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Having a video doorbell installed in your home in the past wasn’t something that everyone could afford. These days, technology has advanced in such a way that getting your hands on a video doorbell has become considerably more accessible, plus with features like remote streaming and cloud storage, video doorbells in this day and age are much better than what they used to be.
With there being so many options to choose from, you might be a bit overwhelmed, but if you’re looking for a different brand that isn’t a Ring or Blink doorbell, then perhaps the Aqara G4 could be worth taking a look at, especially given its features and specs.
Design
One of the features we like about the Aqara G4 is its looks. It features a very minimal and sleek design that doesn’t make the video doorbell stand out in any particular way, which is good if you’re trying to keep things discreet or if you have a particular aesthetic that you’re going for.
They’ve also kept the front of the video doorbell pretty simple where there is a cutout for the camera, microphone, and speaker, and a massive button for your guests to press when they arrive at your doorstep.
Features
The G4 comes equipped with a 1080p sensor along with a lens that offers a 162-degree field of view, which means that you should get quite a good viewing angle. There is also support for infrared night vision, so even if it’s at night and lighting isn’t as good, you should still be able to see what’s in front of the camera.
Another interesting feature of the G4 is that it supports facial recognition, thanks to the use of AI, which means that it will be able to recognize who’s at the door and you can even customize Welcome Home scenes for individual users. The facial recognition can also be used for security purposes.
For example, when it recognizes an unknown face at your door, it can act as a trigger for other smart home automations. Users will be able to store up to 30 different faces on the G4 so you should be more than covered when it comes to your regular visitors like friends and family members.
There’s even a voice changing feature so that if a stranger comes to your door and you speak to them, you can disguise your voice for enhanced privacy.
In terms of power, one of the other things we like about the G4 is that it is simple to install. This is because the G4 can be powered by a 6-pack battery that will last up to four months at a time. This means that you don’t need to bother with wiring, but for those who’d rather not deal with the hassle of changing batteries, you can wire it to a AC/DC transformer for continuous power and only switch to batteries in the event of a power outage.
Multi-platform compatibility
With many smart home devices, you have to think about platform compatibility. For example, there might be devices that play nicely with Alexa or Google Assistant and don’t work with Apple’s Siri or HomeKit.
The Aqara G4 does not have that problem as it works with pretty much all the smart home platforms out there like Alexa, HomeKit, Google Home, and even apps like IFTTT and Alice. The company is planning to eventually add support for Matter, which means that it will play nicely with essentially all devices from all platforms that are part of the Matter Alliance.
While streaming video from the video doorbell to a phone is pretty much a given, users will also be able to stream video coming from the doorbell to other smart home devices, like Apple’s HomePod and smart displays like those made by Google and Amazon, so you’ve got some options when it comes to seeing who’s at your door.
Free cloud storage
An annoying aspect of many video doorbell systems is that if you want to store your footage in the cloud, you generally have to pay for it via a subscription, which is an additional cost. With the Aqara G4, the company has provided users with free cloud storage of up to 7 days. This means that short event-based video clips will be stored in the cloud immediately and accessible without you having to fork out additional fees.
Alternatively, if you do need to store longer footage for an extended period of time, the G4 does support the use of microSD cards so that you can view that footage offline on another device like a PC or laptop. Aqara notes that in the future, there are plans to eventually add support for NAS storage in case microSD card storage isn’t sufficient for your needs.
Pricing & availability
So if a video doorbell is a smart home device that you’ve been after for a while now, then the Aqara G4 is most definitely worth taking a look at, especially at its asking price of $119, which is honestly pretty affordable considering all the features you’re getting.
You can find more details about the G4 from Aqara’s website (and check out the company’s other products), or you can click the Amazon link below if you’d like to buy one for yourself.
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