Aqara’s indoor security camera E1 is the little brother to its excellent camera hub G3, aimed at those who don’t quite need all the bells and whistles or the higher price tag. But don’t let it fool you! The Pan and Tilt E1 is a powerful indoor security camera with an excellent feature set and stable video performance in both day and night scenarios. I have only one small complaint. We’ll get to that shortly.
Aqara Camera E1: price and availability
The Aqara Indoor Security Camera E1 is currently only available through Amazon.com for $59.99. Although price drops on this item don’t happen very often, the price in December 2023 was $44.99.
Aqara Camera E1: Specs and Features
Aqara’s Camera Hub G3 is one of their best indoor cameras, but if you’re invested in the Apple ecosystem, the Aqara Hub might not be what you want. That’s where the E1 indoor security camera comes in.
E1 supports Wi-Fi 6, while Camera Hub G3 supports Wi-Fi 5. You can add black patches to your video source, so those areas are actually blacked out. This is in addition to Auto Privacy Mode, which lets you set specific times for the camera to pan and point at walls or other privacy-focused areas. The privacy option is a great feature because you can see everything clearly with this 2K, f/2.0 camera, which looks great in both good lighting and low-light conditions.
When connected to Apple HomeKit, the E1 has secure video support and can store event video in the cloud. However, you can also record locally as it has a microSD slot for local video storage of up to 512GB. This feature is especially useful if you turn on your camera’s 24-hour time-lapse mode. Accessing the slot is simple; just slide the camera’s tilt lens up to reveal the microSD slot on the bottom.
One of the features I enjoyed playing with was the two-way telecommunications system. The E1 has a built-in speaker and microphone, so you can use it as a telecommunications device to talk to anyone on the other side of the image. Your kids, your significant other, your pets, talk to everyone!
Aqara Camera E1: Construction and Appearance
Even though the E1 camera is mostly made of plastic, it feels well-made. It’s compact, measuring 4 inches tall and 2.68 inches wide, so it can easily fit on a bookshelf or most other locations. It can even be mounted to the ceiling, and then you can go into the Aqara Home app and reorient the video.
The camera has an infrared backlight, which if in a bedroom you won’t notice when the lights are off. The motor is very quiet, so you’ll probably never hear it shake.
Aqara Camera E1: Ease of use
Setting up Camera E1 is easy as the Aqara and Apple Home apps can be configured via QR code. If you have everything you need, it only takes a few minutes to get up and running. In this case, having all the necessary stuff means you have a power adapter, since the E1 doesn’t come with a brick in the box, just a USB-C cable.
Setting up privacy features in the Aqara Home app is easy, and the manual pan and tilt functions work well, albeit with a bit of lag. You should know that once you tie the camera to HomeKit, or if you choose to ditch Aqara Home and just use HK, you won’t be able to use many privacy features as well as manual pan and tilt controls. It will still track people and detect motion, but you won’t be able to set those privacy locations, and you won’t be able to set up to three masked areas. For privacy features, you must first set it as a scene in Aqara Home before exposing it to Apple Home. You can then trigger them using automation features in Apple Home, without the Aqara Home app.
An important aspect of privacy features is that they are handled locally. The E1 has a built-in neural processing unit that enables on-device person and sound detection.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, my only complaint with the Aqara Indoor Security Camera E1 is that the body tracking automatic pan and tilt feature is very finicky. I found that placement affects its tracking capabilities, just like the Camera Hub G3. When the camera is placed at hip height (I’m 6 feet tall), I find that panning a moving subject (i.e. me) is a bit slow. Place the camera higher to allow the AI to pick up faces, improving your body tracking capabilities.
Aqara Camera E1: Competition
There are few pan and tilt options for HomeKit secure video, but there are two other cameras worth checking out. We reviewed and loved Eufy’s Pan 2K, which is now 2K indoor camera E220 It’s currently priced at just $35.99 on the Eufy website and Amazon.
VOCOlinc Opto HomeKit Indoor Camera Also a less expensive option, it’s available on their website for $49.99. It also has pan and tilt capabilities, but can only run 1080P video, which is good since there are HKSV limitations when tying 2K cameras like the E1. HomeKit downgrades 2K videos in Apple Home to 1080P and records the videos to the cloud.
Aqara Camera E1: Should you buy it?
You should buy this if…
- You want pan and tilt at a great price
- Privacy features are critical to your use case
- You don’t need all the features of Camera Hub G3
You shouldn’t buy this if…
- You need to install it on a vertical surface like a wall
Aqara Camera E1: Conclusion
With the Aqara Indoor Security Camera E1, you get quite a camera at a great price. Onboard person and sound detection and powerful privacy features make it an excellent choice for use cases where camera content is focused on at a specific time. Wi-Fi 6 means you get more reliable access to live video sources in a home with dozens of other Wi-Fi gadgets, and 360-degree rotation means you can see almost everything.
There’s not a lot of pan and tilt functionality at this price point, so if you’re after PT functionality, the Camera E1 should be on your shortlist. Even if you don’t need the hub but PT is essential, consider the Camera Hub G3, which has more reliable tracking, built-in facial recognition, and alerts exposed in HomeKit.
Aqara 2K indoor surveillance camera E1
A hard act to follow, but it will follow you!
You don’t have dozens of pan and tilt cameras that support HomeKit Secure Video, but among the cameras that support HomeKit Secure Video, the Camera E1 is one of the best.