Aqara Camera Hub G5 Pro

The Aqara Camera Hub G5 Pro is two devices in one enclosure: an outdoor security camera and a smart home hub. That second job is the reason to choose it. It carries Zigbee and Thread radios and connects large numbers of Aqara sensors, switches and locks, so a single weatherproof box outside the house extends both your camera coverage and your smart home network.

It records at higher than 1080p to its own encrypted local storage, and its low-light performance is built around a wide aperture rather than infrared alone, so night footage keeps colour instead of turning grey.

What HomeKit Secure Video gives you

Secure Video moves the clever part of the camera onto hardware you own. A HomePod or an Apple TV in the house analyses the footage, and the clips go to iCloud encrypted end to end, where they do not count against your storage allowance.

In return you get person, animal, vehicle and package detection, activity zones so the camera ignores a busy pavement, and face recognition drawn from the People album in your own Photos library.

You need an iCloud+ plan for it. The 50 GB tier covers one camera, 200 GB covers five, and 2 TB removes the limit.

Apple Home shows the Secure Video stream. The higher-resolution recording and the on-device AI detection for faces, vehicles and sounds live in the Aqara app.

Before you buy

Weigh the hub role seriously. If you already run an Aqara hub indoors, you are paying for a radio you do not need. If you do not, the G5 Pro can replace one and cover the garden at the same time.

Outdoor cameras need power. Check where the cable will run and whether you need an outdoor-rated socket before you commit to a mounting position.

Specifications