Billed as being the world’s first Matter-certified camera, the Aqara Camera Hub G350 has officially launched in Australia.
For years, smart home brands have promised an interconnected ecosystem that works seamlessly across devices. It’s taken a while to get to that point, but now those promises are finally starting to come true, with more cross-platform technologies rolling out between brands.
An indoor security camera at its core (replete with an optional bunny ears cover), the Aqara G350 also doubles as a Zigbee hub, Matter controller, and a Matter bridge. The idea behind these integrations is that the camera should work with other smart home gadgets regardless of which brand they’re from. According to Aqara, the benefits are twofold: connecting Aqara devices to other ecosystems, while bringing other Matter-compatible devices to Aqara’s smart home platform.
From a hardware perspective, the G350 incorporates a dual-lens camera array, including a 4K wide-angle camera and a 2.5K telephoto zoom lens. Combined with pan-tilt functionality, the camera is designed to cover 360 degrees. Built-in local AI smarts let the camera identify people and pets, zooming in and tracking them throughout a room.
With the dual-lens setup, the camera should be able to capture both wide shots and close-ups simultaneously. It’s a feature also offered by various outdoor cameras, like the Reolink TrackFlex Floodlight WiFi.
With the camera’s broad smart home compatibility, Aqara advertises it as working with the likes of Alexa, Google Home, SmartThings, and Apple Home. There’s also a fair bit of flexibility in terms of storage, with the G350 supporting microSD cards, NAS backup, and cloud storage via Aqara’s paid HomeGuardian service.
Available to order online for a May arrival, the Aqara Camera Hub G350 costs $269. If this camera executes on Aqara’s vision, it could make setting up a platform-agnostic smart home even easier.
