I replaced my Ring with this outdoor security camera – and there’s no subscription required

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Aqara Digital camera Hub G5 Professional is out there for $180 for the Wi-Fi model and $200 for the PoE model.
• This indoor/outside safety digital camera doubles as a wise house hub, options 1520p decision for crystal-clear pictures, RTSP help, and has a built-in NPU to course of video with AI for visible recognition.
• The digital camera is wired, so placement is restricted, and there’s no expandable storage, so that you want a subscription to entry video historical past or bypass it via video server software program.

For a restricted time, the Aqara Camera Hub G5 Pro is on sale for $20 off, one of many first reductions we have seen since launch.

Safety cameras want to supply one thing distinctive to impress me. I’ve examined many manufacturers and have come to desire some over others, however I am happy to say the brand new Aqara Camera Hub G5 Pro is one I can genuinely get behind. This safety digital camera is exclusive as a result of it could possibly double as a wise house hub and is Aqara’s first outside safety digital camera.  

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The G5 Professional is a Thread border router and a Matter controller and has Zigbee help for Aqara gadgets that require a hub. You should buy this Aqara Digital camera Hub G5 Professional to surveil your own home and add different Aqara gadgets with out shopping for a separate hub.

I’ve two Aqara hubs in my house, an Aqara Hub M2, that the newer Aqara Hub M3 changed. This digital camera is sufficient to change each of them — and surveil inside or exterior my home.

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This is not the primary Aqara digital camera to double as a wise house hub. Aqara already has the Camera Hub G3, a 2K indoor safety digital camera, and the Camera Hub Indoor G2H Pro, a 1080p indoor digital camera. The brand new G5 Professional, nevertheless, is the primary time Aqara is bringing a hub to the skin of the house, as this safety digital camera is weatherproof, and the primary Aqara outside digital camera, except for its video doorbells.

The Aqara Digital camera Hub G5 Professional does not help increasing its native storage, so you possibly can’t add a microSD card to file clips. However due to the G5 Professional’s real-time streaming protocol (RTSP) help, you will get artistic with it. 

With native RTSP entry, you should use video server software program through Residence Assistant, Frigate, or Blue Iris to file and handle your footage regionally. RTSP helps you to retailer video regionally on a NAS (network-attached storage) or SMB (server message block), bypassing cloud storage subscriptions. After all, whenever you use Residence Assistant to handle your digital camera, you possibly can extra simply customise your current sensible house gadgets and arrange alerts with out counting on Aqara’s cloud companies.

I run a HomeKit sensible house and use Apple Residence as my central sensible house controller. (As a result of I take a look at sensible house gadgets for a residing, I even have Amazon Alexa, Google Residence, and SmartThings working.)

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The G5 Professional digital camera is natively appropriate with Apple Residence with HomeKit Safe Video (HKSV), so it really works seamlessly and swiftly via the Apple app. It is also appropriate with Alexa, Google, and SmartThings.

Sensible house hubs are sometimes single-function tabletop gadgets that solely work to attach low-energy sensible house gadgets that may’t instantly connect with your Wi-Fi. These smaller gadgets, like cameras and sensors, connect with a hub that connects to the web. Whereas a hub frees you from including 12 gadgets to your Wi-Fi (probably congesting your router), hubs typically do not do a lot else.

I just like the SwitchBot Hub as a result of it additionally capabilities as a thermometer and has buttons that may be programmed to set off routines and gadgets. With the launch of the G5 Professional —  Aqara’s first outside digital camera that is additionally a hub —  the multifunctional hub simply moved a bit extra mainstream.  

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Other than the comfort of mixing house safety with a wise house hub, the G5 Professional’s ingenuity lies in its many AI-powered visible recognition options. The digital camera can detect automobiles, folks, animals, and packages and study to acknowledge faces and even particular automobiles. 

Utilizing the digital camera’s AI recognition, you possibly can automate capabilities — similar to opening the storage when a selected car approaches the home, prompting a digital camera response when an individual has been lingering in your property, and triggering an alarm when the lens is obstructed. 

The digital camera has 4 AI-powered audio recognition capacities, together with crying, an alarm sound, barking, and coughing. These permit the digital camera for use as greater than safety surveillance, as evidenced by the notifications I acquired of my toddler crying whereas grandma was babysitting. 

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The AI runs regionally on the G5 Professional, so you do not want a subscription to get pleasure from all of the customized alerts and concern automations from them. 

ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation

I’ve examined the digital camera indoors and outdoor, and I like it up to now. The Aqara Camera G5 Pro generally is a sensible house fanatic’s dream system, particularly with PoE and RTSP help. Whereas I acquired the Wi-Fi model to check it somewhere else in and round my home, I can recognize how handy a PoE mannequin can be.

Even if you happen to do not prefer to tinker together with your sensible house and are OK with paying a month-to-month cloud subscription, this digital camera’s skill to run on-device AI and double as a wise house hub makes it an incredible possibility for each new sensible house customers and seasoned tinkerers.

When will this deal expire?

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