Video Doorbell G4 (Chime Included), 1080p FHD HomeKit Secure Video Doorbell Camera, Local Face Recognition and Automations, Wireless or Wired, Supports Apple Home, Alexa, Google, IFTTT, 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.

The Video Doorbell has been a very disappointing purchase and has caused more problems than benefits. The video loading time is extremely slow. When someone rings the doorbell, it can take anywhere from 40 seconds to over 1 minute and 20 seconds for the live video to load. This often happens when friends or neighbors who live nearby come to the door, sometimes carrying something or needing help. The whole point is to quickly check who is at the door from another floor of the house, but instead you are left waiting while the video slowly loads. This happens despite having a strong and stable Wi-Fi connection, with the router located nearby. The slow performance is constant and clearly not related to network quality. The camera itself operates very slowly overall, making it unreliable for real-time use. At the same time, the battery drains extremely fast. It is difficult to understand how a camera that struggles to load video and often feels inactive can consume power so quickly. To make matters worse, connecting the doorbell directly to a power source is not practical, so it relies on batteries. Replacing the batteries is inconvenient and requires disassembling the device, which is unnecessarily difficult. Instead of improving home security or convenience, this doorbell has created additional frustration. I regret purchasing this product. In hindsight, buying an alternative such as Ring would have been a better choice. Even though Ring does not officially support Apple HomeKit, this product does not feel meaningfully integrated with HomeKit either. Accessing and using it through Apple HomeKit is complicated and unreliable, which defeats the purpose of choosing it in the first place. Overall, the product feels slow, impractical, and poorly designed for real everyday use.

I literally bought the Logitech camera and the pro recommended by them couldn’t even install it. I needed a camera that was compatible with Apple HomeKit and I decided to trust in this and it got delivered that same day. The pros left and I’m literally no pro at all but I’m able to install this all on my own. I love, love, LOVE the camera quality, durability, and the speed of its connection. The chime is really loud so we’re able to hear it. The night vision is also great, which is what we needed to see our cars parked up front. I love the security. I do have a popcorn background so I wasn’t able to use the adhesive, however, the plastic screw anchors really helped as it let it hang off the wall a little bit (meaning hammered it in and screwed the backboard in until it was touching the popcorn walls and laying somewhat flat and straight), meaning it didn’t go all the way in and I used white caulk to seal it as I was afraid of water getting in. It works with popcorn walls using this method. I also really appreciate that the chime doesn’t need to be hooked onto anything! No wiring required! Only gotta plug it into an outlet and you’re good to go! I recommend this for anyone that doesn’t fare well with wiring as this camera and chime both don’t need or require wires (no electrical work needed) and it’s wireless. The connection to the Apple HomeKit was fast and simple! EDIT: After using this for a while, the only downside I’ve noticed is that it sometimes disconnects and takes a while to connect usually within minutes but the longest it’s ever gone while disconnecting from my Apple HomeKit is around an hour to an hour and a half, but whiles it rare, it does still happen. Overall, I STILL do RECOMMEND it!

Works as described, is kind of fun. Bit of a hassle to install with home wiring (more the house than the doorbell. Good picture, adds to Apple Homekit easily. Only issue I have encountered is because my house is situated such that mid-late afternoon sun shines directly on the doorbell. Error message (high heat) and the doorbell quits working until it cools back down during the evening. That is a little disappointing, especially since I saw no indication of this problem when evaluating for purchase. Gonna keep it anyway.

Have the camera for about a year now with no issues! Connectivity is great and it works excellent with apple homekit. Also works well with my alexa show device. The custom detection zones also work very well. It is close to the road at our house and with the zones I set up it will not detect any cars, but always captures people and delivery drivers. Setup is also fairly straight forward. Battery life I would say with AA batteries is not amazing but I can live with that as Amazon batteries are cheap.

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?

There are a lot of things to like about the Aqara G4 Video Doorbell. It has a nice physical design, and it is the only battery-powered video doorbell that works with Apple's HomeKit Secure Video (HKSV). You can also use it with wired power, which gives you the option to continuously record to a microSD card within the Aqara app. Unfortunately, the G4 seems a bit buggy and doesn't allow for advanced features without sharing data with Aqara (owned by Xiaomi). This defeats the main purpose of using Apple's HKSV. Aqara's cloud storage, which is turned on automatically when you log in, also lacks true end-to-end encryption. That means Aqara can view your footage, which raises major privacy and security concerns. That being said, the G4 seems to be a decent doorbell camera when you use the Aqara app in "HomeKit Mode" and avoid creating an account. When using HomeKit Mode, you can't adjust important settings such as motion detection sensitivity, though, and you can't record to a microSD card. While I understand not being able to playback footage, Aqara could allow for simple setting changes and an on/off record option for the offline storage. The additional security and privacy that come with HKSV are the entire point of choosing this doorbell camera over something else. Aqara should address this with a firmware update. Initially, I tried to set up the doorbell using the Apple Home app, but pairing was not successful until I bound the device to an Aqara account. I then immediately updated my firmware to version 3.5.2 and was able to move forward with the setup. It was a little odd that I couldn't simply use Apple's Home app for setup, but I understand that I was an early adopter, and that there are often bugs in early releases. In the initial setup, I selected for the camera to have a continuously looped recording to the internal microSD, and I increased the motion detection sensitivity in the Aqara app. I then blocked the doorbell camera from connecting to the internet using my router to avoid Aqara's cloud, but it could still connect to Apple's HKSV hub (an Apple TV). Everything seemed to work for about 24 hours; afterwards, the microSD card was being recorded to continuously, and HKSV was recording motion events (albeit with a 2-3 second delay). However, the G4 started dropping my connection until I allowed it to connect to the internet. Around the same time, I set up a GH2 Pro camera in a different area, and it had the exact same problem. Coincidentally, it had the same firmware number (3.5.2). Based on some reading of similar experiences with the GH2, I decided to put both cameras in HomeKit mode without logging into an account, and they seemed to behave better afterward. I have had them running for 72 hours+ with no connectivity issues, and they are still blocked from accessing the internet. I will do my best to update this review if anything changes.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Aqara Video Doorbell G4 has completely changed how I interact with visitors, offering impressive video quality, smart features, and easy integration with my smart home. The 4MP HD camera provides crystal-clear video, and the 180° field of view ensures I can see everything in front of my door, day or night. Even in low light, the night vision feature does an excellent job of capturing clear images, which makes me feel more secure. Key Features: • 4MP HD Video: Clear, detailed video quality with a wide 180° field of view to catch everything happening at your door. • Two-Way Audio: Communicate with visitors from anywhere with high-quality audio, making it easier to greet or direct them even when you’re not at home. • Smart Motion Detection: Motion alerts are fast and accurate, and I can set specific zones for detection to avoid false alarms. • Integration with Smart Homes: Works seamlessly with Apple HomeKit, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Aqara’s own system, allowing for easy control and automation. • Cloud & Local Storage: The option for cloud storage is great, and the local storage support gives me peace of mind if I want to save videos on my own device. • Quick Setup: Installation was a breeze, and the app is intuitive and user-friendly. Whether it’s answering the door from the couch or checking who’s there when I’m away, the Aqara Video Doorbell G4 gives me peace of mind and makes my home smarter. If you’re in the market for a reliable video doorbell with smart features and exceptional video quality, the Aqara G4 is a must-have!