Aqara Camera Hub G5 Pro review: Security cam, smart home hub in one

The G5 Pro is Aqara’s newest outdoor security camera, designed to protect your home while extending your smart-home network outdoors. It pulls double duty, providing real-time monitoring and connecting your Aqara and many third-party smart devices in one integrated hub. Sitting at the higher end of Aqara’s camera lineup, the G5 Pro emphasizes ease of use, solid image quality, and smooth integration with popular smart-home ecosystems.

We review the Aqara G5 Pro Wi-Fi here; a power-over-ethernet (PoE) version is also available for about $20 more. Both models sport a compact design that can withstand outdoor conditions year-round. Its IP65 weatherization rating indicates it’s impervious to dust ingress and that it can withstand water jets projected from any direction (check out TechHive’s IP code decoder for more). And with an operating range of -22 degrees Fahrenheit to 122 F (-30 to +50 C), you can expect reliable performance whether it’s braving winter freezes or baking in summer heat.

Specifications

Measuring 2.78 x 2.78 x 3.50 inches (excluding its detachable stand), the G5 Pro is discreet enough for versatile placement anywhere around your home. The rotatable stand can easily attach to walls, ceilings, or any other flat surface, and you can swap it out with any standard 1/4-inch threaded mount for even more flexibility. While it’s billed as an outdoor camera, there’s absolutely no reason it couldn’t be deployed indoors as well.

The G5 Pro is outfitted a 4-megapixel camera boasting a wide 133-degree field of view. True Color Night Vision boosts visibility in low-light conditions and, paired with an advanced f/1.0 aperture lens, it can capture detailed footage even in near-total darkness. A spotlight adjacent to its lens and motion sensor can help illuminate intruders or simply light your path at night. The G5 Pro also features a 100dB siren for deterring unwanted visitors, two-way audio for clear communication, and customizable alerts to notify you immediately about relevant events.

Beyond basic surveillance, the Aqara G5 Pro incorporates advanced local AI detection. The camera intelligently identifies people, faces, vehicles, animals, packages, and even alerts you if its lens becomes obstructed—all without relying on cloud-based processing. Local processing offers faster detection and notifications, improved privacy by keeping data within your home network, and it ensures the camera continues operating even if your internet connection goes down.

The G5 Pro supports encrypted local storage via 32GB of built-in eMMC storage. While that’s not user expandable, you can connect the camera to your own network-attached storage, with support for both RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) and SMB (Server Message Block) protocols. your other storage alternative is to purchase a subscription from either Apple (iCloud+) or Aqara itself. You’ll get end-to-end encryption in either scenario, ensuring that only you and authorized users can access your recordings.

Aqara’s HomeGuardian service, available via the Aqara Home app, costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 annually, but it only supports a single Aqara camera. HomeGuardian Plus covers an unlimited number of Aqara cameras and costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 annually. Both plans provide a rolling 90 days of video event history.

The camera supports Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video if you go the iCloud+ route, which limits you to Apple’s ecosystem, but not to a single brand of camera. That storage can also be used to store digital photos, music, documents, device backups and more. Apple’s cloud-storage subscriptions range in price from 99 cents per month for 50GB of storage to $60/mo for 12TB (that’s far more than most consumers will ever need; Apple also offers 200GB, 2TB, and 6TB storage tiers, and any of Apple’s iCloud+ subscriptions can be shared with family members).

Connectivity options round out this camera’s features. It supports dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz) for smooth streaming, a simple USB-C connection for power (in the Wi-Fi version. The PoE model, of course, transmits data over an ethernet cable that is also used to send electrical power to the camera, provided you have a PoE switch or router or a PoE power injector.) With the exception of its Zigbee hub, which is compatible only with Aqara’s own Zigbee smart home devices, the G5 Pro is smart home platform agnostic, compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Home Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings.

Installation and setup

Once I downloaded the Aqara Home app, getting the G5 Pro set up took just a few minutes. You scan the device’s QR code to pair the camera and then follow the prompts to connect it with your wireless network. Screws and anchors are provided for mounting the camera, but you need to supply a screwdriver or drill.

In my testing, the G5 Pro consistently delivered clear, detailed images. Daytime footage is sharp, with accurate colors and strong contrast. Night vision performance is especially impressive; True Color Night Vision significantly enhances visibility after dark, producing bright, color-accurate images even in low-light scenarios, thanks to its advanced image sensor and the wide aperture of its lens.

Michael Ansaldo/Foundry

The camera’s on-device AI detection worked reliably, quickly distinguishing between people, vehicles, animals, and packages. Notifications arrived promptly, allowing me to respond immediately if something looked amiss. The built-in spotlight is bright enough to illuminate a porch or driveway, serving both as a deterrent and a convenience. The 100dB siren should ward off unwanted visitors, and the two-way audio enabled clear conversation at typical outdoor distances.

As a smart-home hub, the G5 Pro significantly expands your outdoor connectivity options. Pairing Aqara accessories and third-party Matter devices is simple and intuitive. The camera serves as a Matter controller and a Thread border router, allowing you to expand your smart-home setup outdoors. The onboard Zigbee hub, on the other hand, is limited to controlling Aqara’s own Zigbee smart home devices and sensors–of which there are many.

The Aqara Home app has a user-friendly interface, featuring a clean layout and intuitive navigation. It streamlines camera management with a large control panel below the video feed, allowing you to quickly review footage, manage alerts, and configure advanced settings such as AI detection and cloud storage.

Should you buy the Aqara G5 Pro?

With an asking price of $179.99 ($199.99 for the PoE version), the Aqara G5 Pro costs a lot more than the typical outdoor security camera, but its performance and feature set–its one of the few outdoor-rated devices to include a Thread border router–fully justify its price tag. (Yes, the new Eero 7 Outdoor also has an onboard Thread border router, but that Wi-Fi access point costs $400.)

Whether it’s deployed indoors or out, this security camera can form the basis of a complete smart home and home security system. If you’re looking for professional security monitoring, on the other hand, a paid service where a third party can summon first responders on your behalf in the event of an emergency, you should know that Aqara doesn’t offer such a service at this time.