I’ll cut to the chase: Aqara’s G5 Pro is the best HomeKit-compatible camera I’ve ever used. The device’s capabilities go far beyond its HomeKit integration, and I’ll touch on those below. However, given how hard it can be to find high-quality hardware like the G5 Pro that works with HomeKit Secure Video, that’s been my primary focus while testing this camera.
I’ve had mixed luck with outdoor cameras. After I moved, my Logi Circle View cameras refused to connect to my new Wi-Fi network, so I abandoned them. That led me to ecobee’s indoor security cameras and smart doorbell, which I like, but with a couple of caveats.
The first limitation of the ecobee cameras is that they work with HomeKit but are not compatible with HomeKit Secure Video. That means I can monitor the cameras inside the Home app, but I can’t use it to scrub through recordings. Presumably, this is to encourage people to subscribe to ecobee’s professional monitoring service, which I do. It’s a good, reasonably-priced service, but the inability to swipe back through recordings is annoying. The second sore spot with ecobee’s doorbell is that its low-light performance isn’t great.
Aqara’s G5 Pro camera solved both of those issues for me and more. First, though, I want to emphasize just how tough this hardware is. The camera sits on a base that tilts and swivels, giving you a lot of options for how it’s positioned; the base can be wall-mounted, too. I was impatient and didn’t know if I’d want to use the camera long-term, so instead of screwing its bracket into the wall of my house, I stuck it to the wall above my front door with heavy-duty 3M foam mounting tape. The G5 Pro isn’t light, though, so after a few days, it fell, crashing onto the concrete below. I should have known better, but I was happy to find the camera sitting on the ground with barely a scratch on it and working perfectly. So it’s sturdy.
The camera can also operate in a wide range of temperatures from -30°C/-22°F to 50°C/122°F and is rated IP65 for dust and water protection, so it’s able to withstand the elements. Since I started my testing, the G5 Pro, which sits in a semi-protected alcove by my door, has already been through a couple of big storms with heavy blowing rain and snow, and it’s been fine.
At night, the G5 Pro with its outdoor light on (left), the G5 Pro with its outdoor light off (center), and the ecobee doorbell’s camera (right).
The video quality is the best I’ve ever seen from a HomeKit camera. The G5 Pro has a 1/1.8” 4MP sensor and an f/1.0 aperture. It shoots video in 1520p, and the color reproduction is surprisingly good, even at night. Whether the light next to my front door is on or off, I can see the walkway leading up to my door and the sidewalk it connects to perfectly. That also means the Aqara and Home apps have no trouble making out people, animals, and packages at any time of day.
I appreciate the G5 Pro’s incorporation of HomeKit Secure Video a lot. If you have an iCloud+ subscription, that allows the camera to record activities like the presence of people, animals, and packages. The footage is saved to iCloud and doesn’t count against your iCloud storage limit. To view recordings, simply swipe backwards in the timeline from the camera’s view in the Home app. I love the simplicity of the setup; it adds a layer of easy monitoring that my ecobee doorbell doesn’t have.
From my standpoint, the sturdiness of the G5 Pro, the quality of its video footage, and its HomeKit Secure Video integration are enough to justify the camera’s $179 price tag. However, there’s a lot more to the device that’s also worth mentioning.
On the hardware side of things, the G5 Pro has a built-in spotlight. The light works well, but between streetlights and the light near my front door, it’s not something I use.
The G5 Pro also includes a motion sensor as well as a microphone and speaker for remotely communicating with someone outside your home. I’ve never used that sort of intercom feature with outdoor cameras, but it’s good to know it’s there if you want it.
There are two different models of the G5 Pro, too. I’ve been using the one that connects over Wi-Fi, but there’s a $199 model that uses power over Ethernet (PoE), which Aqara says is a first for HomeKit cameras. If you have a location that’s out of range of your Wi-Fi but accessible with Ethernet, the PoE version of the G5 Pro looks like a good option, thought I haven’t tested it myself.
On the software side, the G5 Pro is loaded with features. In addition to the Home app, you can also control the camera from the Aqara Home app. I’m not a big fan of the app’s design, but it does offer some interesting features that you can’t get from Apple’s Home app, including:
- a screenshot tool,
- a gallery of recordings and screenshots,
- lingering detection,
- camera lens obstruction detection,
- AI sound detection, and
- a monitoring service.
I haven’t tried Aqara’s monitoring service, but with one exception, I’ve found the other features to work well. The one that doesn’t work reliably is the AI sound detection. Last week on a rainy day, I kept getting notifications that someone was crying outside. It turns out that the G5 Pro’s AI mistook the sound of car tires on a wet road as crying. That was the end of my experiment with that feature.
The camera also integrates with the automation features in the Aqara Home app, allowing you to turn on the spotlight at night when a person is detected, open your garage when your car is identified, and more. Other than the sound detection, all of these features work perfectly well and will help the G5 Pro appeal to a wider audience, but I’m fine sticking with what’s available via HomeKit.
Beyond HomeKit, the G5 Pro is also compatible with other standards and serves as a hub for other devices. The camera is a ZigBee and Thread hub as well as a Matter controller, allowing it to work with other smart home systems, including Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Home Assistant, Homey, and Samsung SmartThings. That cross-platform flexibility is great, but because G5 Pro is a hub, too, it can extend your smart device network beyond the interior of your home, which makes connecting the company’s smart locks, sensors, and other compatible devices easier.
Finally, the G5 Pro allows you to save its recorded video locally to its 6.7GB of internal non-upgradeable storage or to a NAS. Alternatively, you can stream the video over a network using RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol).
After a few weeks of using the G5 Pro, I’m a big fan. The camera hasn’t dropped off my network even once. It’s easy to monitor from both Apple and Aqara’s apps, and its detection of people, animals, and packages has been spot on every time. Once I’d installed it and plugged it in, the camera just worked, which is far more than I can say about a lot of smart home gadgets I’ve tried. If you’re looking for a sturdy, reliable, and flexible outdoor camera setup, the G5 Pro should be at the top of your list.
The Aqara Camera Hub G5 Pro is available to purchase from Amazon. The Wi-Fi version costs $179, and the PoE version costs $199.
