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Aqara’s E1 indoor security camera is the little sister of its excellent Camera Hub G3, aimed at those who don’t need all the bells and whistles or the highest price. But don’t let that fool you! The E1 Pan and Tilt Camera is a robust indoor security camera with an excellent feature set and solid video performance in both day and night scenarios. I only have one minor complaint. We’ll touch on that shortly.
Aqara E1 Camera: Price and Availability
The Aqara E1 Indoor Security Camera is currently available only through Amazon.com for $59.99. Although price drops on this unit don’t happen often, it was $44.99 in December 2023. At the time of writing, Amazon is offering a 10% off coupon in the US.
Aqara E1 Camera: Specifications and Features
Aqara’s Camera Hub G3 is one of their best indoor cameras, but if you’re investing in Apple’s ecosystem, an Aqara hub may not be what you’re looking for. That’s where the E1 indoor security camera comes into play. For $50 less, you get much of what the G3 offers and some updated features in a smaller, 4-inch-tall package.
The E1 supports Wi-Fi 6, while the Camera Hub G3 is Wi-Fi 5. The E1 improves on the G3’s strong privacy features by adding masking zones. You can add a black block to your video stream, so that those areas are literally blacked out. This is in addition to an automated privacy mode, which allows you to set specific times when the camera will pan and point toward a wall or other privacy-focused area. The privacy options are a great feature because you’ll see everything quite clearly with this 2K, f/2.0 camera, which looks great in both good and low light conditions.
Connected to Apple HomeKit, the E1 has Secure Video support for storing incident videos in the cloud. However, you can also record locally because it has a microSD slot for up to 512GB of local video storage. This is especially useful if you enable the camera’s 24-hour recording with time-lapse mode. Accessing that slot is simple; Simply slide the camera’s tilting lens up, revealing a microSD slot at the bottom.
One of the features I loved playing with is the two-way telecommunications system. There is a speaker and microphone built into the E1 so you can use it as a telecommunications device to talk to whoever is on the other side of the image. Your children, your partner, your pet, talk to everyone!
Aqara E1 Camera: Build and Appearance
The Camera E1 feels well built, even though it’s mostly plastic. It’s small, measuring 4 inches tall by 2.68 inches wide, so it should easily fit on a bookshelf shelf or most other places. It can even be mounted on the ceiling and then you can access the Aqara Home app and reorient the video.
The camera stays out of the way with an infrared backlight, which you won’t notice when there are no lights if you’re in a bedroom. The motor is quiet, so you’ll probably never hear it turning.
Aqara E1 Camera: Ease of Use
Setting up the Camera E1 is simple, as the Aqara and Apple Home apps do it with a QR code. If you have everything you need, you’ll be up and running in just a few minutes. In this case, having everything you need would mean you have a power adapter because the E1 doesn’t come with the brick in the box, just the USB-C cable.
Setting up the privacy features in the Aqara Home app is very simple, and although there is a bit of a delay, the manual pan and tilt functions work well. You should know that once you link the camera to HomeKit, or if you choose to forego Aqara Home and only use HK, you will lose access to many privacy features, as well as manual pan and tilt control. It will still track humans and detect motion, but you won’t be able to set those privacy positions and you’ll lose the ability to set up to three occlusion zones. For privacy features, you’ll first need to set them up in Aqara Home as scenes, which are then exposed in Apple Home. You can then activate them using automation in Apple Home without needing the Aqara Home app.
An important aspect of privacy features is that they are processed locally. The E1 has a built-in neural processing unit that enables detection of people and sounds on the device.
As I mentioned earlier in the article, my only complaint with the Aqara E1 indoor security camera is that the automatic pan and tilt human tracking is finicky. I found that location affects its tracking ability, as does the Camera Hub G3. When the camera is placed at hip height (I’m 6 feet tall), I find it a little slow to pan with moving objects, that is, me. Place the camera higher up where your AI can capture faces and your human tracking will improve.
Aqara E1 Camera: Competition
The pan and tilt options that support HomeKit Secure Video are few, but there are two other cameras worth checking out. We reviewed and liked Eufy’s 2K Pan, which is now the 2K E220 indoor camera and right now its price can’t be beat: just $35.99 on the Eufy site and Amazon.
VOCOlinc Opto HomeKit Indoor Camera There is also a lower cost option, available on their site for $49.99. It also has pan and tilt functionality, but only runs 1080P video, which is fine given HKSV’s limitations when linking 2K cameras like the E1. HomeKit downscales 2K video to 1080P on Apple Home and for videos recorded in the cloud.
Aqara E1 Camera: Should you buy it?
You should buy this if…
- You want pan and tilt at a great price
- Privacy features are essential for your use case.
- You don’t need all the features of Camera Hub G3
You shouldn’t buy this if…
- You must mount it on a vertical surface such as a wall.
Aqara E1 Camera: Verdict
With the Aqara E1 indoor security camera, you get quite a lot of camera at a great price. Integrated person and sound detection and strong privacy features make this a great choice for use cases where what’s on the camera at certain times is a concern. Wi-Fi 6 means you have access to more reliable live video streams in homes with dozens of other Wi-Fi devices, and 360-degree rotation means you can see almost everything.
There aren’t many pans and tilts at this price with this feature set, so the E1 camera should be on your short list if you’re looking for PT functionality. Even if you don’t need the hub but PT is essential, consider looking at the Camera Hub G3, which has more reliable tracking, built-in facial recognition, and an alarm exposed in HomeKit.
Aqara 2K E1 Indoor Security Camera
Tough act to follow, but it follows you!
It doesn’t have dozens of pan-tilt cameras that support HomeKit Secure Video, but of those that do, the Camera E1 is one of the best.
