The Presence Sensor FP1E uses millimetre wave (mmWave) technology to detect even slight human movements, enabling precise presence detection for various home automation scenarios. It can detect presence up to 6m/19ft away and monitor a room of up to 50 sq m/538 sq ft when ceiling mounted. Unlike PIR motion sensors, the FP1E detects human presence even when the person is sitting or lying still. It can quickly recognise when a person leaves a room and trigger automation to turn off lights and air conditioning, reducing energy loss.

The FP1E complements the more versatile Presence Sensor FP2 (review HERE, video HERE) and is streamlined for user-friendliness, ideal for those seeking a precise occupancy detection solution without advanced features like zone positioning. The FP1E uses AI algorithms to distinguish between relevant movements and false triggers, eliminating the need for additional setup. It filters out small pets and interference from mirrors, metals, curtains, and ACs, while its sensitivity is self-adaptive. The sensor’s AI learning capabilities improve detection accuracy by adapting to the user’s home environment over time.

Aqara Home users can use the FP1E to detect human movement or stillness, unlocking various automation possibilities based on movement status and duration. For example, if the sensor detects a person remaining still for over 30 minutes, it can send notifications or change the colour of smart lights as a reminder to stand up. This feature aims to promote healthier routines and reduce sedentary behaviour.

The FP1E is powered by a 5V1A supply (USB power brick not included) and comes with a magnetic and adhesive-backed bracket for easy installation on walls, ceilings, or corners.

The Presence Sensor FP1E is available in Aqara’s Amazon stores in North America (US, Canada), Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, UK), and Asia (Japan), as well as from select Aqara retailers worldwide, and for a limited time you can get 20% off the list price using the following codes on Amazon stores – UK/EU – FP1EEU20 | US/CA – FP1ENA20

You can read our full written review below;

Aqara Presence Sensor FP1E (review)

The post Aqara Launches New Presence Sensor FP1E appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

(mmWave) sensing is a non-contact system of using mmWave radar sensors to measure movement, acceleration, and angles as small as a fraction of a millimeter. This system requires a mmWave radar sensor to transmit and receive pulses of millimetre electromagnetic wave energy, detecting targets and motion from the reflections it receives back.

So as you can see, simply shallow breathing will be enough to let a Presence Sensor know you’re still there, and not leave you in the dark – literally. today’s product review is for the Aqara FP1E, which can both be considered the successor to the FP1, which was only released in China, and a scaled back version of the Aqara FP2 (review HERE, video HERE).

If you’re keen to know how it performs, and how it differs from the other two Presence Sensors just mentioned, read on…

PACKAGING | CONTENTS

Aqara’s packaging is fairly standardised now, with the product front and centre, a sort of ‘disclaimer’ below, and logos for compatible ecosystems. this is where some Apple Home users might be confused, as the ‘Works With Apple Home’ logo is not present alongside the Alexa and Google logos. That’s due to the FP1E using Zigbee 3.0, which in turn means it would require an Aqara hub, which is point of entry to Apple Home. I have to assume that Alexa or Google are a bit more easy going about their logos being on the box than Apple, as the disclaimer text does state “To connect to third-party ecosystems such as Apple Home, Amazon Alexa and Google Home, an Aqara Zigbee 3.0 hub is required”. So don’t panic, it definitely works with Apple Home – as long as you have one of their Zigbee 3.0 hubs.

The rear of the box is a little more technical, showing the sensor’s radar detection range, whilst the sides offer up features and specs;

Features

• Accurate presence detection
• Active spatial learning
• Hassle-free setup for all
• Versatile mounting options

Specs

• Model: PS-S03E
• Ports: USB-A
• Input power: 5V 1A
• Wireless protocol: Zigbee (3.0)
• Dimensions: 57 x 50 x 37mm
• Operating temperature: -10~40ºC | 14~104ºF
• Operating humidity: 0~95% RH, no condensation

Inside the box you get the FP1E of course, a metal plate with two holes for fixing it to a wall using screws, a matching double sided adhesive patch, and the manual in multiple languages. Both the metal mounting plate and the base of the FP1E’s stand are magnetic, so once you’ve mounted the plate the FP1E will cling to it very well. If you’ve ever used the G2H or G2H Pro, you’ll be able to attest to the magnet’s strength at holding fast. THere’s no power brick, as you may have come to expect these days.

The FP1E uses the now tried and tested stand you find in products going way back to the days when early Xiaomi cameras came out – you know, the ones that were released years before Wyze used the same camera design and repackaged it…

This stand is still in use with the Aqara camera Hub G2H Pro, and the cameras that preceded it – the G2, and the G2H – so it’s clearly a good design, and offers versatility for the placement of the FP1E at many different angles. Along with the option to angle it in the vertical plane, it can also be rotated, making it really exceptionally handy. The underside has a simple but easy to press reset button.

Unlike its big brother, the FP2, the power cable is fixed to the device, and as such can’t be replaced for another cable. The cable it comes with is probably more than long enough for most use cases, coming in at a bit under 2 metres.

If you’re an owner of the FP1 (I have three here myself), then you’ll immediately know the design has not changed at all with the introduction of the FP1E. It differs from the FP2 visually, but also in terms of functionally too though, which I’ll get to shortly. It has improvements over the original FP1 too, although perhaps less perceptible.

IN AQARA HOME

Compared to both the FP1 and the FP2, the FP1E is a lot more streamlined, both in terms of the options within the app, and in terms of functionality. Whilst the FP2 offered an array of functionality, including creating a detailed map of your room or living area, along with icons for furniture etc, the FP1E has none of that, and in some ways is better for it. Also unlike the FP2, which offered up to 30 separate zones – all exposed to Apple Home, I might add – the FP1E simply covers one area, which can be adjusted.

The main page for the device is quite simple, with three main accessible options shown. The first of these is a log of presence and absence events. It’s very simply laid out, and as such is easy to understand. The Detection radius setting is really simple to use, and a lot more intuitive than was offered by the FP1, which had a screen that represented your room/area, like the FP2. However, the UI for the FP1 was really difficult to get a grasp on, as through trial and error you had to work out the edges of its detection range. This for me involved standing in four corners of the living room, to check whether I was within range or out of range of the sensor, then adjust the map boundaries accordingly. It was pretty tedious, if I’m honest.

The FP1E does away with that, and just has  slider that represents the complete detection range, from zero to six metres. When you’re in the sensor’s range, a little icon would appear above the slider to show where you are in relation to the sensor, and therefore allow you to adjust the sensors detection range. This means if you wanted it to only detect presence within two metres of the sensor, even if the room was  four metres deep, then this allows for that. Of course, it’s not as detailed as the FP2 with its 30 zones, but for some people and some use cases, this simple setup is exactly what’s needed, and no more.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been testing it in a few locations, but primarily in the bathroom. The reason for testing it here is that the bathroom offers the perfect circumstances for testing how well it adheres to the limits set for its detection range. when going from the living room to the other bedrooms, we would pass by the open sliding door of this bathroom, and so for a standard motion sensor, there’s going to be the strong chance that it would pick up motion even when you’re not actually in the bathroom, merely passing by.

Not so with the FP1E! Before anything else, you should set the device up, then clear the area of any type of moving object, be that a person, a pet or a fan. Then with the help of AI, the FP1E will build up an image of the area in question as a starting point. It only take around 20 seconds to do this. after that’s done, you can go into the Detection Range Settings page, and set up the limits for the sensor.

As you can see from the last two screenshots above, I’ve set it so that anything outside of the bathroom is set so that it won’t trigger anything based on presence, even though it clearly can detect when I’m outside of the range I set it at. This has worked incredibly well, and I can stand right outside the door to the bathroom without triggering the automation I set up for it, which incidentally turns on the Aqara wall switch controlling the bathroom lights.

IN APPLE HOME

There’s not much to report on with the Apple Home side of things, so in essence, if you’re going to use the FP1E in Apple Home automations, it’ll act like any motion or presence sensor to trigger other devices, depending on the detection of presence or absence. It’ll still abide by the detection limits you set in the Aqara app, however.

One thing the FP1E lacks versus the FP1 is that the latter does offer both presence and motion detection. Motion detection is almost on a par with a standard Zigbee motion sensor in terms of speed, which is quicker than a presence sensor for initial motion detection. You can see the two separate sensors listed here in the Eve app, with the FP1E only showing presence as an option. The FP1E doesn’t have such an option, however, whilst presence detection still isn’t as fast to react compared to a PIR sensor, it’s a massive improvement over the speed of presence detection with the original FP1. In most cases I may end up using a standard PIR sensor in combination with the FP1E, unless response time isn’t a top priority.

Ultimately, the options in Aqara Home are superior, as long as the automation is working with other Aqara devices of course. There are options for presence and absence, but also ‘presence for’, ‘Absence for’, ‘Moving’, ‘Still’, ‘Moving for’, and ‘Still for’. Additionally, you can even trigger a couple of options with the FP1E, which you don’t normally see. So, you can, for example, use an Aqara smart button to trigger the FP1E to relearn its Spatial Learning, thereby resetting the absence status, or you can even restart the device. That’s impressive.

THE FP1E IN USE

As previously mentioned, I have three FP1s, two of which are in use. Both are used in small spaces, like our en-suite bathroom (not the one used in the tests), and our entrance area. I never reviewed the FP1 for two reasons; I found the device hard to set up to my liking, and found it inaccurate some of the time, especially for larger areas. I also didn’t review it because it was only available in China, and didn’t want overseas readers buying one off the back of my review, despite it being a largely negative review if I’d written it. With the FP1E, things have changed considerably, and I’m glad that Aqara saw fit to release this internationally, as it does the job well. Yes, it’s not as comprehensive as the FP2, but for use in a bathroom or kitchen, where you may not require the zones feature offered by the FP2, this does a great job. It’s way more easy to set up than either the FP2 or the FP1, and on that basis it works as well as I could have hoped for. I’m also glad they stuck with Zigbee for this device as opposed to WiFi as is found in the FP2, or Matter over Thread for some of the company’s newer devices. Not that I don’t like Matter or Thread, but I know where I stand with Zigbee, and it rarely lets me down, which is of paramount importance to me, and I should imagine to other users too.

If I were to find any negatives, it would be the fact the power cable is permanently fixed into the sensor, but I guess Aqara decided to stick with the design they already had in the FP1 and just upgrade the internals, which definitely seems to be the case in my experience. Other than that, its highly recommended.

The post Aqara Presence Sensor FP1E (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGING | CONTENTS

The front of the box features both the lock and keypad, and depending on the option you purchased, you’ll see either the silver or space grey model. I’m told there’s a white model, but have yet to see anyone with it. When it comes to the front, they really pushed the boat out when it comes to letting you know just how compatible this lock is;

• support for Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, and Google Home
• Offers Matter and Thread support (Matter over Thread, essentially)
• It doesn’t mention Apple HomeKey on the front, but then only Apple Home users get to use this, so…

The back of the box has the standard blurb, but it also outlines the type of locks the U200 works with. Bear in mind this is a retrofit lock, so for both deadbolts and eurocylinder locks, you get to keep your original lock. If you have locks other than these two basic types, the U200 is not guaranteed to work with it, but to be sure you can visit the company’s website to do a compatibility check to be certain. I’ve fitted the U200 to a deadbolt lock on one of our internal locks, so I guess this is probably the easiest of all the installations (that makes a change…).

The box lists some of the features;

• Matter over Thread support, which will no doubt please the more keen early adopters
• NFC support by using either Aqara’s own NFC fobs, or certain types of NFC cards
• Apple HomeKey support
• Quiet unlock mode
• The option to power the keypad with batteries or ‘wire-powerd’ [sic]
• Other unlock methods, including your own key of course
• And the fact that it works with your existing lock

The other side features the specs, which I’ll also list;

• Model: EL-D02E
• Wireless Protocols: Thread, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC
• Door Lock Dimensions: 62.3 x 60.6 x 152.5 mm (2.4 x 2.4 x 6 in.)
• Keypad Dimensions: 42.7 x 33 x 146 mm (1.7 x 1.3 x 5.7 in.)
• Powering Modes:
  • Door Lock: Aqara Rechargeable Li-ion Battery 7.4V
  • Keypad: 4 x LR3 AAA 1.5V Batteries
  • 12V-24V AC 0.5A 50/60Hz or 12V-24V DC 0.5A wired input
• Operating Temperature: -15 °C ~ 66 °C (5 °F ~ 150.8 °F)
• Operating Humidity: 0 ~ 93% RH, no condensation
• IP Rating (Keypad): IPX5

As you can see, you still get Bluetooth as an option, which means you can create a direct connection between your phone and the lock (actually the keypad), which is still something we’re unable to do via Thread, even with Thread built into the later iPhones.

So, there’s a ton of contents in the U200 box, to say the least.

• Smart Lock U200 × 1 (incl. keypad)
• User Manual × 1
• Aqara Rechargeable Battery × 1
• Cylinder Adaptor Kit × 1
• Hexagon Screwdriver × 1
• USB-C Cable × 1
• AAA Battery × 4
• 3M Sticker × 1
• EVA Pad Kit × 1
• Screw Kit × 1
• Power Bank Pouch × 1

If like me you’re adding this to a US style deadbolt lock, you won’t be needing the 3M sticky pads.

THE LOCK | KEYPAD

Unlike many locks with keypads, the U200 comes with its own keypad as standard, and isn’t an optional extra. The two are pre-paired at the factory, so if for any reason one of the two parts gets damaged, you can’t just replace it, so the lock and keypad would have to be replaced in total. That would normally make you understandably think twice about the purchase, given that an optional keypad would be preferable, but as it stands, none of the keypads you can buy as an optional extra come with Apple HomeKey included. Some have a fingerprint reader, which is probably just as good in most cases, but once again Aqara tops most other options with an included NFC reader too. The SwitchBot Lock Pro also offers both a fingerprint reader and NFC, but no Apple HomeKey support, but it does require their own hub due to it using Bluetooth, whereas with the U200, it’ll connect to an existing Thread network via Matter, so no hub required unless you plan on using it in the Aqara ecosystem, in which case the Aqara Hub M3 will be the device to provide Matter and Thread support. You don’t actually need the Aqara M3 to use the U200, as it’ll connect to the Aqara app via you phone using Bluetooth. If you want to make use of automations within the Aqara app, you will need the M3.

I can only speak from the perspective of fitting it to a deadbolt door, but it was very easy to install. I have had experience in fitting other retrofit locks though – having installed the Nuki Lock 2.0, August Pro, and the previously mentioned SwitchBot Lock Pro, so maybe I’ve had a bit more practice, but it is actually pretty straightforward. Deciding where to place the keypad is probably more tricky, but only because you need to ensure that the location you place it is going to be easily accessible for NFC, hands (with the keypad), but especially iPhone and Apple Watch. Having it in a location that makes you contort your wrist to use HomeKey on your watch or your phone is not going to be much fun.

Focussing briefly on the lock portion, removing the cover plate reveals a few things; first of all this is home to a rechargeable battery, so you don’t have the option to use standard disposable or rechargeable batteries. That’s ok, as long as the cost of a replacement battery is reasonable, and possibly more importantly, is readily available. So far, I’ve not seen any mention of replacements, but I’m sure that’ll come in due course. The battery clicks into place quite easily, and comes with a little tab to pull it out, so no complaints there. As it’s rechargeable, there’s a USB-C port at the top (or bottom, depending on how you’ve installed it), so in essence, you don’t even need to remove the battery to recharge it, as long as you’re a bit creative. There’s also an LED indicator that briefly flashes when the lock is activated in any way.

As this is a full-on Matter device, you don’t get a QR code for HomeKit, only a Matter QR code. This is going to be something we’re already seeing more of, but to HomeKit users it generally makes little difference – you scan the Matter code to add the device to Apple Home in the same way you’ve always done. There’s also a QR code for the Aqara ecosystem, which you may or may not need to scan, as once powered up, the lock should be sending out a Bluetooth signal allowing it to be discovered. If not, you can use the QR code. Below (or above) these codes are two buttons – Reset and Set – both of which are pretty self explanatory, although maybe less so for the set button. With the lock set up, you tend to need the Set button to add it to other ecosystems.

IN AQARA HOME

The main screen isn’t dissimilar to the screens for Aqara’s other locks, with user management, passcode and log options. Even though the lock uses Thread, Bluetooth is still available, which – as I’ve previously stated – means you don’t actually need the M3, or any other Aqara hub, to use the U200. As you can see from the second screenshot, I’m not connected to the M3, and I’m still able to access functions and settings for the lock, as long as I’m within Bluetooth range. For some reason, however, even if you’re connected to the lock via the M3, accessing most functions for the lock does require you to activate the keypad first, which would be achieved by pressing any button on the keypad. This means accessing most features can’t be done remotely.

When it comes to users, just as with the other Aqara locks, it’s broken down into three basic categories (not including users of one-time passcodes);

• Admin – this gives the user access to all lock settings, as well as locking or unlocking using all the available methods
• General – much like the Admin option, this allows the user to use all the available lock/unlock methods.
• Temporary user – This allows the user to access the lock only using a passcode. Additionally, you can limit access between specific dates, or certain days of the week and between certain times.

The one-time passcode option can generate a one-off passcode that can only be used one, and will expire after a set date. This also doesn’t require you to activate the lock, unlike the other options.

Both Admin and general users can access the lock using a registered fingerprint, passcode, with an NFC card, or with Apple HomeKey (Via Apple Home), if they have a suitable iPhone. There are no restrictions to the user in terms of dates, days, or times. Periodic/temporary users can be restricted by date – so you can allow access between specific dates, but you can also customise this access to only work on specific days of the week, and even between certain times of the day. If you’re worried you’re going to come up with an easily guessed passcode, the Aqara app can generate one randomly for you.

As with all Aqara locks I’ve reviewed so far – A100 Zigbee, U100, U500, the U200 has so many options I’m just not going to go into detail on each one. A possibly useful one for people who rent out their properties on a regular basis, the Door Lock Log is quite useful for keeping track of all comings and goings, as well as alerting you to other issues.

As for the long list of features, there are options for controlling the audio that comes from the lock, there’s auto lock, although in my testing I couldn’t get it to work consistently. There’s an option to lock the keypad if repeated failed passcodes have been attempted to be used. Night latch mode allows you to only allow for certain types of access to be used between specified times, and Auto-Turn is a good option for people with potential disabilities or issues with the strength in their hands. This allows the thumb turn on the lock to be turned just a little way, with the U200 completing the rest of the locking/unlocking action for you. If you turn the lock a little way, slowly, the deadbolt will lock/unlock slowly in kind. Turn it a little way more briskly, and it’ll respond with a fast lock/unlock. It may seem a bit strange to offer this, but it does work. I just wonder if a small button might have been better though.

The lock also has Quiet mode, which allows the U200 to lock much quieter and slower. In fact there are three speeds available, quiet, normal, and fast, with the latter being the default. To achieve this mode, you simply need to press the Confirm button (the one with a ‘tick’ icon) followed by the lock or unlock method you choose, and it’ll duly open in the slowest mode. You can also set the lock to perform and any of the three speeds on a schedule, which is great if you have a family member that regularly arrives home late, which means they’re less likely to wake other members of the family.

The lock also offers the following modes – Do Not Disturb and Passage, with the latter ensuring that the U200 stays unlocked for those times when you need the lock to be accessible for when people are constantly going in or out of the house.

IN APPLE HOME

You’ll not be surprised to see the U200 offers much the same level of detail as most locks. You get the one tile, and a toggle control beyond that. For the settings panel, you get to see the battery levels, but only for the lock itself, not the keypad. This is because it’s the lock that connects to your Apple Home via Thread, with the keypad connecting to the lock using Bluetooth.

If you prefer not to use the Aqara app for user management, you can still use both Apple HomeKey and passcodes, with the latter option using the ‘Manage Access’ feature, which allows you to create or generate passcodes directly within Apple Home. Manage Access doesn’t give you the range of customisation options you find in the Aqara app, so you can’t restrict the user to a start and end date, certain days or times. You can only give them access, turn access off, or remove it totally. What you do get is the option to allow the same passcode to be used with other locks in Apple Home, as long as those locks also support the Manage Access feature. If you look in the second screenshot, you can see both the U200 and U50 are present as options, but my now ageing August Lock is not present, as is the case with Aqara A100 Zigbee, neither of which has this option. You can then share the passcode in a variety of ways – AirDrop, Email, Messages, Notes, and much more.

IN DAY-TO-DAY USE

This is a tricky one to conclusively talk about, as I only have one front door, which is already being taken care of by the Aqara A100 Zigbee (review HERE, video HERE), so I’ve had to confine my testing to a bedroom door – hey we live in an apartment! This also means I’ve been unable to test the keypad with the outdoor elements. That said, in all the testing, which so far covered maybe just a tad under two months, I’ve been impressed by a few things. First of all, the response time between a fingerprint being pressed onto the sensor and the lock opening, is exceptionally  fast. This had been my experience with the A100 and U100 locks, but the keypad is hardwired into these locks, so you should expect nothing less. With the keypad not physically connected to the lock, only utilising Bluetooth, you’d rightly expect there to be a delay, at least initially. This simply isn’t the case, with response times being astonishingly fast.

All of the lock options – fingerprint, NFC, and Apple HomeKey – are as fast to respond, with only the keypad being slower due to having to tap in a passcode. I think aside from being able to offer HomeKey via wireless keypad, which I honestly had my doubts would actually come to pass, the reaction times really do put many other locks to shame when you compare like with like.

One downside is the fact you currently need to be with the keypad and have it activated in order to access nearly all the settings. Hopefully Aqara can address this. The other more minor downside is regarding issues I had with connecting it to the M3. When I first set it up, everything worked well in both Aqara and Apple Home. As I’m meant to be actually testing the device, I did remove and reinstall the U200 a few times, and this is where I encountered issues. The second installation went through, but on this occasion Apple HomeKey was added, but wouldn’t actually work. A third installation fixed this, but then I couldn’t bind it to the M3, which is the state we’re at currently. I did have separate issues with the M3, which I detailed in my review, so as it stands, the U200 is mostly used in Apple Home, with Aqara Home only used to change settings.

Build quality is of the usual Aqara standard, which can vary depending on some devices. For example, the Aqara A100 I have here is built like a tank, due to the two parts being mostly made of heavy, durable metal and glass. The U200 isn’t as ‘tank-like’ as this due to the keypad and lock bodies being made of plastic. They still feel well made and put together though, and don’t creak at the seams, or offer gaps where there shouldn’t be any.

I think the one thing that makes this lock stand out from other retrofit locks is that it can work with both European and North American style locks. The SwitchBot Lock Pro can too, but you have to have a separate model for this, whereas the U200 does everything with the one model. The Nuki only works with European locks, and the likes of August, as one example, are only meant for deadbolts, so the U200 is truly on its own in this respect.

If I were to offer a suggestion, it would be that if you want to replace a dumb deadbolt lock, you may want to consider the U100 or U100, as they have it all in one package. If, on the other hand, you’re renting, and aren’t allowed to simply replace the whole lock, then the U200 is best for the least intrusive option of the two. It goes without saying that for European users, this is probably the best option right now, and I say that having used locks by Nuki and SwitchBot.

The post Aqara Smart Lock U200 (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

The big difference from the aforementioned V1 switches from these newly announced models is clearly down to the round display, and rotary dial. It would appear based on the previous promo video for the dial that came out around a year ago, there have been some minor design changes, mostly to the dial itself.

The main controller is described as an ‘infinite dial’, meaning it doesn’t have any start or end point, and just turns continuously turns 360º and beyond (is that possible…?). This is useful in a few ways, as whilst the V1 is at its core replacing two standard light switches, it also offers 6 wireless buttons, much like the Aqara Magic Switch S1E (review HERE, video HERE). Beyond that, it can also control other Aqara devices in your home, like light strips, ceiling lights, AC controllers, and more.

Due to this expansive level of control, the screen – which measures 1.32 in wide and high – can display all manner of icons to represent whatever it has been programmed to control, with up to 17 separate screens available. This also includes specific themes of skins for these controls. There’s a screensaver which can also be customised to show things like weather, the time, or both, in a variety of ways.

When it comes to the special features, like the other V1 switches, the Control Knob V1 has a built-in mmWave sensor to detect when someone comes towards or walks away from the switch, with the possibility to detect if someone is even in the room the switch is located in, although that would depend on its location of course.

Interestingly, the switch also contains both temperature and humidity sensors, as well as an optical angle sensor that can adjust its display depending on the angle of the person is at, in relation to the switch.

One option that may appeal to some is that this switch doesn’t require a hub, instead opting for WiFi. It can connect on either a 2.4 or 5.0GHz band, and also includes Bluetooth, which we suspect is for use with Matter at a later date. Regardless of whether Matter arrives for this device, they do work with Apple Home directly.

As this is only going to be available in China – currently listed at around the equivalent of US$138 – it may be of little interest to our international readers, but it does show that Aqara is continuously working on products – at a staggering pace, no less. Let’s hope products like these eventually come to Europe and the US, but don’t hold your breath…

Thanks to Eric Yao for the tipoff.

The post New Aqara Rotary Display Controllers Released in China appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGING

The packaging is the first thing to grab you, with badges for both Thread and Matter, which whilst not a ‘first’ for Aqara (their Contact Sensor P2 has that  honour), it’s certainly their first hub to boast such credentials. The back is all about the specs, which are admittedly pretty impressive;

• Wired or wireless connection
• 2.4 & 5.0GHz WiFi a/b/g/n/ac
• Zigbee 3.0
• Bluetooth 5.1
• built-in IR transceiver
• 95dB loudspeaker
• Power over Ethernet
• USB-C power port

As for the features, it’s a Matter controller for the Aqara ecosystem, which means their platform is moving towards being a viable competitor to others. It has a lot of catching up to do if we’re talking more than just with Matter accessories. By that, I mean third-party device is supported, but only for Matter devices.

It’s also a Thread Border Router, which means Matter over Thread devices can work natively in the Aqara app. Note that HomeKit over Thread devices are excluded, so they have to be Matter over Thread.

It also mentions something called ‘Edge’ computing, which offers local encrypted control, with no requirement for cloud connectivity, amongst other things. The M3 can also make automations that were cloud-based on other hubs in your Aqara setup, local.

So, this all sounds great, and it is for existing Aqara users at a minimum; You’re getting a Zigbee 3.0 hub, a Thread Border Router to finally use your Aqara Matter over Thread devices (all two of them…), and an IR blaster that can control your AC, as well as expose it to Apple Home, and a much louder speaker than you get on either the M2 or the M1/M1S.

Even though it’s Matter compatible as a Matter bridge for their Zigbee devices, it can also work with Apple Home, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa using what I describe as the legacy methods. For Apple Home there’s not much difference between adding the M3 using Matter or HomeKit, but for Google and Alexa users, local control instead of a cloud-based approach is the enticement here.

CONTENTS

The contents are minimal, but not unexpected. Aside from the M3, there’s a manual that comes with QR codes for Matter, Apple Home, and Aqara. You’ll initially need the Aqara QR code, but assuming you add it to HomeKit via Matter afterwards via the Aqara app, you won’t need the Matter code. You’ll still need the HomeKit QR code if you go down the HomeKit route, which may be for good reason, for which I’ll go into later.

You get a USB-C to USB-A power cable, but no power brick, which is the standard these days. There’s also no ethernet cable. You do get a mounting bracket, with included screws and rawl plugs though. This allows the M3 to be ceiling or wall mounted if required.

THE HUB M3

Like the M2 before it, the M3 uses the same textured plastic on top that isn’t entirely resistant to fingerprints, but it’s not something you’ll really need to handle often I guess. the edge of the M3 has translucent plastic for the ‘360º’ IR blaster to do its thing. The back of the M3 has a pairing/reset button flanked by Aqara and HomeKit QR codes. There’s no Matter code on the box, but in addition to finding it on the manual, it’s stored in the Aqara app. The underside of the M3 has a rubber base to stop it from sliding around, as well as holes for the aforementioned mounting bracket to click into place.

The underside also features a large cut-out ‘trench’ for allowing the ethernet and USB-C cables to connect. If you have a router or network switch capable of offering Power over Ethernet (PoE), you can dispense with the USB-C cable and simply power the M3 and connect it to your router with the one ethernet cable.

THE M3 IN AQARA HOME

The process of adding the M3 to Aqara Home – which I’d recommend doing first – is pretty straightforward; once it’s powered up, you go into the Aqara app and select ‘Add Accessory’ although it may also pop up on the screen before you even get there. This is in part due to Aqara’s own ‘EasyPair’ setup feature first seen in the Aqara Camera E1. Bluetooth in the hub transmits a signal that the Aqara ecosystem picks up via your phone, allowing you to begin pairing it. Even though it comes with a Matter QR code, you don’t need it, but instead you use the Aqara QR code. The former is used for adding it to other ecosystems, although when adding it to Apple Home (via the Aqara app), for example, you still won’t need to scan that code.

Once added, you can begin the process of adding it to other ecosystems. For Apple Home users, you get two options – add using Apple HomeKit, or add using Matter. Making this choice depends on what you want from the M3, as each option gives something but takes another thing away.

• MatterAdd using Matter allows you to expose the AC control option to Apple Home as a fully fledged AC controller.
  • If you have any Aqara lighting products that use Apple’s Adaptive Lighting, you’ll lose this functionality if the lighting is connected to the M3.
  • You lose the option to have the M3 act as a security system in Apple Home.
• Apple HomeAdd using HomeKit allows you to expose the security system to Apple Home.
  • Lighting products capable of using Adaptive lighting, retain this feature when connected to Apple Home.
  • You lose the option to have the M3 act as an AC controller in Apple Home.

So the choice is yours. You could actually add the M3 using both Matter and HomeKit, giving you AC control, the security system, and Adaptive Lighting, but you’ll have two instances of each Zigbee device connected to the M3, which could cause problems, or confusion at the very least.

The M3 offers a lot of features and options you would previously have not seen with their other hubs. For example, there’s a section to describe the function of the M3 as the lead hub in a ‘cluster’. This is in part the way that the M3, which has more onboard memory, can make scenes and automations local, even if they originate on another hub. This also includes devices that are not technically hubs themselves, like the Camera E1, the Presence Sensor FP2, and the Video Doorbell G4.

One thing to note is that whilst the integrated speaker is a lot louder than that of the M2, it still won’t replace a professional alarm siren, but at least for notifications etc, you can actually hear without straining now.

There’s a separate section that allows you to add the M3 to other platforms, check what platforms its connected to, and manage those connections. It lists Apple Home, as I added the M3 to HomeKit using Matter. Apple Keychain stores the basic data for that hub in relation to its Matter connection.

AC control in the Aqara app offers pretty much all the control you need, although it could depend on the capabilities of your AC too as to what options you get. Via Matter the AC control is exposed to HomeKit, although you only get the basic controls – off/heat/cool, and temperature control. In order for you to get more fuller features over the AC, you do need to add an Aqara temperature sensor to the M3, which in turn can be linked to as a climate sensor for the AC control. This then shows you the temperature as part of the AC control in both Apple and Aqara Home. Without it, the temperature will show the default zero degrees. You can’t use a temperature sensor connected to another Aqara hub, even if on the same account and WiFi network.

As the M3 has an IR blaster, it can control other devices besides the AC, although unlike products like the Switchbot Hub 2 (review, video), or the Nature Remo Nano (review, video), which can expose other IR controlled devices to HomeKit, the M3 cannot. This may not be such a big deal for a couple of reasons; The first is that although the two aforementioned products can expose more IR devices, they only appear in HomeKit with basic on/off functionality, much like a smart plug, so for a TV remote, you can only turn it on or off. The other thing is that with Aqara having all the controls for other IR devices in its ecosystem, you can still create scenes to trigger certain aspects of that device, and export those scenes to HomeKit, which may actually be better in a round about way.

The M3 has a plethora of other settings, like custom ringtones, so you can upload your own sounds to the M3, for use in automations, as well as the hub offering four different language options (Chinese, French, Spanish, English).

Possibly the biggest change is that you can now migrate devices and automations on one hub, to an M3. This feature effectively factory resets the M3, moves the data from the old hub to the M3, then factory resets the original hub. This migration assistant only works in the Aqara app, so when it comes to the old hub in Apple home, it’ll still be listed, along with any child devices, it’ll show as offline, so you’ll have to remove this instance of the old hub from HomeKit. This option also means that you’re better off doing the migration from one hub to the M3 before you add any child devices to the M3, or for that matter (no pun intended) add the M3 to Apple Home.

THREAD, MATTER, ZIGBEE, BLUETOOTH – CONFUSED?

It’s already a thing that many are confused about the hub’s capabilities, what the different protocols are for, and what can be added. This wasn’t helped by the fact that Aqara released the M3 with very limited Matter support, which added up to just a handful of brands and devices being compatible at launch. This is not how Matter is supposed to be of course, and to their credit, they did fully unlock this feature, allowing all supported Matter device categories to be used with the M3. They still should have done this before releasing the M3 instead of retroactively responding to customer complaints, but it’s done now.

However, initially, this issue was further impacted by the fact that neither of the company’s own Matter over Thread devices could be added to the M3, which is a pretty bad self-own. Again, this was quickly rectified – partially – but still didn’t allow these devices (contact, and motion sensors) to be used as part of Aqara’s own security system, need I say how bad this looked? So for the third time, there was an update that remedied this final issue. It really shouldn’t have been this way, and somewhat tainted the launch in many peoples’ eyes.

So, aside from the missteps mentioned, what are all these protocols supposed to be for? Well, The M3 is many things, and in some way’s these roles are equals. First off, this is a Zigbee hub, just like the M2, so you can add Aqara Zigbee devices to it. It can then be exposed as a standard Zigbee hub to Apple Home using either the Matter or HomeKit QR codes. However, it’s also a Matter bridge, which is much the same thing; the difference is that it exposes those child devices to the four main platforms using Matter. This is different to HomeKit for the previously mentioned reasons, and when it comes to the other platforms, adding the hub via Matter circumvents the need for a cloud connection, which Google and Amazon have relied on – they basically connect to your account on the Aqara server, allowing that server to communicate your instructions to Amazon or Google’s own servers. Matter does away with this, and allows communication between the Aqara M3 (or other Matter enabled Aqara bridges) and your smart home platform, without the need to connect to your account in the cloud.

So, it’s a Zigbee hub/bridge/gateway, and it’s a Matter hub/bridge/gateway for Zigbee devices…

It’s also a Matter Controller. This means it acts as a central organising piece of kit that allows your Aqara smart home devices to run locally and effectively within the Aqara ecosystem. For example, the Apple TV, HomePod, and HomePod Mini are all Matter Controllers too, doing the same thing in Apple Home. Basically speaking, each platform requires its own Matter Controller, and the M3 is such a device for Aqara’s smart platform. Google’s Nest hubs, and Amazon’s own range of displays and speakers are all Matter Controllers for their respective ecosystems too.

Thread – yes, it’s a Thread device, but not like a Thread motion sensor, no. This is a Thread Border Router (TBR). This allows Aqara and third-party Matter over Thread devices to connect to the Aqara ecosystem. If it didn’t have the TBR inside, it could still act as a Matter Controller, but only for devices that connect through a Matter Bridge (like the Philips Hue Bridge, for example) or with Matter over WiFi devices. The older Apple TVs, and the original HomePod are such devices – Matter Controllers but without a TBR inside.

Bluetooth – This is included in part due to the way Matter works when a device is ready for adding to a Matter ecosystem. Bluetooth is the initial connection between the device, your phone, and the Matter ecosystem in question. Although it’s unlikely it’s used for much else, it could be used for some Aqara locks that use Bluetooth, but it’s not clear if that’s an option.

THIRD PARTY DEVICES

I already had an M3 from China back in January, and once the international version of the M3 arrived from Aqara for review, things had moved on. By that, I mean that I was now able to add the Hue Bridge to the Aqara ecosystem. How, you might ask. The Hue Bridge can now be added to Matter ecosystems by simply going into the Hue app, and generating a Matter code. You then add the bridge to Aqara’s own newly Matter-enabled ecosystem using that code and the Bridge and all its child devices are exposed to the Aqara ecosystem.

As you can see from the screenshots above, I’ve added a Hue Bridge to Aqara Home using this method. the Matter icon appears in the corner of the icon to show that it’s added using Matter. Due to the Hue Matter update, some other third-party Zigbee devices that could be added to the Hue Bridge, but not show up in Apple Home, can now be exposed to Apple Home because of this. The same is true for the Aqara ecosystem, which in my case shows a standard colour Hue bulb (LCT016) alongside a Tradfri bulb added to the Hue Bridge. This is an instance of Matter over Bridge, which is less talked about than Matter over WiFi or Matter over Thread, but is equally useful.

As it stands now, pretty much all Matter devices should be able to be added to the Aqara app if you have the M3. There’s a caveat here in that Aqara themselves have said many devices from third parties haven’t been tested, so there’s the possibility some won’t work as intended or even fail to add, so you’ll just have to try and see what happens.

The one question some people might ask is why would one want to expose devices to Aqara via Matter, if they already work with HomeKit. For me, the simple answer lies in Aqara’s automation options. In many ways, they’re so much better than what other platforms offer, but if you want specifics, it’s the way in which Aqara allows a lights to be turned on or off, with one automation. If that doesn’t make sense, in Apple Home for example, if you have a smart button controlling a smart bulb, you can set the button to turn the light on with a single press, but you don’t have an option for the bulb to be set at the opposite state to its present one. In essence, I want to be able to single press a button, and turn the bulb on or off with that single press, depending on the on/off state of the bulb. Yes, it’s possible by converting an automation to a Shortcut in the Apple Home app, but you shouldn’t have to make a convoluted IF/THEN automation when Aqara do it quite easily. Their app has an option that allows you to set a light to “on/off”, so you can rely on a single press on a smart button to to act just like a normal switch. This something I’ve longed for in Apple Home, but I just can see it ever happening. Now, as I have a collection of Hue bulbs and wireless buttons from Aqara, with the Hue Bridge in Aqara Home, I can achieve this. But I can also have those bulbs remain in Apple Home for other purposes, so it’s a win-win.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH IT?

When I originally set up my Chinese M3 back in late January, soon after, I noticed that some of my Thread devices became very sluggish to respond, and at different times went offline for a while, before coming back. This at first seemed to be limited to HomeKit over Thread devices, but then it started to manifest itself with Matter over Thread devices  too. The products that showed these kinds of odd behaviour were some of my Nanoleaf bulbs, Eve Energy smart plug, Wemo smart plug, and Wemo Stage Scene Controller. These are all HomeKit over Thread. Additionally, the Matter over Thread devices that acted up, were the Tuo Smart Button, and SmartWings Roller Blinds. After this began to get tedious, I assumed there was an issue with the Chinese model I had, and removed it, boxing it up for another day. Soon after I did so, everything behaved like it had before, with snappy response times, and no offline devices.

When the international model arrived, I set it up, and yet again the same issues came to the fore, with the same set of devices, so I now could see this wasn’t a fluke. I once again removed the newer M3, and as before, things became stable again. I have spoken to Aqara about this, and the majority of their beta testers hadn’t experienced any of these problems. That said, I’ve been contacted by maybe 5 or 6 people that have had the same issues, so it’s clearly not totally isolated.

just until a day ago, I was considering removing the M3 again and just making do with what I have for the sake of my sanity, however I seemed to have stumbled upon a fix of sorts. at first, my M3 was wired to an network switch that was connected to the router, which is when all the issues surfaced. I didn’t have any free ports on the router itself, but I did have an ethernet access point in another room, so connecting the M3 to this AP was essentially the same as connecting it directly to the router (as far as I can see). After testing this method out for a day, none of the sluggish response times and offline issues plaguing my Thread devices have returned, so I believe the M3 being connected to a network switch was the problem here, even if that shouldn’t be the case. Either way, I’m sticking with the M3 set up this way now, and will monitor the situation further.  With this frustration seemingly solved now, I can say the M3 is actually a very good product in many ways, and possibly their most forward thinking product to date. I hope at some point they find a solution so I can connect the M3 in a manner of my choosing, but for now I’ll just make do with what I have.

Wrapping things up, there’s a lot to like, and considering the issues I mention with the lack of Matter support are largely taken care of, and assuming most people won’t be experiencing the issues I had with a problematic Thread network, then I do think this is a worthy purchase. At the very least, you’re buying into a device that expands the Aqara app to include more third-party devices, adds AC control, has a louder speaker, and unlike the M2, offers 5.0GHz WiFi and PoE. If that’s enough to sway you, then go for it.

The post Aqara Hub M3 (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGING

The Motion and Light Sensor P2 (henceforth referred to the P2) follows on from the Door and Window Sensor P2, which was the first Matter over Thread device from Aqara, and although it’s the same design as Aqara’s Motion Sensor P1 with Zigbee, it’s not a replacement, as not everyone has, or wants, a Matter smart home, or has a Thread Border Router that’s required for a device such as the P2.

It’s quite clear from the front of the box that this is a Matter over Thread product, so you will need a Thread Border Router to get full usage out of it, and you’re required to have a Matter controller. Luckily for the majority of Apple Home users, the HomePod Mini, some of the later Apple TVs, and the second gen. HomePod all contain a Thread Border Router (TBR), as well as acting as Matter Controllers. Even most of the older Apple TVs and original HomePod are Matter Controllers, they just don’t have a TBRs, but without the latter, you’re going to have to make do with the device using Bluetooth, which I guarantee is not going to be fun.

Aside from the P2 using Matter over Thread, as opposed to Zigbee 3.0 in the P1, the former also finally exposes the built-in light sensor to Apple Home, which may or may not be of use to you. As it stands, it might not, which I’ll touch on later.

The packaging claims a long battery life due to the P2 using two CR2450 coin batteries, although some have reported less than stellar longitivety in this area when it came to the P1. It’s difficult for me to put this to the test unless you’re willing to come back to this review in a year or so, so hopefully the claim – as vague as it is – is accurate.

PACKAGE CONTENTS

CR2450 batteries are included in the P2, so you don’t have to go on the hunt for them. If you’ve only ever owned the original Aqara motion sensor, this clearly has a larger ‘chin’, which is due to the battery compartment having to contend with two large coin batteries. The manual comes with a Matter QR code, but of course no HomeKit code.

The Matter code is also printed on top of the P2 itself. A code of this type is a departure from the Zigbee models, as they weren’t technically compatible with any platform, because it’s the hub that both allows them to function, and expose them to ecosystems like Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home etc. Because of this Matter code, and the deployment of Thread, no Aqara hub is required – sort of – which I’ll touch on later as well.

The mount is included, as usual, and is pretty much the same as the original. Above the sensor is a small blue LED that acts as a signal for letting you know what’s going on during pairing, although it is also supposed to flash when it detects motion, which is optional, which lead us to the points I was promising to go into later; as the P2 is a Matter device, this means that at the time of this review, it can’t be added to the Aqara app. Why? Because the only Aqara hub that supports Matter devices – the Aqara Hub M3 – is not available internationally yet. It has been released in China, and I have one here, but the Aqara app doesn’t list the P2 as a device to be added. This is also currently the case with the Matter over Thread contact sensor. Because of that, it means some of the features and options you’d normally get with the P2 are not accessible. I’ll come back to this later, but for now let’s focus on the P2 in Apple Home.

ADDING THE P2 TO APPLE HOME

I haven’t posted the process of adding a device to the Home app for a while, but for the benefit of new users I’m doing it here;

• Tap on the plus icon and select Add Accessory
• Scan the QR code or enter the digits manually
• Select Add to Home once it discovers the device
• Wait for it to add the sensor

• Choose the room you want to place the sensor in
• Change the name of the device if required
• Change the names of the individual sensors if required

That’s it! The sensor is added, just like you would any Apple HomeKit compatible device.

Looking at settings for the individual sensors, you get battery levels and the relevant info for each. What you might notice is that the P2 is identified as an Occupancy Sensor, which isn’t quite right. This means it’ll be listed separately from any other motion sensors you might have in the same room. As you can see above, Motion Detection and Occupancy are shown as separate things. In practice this doesn’t make a lot of difference, but it’s worth noting.

As you can see from the three light sensors – one by Philips Hue, one by QingPing, and the Aqara P2 of course. Whilst the Hue and Aqara are fairly close, the Qing Ping is way out, which is something I mention in the review for their product, which is a Thread device but not Matter compatible. So I would say on balance, the light sensor in the P2 is fairly accurate. Note: The light sensors from all three were tested in my studio, not in the corridor, as I wanted to make sure they were all exposed to the same amount of light from the same position and angle.

THE MOTION SENSOR IN USE

I admit I was a little concerned that the P2 would suffer the same fate as the P1 did, which for many people had some sort of ‘blind spot’; If you passed by the sensor, it was almost always triggered, but if you stood in front of the P1, you could wave your arms around, jump up and down, and generally look like a lunatic, but it wouldn’t trigger. This has been reported many times both in customer reviews and on social media, whilst surprisingly, it has barely been mentioned in any of the YouTube video reviews on the P1 sensor.

I’m happy to report it does NOT seem to be suffering from this issue, and so far (I got it around the start of the year but didn’t start using it until February) it has triggered every single time. What a relief!

Now to the issue of it being unable to be added to the Aqara app. As already stated, at the time of this review, it can’t be added, and even though I tried adding it to the Aqara app using my M3, it simply wouldn’t take. I attempted this by putting it into pairing mode from the Apple Home app, and manually entering the generated Matter code in the Aqara app. It could be that my M3 is Chinese and the P2 is International, but that seems like an artificial block to me, as I’m sharing a Matter device from another ecosystem, as opposed to attempting to add it directly to the Aqara app. Either way, I didn’t succeed, which means that I can’t set the cooldown period for the sensor, which is currently stuck at sixty seconds. This also has a bearing on the light sensor, as this doesn’t seem to change until there has been a motion event, so without access to the settings it clearly must have, you’re currently stuck with the cooldown period it’s set at by default. The motion sensor does have three motion detection settings as well (high, medium, low), but without being able to access them in the Aqara app, you’re stuck with the medium sensitivity setting, which is set at a 5 metre distance (high is 7m, low is 3m).

The good news is that once you trigger the motion sensor, it doesn’t become blind to subsequent motion events during this period. So if you triggered the motion sensor, it would begin its 60 second countdown, but any further motion events within those 60 seconds would reset the countdown. For example, if I triggered the motion sensor, and it started its countdown, and I triggered it again 30 seconds later, the motion sensor would not reset until 90 seconds after the initial motion event. This is useful for certain situations where you might be still for a period, maybe when you’re on the loo, or your putting on your makeup, for example, where you’re not constantly in motion.

Currently there are only a couple of Matter over Thread motion sensors; Eve Motion is one, and another is by a company called Avatar Controls. Both QingPing and Onvis Make HomeKit over Thread motion sensors, with the latter having a nice feature you can read about in my separate reviews, so if you like Thread but aren’t too concerned about Matter these might be other options.

One thing I will say about Matter over Thread devices compared to any Zigbee equivalents is that there is still some proving to be done. By that I mean that almost all of my Zigbee devices have been rock solid, which is something I can’t always say with Thread devices – Matter or HomeKit. They’re close, but I do find that when a Thread device starts acting strange or goes unresponsive, it’s harder to pinpoint the problem than it is for a Zigbee device. I’m sure things will improve with time, and so far the P2 is carrying the flag for Matter over Thread due to its good behaviour, but when my International M3 eventually arrives for its review, I hope I can update this review to reflect the optional extras available via the Aqara Home app.

The post Aqara Motion and Light Sensor P2 (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGING | UNBOXING

It’s important to note early on, that the E1 differs from the G2H Pro and G3 in one significant way; it does not contain a Zigbee hub. This might seem odd to some, but many Aqara customers will almost certainly already have a hub, and if they’ve also purchased one of the aforementioned cameras, they have yet another hub. So whilst it might seem prudent to include one anyway, I think it’s safe to say that offering a camera without a hub, primarily to keep costs down, is a good move. If someone wanted a hub and camera to start things off, then the G2H Pro and the G3 are there for you.

The packaging, just like other recent products, features the camera on the front with both Apple Home and Amazon Alexa logos, and although the Google Home logo is missing, it should work on that platform too. Once Matter supports cameras, the packaging will no doubt be sporting that logo too. SmartThings is not mentioned as far as this camera goes.

One side lists five features or selling points of the camera, which strangely don’t set the E1 apart from, say, the G3, even though there are some to be talked about;

• 2K and Pan/tilt support
• Local automations
• HomeKit Secure Video
• Person detection and tracking
• Micro SD and NAS storage
• Night Vision

I have to take issue with the second point (local automations), as this does not seem to be the case, at least not 100% of the time, as I’ll show you later.

What is offered by the E1 is support for WiFi 6, and an included ceiling mount, neither of which is provided by the G3. Also note the Bluetooth logo, which is primarily used for a new feature from Aqara called EasyPair, which is supposed to make the process of adding the camera to your smart home easier (it didn’t in my case). I suspect this is also designed with Matter in mind in the future for commissioning.

The inside of the box also shows you how to mount the camera to a surface if you wish to do so, which is what I did in this case.

The package contains the camera itself, the aforementioned ceiling mount, a couple of screws and rawl plugs for the mount, a manual in a variety of languages, and a USB-A to USB-C cable. The cable itself isn’t especially long, so you may end up sourcing a longer one, like I did.

Visually, the E1 is quite similar to a lot of other cameras out there, many of which either come with the Xiaomi branding or work with the Xioami ecosystem, but then there are only so many ways to design a pan/tilt camera, so I won’t hold that against them. I still think the Eufy pan/tilt, which this is replacing, has the best design. Aside from the pan/tilt section at the top that houses the camera lens, a small microphone, and some seemingly invisible IR LEDs, you have a status LED on the base section. This can be disabled in the Aqara app if you prefer. Both sides of the base house speakers and either side of the rear section are QR codes. One is for Apple Home, while the other is used as part of Aqara’s EasyPair option.

On-device recordings to an SD card is an option – just like the G3 and the G2H/G2H Pro – that is installed via a slot below the camera lens. To access it, you have to slide the camera’s ‘eyeball’ up in order for you to see the SD card slot.

As you can see, the USB-C port on the back is also home to a small ‘Set’ reset button, although be warned that once the USB cable is plugged in, you’re going to struggle to press it with your finger, as there’s very little space. The tip of a pen might be easier, although Aqara states the camera can be reset directly from within the app, which is a new feature for their cameras. The underside of the E1 has four little rubber feet, along with slots that correspond with clips on the mounting plate.

It’s good to see a USB-C Cable used here, although that was already the case with the G3. Even though the G2H Pro came after the G3, Aqara stuck with Micro USB for that, as the design was exactly the same as its predecessors, the G2H and G2. I’m always surprised to see when companies still use Micro USB ports or cables in 2023, so I’m happy to see Aqara keep up its commitment to USB-C here. The USB cable comes with a tag containing a QR code for the digital manual, although as the tag is made of paper, it probably won’t last long.

The mounting plate is really easy to fit and in fact, offers two methods by which to fit it; There’s a central thread for mounting the camera to a threaded bolt that might be part of an existing mount (less common I’d say), or you can simply screw the mount to a ceiling via the two holes and provided screws. Luckily for me, the previously mentioned Eufy also uses a mounting plate, and although the design is totally different, the space between two holes is identical to the ones on the Aqara mounting plate, which made things a lot easier when swapping them out.

ADDING TO AQARA HOME | APPLE HOME

Generally speaking, it’s very easy to add a device to Aqara’s app, although the experience for most will be with adding child devices to an Aqara hub. Still, WiFi devices haven’t been an issue for me either, which is why in the case of adding the E1 things became unnecessarily complicated, in my opinion. You can select the device in question, but with Bluetooth 5.2 in the E1, it was automatically picked up by the app, so I went with it.

I followed the onscreen instructions, whereupon I was asked to add my WiFi details. This is where my less-than-stellar understanding of WiFi 6 came up unfortunately, as I conflated WiFi 6 with WiFi 6E, assuming the E1 would work with 6GHz. This is not the case, and even then I don’t have a router with WiFi 6 or 6E anyway, but also assumed that in the absence of either, it would use 5GHz. Unfortunately, it does not offer 5GHz, so this is still going to be a 2.4GHz camera for a lot of people, unlike the G3, which offers 2.4 & 5GHz.

I added my WiFi details upon which it generated a QR code for the E1 camera to scan (the QR code contains the WiFi credentials, but not in the case above – scan it if you want…). This method of adding the camera to your network is nothing new, and I personally find it a bit janky, for want of a better word. If the app has already connected to the camera via Bluetooth, why can’t it just pass those details to the camera without having to use the E1 to scan a code? It also got me wondering why there’s an Aqara QR code on the device if it’s picked up by Bluetooth anyway. All of this was pretty unclear to me.

I was able to get it to pair, and as you can see, it’s still using Bluetooth according to the screen above, which once again begs the question, why was scanning the QR code required? Anyway, it added, but more confusion arose…

Once added, it prompted me to connect the E1 to Apple Home, which was the plan of course. Once I tapped the ‘Connect’ button, it showed me a copy of the HomeKit QR code that exists on the camera itself, along with a claim stating the E1 was already connected to Apple Home, despite me not using the HomeKit QR code at all at this point. A quick but thorough check of the Home app showed it was NOT in fact added to Apple Home… As I said, overly complicated.

I reset the camera, added it directly to Apple Home, and then added it to Aqara, but at this point, it was not in (Bluetooth) pairing mode, so I did it manually, which used Bluetooth to connect it to the app. While this might have been a one-off occurrence, for people less savvy than someone like me who’s used to trying different ways and understanding what’s going on to a large extent, this could be why people end up sending stuff back for a refund. It shouldn’t be this complex.

IN APPLE HOME

Generally speaking, I like Apple Home’s implementation of cameras and their recordings, especially if they’re set to record using HomeKit Secure Video (HSV), but there are limits of course; The Home app and recordings still only record at 1080p. That’s fine for most people, as most cameras on the market still only record in 1080p, but as the E1 records in 2K, I’m hoping the day will come when Apple is able to up HSV and live streaming to 2K as well. The other issue is the lack of any pan/tilt controls. This might not have been an issue maybe 3 years ago, as there were no HomeKit-compatible cameras with this feature, but there must be around half a dozen by now, so this functionality is long overdue. Maybe when Matter implements camera functionality into its framework, we’ll see this option. For now, you still need to rely on the Aqara app in order to control the pan and tilt of the camera, although there are workarounds – to an extent.

As it stands, the E1 in Apple Home is much the same as any other compatible camera, so aside from the features available in HSV (animal, people, vehicle, and package detection, as well as face recognition), there’s nothing to distinguish it from other cameras. HomeKit does a ‘good’ job of evening out the playing field in this regard, so it’s down to the manufacturer to add extra features that are also exposed to HomeKit to make them stand out. Eve’s indoor cam has a proper PIR sensor, for example, and the Logitech Circle View has a light sensor. Where the E1 stands out is via what you get that’s accessible from the Aqara Home app.

IN AQARA HOME

From the main screen of Aqara Home, you can see the E1, although you would need to set it up for this initially. With the full-width panel for the camera, you can tap on the ‘play’ button and see the live stream without leaving the main page. This is one feature I’d like to see in Apple Home, instead of the snapshot every ten seconds. Going into the E1’s interface fully, you get initial access to the pan/tilt controls. The reaction times for the camera in relation to the control are delayed, which is frustrating, but is in my experience, the same for all pan/tilt cameras. The three tabs at the bottom offer access to the aforementioned pan/tilt controls, and the timeline, which you’ll only see if you have an SD card installed, or opt for one of Aqara’s paid plans. You can scroll through the recordings, and select the date, as well as zoom in for finer shuffling between recording instances. The other thing Aqara offers on all its cameras is that when using an installed SD card to record footage, you can record either only when motion (or a human) is detected, or simply set it to record continuously, although with the latter, if you want to keep your footage for an extended period of time, you should try and install the maximum size allowed – 512GB.

The ‘Advanced’ button gives you access to Human Tracking, which is simply activated or deactivated when pressing the icon. This is where the  E1 differs from the G3, which offers both human and pet tracking, as well as detection for both, although tracking can’t be active for both humans and pets simultaneously. The E1 only offers human tracking and human detection.

To the other side of the pan/tilt control, you also have a ‘Pre-defined Positions’ option, which in addition to having preset positions for the camera (leftmost, rightmost, uppermost etc) allows you to set your own positions, which can then be used in scenes and automations. So for example, in my case, I could have it so that if someone opens the door between certain hours of the day, the camera can pan to a specific position I’d set up to look in that area. I could even go further, with it doing a series of different functions, like returning to a previous position after a set amount of time or even playing a custom audio file to greet someone as they enter the home.

Because I’m using the Aqara A100 Zigbee Smart Lock, I could even have the E1 play specific audio depending on who uses their fingerprint, passcode or NFC card to enter the home, and even play a different custom audio file when people are leaving as opposed to arriving.

If you create an automation with the E1 as the trigger device, it’s limited to the following functions as triggers; Turns on, Turns off, Is on, Is off, Motion detected, Person detected. This is still not bad considering the Apple Home app doesn’t allow you to use cameras in automations as trigger devices beyond what is detected by the built-in motion sensor, whilst Aqara can trigger automations on the camera’s state and when a person is detected, not just when motion is detected.

The power of Aqara automations comes into its own when the E1 is used in the THEN section of an automation, with options to activate or deactivate pretty much all the features of the camera, from major things like enabling or disabling motion tracking, or privacy mode, to smaller details, like turning the status LED on/off, or even calibrating the pan/tilt feature.

This is one of the reasons why it’s great to have a series of devices in one category from Aqara, as the extensive array of automations that come into play is pretty impressive. However, there is something that does bother me, which I alluded to at the start regarding local automations; I’ve set up a few of them with the E1 since having it, and in all the automation instances, the app shows that the automations are ‘cloud-based’,  not local. This ordinarily shouldn’t matter, but if for any reason your access to the internet is cut, the automations won’t run, whereas they would if they were local. The issue here is that Aqara is claiming something that to me doesn’t appear to be the case. I’ll be asking my contact at Aqara about this in case there’s something I’m not doing right or an option isn’t enabled, but I’ve got plenty of automations within the Aqara app that do run locally, so it’s a mystery really.

The E1 isn’t short on options, which is something I’ve since come to expect from many of Aqara’s products, so on the main settings page, you have access to how the camera appears on its device card in the app, as well as its name. You can Factory Restore it directly within the app, there’s access to HomeKit, WiFi, Firmware and automation information, all from this one page.

Settings for the camera’s various functions are compartmentalised to make the E1’s features more accessible, with sections for the camera, pan/tilt, detection, security, and more. In the camera section, you can adjust a lot, with additional submenus for things like video settings, Privacy, language options, overall volume, as well as SD card recording options and even custom ringtones/audio, which is a feature first introduced with the M1S 2nd gen, and from there the G3, and G2H Pro. This allows you to upload your own recordings, which can then be used in scenes and automations. The E1 also gives you the option to set the power frequency to match the camera. So, if you live in places like North America, the electricity supply runs at 60Hz, whilst Europe uses 50Hz. Having the E1 set to 50Hz when you’re running on 60Hz, will likely cause your lights to show a strobing effect via the camera stream, so setting the right option here can avoid such issues.

PRIVACY

The E1 has a privacy function, although, unlike some pan/tilt cameras, the lens doesn’t roll the lens back into its housing. Instead, it turns the camera to face in the opposite way (usually a wall) to its normal position, but additionally, it turns off the built-in microphone for more complete privacy.

IN USE

In general, Aqara devices do the job they’re designed to do and do them well. The Aqara camera is no exception and has been a solid piece of equipment in the month or so that I’ve had it. It’s predictable but in a good way! The question as to whether Aqara needs another indoor camera is only something for those who already have the G2H/G2H Pro or the G3, as it’s always good to have a few options, of which all three have their strengths. It doesn’t have a hub built-in, but then I already have more Aqara hubs than I need, so this is a welcome change that also happens to bring the price down, whilst also offering some of the features of the G3 – 2K recording, Pan/Tilt to name but two. With WiFi 6, you’re going to get a more secure connection and hopefully better speed, as long as you have a WiFi 6 router of course.

The downsides for me are the lack of a 5GHz connection, and the automations not being local when they’re supposed to be. The latter is probably more important, so I hope this is addressed somehow.

All in all, this is solid, and I’d recommend it over the G2H Pro – if you don’t need an Aqara Zigbee hub – although if money isn’t a massive issue, I’d probably recommend the G3 more, simply because it has all the bells and whistles – IR blaster, 5GHz WiFi etc.

What’s really missing from the company’s lineup now is outdoor cameras, and if you’re reading this hoping for such a thing, you should be seeing a couple of options in 2024. Can’t say more for the time being though!

The post Aqara Camera E1 (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

NB: There’s an error of my own making in the video where I mistakenly conflate WiFi 6 with WiFi 6E, so Aqara Camera E1 is not able to use 5GHz WiFi, and does still use 2.4GHz WiFi. Apologies for any confusion.

You can purchase the Aqara Camera E1 from Amazon stores in your region using the (affiliate) links below, which cost you nothing extra but help us buy more products for review, to keep you informed on how products perform.

For a limited period, you can enjoy the Camera E1 at 20% off using the following codes;

***** US/CA – USE1CAMERA *****

***** EU/UK – CAMERAE1EU *****

• Amazon US
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The post Aqara Camera E1 (video) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGING | CONTENTS

Aqara continues the minimalist theme for their packaging, with the light strip on the front, and not a lot more. It notes that you do need a Zigbee 3.0 Aqara hub, as the strip uses Zigbee 3.0, which is absolutely fine by me right now. The rear makes a suggestion on how you could integrate the strip with other Aqara devices for using in automations too, which is something they’ve pushed for a while now.

The front edge panel features the specifications, which are;

• Model: LEDS-K01/LEDS-K02
• Rated Power: 5W/m (30 x 5050 LEDs (0.2W, RGB), 60 x 2835 LEDs (0. 2W)
• Input [LED Strip): 24VDC ≤0.25A/m
• Color Temperature: RGB+2700K-6500K
• Input (Power Supply): 100-240V-50/60Hz 1.2A Max
• Wireless Protocol: Zigbee
• Dimensions: 2000 x 12 x 2.8 mm
• Operating Temperature: -10°C ~ 40°C (14°F ~ 104°F)
• Operating Humidity: 0 – 95% RH, no condensation
• What is in the Box: Light Strip (2m) x 1, Power Adapter x 1, Controller x 1, User Manual x 1

One side simply states a strapline in various languages, which is probably the most extensive amount of translations they’ve done so far, covering EN, IT, RU, FR, DE, ES, JP, CN, KR. The other side lists the features of the strip, which are;

• Multi-colour or Tuneable White
• Gradient Lighting Effects
• Compatibility and Matter* Support
• Smart Home Automations
• HomeKit Adaptive Lighting
• Music Sync Mode

Of these, the only ones of real interest are Gradient Lighting Effects, Matter support, and Adaptive Lighting; Of the two ‘enticing features’ I mentioned at the start, the first is that the strip can do multiple colours along the length of the strip – ten different colours on a two-metre strip, to be precise. Whilst there are quite a few strips capable of this, the T1 does offer an ability which not all ‘multicolour’ strips offer, which I’ll go into in a bit.

Matter support is asterisked due to it not being directly compatible with Matter, only through an Aqara hub that has been updated to use Matter and added to your smart home using Matter. Some have said this is misleading, although I do have to disagree to some extent. The exact same thing could be levelled at any Aqara Zigbee product in terms of their compatibility with Apple Home, for example, but I don’t see people making that very argument, as it’s a given that they need a hub. The same applies to Philips Hue light bulbs – they need a hub, but require the Hue Bridge for HomeKit support, so I don’t really buy this complaint regarding Matter, sorry.

Lastly, we get to Adaptive Lighting, which is only offered by a few other light strips that I’m aware of – Nanoleaf (HomeKit over Thread), Eve (WiFi), and the T1. So if Adaptive Lighting has beenuseful for you, this is a tangible bonus in my opinion. If you’re not aware of Adaptive Lighting, It basically tunes the type of white light throughout the course of the day, with warm white in the morning, gradually changing to cool white to aid productivity, then gradually back to warm white in the evening to help you unwind and relax before sleep.

The packaging contains the 2m strip, a power supply with a coaxial connection on the end of the cable, an LED Strip controller, a manual in multiple languages, and two plug adaptors. These adaptors clip into the power supply. Depending on where you buy the strip from, you should get a pair of these adaptors, so in North America, you’ll most likely get a Type A adaptor (US) and a Type H Adaptor (AU). If you’re in Europe, you’ll get a Type B adaptor (EU) and a Type G adaptor (UK). The power supply connects to the controller at one end, with the other end of the controller connecting to the strip itself.

The strip can be cut as long as its trimmed along the lines indicated. As you can see above, the strip contains separate LEDs for colour and whites, with CW representing the cool white LED, and WW for warm white, flanking the RGB LED.

I should briefly mention the controller which connects the power supply to the strip. It comes with three large buttons, the first of which is for power. If you press and hold it for more than fie seconds, it will factory reset the strip and remove it from any hub it’s connected to, as well as Apple Home.

The middle button cycles through the three white modes (cool, warm, mid) and onto colour or multicolour mode, whichever it was last set to.

The final button is solely for activating or deactivating the music sync mode.

IN APPLE HOME

Unsurprisingly, the T1 strip is a pretty standard affair in Apple Home, at least on the surface, with a single tile and controls to adjust the brightness and colour. There’s the Adaptive Lighting option too of course. Even though this strip is capable of multiple colours at once, you can’t access them directly from the tile, although as I’ll show you in a bit, the T1 does have a way around this.

IN AQARA HOME

Equally unsurprisingly, control in Aqara Home is a lot more extensive. The main page offers control for the power, brightness, dynamic scenes presets, music sync, and light grouping. From here you can also access RGB and white light controls with three separate options – RGB Palette which offers preset colours in boxes, RGB Spectrum which offers fine control of RGB, and Tuneable White which allows control over the colour temperature of the white LEDs.

The plus icon located after these options will allow you to create either a Static or Dynamic effect. The difference between the two is simple; Static effects basically don’t have any kind of animation, so no light changes. Dynamic effects offer different types of light animations.

Note: the basic 2m strip will come with ten individually colour addressable ‘zones’, with five additional zones available with the 1m extensions the company sell. In my case as seen above, I connected three additional extensions, but trimmed the last one, bringing the strip to 4.4m, which in turn gave me a total of 22 zones to play with.

So, you can colour each of these zones individually using RGB palette or spectrum options. Each zone consists of six LEDs. The app also offers combinations, which in my opinion feel like a bit of an afterthought. These offer four, five, and six section combinations.

When it comes to static effects, this is where the Aqara goes a little further than some other multicolour strips that offer animations, but don’t allow you to simply colour parts of the strip yourself statically. There are other companies that offer this kind of feature, notably one of my favourites, the Onvis Kameleon K1 strip, which offers a very in-depth way of controlling your strip. You can read the review HERE or watch the video HERE.

Dynamic effects offer animations presets as seen on the main page, and custom animations, although this is limited to colour selection and speed. The app currently offers eight different types of animations – Breathing, Rainbow, Chasing, Flash, Jumping, Rainbow 2, Flapping (?), and Running. You can copy and edit the existing presets, or you can start from scratch with your own.

There are a few settings you can tweak for the T1, like power memory in case of power failure, dimming range, and a separate section for setting the length of the strip, which would only need to be set if you add extension and/or cut them.

Music Sync isn’t personally something I’d ever use, but you might like it. It picks up sound via a microphone inside a small hole on the side of the controller, that reacts to sound and animates the lights accordingly. You need to activate it, either via the app, an automation/scene, or via the controller, and once active you can choose between a limited set of options. This includes the mic’s sensitivity, and four different effects.

AQARA HOME | APPLE HOME (PART 2) | SCENES

I mentioned two possible options to sway potential customers into buying the T1 over other strips, with the first being able to colour the strip to your liking, without necessarily having to have it be animated. The second selling point here is that the Aqara app now offers the option to export Aqara Scenes directly to Apple HomeKit. This isn’t the first time this has been available, as LiFX, Nanoleaf, and Onvis all offer this. The difference here is mostly down to Aqara’s much larger ecosystem compared to the others. So even if this option is available via other manufacturers, the sheer amount of additional functionality you can get with virtually all of Aqara’s product lines, many of which just aren’t possible to achieve directly within HomeKit, makes it a very compelling feature.

so what is it again? Well, as you know, in the case of this light strip, HomeKit control is limited to solid colours not multiple colours – the option is simply not there in the HomeKit framework. With the Scene export feature – as I like to refer to it – you can create scenes that make use of the multicolour presets, and simply export them to Apple Home, where those scenes can be used and triggered in regular HomeKit automations.

In The Aqara app, you tap on the Scenes tab, tap +, and add an action. You then select the device you want to perform an action, in this case, the LED Strip T1.

Once the T1 is selected, you get a series of actions to choose from, and as you can see above, there are a lot! From simple on/off, to setting a particular brightness level, turning music sync on/off and more. In this case I’m going to select ‘Set dynamic RGB Effect’ and from there, I can choose the specific effect – ‘Rainbow’.

with that done, I now have a basic scene that can be triggered or used in automations in the Aqara home app. I name it, give it an icon, and it’s now listed with my other Aqara Scenes. To continue this process I then tap on ‘Edit’ at the bottom of the screen.

I can then select my scenes, at which point three options appear – ‘Move to a Group’, ‘Add to Apple Home’, and ‘Delete’. Selecting the second option takes you to a second page where you choose a hub. I’m not sure why this part is necessary, but I’m sure it is. Incidentally, the Aqara G4 doorbell also appears as an option, even though it’s not technically a hub, so it would seem that most devices that either act as hubs or are directly connected to your network using WiFi are options. The only one I can think of that may not appear but use WiFi is the FP2 presence sensor, but that has a lot of work to do all by itself.

Selecting your hub then quickly shoots that scene over to HomeKit, where it becomes a standard HomeKit scene, effectively. You can test it out on this page, or just press ‘Done’. As you can see in the Home app, my ‘Rainbow Strip’ Scene now appears alongside other scenes.

One thing to note is that regardless of where your Aqara device is located, the exported scene will appear in the same room as the hub you selected during the scene export process. Luckily for me, the strip and the hub I chose are both in the living room, but it’s worth pointing out if you can’t find a scene connected to a device that might not necessarily in the same room.

LIGHT STRIP IN PLACE

There are many locations one could place a light strip, and I’ve done that to death, but in our living room, in front of the kitchen area, we have a set of cupboards running the length of the Kitchen island. Luckily for me, there’s a sort of gutter that runs the length of these cupboards uninterrupted, so the strip can cover the length pretty easily. Even though I had the 2m strip and three 1m extensions, I only needed 4.4m in total to cover everything, but I think it’s fair to say it works well.

It seems logical to test the basic solid colours, and as you can see above, I’ve gone for red, green, blue, yellow, and pink. All work well enough, although due to the placement in this case, it’s really for accent lighting only. That’s fine as we have more than enough main lighting in this area. The colours are pretty accurate.

As it’s accent lighting for the most part, the Adaptive Lighting option is probably not going to get a lot of use, but here is cool, warm, and mid white at 100%.

Given that this is a written review, it’s not really easy to show you animated effects, although you can check them out in our accompanying video review. For here, and this last set of images, we’ll focus on the option to ‘paint’ the strip yourself. The first of the three images shows the french tricolour – red, white, and blue, demonstrating the ability to colour sections of the strip to your liking. The second image show the strip made up of colours of the rainbow, with each zone a different colour to the last. The last of these images demonstrate every other zone either set to 100% blue or turned completely off.

THE T1 IN USE

In general I’m loathe to review light strips these days, and have turned down the chance to review strips from a couple of other well known companies. The reason is simple, what more can say of them that hasn’t already been said a dozen times before. If that’s the case, why am I bothering with the T1 you might ask. Well, I like Aqara products, and whilst I’ve been very happy with the Onvis Kameleon, it was yet another strip I was keen to replace due to it using WiFi. All other strips have since been replaced with Nanoleaf versions that use Thread, and as the Aqara uses Zigbee, that Kameleon is one less WiFi device in the home. I know that sounds a bit draconian, but I’m really on a mission to cut out WiFi devices wherever I can.

Aside from that, the strip itself works really well, as you would expect of a Zigbee device. The new option to export Aqara scenes to HomeKit is a plus, and I’m always happy to see Adaptive Lighting included. I don’t really take the brightness into account for light strips, generally speaking, as I often consider them only as accent lighting. The strip seems around as bright as other strips though, although clearly not as bright as either the Eve or Nanoleaf when it comes to whites, both of which also offer Adaptive Lighting*.

What is slightly disappointing is the amount of zones; The T1 has 10 zones on a 2m strip, with 6 LEDs per zone. When you compare that the Onvis Kameleon’s 20 zones and 3 LEDs per zone, it’s a little bit of a let down. It’s not the end of the world, but when it comes to animated effects, there is a slightly visible difference between the T1 and the Kameleon due to the amount of zones. Still, the T1 is compatible with all platforms, whilst the Kameleon is only compatible with Apple Home, so if you use other platforms in addition to HomeKit, the Aqara is the one to go for. As for Matter, as previously stated, this is compatible via a suitable hub, which once again is not the case with the Onvis.

In conclusion, what could have been a bit of an ‘also ran’ for a light strip, has turned out better than expected, mainly due to the features available in the Aqara app, and the fact you can paint the strip without the need for animating them too.

* Only the HomeKit over Thread version of the Nanoleaf Essentials strip offers Adaptive lighting

The post Aqara LED Strip T1 (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Interestingly, however, it doesn’t currently work with the Aqara Home app. This is because, for any device to work on a platform using Matter, you need a Matter Controller. Aqara doesn’t yet have one until early next year when they plan to release the M3 Hub, which will not only work with Aqara’s current Zigbee devices but work with Matter devices too, as it will also be a Matter Controller. It’ll also contain a Thread Border Router, so this would then allow Matter over Thread devices to work in the Aqara app. If you’re interested to see how this device fares, read on.

PACKAGING

This is the P2, the actual successor to the Aqara Contact Sensor P1, which was only ever released in China. As such, I guess you could call this the successor to Aqara’s standard contact sensor, although once again that too was supplanted in China long ago with a T1 and even an E1 version, both of which use Zigbee 3.0. However you want to frame it, this is the new kid on the block, with the first example of a Matter logo on the packaging for an Aqara product, and almost certainly not the last. If you’re familiar with the original Aqara contact sensor, you’ll see from the image on the front, this has a very different design.

the rear of the box is also home to another first for Aqara, namely the Thread logo. One side features the specs, which are;

• Model: DW-S02E
• Battery: CR123A
• Wireless Protocols: Thread, BLE
• Dimensions: 77 x 22 x 22mm (Sensor Main Unit)  |  36 × 11.5 × 7.3mm (Sensor Accessory Unit)
• Operating Temperature: -10°C ~ 50°C (14°F – 122°F)
• Operating Humidity: 0 ~ 95% RH, no condensation

If you’re not so familiar with Matter or Thread, don’t panic at seeing the Bluetooth logo – Thread and Matter both utilise Bluetooth for initial pairing/commissioning/onboarding to your smart home platform, and in the case of Thread specifically, Bluetooth is used as a backup for when either Thread somehow fails, or you simply don’t have a Thread Border Router in your arsenal of smart home equipment, which in the case of Apple Home is a HomePod Mini, HomePod (2nd gen), or Apple TV4K (2nd gen or 3rd gen w/ 128GB).

Contact sensors are amongst the most basic of smart home devices, but still very useful. You’re going to find the best use case for this device on doors or windows, and although you could use it on other things that have the option to be opened or closed, like drawers or cabinets, the size of the P2 isn’t going to lend itself to this job as well as the original option.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX

Aside from the contact sensor and the accompanying magnet, you get a manual in assorted languages, and a small piece of magnetic metal. This can be used when you might have a window that you can have in two different closed positions perhaps. The manual comes with a Matter QR code, and whilst this looks very similar to a HomeKit QR code, this is an 11-digit code, as opposed to the 8-digit code found in HomeKit. The result is the same, however, so scanning it via the Home app will add the device in exactly the same manner. As the process is pretty much identical, I’m not going to go into detail on adding it, although I’ll go into some details regarding other platforms later in this article.

THE SENSOR

The P2 does, for want of a better description, look like a large suppository! The reason for the change in size and design is not without reason, however. First of all, the battery used in the P1 and P2 is a CR123A, which is almost like a half-size AA battery. This should give the sensor decent battery life before you need to replace it, although Aqara doesn’t seem to specify how long that is.

The second reason is that the large pairing button will eventually be updated to become a programmable button. If you were to try and add a smart button like the one here to the original contact sensor, it wouldn’t be possible in my estimation, due to the size restrictions. At present, this button is only for pairing or resetting the sensor, so the programmable button function will only arrive via an update or more likely when the Aqara Hub M3 is released, which will then allow the P2 to connect to the Aqara app.

WHY THREAD AND NOT ZIGBEE?

Many people – and I include myself among them – are fans of Zigbee to a large degree, so Thread has had to prove itself worthy. I’m always open to new things and am quite happy to use Thread. I have around two dozen Thread devices currently and they’ve been very well-behaved, but then so have my Zigbee devices, so what’s the difference? Well, if I were to choose one word to describe the difference between the two, it would be ‘de-centralisation’. So, if you’re familiar with how Zigbee works, you’ll know that Zigbee child devices need a Zigbee hub, and in the case of Aqara and Hue – to name just two – their child devices will for the most part only work with their own hubs, at least when it comes to integration with HomeKit. Putting that to one side, when a set of child devices are connected to one of these hubs, if that hub goes offline or just dies, the child devices go offline too, until you reset them and add them to a new replacement hub, which is time-consuming. Zigbee child devices are therefore tied to a specific hub and ‘will go down with the ship’, so to speak.

With Thread devices, they still connect to what could be described as a hub – a Thread Border Router – but assuming you have at least two border routers connected to your platform of choice (mine are four HomePods Mini, connected to Apple Home), if one of those routers goes down, the Thread devices simply reroute to the next available Border Router. So, you can see, Thread is sort of decentralised in that it’s not tied to a specific hub or gateway, and so (in theory) your Thread devices just stay connected, as they aren’t betrothed to the hub that went down.

IN APPLE HOME

The settings for the P2 are the same as you’d see with other contact sensors with two noticeable additions due to it being a Matter device. First of all, you see at the bottom the ‘Turn on Pairing Mode’ option. This is so that you can pair the device with additional platforms if you wish. Pressing this button generates a brand new Matter code. The code that comes with the device can only be used when it’s paired to the first platform or if it has been removed from all platforms and reset. You can then use the new pairing code generated here, which is then needed to be used for any additional platforms you want to use it with. In this case, the sensor is already connected to both Apple Home and Google Home, as can be seen in the ‘Connected Services’ section above.

Unless you’re very new to Apple Home, or for that matter any smart home platform, you’ll know what a contact sensor does. If a door opens it will be able to instruct other devices (via an automation) to do something, so in my case, the P2 is on our bedroom door and so when we open that door between 6~11pm, it will turn the corridor lights on at 100% brightness. If the door is open between 11pm~12.15am, then the lights come on at 70% brightness, and between 12.15am~5.30am, the lights come on at just 10%. In each of these scenarios, the lights will turn off when the P2 sensor changes its status to ‘closed’ or 60 seconds have elapsed.

IN GOOGLE HOME

I was able to add the P2 to Google Home as I have a Google Nest Hub Max that is both a Matter Controller and contains a Thread Border Router. That’s all great, however at the time of writing, Google doesn’t give you the option to use the sensor in Routines, so it’s pretty much useless for Google Home users right now. To add insult to injury (as we say in the UK) the sensor state doesn’t update itself in the iOS version of the Google Home app until you physically refresh the app by pulling down on the UI with your finger.

SAMSUNG SMARTTHINGS

I was originally able to add the P2 to SmartThings too as I have the SmartThings Station, which like the Google Nest Hub Max, is both a Matter Controller and a Thread Border Router. However, during testing, it lost connection and just wouldn’t reconnect. I suspect that as I only have one Thread Border Router for this particular platform, when I moved the sensor to a location beyond the reach of the Thread signal it must have lost connection. You’d think it would reconnect once within range, but sadly not. I suspect this is mostly an issue with the state of Matter right now, and less a reflection on the Aqara P2, although it should have reconnected at some point.

I did try adding it again using a new code from both Apple Home and Google Home, but it repeatedly failed. Once again I think this is an issue with Matter.

As regards Amazon Alexa, I don’t have a Thread Border Router for that platform, although if you read this article on a recent Nanoleaf firmware update, that may have changed things. I wasn’t able to test it at the time.

PERFORMANCE | IN USE

I can only really attest to its performance in HomeKit, as it can’t be used for anything in Google yet, and I can’t get it to reconnect to SmartThings, but it may come as no surprise to hear that it works just as though it was a standard Zigbee sensor. It’s pretty much the same in terms of reaction times, and as it works directly with Apple Home right now, there’s no need for an Aqara hub, the downside of which is the inability to use specific Aqara automations, which in many ways are superior to most other platforms. Still, it’s mostly about doors opening or closing, and turning lights on or off for me, so it doesn’t make any real difference right now.

I’d be interested to see what use cases you could use with the programmable button once it becomes an option. For example, I think if it was placed on a front door and placed not too high, it could be useful for Setting your alarm system, or for turning off all the lights perhaps. It’s not as though we don’t already have many options to do this, so whether sacrificing the compact size is a good tradeoff for the button, remains to be seen.

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