Aqara Video Doorbell G4: Enhanced Smart Home Security

The Aqara Video Doorbell G4 records 1080p video and handles motion and face recognition alerts on the device itself. It connects to the Aqara smart home ecosystem and supports Apple HomeKit Secure Video, which makes it interesting to privacy-minded Apple households. The slim body (141.5 x 65 x 30.4 mm, about 5.6 x 2.6 x 1.2 inches) fits standard door frames cleanly. I don't run this doorbell. The gate at my house has a Reolink Video Doorbell PoE with its Chime, which means one cable carries power and video, there's no battery to recharge and no chime transformer involved at all. That's a third route neither the wired nor the battery column of this product's spec sheet describes, and it's worth holding in mind while you read the rest.

Why Choose Aqara Video Doorbell G4?

The Aqara G4 is notable for its combination of local face recognition, HomeKit Secure Video support, and flexible power options. Whether it's monitoring deliveries, greeting visitors, or deterring intruders, the doorbell provides sharp real-time video and instant notifications to your phone. Video clips can be stored locally via microSD card (up to 512 GB, and the slot is in the indoor chime repeater, not the doorbell), in Aqara's free 7-day cloud tier for event clips, or through Apple's iCloud with end-to-end encryption. Continuous 24/7 recording to the card only works on wired power.

Key Features

• 1080p Full HD video with wide-angle lens for full entryway coverage
• Local face recognition for personalized alerts without cloud dependency
• Two-way audio for speaking with visitors directly
• Dual power: wired (12-24V AC or 8-24V DC) or battery-powered operation
• Compatible with Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and IFTTT
• Local microSD storage (up to 512 GB in the chime repeater), free 7-day Aqara cloud for event clips, or encrypted iCloud backup via HomeKit Secure Video
• Chime repeater in the box: 95 dB, USB-C powered, doubles as the Wi-Fi relay for the outdoor unit

Flexible Installation and Setup

The G4 offers two clear installation paths. Wired mode uses a 12-24V AC or 8-24V DC supply, such as an existing doorbell transformer, for continuous power with no battery management. Battery mode runs on six AA batteries for a completely wire-free installation that can go anywhere. The arithmetic is simple enough: a door that triggers often burns battery faster, so a busy entrance belongs on the wired path if the transformer is already there.

There's a third option this product doesn't offer, and the gate at my house uses it. Power over Ethernet sends power and video down one cable, so there's no battery cycle and no chime transformer to keep alive. It costs you a cable run during construction and buys you a doorbell that never needs charging. If you're wiring a house right now, pull that cable. If you're retrofitting an existing door, the G4's battery mode is exactly the answer to the problem you have instead.

The included mounting kit handles both of the G4's scenarios. Setup runs through the Aqara Home app, and adding the unit to Apple Home means scanning the HomeKit pairing code supplied with the device.

Power Options Compared

• Wired: Continuous power, no recharging, ideal for high-traffic doors
• Battery: Wire-free flexibility, periodic battery changes needed based on activity level

Local Face Recognition Technology

The G4 performs all face recognition processing on-device rather than uploading footage to cloud servers. Your facial data stays local, which is a genuine privacy advantage over doorbells that ship every frame to a vendor. Aqara's design is that known faces produce a personalized alert once you've enrolled them, while anyone unrecognized triggers a standard motion alert with a snapshot.

You add recognized faces through the Aqara Home app and assign names (Aqara caps the local database at 30 faces), and Aqara advises enrolling each person several times so the model has more than one angle to work with. After dark, IR night vision takes over. Set your expectations there carefully: infrared frames from a small doorbell camera are usually good enough to tell you a person is at the door and rarely good enough to tell you which person, whatever the recognition feature claims in daylight.

Apple HomeKit Secure Video Integration

For Apple users, the G4's HomeKit Secure Video support is the standout feature. All recorded clips are end-to-end encrypted using keys stored only in your iCloud account. Apple cannot access your footage. The Home app on iPhone and iPad provides live view access, event history, and automation triggers. You can ask Siri to display the doorbell feed on an Apple TV, HomePod, or any connected display.

Automations through HomeKit allow useful combinations: when the doorbell detects motion at night, smart lights at the entry can switch on automatically. When a known face is recognized, a specific chime can play on a HomePod. These automations run locally on your Apple devices without internet dependency. Straight disclosure on this section, because it's the one people buy the G4 for: I own Apple hardware and have never paired a single device to Apple Home. Everything in this part of the review comes from Apple's and Aqara's documentation, not from my hallway. My own plan is for entry logic to live in Home Assistant, with a Google Nest Mini and a Nest Hub Max as the speakers that announce a visitor.

Smart Home Ecosystem Support

Beyond HomeKit, the G4 works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant through the Aqara hub. With a hub in place, you can view the live doorbell feed on an Echo Show or Nest Hub display, receive voice announcements when someone rings, and incorporate the doorbell into cross-platform automation routines.

Where It Lands

The Aqara Video Doorbell G4 is a well-built video doorbell with a clear target audience: Apple HomeKit users who prioritize privacy. The combination of local face recognition and HomeKit Secure Video end-to-end encryption sets it apart from cloud-dependent competitors. Pricing has drifted a long way from the $119.99 launch MacRumors reported in 2023: comparison listings through mid-2026 show it between $69.99 and $89.99, while Amazon was asking around $106, so the seller matters more than the model year. Aqara specifies 1080p video and two-way audio, and the dual power options make installation flexible. I haven't judged picture or audio quality myself.

One practical limitation is that Alexa and Google integrations require an Aqara hub, adding cost for non-Apple users. Battery users in high-traffic areas should expect more frequent battery changes; Aqara's four-month figure assumes 35 wake-ups a day, and Mighty Gadget's readers report two to six months, the upper end only on lithium AAs. Outside HomeKit, cloud storage is Aqara's own free 7-day event-clip tier and nothing more; there's no paid continuous cloud plan, which matters if you use Android as your primary platform. Two more things the spec sheet won't tell you. Matter support was promised as a future OTA update at the March 2023 launch, and as of October 2026 I can find no firmware that shipped it. And Home Assistant has no native integration for the G4: the working route is the HomeKit Controller integration, which gives you the stream but, going by home-assistant-guide.com, no event when the button is pressed.

For Apple-first homes seeking a smart doorbell with strong privacy controls, local processing, and smooth automation capabilities, the Aqara Video Doorbell G4 looks like a strong fit in the smart home security category, going by its specifications.

If you can run a PoE cable and want 2K video, compare it with the Aqara G400. The G4 aims at enhanced security at your front door by combining high-definition video, on-device AI, and encrypted cloud backup in one compact unit. Unlike competitors that push every frame to a server, the local face recognition keeps the data on the device while still producing personalized alerts. For households already built around Apple, the G4 extends that environment with little friction, which is the clearest case for buying it. For a house being wired from scratch, I'd still argue the other way: one Ethernet run removes the battery, the transformer and the subscription question in a single move, and that's the decision I made for the gate at my house. Different problem, different answer, and the honest reviewer's job is to say which problem you have.