Aqara announced today at IFA 2023 that they are releasing five new smart home products.
I personally have quite a collection of Aqara devices in my home, ranging from temperature sensors, to in-wall switches, reed switches, and various buttons. I’ve found their devices to be both affordable and reliable – a winning combination!
Aqara plans to expand their offerings with these five new devices:
Camera E1
Aqara’s Camera E1 is their newest home surveillance camera in the 2K resolution range. It uses Wi-Fi 6 or Bluetooth 5.2 for connectivity. This camera is designed to integrate easily with the major third-party smart home controllers like Apple Home, Google Home or Amazon Alexa. It has AI-enabled people detection and tracking, as well as a 2K resolution and pan/tilt. There are multiple storage options for recordings including cloud storage, NAS storage, and microSD smartcard.
SmartLock U200
This is Aqara’s first Matter-over-Thread smart lock and is compatible with a wide range of smart home environments. It uses eihter a NFC card or mobile device with NFC enabled for unlocking, as well as fingerprints, PIN codes, mobile apps, and more. This smart lock should be able to easily replace a legacy lock system without the need for drilling. Aqara is planning on holding a Kickstarter for this device later this year.
Ceiling Light T1M
The Ceiling Light T1M is a great choice for places where a standard “boob light” would be used – closets, bathrooms, laundry rooms, and more. It has a broad spectrum of 16 million colors available and includes dimming features allowing you to control the light color and brightness precisely. This is a Zigbee device, so would need a Zigbee hub to connect to. It also uses the new Matter-over-bridge standard, allowing it to easily communicate with other devices.
EU-Style Wall Outlet
This smart wall socket is designed specifically for the EU market. This outlet allows you to easily control your plugged in devices – lights, coffee makers, and more. It also allows you to track the energy consumption of your devices, so you can see exactly what each device costs to run. I personally use the energy consumption feature of a similar outlet to tell me when my laundry is done washing. This wall socket is a Zigbee device, so you would need a Zigbee hub to connect to it. It also acts as a Zigbee network repeater, helping you to extend and stabilize your Zigbee network.
Dual Relay Module T2
The Aqara Dual Relay Module T2 is designed for in-wall control of devices. It has a power rating of AC 100-250V or DC 24-60V, supporting a total of up to 10Amps. This allows it to control and report on a wide range of devices. This relay module also has overheat and overload protection as well as configurable power limits, helping you protect your expensive devices. It makes a great choice for controlling things like electric heaters, underfloor heating, boilers, water heaters, and more. This is also a Zigbee 3.0 device with matter-over-bridge support. You would need a Zigbee hub to connect this into your smart home environment.
For more information on all of Aqara’s new devices, check out Aqara’s website here.
