Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsBuy this
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2023
EDIT: Lol I immediately purchased a 3rd camera after I wrote the previous review…..annnd of course the third one DID NOT work right out of the box. I think this has something to do with Apple and not the camera itself but I’m not quite certain.
Basically it dropped out while pairing, and HomeKit decided it wasn’t going to let me add it after resetting it. It kept saying the device was already added. After talking with Apple it was determined that it could potentially be a faulty unit and not truly resetting to factory settings, so I returned. Other 2 cams are still working great off my HomePod Mini***This could also have something to do with the 3rd camera since I’m just running a mini…will update once I get 3rd and have time to set up.
TLDR; If you have an AppleTV/Homepod/Ipad already (required to work with HomeKit without anything else) and you’re looking for a HomeKit camera without 3rd party apps; do yourself a favor and just click buy now. This simply works.
This is the third camera I’ve landed on and it is absolutely the best by far and large.
I initially started with eufy, because it was, well, cheap. I ended up having to download a third party app, then jump through what felt like countless additional hoops, and ultimately ended returning because it was the opposite of seamless, and knowing I would need additional cameras, it was not a process I wanted to repeat.
After the eufy experience, I decided I’d give Blink a try and skip Homekit altogether because the third party app experience was so terrible with eufy, I figured why not give our guys and gals at amazon a shot. Also, because it was cheap.
This experience was notably better at first. App was easy enough. First camera connected quickly. Second and third camera however we’re a different story…I started running into an error were the app was swearing up and down that I was entering my wi-fi password incorrectly. However, It was showing me the password I entered so I know that it was accurate. Long story short, 15 power cycles and camera resets later, ended up not being able to hook up the last camera, returned, which brings us to this cute little camera here.
Now, the reason I mention these previous experiences is because it is critical in understanding exactly why this camera is worth every single penny.
Aqara’s arrived, I unboxed, plugged in, hit the + icon in Homekit, scanned QR code, and it worked.
That simple. Nothing else required. It simply worked. The entire process took me maybe 5 minutes for both cameras. In comparison, the previous 2 experiences mentioned were both 30+ minutes with negative results.
The camera quality is great. Very sturdy and well built.
Do yourself a favor and stop looking and buy this. It’s worth it, and it even comes with adorable little ears on the camera…common now, what more could you want?