Aqara Video Doorbell G4 review: a keenly priced smart doorbell with subscription-free Apple Homekit Secure Video storage

Aqara Video Doorbell G4: one-minute review

The Aqara Smart Video Doorbell G4 is a smart doorbell that allows you to remotely monitor and talk to visitors outside your property via your phone or desktop using Wi-Fi.

The main selling point for those of us who predominately use the Apple ecosystem is its HomeKit compatibility, in addition to the more common Alexa and Google Assistant compatibility. It’s a viable option, given its competitive price, and doesn’t try and sell you a subscription service by ringfencing features as is the case with other video doorbells.

It offers the standard array of features found in some of the best video doorbells such as customizable zones for refining motion detection and facial recognition, which you wouldn’t typically expect for a video doorbell at this price point. It can distinguish between a car, a person, or an animal as opposed to the usual generic “movement was detected” type of message.

In addition to the doorbell, the G4 comes with a chime repeater, a real boon if you’re not always next to your phone – though I was a little incredulous at the inclusion to begin with. Added to that, it can house a microSD card for locally storing video footage which needs to be safe inside your home as opposed to on-device as with some video doorbells. It’s also a logical way to improve battery life, providing a separate mains-powered unit with Wi-Fi access and other services. I stand corrected.

Having a variety of options is good, and the Aqara G4 provides a subscription-free alternative to the ubiquitous Ring Doorbells. There is room for improvement, though; its paltry IPX3 rating means it’s best kept under cover from the elements, and the field of view was much too high for my liking. Read on for the full picture.

Aqara Video Doorbell G4: price and availability

• List price: $119.99 / £119.99 (about AU$180)

The Aqara Smart Video Doorbell G4 was launched in the US in February 2023 and UK in December 2023, and is available from the Aqara website as well as Amazon for $119.99 / £199.99 (about AU$180). At the time of writing the price was reduced by 20% to $95.99/£95.99 (about AU$140) in a limited time deal, which seems to be a bi-monthly occurrence that might be worth holding out for.

There are three accessories available for the G4 if you do not have the desire to shop around for what is pretty standard stuff. The power supply boasts of a 1.5 metre cable which is not long enough given that it is recommended that the Doorbell be mounted between 1.4 metres and 1.5 metres from the ground.

At its sale price, the Aqara G4 compares favorably with something like the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro and its associated subscription fee, even when the extra purchases of a power adapter and MicroSD card are taken into account. At full price, less so.

Aqara Video Doorbell G4: specs

Aqara Video Doorbell G4: design

• It’s big, it’s dark – it’s a mini monolith
• It is easy to spot which circular feature is the button and which is the camera
• The location of the case-securing screw is strange

The G4 has an appealing design, clad in slate grey with glossy black accents. On the front are two large circles; one is the button, and the other is the camera mount. It’s a little quirky, and upon unboxing, it chimed with me but I could not put my finger on why (both puns intended).

It wasn’t until I had to measure the Aqara G4 after discovering that the dimensions on the website were wrong that I began to think about ratios, noticing that it’s sides measure not too far from 1:4:9. That’s when it hit my nerdy sci-fi-riddled brain; those are the proportions of the sides of the monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the camera on the doorbell even resembles HAL 9000. If you have no idea what I am blathering on about, please go and watch the film – it’s a classic.

Installing the doorbell can be as simple as affixing the baseplate, connecting the chime unit to the mains (you’ll need to use your own USB power supply), pairing it in the app and completing the necessary updates, and lastly inserting the doorbell’s batteries before slotting and securing it to the baseplate.

I added my review unit to HomeKit, and through doing so I was able to make use of my Apple One subscription and save HomeKit Secure Video output to the cloud – a pleasant surprise. However, the video quality was not great; anything that moved was painfully pixelated. Now, I like 8-bit video games, but I need to be able to distinguish between the postman and Super Mario.

Be warned, when you install the batteries, both the doorbell and chime repeater’s alarms will trigger, and both devices will begin to howl like a banshee. The doorbell will stop when it is slotted into the baseplate, but the chime repeater will keep on howling away until it is power cycled. It’s a good anti-tampering feature but an off switch in the app that snoozes the tripped alarm would suffice to stop this slightly annoying quirk. Another poor design decision is the case-fastening screw on the side of the unit, which I found difficult to tighten when it’s in situ.

It has been designed to facilitate hard-wired mains electricity either from an existing doorbell circuit or via a power supply transformer that plugs into a standard UK electrical socket. Another design flaw is that there’s no slot on the sides of the baseplate to run the cable through; Aqara seems to have assumed that the power cable will come straight through the wall and directly into the device, which for me was impossible. It is easy enough to create an opening in the bracket, but an unnecessary hoop to jump through.

Aqara Video Doorbell G4: performance

Having used Ring doorbells for two years, it was immediately apparent that the video quality and field of view of the Aqara G4 are inferior. In fairness, Aqara is cheaper, and you do get what pay for. The stored video does seem to be less pixelated when using the local MicroSD as opposed to iCloud storage.

I installed a Ring Battery Pro alongside the Aqara to compare them and you can see what you are paying for with the Ring. As far as I am concerned the Aqara is good enough for my home, but your needs may differ depending on your entryway.

Its object recognition is consistent, although it has yet to detect an animal for me to review. The feature would be even more useful if it were possible to filter the videos based on object type in the app.

Speaking of which, the app is pretty good. It’s uncluttered and offers automation facilities if you don’t want to connect it to one of your smart home hubs. As is the theme of this review, it does have its quirks; for instance, I’m a bit puzzled as to why it’s necessary to create an automation to play a sound on the external doorbell when the button is pressed rather than it being a built-in feature. Even more puzzling is that it is not possible to use the stock ring tones; you need to import a sound file.

For some reason, I’ve frequently received an error stating that “The network connectivity is poor. Please set to auto”. Set what to auto, you may ask? I have looked through the settings and the only thing with an auto setting that I have found so far is “Infrared Night Vision”, which is on already; the mystery continues.

The facial recognition is surprisingly good given that I have only supplied it with one photograph of me. Heck, I get up in the morning and look in the mirror and sometimes I don’t recognize myself. This opens up all sorts of automation possibilities. Why would you not want your house to say “Hello Les” when you walk up to your front door?

In saying that, maybe we’re getting a little too close to HAL with that one.

Should you buy the Aqara Video Doorbell G4?

Buy it if

Don’t buy it if

Aqara Video Doorbell G4: also consider

Not completely sold on the Aqara Video Doorbell G4? Here are two more options for you to consider. We’ve also got lots of tips on how to buy a video doorbell.

How I tested the Aqara Video Doorbell G4

• I tested both battery-powered and mains-powered configurations
• I tested storing captured video in iCloud and locally
• I reviewed all video footage to assess accuracy
• I compared video output with a rival manufacturer

There is no existing doorbell circuit in my house or an electrical outlet in the hall, so the transformer was plugged into a socket in the lounge. Luckily (for you, not me) I am renovating my house and can easily get under the floor to run the cable.

I investigated the phone application automation options and tried out the various in-app features and functionalities.

I’ve been using smart home devices for several years now, and have a whopping 30+ years (gulp) of tech enthusiasm and experience under my belt.

First reviewed September 2024