When you first open the Aqara’s compact camera hub, you’re greeted by a small face with removable cat ears. It’s all very kawaii (Japanese slang for “cute”) if you’re into anime and stuff, but that cute little face belies the monster of equipment inside.
indeed a lot of You end up asking yourself: “Do I run this through HomeKit, their proprietary app Aqara Home, or both?” This can be overwhelming. The good news is that the Apple Home and Aqara Home apps are well designed and easy to use. Let’s get started!
Aqara Camera Hub G3: price and availability
The Aqara 2K Security Indoor Camera Hub G3 is available on Amazon for $109.99, but looking at price tracking history, the G3 sold for $80 in December and January.
Aqara Camera Hub G3: Specs and Features
Camera Hub G3 is a nearly 5-inch-tall robot-shaped device that can pan 340 degrees horizontally, tilt up 30 degrees, and tilt down 15 degrees. It can do this automatically through AI-driven tracking or manually through the Aqara app, but there’s no manual control in Apple’s Home app. Pair that with a 110-degree field of view; you should be able to capture everything in almost any room.
The core component of the device is a high-resolution 2K 2304x1296P camera with a face on its infrared night vision LED module, which is both cute and practical. When the G3 is in “live” mode, you can see the lens, but to protect privacy, you can stop the live feed and the lens module rotates into the “head” housing to reveal an alternate look, the eyelashes. Yes, you can tell the camera is “sleeping” because the face shows it.
If you’re still not comfortable with this, you can save a preset angle and send it there. To the left and right of the lens and LED are two microphones that allow you to have two-way conversations, detect unusual sounds, transmit audio, and record. The recording with the dual microphone setup is great!
There is also a microSD slot on the front, supporting up to 128GB of storage. You can access it by turning off the camera’s live feed and rotating the cute eyelash cover into view. Below is a status LED that glows red when active, along with some subtle branding. On the back of the camera you’ll find the speaker and USB-C port, which also supports video output directly from the device via the UVC protocol, so if you connect the Camera Hub G3 to your computer, for example, it should automatically recognize it.
You can set up the Camera Hub G3 on a flat surface such as a bookshelf, or mount it via the standard tripod quarter-inch thread on the bottom. It can be installed upside down and the image adjusted accordingly in the Aqara Home app.
Aqara’s Camera Hub G3 has a neural processing unit (NPU) that provides support for some artificial intelligence functions that do not require a network connection. The onboard Zigbee 3.0 smart home hub lets you connect up to 128 Aqara devices to the G3, although you’ll need to include repeater devices like wall switches or smart plugs in your setup to reach that number.
Camera Hub G3 supports 2.4 and 5GHz Wi-Fi connections and Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3). There is also support for infrared transmitters for home devices that still use the standard.
Aqara Camera Hub G3: Construction and Appearance
The Aqara Camera Hub G3 looks like something you’d buy at a Sanrio store (Hello Kitty), until you remove the pre-installed cat-ear accessory lens hood. You can set up the Camera Hub G3 on a flat surface such as a bookshelf, or mount it via the standard tripod quarter-inch thread on the bottom. It can be installed upside down and the image adjusted accordingly in the Aqara Home app.
Although the Camera Hub G3 is made mostly of plastic, it gives the impression of being well-made and durable enough to last indoors. The pan and tilt motors are very quiet, and the different looks of the lens caps, while novel, blend “fun” into “function.” It should fit in with any décor in your home, and if it’s a little too flashy for your Feng Shui style, you can get rid of those cat ears.
Aqara Camera Hub G3: Easy to use
Aqara’s Camera Hub G3 has so many features that it would take a few pages of in-depth article to thoroughly address them all, but the features in the Aqara app are clearly laid out and easy to use. Since not all of these features are exposed in Apple Home, it’s easier to use there. This is one of the hallmarks of all Aqara cameras I’ve tested recently, ease of use. The G3 took less than ten minutes to set up, and I really enjoyed the voice confirmation I received from the unit when I completed certain steps in the onboarding process.
I have the G3 connected to my 5GHz wifi network. Opening any app and connecting to its live source is fast every time. I even opened Apple Home on my Apple Watch Series 9 and had a conversation with my wife, which was so cool! Trouble-free, smooth audio and pictures, all from my wrist.
Sports tracking is easy with the G3. You can set it to track humans, dogs, and cats, using face detection or gestures, and there’s a cruise option that sets the camera to pan and tilt to predefined positions over a period of time. Aqara’s face detection feature works by uploading a photo from your phone or taking an instant photo of someone’s face. You can then set up automations, such as receiving a notification when little Jamal gets home from school. Gesture activation lets you assign automation to five different gestures, but this disables human and animal tracking.
Speaking of tracking, I really think the G3’s ability to keep up with the humans it’s tracking is admirable. If someone is running or moving quickly, it can lose them. When the G3 is tracking someone and pans and tilts to keep up, you’ll see the video get a little pixelated until the camera stabilizes, then the video becomes clear and stabilizes again.
For security reasons, using the Aqara Home app’s face detection requires you to upload these images to Aqara’s cloud server. Since the G3 has a built-in neural processing unit, I’d like to see facial recognition store images locally as well.
There are some other minor issues I’d like to see improved. The graininess the camera picks up when in motion isn’t ideal. I’d also like to see manual pan and tilt functionality, as well as predefined position settings available in the Apple Home app.
Aqara Camera Hub G3: Competition
Considering the G3 has a built-in Zigbee hub, there isn’t much competition with comparable features at this price point.
An alternative worth looking at is Yuffie’s E220. It has a larger 125-degree field of view and 8x digital zoom. The E220 is half the price, but only has 2.4GHz wifi, no privacy mode, and doesn’t include a built-in hub for connecting other IoT devices.
Aqara Camera Hub G3: Should you buy it?
You should buy it if…
- You like Aqara and want to connect more devices
- You want a pan and tilt HKSV camera with a powerful feature set
- You want a camera with a physical privacy mode
You shouldn’t buy it if…
- You want a camera close to $50
- You don’t need hub functionality
Aqara Camera Hub G3: Conclusion
In addition to being a cute camera with removable cat ears, Aqara’s Camera Hub G3 is packed with features and affordable. Aqara offers some great IoT devices in products like motion sensors, door and window sensors, and automatic blinds, so a built-in hub is a great feature.
With Matter support, HomeKit exposure alerts, USB-C video output, local storage, and local AI processing, you have a winning solution that’s hard to beat in the indoor pan and tilt camera market. The Aqara Camera Hub G3 is easy to recommend.
Fun and practical! Highly recommended for HomeKit
The Camera Hub G3 works with all digital assistants, supports HomeKit secure video, is a Zigbee hub, supports 2k video resolution, has a physical security shutter, and is kawaii!