Xiaomi Aqara G2 Latest Price and Review | The Best Smart Hub?
Looking for a new smart home hub? The Xiaomi Aqara G2 is a great choice to keep your home secure, running, and energy-efficient. It is also a great way to monitor your home and family.
Check out our Xiaomi Aqara G2 Latest Price and Review here.
Ever since I got hooked on Xiaomi's smart home gadgets, I haven't looked back. I've essentially tried everything. However, there has been one product that has been amazingly useful the Xiaomi Aqara G2 camera. I honestly believe that this device should be a household necessity. Check out our Xiaomi Aqara G2 Latest Price and Review for all the details.
Related: Xiaomi Mijia Gateway 3 vs Aqara M1S Hub
Xiaomi has actually made quite a few security camera devices. In fact, their dome camera and their dashcam are some of their most popular products. The Aqara G2 is a super awesome camera that is totally worth the price. You can hook up this indoor camera to the central Aqara hub and control it either through the app or through voice commands.
Let’s deep dive and find out what the Aqara G2 is capable of, shall we? Here's the Xiaomi Aqara G2 Latest Price and Review.
Xiaomi Aqara G2 Latest Price and Review
Inside the Box
You find the obvious items such as the camera unit, micro-USB cable, wall plug, and a wall-mounting plate. There is also an instruction manual.
Specifications
- Brand - Xiaomi Aqara
- Model - G2
- Dimensions (L x W x H): 82.4 x 56.5 x 50.5 cm
- Weight: 0.1120 kg
- Camera Lens Angle - Up to 140° wide angle
- Video Reslotuion - 1920 x 1080 pixels
- Video Type - H.264 or H.265 support
- Night Vision - Up to 8 meter night vision distance
- Features - Time-lapse, Humanoid recognition, motion detection, 2-way audio for communicatin
- Connectivity - 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi
- Device support - Up to 32 Devices
- Memory - support up to 32 GB micro SD card
- Input voltage - 5V/1A USB power
Design
The Aqara G2 is a pretty cute-looking device that can fit in the palm of your hands. It is 82mm X 50mm X 55mm. It can fit in the palm of your hands quite easily. The base of the camera can be adjusted and rotated, which means you can tilt the camera and turn the camera, and position it in a certain way.
The backside has a speaker, which is unique to camera devices, and also a micro-sd card slot. Let’s see how that can be put to use. The lens itself can cover an angle of 140 degrees. It has a micro-USB power slot in the back and a sensor in the front to record videos at night using infrared.
Function and Use
First things first, let’s understand the specs of the Xiaomi Aqara. This camera can shoot in 1920 X 1080 HD recording. It can be connected to a Wifi, but only a 2.4 GHz connection.
It has motion detection and sound detection features. From the outside, this might seem like a security camera, but if you are part of the Xiaomi Home ecosystem, then you will love this device as it also acts as a gateway for connecting all the Xiaomi devices.
So why is this better? Generally speaking, there are Gateway Hub connectors that can connect up to 32 devices and perform no other role. You can use the Aqara G2 as a security camera and a Gateway hub, making it multi-functional.
It’s pretty easy to connect the Aqara G2 to the Mi Home App. All you had to do is add a new device, and scan the QR code shown on the screen and you will be good to go.
Features
When it comes to security cameras, the use case is limited. But with the Aqara G2, there are a few things you can perform. Firstly, it is a security camera and it can capture real-time footage, even when there is super low light.
There is also a microphone button on the Mi-App that lets you speak through and communicate to whoever is close to the security camera itself. This is 2-way audio, which helps with easy communication. You can also use the Mi App to shoot photos or videos in case you want to capture something specific. A security alarm also can be set.
In the settings section, there is a lot more you can do, which are
- Enable/Disable the status LED
- Enable/Disable the timestamp watermark
- Force to rotate the image
- Change infrared behaviour
- Choose the recording type - Either H.264 or H.265
- You can specify an area where you want to track motion detection. So for example, if there is a door and you’ve set the camera to detect motion from the door, then it will record and shoot videos and photos
- The SD card stores all the videos and photos
- Considering this is a gateway device, there are numerous options such as setting sensors for other devices such as the door and window sensor and ringing the alarm, if there is movement and so on.
Final Thoughts
The Xiaomi Aqara G2 is an upgrade and the second generation version of the Aqara. Now when it comes to a feature upgrade, there isn’t a major difference when it comes to camera quality. Although the Aqara G1 had a wider angle camera lens that could shoot a 180-degree angle.
The G2 on the other hand has something the G1 will never have and that is being the gateway product. This might not seem like much for people who don’t have Xiaomi Mijia products. But if you do own Xiaomi home products such as sensors, switches, lights, and more, this product will come in super handy.
You can control all the other devices, with the help of this one and create functions and automation that help you have a smooth experience. For example, you could trigger alarms and sensors if somebody moves the curtains for example. That is just one tiny feature that you could have. Overall, this is a pretty amazing product, and it's worth the money even as a security camera.
Pros
- High quality HD recording with 1920 X 1080 HD resolution
- Flexible positioning with the help of the moving base. You can turn it around, you can tilt it and more
- Works super smoothly with the Mi Home app
- The gateway functionality makes the Aqara G2 a must buy for Xiaomi Mijia lovers and users
- Works fabulously well in low light settings
Cons
- Does not have a wide angle lens compared to the G1
- Does not work with the Apple Home Kit
- Does not have a built-in functionality to move around remotely. So the angle you are watching is the only angle you can see, unless you manually change it.
FAQs
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a smart home?
On the other hand, there is always a possibility of hackers breaking into your home security system and causing harm. It has been reported that many smart homes were breached just by guessing their password. There is also a possibility of someone hacking the home security system and gaining access to your house.
What is the Xiaomi Aqara G2 good for?
Is the Xiaomi Aqara G2 good for office situations?
User Reviews
Over the last few years I've put up about 7-8 wyze cameras around the house, this is clearly aimed at someone like me, wanting the "cheap" camera, but they did what wyze couldn't do, integrate into Apple HomeKit. For that reason alone I can see me switching all of my Wyze Cams to this brand. I have experience with some of Aqara other products and so far I've really enjoyed them as well.
I've only used this camera with homekit so I can't tell you how the Aqara app is but it seems to connect as easy as any other HomeKit product I've used. I know this camera has a hub built in, but I wish I was able to connect it to the Aqara hub I already have instead of going through the Apple method of connecting a device.
So compared to the wyze cam that I'm coming from this seems to be a 1 to 1 swap, the clarity maybe be a little better with this one, but not enough to write home about. I think Wyze has spent more time than Apple has on the camera functionality, and the initial setup (HomeKit part) was somewhat annoying as I turned off certain notifications but HomeKit kept sending them anyway. But once it's all setup I haven't had any complaints.
I really think the guys over at Aqara were looking at Wyze answers as the only thing I had to swap was the camera. Fold out camera mount - check Magnet in mount food - check Size - really close (but the rounded top does get in the way a bit) Power, SD slot… on and on… all the same.
So it really comes down to how much do you want to integrate in to HomeKit, as you can almost buy 3 wyze cams for the cost of one of these. So far I haven't had any issues but will run it a few more weeks then add another few. If they dropped the price to $50 so it's just double a Wyze Cam I think they would be a no brainer.
Roby MD from USA
Seemed like a good idea but no luck even getting it to work. Fit and finish are great. You download their app, create an account and try to connect to WiFi (must be 2.4 GHz) and I haven’t gotten past that step. I’ve set up lots of cameras and other devices with no issue.
I was hoping the HomeKit integration would make this the easiest yet. That is not the case. Probably going to have to send this back. Does not include a memory card. Turns out this does not support secure WiFi (WAP/WAP2) so it's useless. UPDATE: after some back and forth with tech support I decided to go through the setup steps again on my own.
I discovered that I’d been attempting to add the camera by scanning the QR code in the manual, the actual code you scan is on the bottom of the camera.
This was not clear at all but once you know it seems obvious. Support acknowledged that the manual incorrectly states that the camera doesn’t work with WAP/WAP2 but it actually does. Now that I know how to get connected, I can try out the other features. Still not a fan of the start up voice. Should be able to toggle that off. Also not a fan of the Aqara App and account deletion process.
L. Olson from USA
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