Smart home device maker Aqara launched the Camera Hub G350 in March, and it’s the first Matter-certified smart camera on the market. The cameras are included in Matter 1.5, and while Apple doesn’t yet support Matter cameras, Aqara’s camera still works with Apple Home. For Apple users, the Matter integration doesn’t bring any benefits, but it does add cross-platform support for Google Home, Alexa, SmartThings, and more.
The Camera Hub G350 is my favorite indoor security camera I’ve tested to date, and not just because it wears a cute bunny ear costume. It records in 4K and has zoom capabilities, as well as motion tracking and can rotate 360 degrees.
There are two cameras in the G350 and the design makes the lenses look like eyes. If you don’t like the cute style, you can remove the rabbit-shaped silicone cap, making the G350 look like a traditional security camera.
You can view the G350’s feed through Apple Home, and it connects as a HomeKit secure video camera. Images are stored in iCloud and, as with other HomeKit Secure Video (HSV) options, you need an iCloud+ plan. The $0.99/month 50GB plan supports a single HSV camera, the $2.99/month 200GB plan supports five HSV cameras, and higher-tier plans that start at $9.99/month for 2TB of storage support unlimited cameras.
Using the G350 with HomeKit limits you to the HomeKit feature set. You can view the feed in the Home app, add the camera to automations, and customize when the camera records and when it doesn’t use geotagging. It supports motion notifications, can recognize people and animals for personalized notifications, and has facial recognition. Unfortunately, despite being a high-resolution camera, HSV is limited to 1080p.
Since the Camera Hub G350 offers many features that aren’t available in HomeKit, it’s not worth getting it if you’re only going to use it with Apple Home. You need the Aqara app to get the full features, but I think the feature set is worth venturing out of the Home app.
The 4K wide-angle camera with a 133-degree field of view is the main camera, but there is also a 2.5K HD camera allowing you to zoom up to 9x for a closer look. The camera feed is clearer than what I get from HomeKit due to resolution restrictions. It’s the only camera I own that has a second lens for zooming, and the zoom is sharper than I get with single-lens cameras.
Aqara claims the camera has an f/1.6 aperture and 940nm infrared LEDs for night vision, and it works well in low-light conditions and at night. Recordings aren’t as clear as in optimal lighting, but night vision works as expected, providing a grayscale view of what’s happening.
The G350 can rotate 360 degrees and an AI auto-tracking feature is included. It can recognize people and pets, rotating the camera to keep them in view and zooming in slowly if necessary. It also tilts, which is useful for keeping people and animals in view. You can have the camera track movement with AI, but you can also use the pan and tilt controls in the app to control it while watching the live feed. I don’t need to reinvent the wheel, which is why Aqara’s video showing pan, tilt, and zoom is embedded below. The camera and app work as demonstrated in the video.
The tracking works well and it can be somewhat scary to have a camera following you, so this could be a good theft deterrent. It’s clear when it moves to keep you in view, but there’s no audible sound when it pans. It’s supposed to pan slowly, so there may be a bit of blur in recordings when the camera moves or when you use the zoom feature. The Aqara app has an option to select preset angles that the camera will move to quickly so you can see different areas of a room.
The camera has built-in AI processing that can recognize faces, pets, gestures and select sounds. It can detect coughs, snoring, loud sounds, alarms, a dog barking and a baby crying, sending alerts when it hears the sound.
I often think Aqara includes too many features in their products, but they give people options. The camera supports gestures, so you can trigger scenes you’ve set up in the Aqara app with a hand wave or OK sign. This is a beta feature, and it’s not very reliable, especially in poor lighting. I don’t know why, but the G350 also has smile detection and will send you a notification when it detects someone smiling. It successfully detects motion, follows me everywhere, and detects smiles, although the latter feature didn’t work 100% of the time.
For those who don’t want to upload footage to the cloud, there is an option to save to a 512GB microSD card. Footage can be saved to a NAS, you can use Apple Home’s iCloud storage, or you can use Aqara’s cloud storage. You don’t need a subscription for Aqara’s cloud storage, but some features are locked behind such a subscription.
Aqara offers a HomeGuardian subscription service that costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year for a single camera, or double that for unlimited cameras. It adds 90 days of video event history, package and vehicle detection, face detection, AI video summaries, AI video search, fire detection, alarm notifications, unlimited storage and in-app video downloads. So you can use local storage or free cloud storage, but you lose some features.
There’s a mode that physically disables the cameras with a cover that makes it look like the “eyes” are closed, which is both cute and useful. This mode also reveals the slot for the microSD card and you insert the card into the “mouth”. Camera off mode can be activated by tapping the little eye icon in the Aqara app. There is a speaker and a microphone for two-way conversation.
I can’t think of a camera feature I want that isn’t already present in the G350, except maybe rich notifications. Motion detection alerts from the Aqara app don’t provide me with motion insight like my Ring cameras do.
If you have other Aqara devices, the G350 acts as a hub for them. I have Aqara thermostats, so this serves as a functional hub and improves connectivity between Aqara products. It is also a Thread Border router for Thread devices and a Matter Controller. It can use a 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz connection.
The Camera Hub G350 is supposed to be plugged in all the time, but for some reason Aqara didn’t include a power adapter. There’s a USB-C cable, but no charger, so you’ll need to provide your own. It requires a 10W or higher USB-C power adapter.
Conclusion
With pan and tilt functions and auto tracking, the G350 is a great indoor camera. It’s perfect in a baby’s room or for tracking pets, but it also works well for general home security use.
It supports local storage for those who don’t want data uploaded to the cloud, and while some features are locked behind a subscription, all the most useful options are easily available without paying extra.
How to buy
The Aqara Camera Hub G350 is available on Amazon for $140.
Note: Aqara provided Woozad with a G50 camera hub for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received.
