This security camera flattens all compatibility hurdles save one

The G5 Pro is Aqara’s latest out of doors safety digicam, designed to guard your private home whereas extending your smart-home community outside. It pulls double obligation, offering real-time monitoring and connecting your Aqara and plenty of third-party sensible gadgets in a single built-in hub. Sitting on the greater finish of Aqara’s digicam lineup, the G5 Pro emphasizes ease of use, strong picture high quality, and easy integration with well-liked smart-home ecosystems.

We evaluation the Aqara G5 Pro Wi-Fi right here; a power-over-ethernet (PoE) model can be out there for about $20 extra. Both fashions sport a compact design that may face up to out of doors circumstances year-round. Its IP65 weatherization score signifies it’s impervious to mud ingress and that it will possibly face up to water jets projected from any path (try TechHive’s IP code decoder for extra). And with an working vary of -22 levels Fahrenheit to 122 F (-30 to +50 C), you may count on dependable efficiency whether or not it’s braving winter freezes or baking in summer time warmth.

Specifications

Measuring 2.78 x 2.78 x 3.50 inches (excluding its removable stand), the G5 Pro is discreet sufficient for versatile placement wherever round your private home. The rotatable stand can simply connect to partitions, ceilings, or some other flat floor, and you’ll swap it out with any customary 1/4-inch threaded mount for much more flexibility. While it’s billed as an out of doors digicam, there’s completely no purpose it couldn’t be deployed indoors as properly.

The G5 Pro is outfitted a 4-megapixel digicam boasting a large 133-degree subject of view. True Color Night Vision boosts visibility in low-light circumstances and, paired with a complicated f/1.0 aperture lens, it will possibly seize detailed footage even in near-total darkness. A highlight adjoining to its lens and movement sensor might help illuminate intruders or just mild your path at night time. The G5 Pro additionally encompasses a 100dB siren for deterring undesirable guests, two-way audio for clear communication, and customizable alerts to inform you instantly about related occasions.

Beyond primary surveillance, the Aqara G5 Pro incorporates superior native AI detection. The digicam intelligently identifies folks, faces, autos, animals, packages, and even alerts you if its lens turns into obstructed—all with out counting on cloud-based processing. Local processing affords quicker detection and notifications, improved privateness by holding information inside your private home community, and it ensures the digicam continues working even when your web connection goes down.

The G5 Pro helps encrypted native storage by way of 32GB of built-in eMMC storage. While that’s not person expandable, you may join the digicam to your personal network-attached storage, with help for each RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) and SMB (Server Message Block) protocols. your different storage different is to buy a subscription from both Apple (iCloud+) or Aqara itself. You’ll get end-to-end encryption in both situation, making certain that solely you and approved customers can entry your recordings.

Aqara’s HomeGuardian service, out there by way of the Aqara Home app, prices $4.99 per 30 days or $49.99 yearly, nevertheless it solely helps a single Aqara digicam. HomeGuardian Plus covers a vast variety of Aqara cameras and prices $9.99 per 30 days or $99.99 yearly. Both plans present a rolling 90 days of video occasion historical past.

The digicam helps Apple’s HomeEquipment Secure Video if you happen to go the iCloud+ route, which limits you to Apple’s ecosystem, however to not a single model of digicam. That storage can be used to retailer digital photographs, music, paperwork, system backups and extra. Apple’s cloud-storage subscriptions range in price from 99 cents per 30 days for 50GB of storage to $60/mo for 12TB (that’s excess of most customers will ever want; Apple additionally affords 200GB, 2TB, and 6TB storage tiers, and any of Apple’s iCloud+ subscriptions will be shared with members of the family).

Connectivity choices spherical out this digicam’s options. It helps dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz) for easy streaming, a easy USB-C connection for energy (within the Wi-Fi model. The PoE mannequin, in fact, transmits information over an ethernet cable that can be used to ship electrical energy to the digicam, supplied you’ve a PoE change or router or a PoE energy injector.) With the exception of its Zigbee hub, which is appropriate solely with Aqara’s personal Zigbee sensible house gadgets, the G5 Pro is wise house platform agnostic, appropriate with Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Home Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings.

Installation and setup

Once I downloaded the Aqara Home app, getting the G5 Pro arrange took only a few minutes. You scan the system’s QR code to pair the digicam after which observe the prompts to attach it along with your wi-fi community. Screws and anchors are supplied for mounting the digicam, however you must provide a screwdriver or drill.

In my testing, the G5 Pro persistently delivered clear, detailed pictures. Daytime footage is sharp, with correct colours and robust distinction. Night imaginative and prescient efficiency is very spectacular; True Color Night Vision considerably enhances visibility after darkish, producing vibrant, color-accurate pictures even in low-light situations, due to its superior picture sensor and the vast aperture of its lens.

Michael Ansaldo/Foundry

The digicam’s on-device AI detection labored reliably, rapidly distinguishing between folks, autos, animals, and packages. Notifications arrived promptly, permitting me to reply instantly if one thing appeared amiss. The built-in highlight is vibrant sufficient to light up a porch or driveway, serving each as a deterrent and a comfort. The 100dB siren ought to keep at bay undesirable guests, and the two-way audio enabled clear dialog at typical out of doors distances.

As a smart-home hub, the G5 Pro considerably expands your out of doors connectivity choices. Pairing Aqara equipment and third-party Matter gadgets is easy and intuitive. The digicam serves as a Matter controller and a Thread border router, permitting you to broaden your smart-home setup outside. The onboard Zigbee hub, alternatively, is restricted to controlling Aqara’s own Zigbee smart home devices and sensors–of which there are lots of.

The Aqara Home app has a user-friendly interface, that includes a clear format and intuitive navigation. It streamlines digicam administration with a big management panel under the video feed, permitting you to rapidly evaluation footage, handle alerts, and configure superior settings corresponding to AI detection and cloud storage.

Should you purchase the Aqara G5 Pro?

With an asking value of $179.99 ($199.99 for the PoE model), the Aqara G5 Pro prices much more than the everyday out of doors safety digicam, however its efficiency and have set–its one of many few outdoor-rated gadgets to incorporate a Thread border router–totally justify its price ticket. (Yes, the brand new Eero 7 Outdoor additionally has an onboard Thread border router, however that Wi-Fi entry level prices $400.)

Whether it’s deployed indoors or out, this safety digicam can type the premise of a whole sensible house and residential safety system. If you’re on the lookout for skilled safety monitoring, alternatively, a paid service the place a 3rd celebration can summon first responders in your behalf within the occasion of an emergency, it is best to know that Aqara doesn’t supply such a service at the moment.