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When you first open Aqara’s tiny Camera Hub, you’re greeted by a little face with removable cat ears. It’s all very kawaii (Japanese slang for “cute”) if you like anime and stuff, but that cute little face hides a monstrous device inside.
does it a lot and you’ll end up wondering, “Should I run this through HomeKit or its proprietary Aqara Home app, or a little bit of both?” It can be overwhelming. The good thing is that the Apple Home and Aqara Home apps are well designed and easy to use. Let’s get into it!
Aqara Camera Hub G3: Price and availability
The Aqara 2K Security Indoor Camera Hub G3 is available through Amazon for $109.99, but if we look at price tracking history, in December and January, the G3 was on sale in the $80 range.
Aqara Camera Hub G3: Specifications and Features
The Camera Hub G3 is a nearly five-inch-tall robot-shaped device that rotates 340 degrees horizontally, tilts 30 degrees up and 15 degrees down. You can do it automatically with AI-powered tracking or manually through the Aqara app, but without manual control in Apple’s Home app. Combine all that with a 110-degree field of view; You should be able to capture everything in almost any room.
The centerpiece of the unit, the 2K 2304x1296P high-resolution camera and its infrared night vision LED module have a face, which is cute and functional. When the G3 is “live”, you can see the camera, but for added privacy, you can stop the live feed and the lens module rotates towards the “head” housing, exposing another look, the eyelashes. Yes, you can tell the camera is “sleeping” because the face shows it.
If you’re not comfortable with that yet, you can store a preset viewing angle and send it there. To the left and right of the lens and LEDs are two microphones that allow you to have two-way conversations, detect abnormal sounds, transmit audio and record it. Audio recording is pretty good thanks to the dual microphone setup!
The front also has a microSD slot that supports up to 128GB of storage. You can access it by turning off the camera’s live feed and having the cute tab cover rotate into view. Below is a status LED that glows red when active, along with some subtle markings. The back of the camera is where you’ll find the speaker and the USB-C port which also supports video output directly from the unit via the UVC protocol, so if you connect the Camera Hub G3 to your computer, for example, it should automatically recognize it.
You can place the Camera Hub G3 on a flat surface like a bookshelf or mount it using the standard quarter-inch tripod threads on the bottom. It can be mounted upside down and then the image is adjusted accordingly in the Aqara Home app.
Aqara’s Camera Hub G3 has a neural processing unit (NPU) that powers some AI features that don’t require an internet connection. An onboard Zigbee 3.0 smart home hub lets you connect up to 128 Aqara devices to the G3, although you’ll need to include repeater devices like a wall switch or smart plug in your setup to achieve that number.
The Camera Hub G3 supports 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi connections, and Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3). There is also support for infrared emitters for home devices that still use that standard.
Aqara Camera Hub G3: Build and appearance
The Aqara Camera Hub G3 looks like something you’d buy at a Sanrio (Hello Kitty) store until you remove the pre-installed cat ear accessory hood. You can place the Camera Hub G3 on a flat surface like a bookshelf or mount it using the standard quarter-inch tripod threads on the bottom. It can be mounted upside down and then the image is adjusted accordingly in the Aqara Home app.
Although it’s primarily plastic, the Camera Hub G3 feels like it’s well made and will be durable indoors. The pan and tilt motor is silent and the different faces of the lens cap, although novel, make “fun” become “functional.” It should look at home with almost any decor, and you can remove those cat ears if that’s too extravagant for your feng shui.
Aqara Camera Hub G3: Ease of use
Aqara’s Camera Hub G3 does so much that it would take a few pages of an in-depth article to cover them all in depth, but its features in the Aqara app are clearly laid out and easy to use. And since not all of those features are on display on Apple Home, it’s even easier to use there. That was one of the distinguishing features of all the Aqara cameras I’ve tested recently: ease of use. This G3 was set up in less than ten minutes and I thoroughly enjoyed the voice confirmations I received from the unit as I completed specific steps in the onboarding process.
I have the G3 connected to my 5GHz Wi-Fi network. Opening any of the apps and connecting to their live streams has been quick every time. I even opened Apple Home on my Apple Watch Series 9 and had conversations with my wife, which was great! Glitch-free, smooth audio and image, all from my wrist.
Motion tracking is easy with the G3. You can set it to track humans, dogs, and cats, work with face or gesture detection, and there’s a cruise option that will set the camera to pan and tilt to predefined positions for a period of time. Aqara’s face detection works by uploading photos from your phone or taking a photo of someone’s face at that very moment. Then, you can set up automations, like getting a notification when little Jamaal gets home from school. Gesture activation allows you to assign automations to five different hand gestures, but that disables the human and animal tracking features.
Speaking of tracking, I really thought the G3’s ability to keep up with the humans it was tracking was admirable. However, if someone is running or moving quickly, you may miss them. When the G3 follows someone and pans and tilts to keep up, you’ll see the video pixelate a bit until the camera stabilizes, and then the video clears up and becomes solid again.
For those concerned about security, using the Aqara Home app’s face detection requires you to upload those images to Aqara’s cloud servers. Since the G3 has a built-in neural processing unit, I would like facial recognition to also store images locally.
There are a few other minor issues that I would like to see improved. The grain the camera picks up when moving is not ideal. I’d also like to see manual pan and tilt features, as well as preset position settings available in Apple’s Home app.
Aqara Camera Hub G3: Competition
There isn’t much competition at this price with comparable features, considering the G3 has a built-in Zigbee hub.
An alternative worth considering is Eufy E220. It has a wider 125-degree field of view and 8X digital zoom. The E220 is half the price, but it only has 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, no privacy mode, and doesn’t include a built-in hub for connecting other IoT devices.
Aqara Camera Hub G3: Should you buy it?
You should buy it if…
- You like Aqara and want to connect more devices
- You want an HKSV pan-tilt camera with a solid feature set
- You want a camera with physical privacy mode
You shouldn’t buy it if…
- You want a camera closer to $50
- You don’t need hub functionality
Aqara Camera Hub G3: Verdict
In addition to being a cute camera with removable cat ears, Aqara’s Camera Hub G3 is a powerhouse of features at a fair price. Aqara has some great IoT devices in its offering of motion sensors, window/door sensors and automatic blinds, so having the hub integrated is a great feature.
With Matter support, HomeKit exposed alarm functionality, USB-C video output, local storage, and local AI processing, you’ve got a winning package that’s hard to beat in the indoor pan-tilt camera market. The Aqara Camera Hub G3 is easy to recommend.
Fun and functional! Highly recommended for HomeKit
Camera Hub G3 works with all digital assistants, supports HomeKit Secure Video, is a Zigbee hub, supports 2k video resolution, has a physical security shutter, and is kawaii!
