Video Doorbell G4 with Chime, 1080p FHD HomeKit Secure Video,Gray

I recently replaced my Wemo Video Doorbells with this Aqara G4. I could not be more pleased with the upgrade. This review is written after three weeks of continuous use. I have generally found that Aqara devices just work without hassle, hang-up, or mishap out of the box. The G4 Video Doorbell was no different. Wired installation was a breeze (and having batteries installed as a backup is a bonus). The video quality is excellent. Homekit limits you to 1080 but somehow the picture looks obviously more detailed and superior to our prior doorbell cameras. I'd also add that both within Homekit and Aqara's App, the "load" time for real time video is much quicker compared with the Wemo's as well as our Eufy indoor cameras. That's super handy when responding to alerts or doorbells. I wasn't sure about the internal chime, but after using it a bit I can say they are great. Easy install of a microSD allows you to keep extended recordings locally (Homekit secure video stores video for 7 days). Because the chimes are installed indoors they are not at risk for being stolen. It's easy to assign different chimes to each doorbell so that we always know which doorbell is ringing. We're an Apple Homekit home and integration is flawless. Connectivity has been outstanding and we've not lost connection once still installation - my Wemo's would drop at least once a week. Finally, I want to acknowledge that Aqara cleverly safeguarded the security screw that must be loosened in order to change the batteries (not that I will do that often given our wired configuration) - I dropped that screw on my Wemo's on multiple occasions and it was a real nuisance to find it again. All in all, the Aqara G4 Video Doorbell delivers excellent performance, a great picture, and outstanding integration with Homekit.

This is the worst doorbell camera I have ever installed. First, it took me a couple of months to get around to swapping out my old doorbell so by the time I installed this one, the return window was closed. I installed it in October. The first week, it would go offline and note that it was overheating. Note that I am in Alabama and October is nothing compared to the summer months. The disconnects continued and continued to get worse. Often, it would go weeks offline. At first I would try to reboot it but that's not easy with this unit. Then, I gave up. When I replaced it today it had been offline for 8 weeks. This was the 3rd one I have installed here in the last 5 years. The first one was reliable but the picture quality was bad and it didn't integrate with Homekit. I replaced it with a Logitech Circle View and it was better but it would lose connection and stop working with Homekit. The Aqara replaced it and it was the worst yet. I don't think I had a single week where it worked every day. Less than 6 months later I am replacing it. In truth, the picture quality was good when it worked. That was just a rare occurrence. BTW, if you are thinking that this is a wifi issue or it was at the edge of the coverage area, that's not the case. My wifi is excellent and the 2 outdoor cameras I have on the porch are both further from the router and both of them are fantastic.

** came back to say that the batteries which came with the device were terrible but after switching to Amazon rechargeable batteries, it doesn’t die as fast at all. Adding an extra star for that. Just make sure you have your settings turned on to only record when it detects activity and make sure your activity zone is limited to your porch. Otherwise, I’ll say it’s really not too bad of a little camera for the price, so far. Only getting three stars cause it’s compatible with apple home kit and the image quality isn’t terrible. Otherwise it’s not very reliable though, the batteries die after two days and have to be replaced. I keep 12 rechargeable AA in a constant rotation to keep it from going dead every other day on low sensitivity settings at that. I am going to order some wire and a terminal to hardwire, will update it that works out. The WiFi signal is also very particular so keep that in mind as far as placement. I’m gonna have to get an extender to try boosting signal, will try to keep and work with for now as there’s no other good wireless HomeKit doorbells on the market unfortunately.

First let me get this out of the way, I’ve read a lot of comments about the battery life. Previously we used a Blink camera that triggered every movement, roughly 45 “events” a day and our battery lasted roughly 2 months. I’ve had this new one and used different batteries than provided and have had no issue going on three weeks now and battery is at 80% while still recording an motion within 5 seconds or “loitering” and no complaints. Now the best part of it, if you have an Apple ecosystem this is a MUST have. You can have all your Apple TVs automatically display a popup video on screen to show instant live video as well as your devices. As far as features the face recognition only works within the native app from what I’ve seen so far. Video and audio quality are great for the product line. Overall great value if you are looking for a compatible door camera to integrate with Apple HomeKit. Only downside so far, the setup was a bit frustrating. I had to reset the transmitter unit several times to get it to pair with the app. However once that was complete it was extremely easy to link with HomeKit.

I can't say that I don't like this doorbell because I do. It's just not my favorite. I switched to the Aqara because my trusty dusty Ring 2 took a dump, and I was ordering some other Aqara products already. Plus this integrates directly into HomeKit and we are an Apple household. Anyways, this doorbell camera has definitely proven itself and I like having it. Its facial recognition technology is really good most of the time. Animal recognition, package recognition, spot on. I love that I can store the 24/7 video stream locally on my server instead of having to pay a subscription or go to the cloud. If I had to complain about anything, it would be its size. It's huge.. and bulky.. and it FEELS cheap and the little sounds it makes even sound cheap, and tinny.. for the price tag, I guess I just expect a little more.

Update - using new brand name batteries (instead of the included batteries that came with the box) has helped battery life a lot - battery level has been at 80% for several weeks with regular use. One correction to video quality - when using Apple HomeKit Secure Video - Apple limits the video to 1080p. As a doorbell it has worked very well - alerting me on all my iOS devices and Apple HomePods that someone is ringing the doorbell. However, I am still having issues with motion detection - it is very hit or miss - and often a miss - meaning, UPS can drive their big truck right up in front of house, walk up to house and leave a box with no activation - that is hugely disappointing. The other thing that I am not thrilled about is that while Apple HomeKit Secure Video is very secure - and I am using it - Aqara does not have an option do disable videos being processed by their cloud servers which are far less secure I'm fairly sure - if they have fixed this I have no idea - I've not seen it as a toggle option in the "messy" settings options that are confusing. some settings are easy to understand but some just don't really explain what they do - for instance when you have inserted a MicroSD card is that being utilized locally as a backup even if I'm using Apple HomeKit? I would like it to be but I can't tell - should not be so hard to figure out. this device is almost great as a battery option but I wish Aqara would figure out some of these basic issues. Update - the batteries are supposed to last about 4 months, but after 24 hours with the brand new batteries that came with the doorbell, battery level was at 80%. After 4 days it was at 60%... after 5 days was at 40% battery life. So, looks like I'll need to change the batteries weekly which is a HUGE disappointment - that's 6x AA every week or forgo recording the streams and only use it as a basic doorbell instead of the added security features (my current settings are to steam and record and I haven't had an unusual amount of activity that has been captured - I would say below average activity in the period captured so far - just a handful per day). You can set it to not capture or stream video when you are home to save on battery life but then you are dependent on someone ringing the doorbell for it to "wake up." this saves battery life from what I've seen so far but it means less security. I've had UPS and other folks come by and drop stuff off on porch and it did not kick in to give me any alerts. I currently don't have the option to hard wire it but will speak to an electrician to see if they can do that for me - but in that case I might go with a higher quality product with 4K and HDR capabilities - the only reason I selected this was because it was a battery operated Apple HomeKit secure video device. Also keep in mind it does not come with the wall plug you'll need for the USB cord they provide to connect the indoor Chime Repeater (this is the indoor doorbell you must plug into the wall outlet all the time and I believe is the "brains" of the unit that connects to the wifi etc..). I had an old iPhone wall adapter that I used for this. works well as a video doorbell with Apple HomeKit Secure Video for a battery connected device with some flaws - Even though using with Apple HomeKit Secure Video they don’t have a way to turn off recording to video sent to company headquarters at Aqara - this is a security issue. the 162º wide angle is nice and wide but won’t capture packages left on front porch unless you place camera so low that it misses faces - I found that placing it about 53-inches from floor to bottom of doorbell (59-inches to top of doorbell) from the floor was ideal for average height person’s face to be captured by video. Faces look dark and full of shadows - not bright enough even during the day - missing HDR capability. Not sure about the IPX3 weather protection - likely not strong enough for big storms or extreme temps. Had to connect via batteries and I’ve noticed it is slow to respond to movement on the front porch - and it can be hit or miss. I’ve walked past it with no detection and other times I get an alert 30 seconds later… wish it was more reliable. Only had it few days, set up with Apple HomeKit Secure Video was straight forward, not sure how long batteries will last - they say up to 4 months which would be great, but that means minimal auto detection levels which would not be that useful - will likely have to replace more often. Biggest gripe is not enough light on faces - looks too dark. Instructions are minimal - would like more details. I think this is the only current battery operated Apple HomeKit Secure Video doorbell option out there currently - works good enough as a doorbell camera but as a security camera not yet sure it captures consistently enough all movement.

I bought the Aqara Video Doorbell G4 based on a few glowing YouTube reviews. The features I'm looking for is HomeKit capabilities and good motion detection (HomeKit or not). As a seasoned system administrator I know setup & network is important so I'll give you my setup details: - Tested for nearly 4 full weeks with constant tweaking. - Well rounded and optimized Mesh Wifi 6 network. - Didn't have the ability to wire this doorbell so it ran on the six included AA batteries. - My front porch is a shaded, open 10' X 5' space. - My whole driveway goes right in front of my house. - Every visitor must cross the entire view of the camera for a full 10-15 seconds up the driveway, toward the door and doorbell, then return the same way they came. Plenty of time to capture and set off motion detection and record. - 50% of the time I exit and enter my front door and should have a great test bed for motion detection and recording of myself. - Tried using the Aqara app and not just rely on HomeKit for alerts, viewing, and configuration. - Ran on the latest Aqara firmware (4.0.1_0020.0038) - Ran latest OS on all my HomeKit hardware (iOS 16.4.1, tvOS 16.4.1, HomePod 16.4.1) The Good: Setup is straight forward for the device. It has really great picture quality for my setup. When I would call up the live feed, for the most part it was responsive. When people would ring the doorbell, it always chimed and HomeKit worked great in this respect. Using the 3rd party app 'Controller for HomeKit' I was able to use the single button press action inside an automation. Basically, if I'm home and the front door is also unlocked, when the doorbell button is pressed, lock the door. Worked very well. Because of the limits of Apple's built-in app you need a 3rd party app to use this action. But worked well. The Bad: Motion detection was unreliable 75% of the time. This was the case in both the Aqara app and via HomeKit. It tried disabling in one and not the other. Adjust what sensitivities I could. Turned on & off face recognition. Nothing made it do better with detection for the nearly 4 weeks I had it installed. Most times when it did detect motion, it was delayed so badly that live view was useless. And the recordings (HomeKit & Aqara on device) most of the time only had their last moments recorded walking off view of the camera. If the visitor did not ring the doorbell. It was not reliable for a camera, alerts, or recording. So I setup my Eufy indoor camera, which has very reliable motion detection (HomeKit and its app), , pointed out the front window and did my side by sides to back up everything I stated above. Could it work better wired instead of on battery? You need to find out from someone else. My doorbell wired voltage was too low for me to try and I wanted to return this before it was too late. I do love my other Aqara products and have several sensors and their latest hub. This doorbell just fell short for me. Maybe with future updates or direct wiring it could do better?

I got this to replace an absolute piece of junk *coughEUFYcough* My old video doorbell never detected anything: cars, packages, visitors, and when people rang the doorbell, I could not communicate with them via the intercom, unless I was in the house, which kind of defeats the purpose of a smart doorbell. Then finally, I couldn't even communicate that way. This is very easily installed, and can be placed anywhere since it's battery powered. However, I wired it for power so I could get all the features functioning. Pro tip: if you do not have a micro SD card installed in the device, you will not get access to functions such as Face ID and clip recording. It will just work in HomeKit as a continuous recorder without the ability to save clips. You have to have a micro SD card. Video quality, both daytime and nighttime is fantastic. Detection of visitors, cars, and packages is very accurate. Doorbell chime is not grating. My only knock against the device is the lack of ability to change the vertical tilt. it comes with a horizontal wedge and a flat install plate. However, there is no option to angle the camera up i.e.: put a small wedge at the bottom of the doorbell body. This is important, because if someone is standing very close to the door, say less than a foot away, the wide angle lens is unable to capture the persons face. I am 5 foot 11, and if I stand within less than an arms reach of the doorbell, the image only captures below my chin. Yes of course you can rewind the video to see me walking up the porch, but that's not my complaint. First world problem, I know. However, I was able to correct this with a piece of trim that I sanded down to a wedge and adhered with wood glue. Problem solved. Overall, this is a 10 out of 10 device for HomeKit users.

OJO: si tienes una puerta de metal o de seguridad, es imposible que tengas buena señal entre la cámara y el repetidor. Lo mismo si tienes paredes de verdad (no tablaroca), pésima señal wifi hagas lo que hagas. En mi caso la única forma de que funcione medio decente es que esté tanto el repetidor como el módem afuera de la casa, lo cual no tiene ningún sentido. Está diseñado para las casas de madera de USA, no para tabique, concreto y metal como en la mayoría de las casas de México.

Relación PRECIO-CALIDAD muy buena. Ha salido ya la versión mas moderna (creo que la G410) pero ésta ahora está a buen precio y se ve genial. Muy versátil gracias al funcionamiento mediante pilas (las incluye). Para lo que necesito, no he encontrado nada mejor y funciona genial. Al final he instalado 3 y las he integrado con Apple Home y grabación en mi NAS QNAP y van perfectas! Hacen todo lo que necesito (detección de merodeadores, grabación merodeadores y cuando accionan el timbre, interfono de voz cuando estoy fuera y en casa, etc). Sencilla de configurar. La recomiéndo si no quieres complicarte la vida.

All perfect

1st foray into video doorbells and I'm happy so far. Device was installed with external AC power. This meant a drill through masonry as there was no existing power connection. (The AC transformer is standard for doorbells, any one that provides up to 24v 0.5A is fine, plenty on ebay. Just test one out with it before you install to make sure you don't have a dodgy transformer and test it for 12 hours at least and make sure there is good ventilation around the power socket as they do get very warm). I have a pebbled exterior and had to wedge a small piece of plastic to one side and then drill the screws to secure the backing which was now level due to the plastic piece. If you have bricks then this won't apply to you. The angled backing plate wasn't needed. FYI instructions that came with item are a joke. Download pdf from the amazon listing, it's halfway down the page and miles better. The chime needs usb power and I used an old iPhone power adaptor. Doorbell was set to low sensitivity as I live on a busy road and it only picked up loitering when someone came into the driveway and it caught the 3 randy fox thruple having loud enjoyment eith each other on the grass. (Dirty dirty b**tards, they carried on despite me mooing loudly through the 2 way doorbell comms). The Aqra app is brilliant, can scroll back on timeline for 7 days and view video when motion is detected as well as saving loitering moments and when doorbell is pressed. I have lots of clips now of friends and family pulling faces and making gestures on it. Lovely! The 1080p resolution will do me and the wide angle means I catch my neighbours entrance as well as 5 houses across from me. I give it 4 stars because the chime needs to be less than 5m to the doorbell. This may be my issue as I live in a house built in the 70s and the walls are thick. Need to use a hotspot downstairs etc but if you are in a newer dwelling then you should be OK. I also have to restart the app as the video hangs now and then when I go live to doorbell. A few folk online have complained the device as 2.4ghz only on WiFi. For me, I could never use 5ghz on account of the thickness of my walls. Overall, I'm happy with this. Not used homekit and the NEST integration isn't great as it would be nice to have all the features available in Aqra app on Nest. I will use IFTTT with facial recognition in the future but it's not one of my main requirements. The 7 day storage is excellent, no subscription needed and ill be using the NAS feature to offload footage when that becomes available via firmware in the future. If anyone as questions please let me know. Happy to help.

The Aqara Video Doorbell G4 offers fantastic value with its extensive features and seamless smart home compatibility. Pros: Great HomeKit Support: Works flawlessly with HomeKit Secure Video, providing real-time notifications, two-way audio, and video storage within Apple’s ecosystem. Affordable Price: Offers many premium features at a more accessible price point. Flexible Storage Options: Supports local storage (via microSD card) and free cloud storage without subscription fees. Reliable Build: Durable design that performs well in various weather conditions. Cons: Limited Third-Party Ecosystem Support: Works best with HomeKit; limited compatibility with some other platforms. Video Quality: Good, but not quite as sharp as some higher-end options on the market. For anyone in the Apple ecosystem or looking for a feature-rich and affordable doorbell, the Aqara G4 is an excellent choice. Highly recommended for smart home enthusiasts!