
you're not gonna get a lot of these features.
You will need an iCloud storage plan.
If you have the 200 GigaByte version
you can have one HomeKit Secure Video.
If you have the 2 TeraByte plan
I think which is about $10 a month,
you can have up to five HomeKit Secure Video cameras.
One thing I was surprised about is how fast this loads
into the Live View
and just like that we are live.
And you do have Air exposed,
motion sensor.
This is a Pixel Motion Sensor it is not an infrared.
So if you do wanna put this camera in windows,
I have tested and it works quite well.
But you do wanna remember turn off
the stars light in night vision,
cause these lights will reflect off of the glass
and back into the camera.
You can use this motion sensor
if you want to trigger automations within HomeKit
which is extremely useful.
At the very bottom
you do have your timeline in motion recordings,
which do get backed up to your iCloud account for 10 days.
You can also download any of these clips anytime
you want to directly to your phone
or you can email it or text it out.
And then seeing as you're gonna have a lot of different
options to customize your notifications
and recording periods,
if you don't want it recording when you're home
you can turn off recordings or disallow streaming,
and then you can have it automatically turned
recording back on when you leave the house.
In iOS 14 you're gonna have facial recognition.
I've been playing around with this,
it works pretty well
but it's not perfect,
still have to work out lot of bugs.
And then you're also gonna have activity zones
so you can draw out zones
that you wanna get notified off motion.
You can draw as many as you want
in any shape you want,
which is really, really cool
and different from the Aqara app.
See how jam-packed this camera is with features.
I love that's a two in one device
where you get the camera and also the Hub.
So you don't need to have that extra expense of a Hub
and hands down this is one of the best
HomeKit cameras I've tested this far.
If you guys wanna get updates on this camera
as I continue using this,
definitely check out my full pros and cons list,
which is down below.
And if you guys wanna see
the next video in my HomeKit series,
check that video out right there.
If you're brand new here, hit that subscribe button,
and I will see you on the next video.
Thanks for watching.
I'm out.
♪ No nothing can break me ♪
(minion buzzing tongue) (upbeat music)
(minion laughing)
(minion buzzing tongue)
(minion laughing)
- And shout out to Adam from Adams Tech Life
for coming up with that guy's little name,
Third eye. Really like it.
Thanks, Adam.