Aqara Camera Protect Kit Y100-4 Piece Wireless Home Security System with 2K Camera Hub G3, 3 Smart Sensors, HomeGuardian, Local Automation & 24/7 Alerts, Supports HomeKit, Google Home, Alexa

Decent basic starter kit.
This kit comprises a 2k camera which also functions as a zigbee and matter hub for the other devices to connect to plus 3 sensors (motion, vibration, door/window) to start building out your smart home security.Setting up a home security system requires a lot of sensors and cameras to get any meaningful security from it but this kit is a good starting point and will help you secure your hallway as the main entry point into your home as an example using the sensors to trigger the camera to record.on it’s surface it seems to be quite a straightforward kit but the capabilities of the g3 camera hub are actually quite impressive. it supports 5ghz wifi which is still shockingly rare in smart home devices, the pan and tilt is controllable in a number of useful ways allowing a single fixed point camera to monitor multiple directions and target footage to the source of an alert.to get the most of the system you’ll need to use the aqara app to set things up but you can still have more basic control of things through your smart home assistant.cloud recording has an associated subscription cost (as you expect it to) but you can opt for 24/7 recording through the use of a physical memory card if you want to add one.initially i wasn’t terribly impressed by the price point for what it appeared to include but actually the bulk of the value here is in the features of the hardware and i’m actually very impressed by that aspect of the kit.you still need to consider if the aqara ecosystem as a whole it for you when it comes to expanding the system to the rest of your house but with its zigbee and matter support it is possible to mix and match things a little but at the sake of interoperability with certain functions and features.

(This review is for the Aqara Camera Protect Kit Y100.)The basic setup of the camera was very straightforward when using the Aqara app, and the image quality of the camera looks great. The sensors also worked well, and provide a great set of options for detecting various activity. What I really like the most about it is that it gives you a chance to try out different kinds of sensors—I think I’ll end up looking for more motion detection sensors, and fewer door / window sensors, just because that’s the kind of data that will help more with my automations.For the past couple of years, I’ve been setting up Home Assistant at my house. Since I was getting into it slowly, I started out with wifi smarthome devices. But if you do this, it junks up your network with dozens of IP addresses and can make it more difficult to manage your network and internet restrictions. I’ve heard a lot of great things about Zigbee and Matter (as well as Aqara), so I was excited to try this kit. Aqara has some products that are certified as working with Home Assistant, but none of the items in this kit are. Still, there is often compatibility, even without being vetted by the Home Assistant team. When I tried to integrate it with Home Assistant, I had trouble connecting to the camera with Home Assistant, although I was able to connect to the sensors through Aqara relatively easily. I found a guide with a roundabout process for connecting the camera too by using the go2rtc project, and it did work as expected.The camera quality is great, and I really love how this can be used to try different sensors and smart home technologies such as different protocols. The PTZ features work very well, and provide a good range of motion. The local video storage option works well, although I think Reolink might be a little more user-friendly and easier to control internet access for. I noticed that the local storage defaults to continuous rather than event recording, but for a device like this, I usually prefer event recording. But it’s probably just my familiarity, and I look forward to trying more Aqara devices in the future!I think the hardware sleep / off mode is a great idea. Basically, the camera rolls to point upward, so that it is blocked by the protective cover. When it does so, it reveals two markings that look like closed eyes, with the micro SD card slot where the mouth should be. Cute! And, at a glance you can tell if the camera is “off”.

Camera quality is very good. Set up was easy. Works with my Google home and my Alexa system. I especially like that I can use a MicroSD card. I have a new puppy and I like having this so that I can watch her when I have to leave her alone for short periods.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ = Wow. I love it.⭐⭐⭐⭐ = Hey, this is pretty great.⭐⭐⭐ = Meh. It’s okay but I don’t love it. Someone might like it.⭐⭐ = Not great. Best to avoid.⭐ = Nope. This is bad.**All opinions are my own and authentic, and written by me.**