Aqara Video Doorbell G4 Review: HomeKit Secure Video Without an Aqara Fee

The eufy Video Doorbell E340 reviewed on this site ends with a concession: Apple households should skip it, because it does not work with HomeKit. That leaves a real gap for anyone who runs an iPhone-centered home and wants a doorbell that lives in the Home app, answers to Siri, and stores footage the Apple way rather than through yet another brand's cloud. The Aqara Video Doorbell G4 exists to fill exactly that gap. It is one of the few mainstream doorbells with full HomeKit Secure Video, it runs local face recognition on the device, it ships with a chime in the box, and Aqara charges no subscription of its own for any of it. For an Apple home shopping to avoid a monthly camera bill, that combination is the whole reason to read on.

This review reads the G4 against Aqara's published specifications and the way HomeKit Secure Video actually works. Because this site is built on being honest about recurring fees, the no-subscription claim is examined carefully, including the one place an Apple requirement, rather than an Aqara one, still applies.

HomeKit Secure Video, and what it needs

The headline feature is genuine HomeKit Secure Video (HKSV) support, which is rare. Most doorbells that mention Apple compatibility only surface a live view in the Home app; the G4 does the full thing, recording motion events into HomeKit with end-to-end encryption so the footage is analyzed and stored the way Apple designed. A visitor triggers a clip, the Home app sorts it into people, packages, and animals, and the recording is encrypted before it ever leaves the house.

Honesty requires naming the requirement that comes with that, because it is the one subscription-shaped line in the G4's story, and it is Apple's, not Aqara's. HomeKit Secure Video needs an Apple home hub, a HomePod, HomePod mini, or Apple TV, sitting on the network to do the recording, and it needs an iCloud+ plan for the encrypted storage. The saving grace is that HKSV recordings do not count against the iCloud+ storage quota, so a household already paying for iCloud+, which most Apple homes are, gets the doorbell's cloud recording at no additional cost. Aqara itself never sends an invoice; the only fee in the picture is an iCloud+ plan that an Apple household most likely already holds for its photos and backups.

Local face recognition without a subscription

Where the G4 goes further than a typical HomeKit doorbell is its on-device face recognition, which runs through the Aqara Home app independently of HomeKit. The doorbell learns household members and frequent visitors and tags them by name, so an alert can say who is at the door rather than merely that someone is, and it can drive automations, turning on a light or announcing a specific person, without a cloud service in the loop. Crucially, this recognition is local and free: it is processed on the device and the Aqara app, not behind a paid tier, which is precisely the kind of smart feature rivals usually reserve for a subscription.

That local intelligence is a large part of why the G4 fits a no-fee site. The feature most buyers would expect to pay monthly for, knowing who is at the door, is handled here without a plan, and it works alongside HomeKit rather than instead of it. An Apple household can lean on HKSV for encrypted event recording and on Aqara's face recognition for named alerts and automations at the same time.

The storage picture: three ways, no Aqara fee

The G4 gives a buyer three overlapping ways to keep footage, and none of them carry an Aqara charge. First, HomeKit Secure Video stores encrypted event clips in iCloud for households on the Apple path. Second, Aqara includes free cloud storage for up to seven days of event-based clips through its own app, which needs no plan at all. Third, the included chime-repeater has a microSD card slot that accepts a card up to 512GB for local storage and around-the-clock recording kept physically in the home.

That third option is the one that matters most for the site's core promise. Drop a card into the chime and the doorbell keeps a local library of footage with no cloud and no fee whatsoever, the same own-your-footage model as the local-storage cameras reviewed here. Between the free Aqara cloud, the local card, and HKSV for Apple homes, the G4 is unusually flexible about where recordings live, and every route avoids a doorbell-brand subscription. The only card cost is the microSD itself, which is a separate purchase.

Resolution and field of view: the honest limits

Now the trade-offs, stated plainly. The G4 records at 1080p Full HD, and in a market where the eufy E340 and Ring's newer doorbells have moved to 2K, that is the clearest compromise. For recognizing a face at the door or reading a situation, 1080p through the doorbell's processing is perfectly serviceable, but a buyer pushing into a clip for fine detail will not find the headroom a 2K sensor provides. Anyone whose top priority is maximum image sharpness should weigh that against the G4's HomeKit advantages.

The lens is a 162-degree wide-angle in a 16:9 shape, which is wide enough to show a caller and the approach but is not the tall, near-square view that some rivals use to see straight down at the mat. A package left directly below the doorbell can sit in a blind spot, so the G4 is stronger at identifying who is at the door than at framing what a courier set on the ground. Night vision is infrared, which keeps the doorstep visible in the dark but in black and white rather than color. These are the honest limits that come with the price and the feature set, and they are worth knowing before buying.

Power: batteries or wiring, plus the chime

Installation is flexible. The G4 runs on six AA batteries that Aqara rates for up to four months, or it can be hardwired to an existing doorbell transformer (12 to 24 volts AC, or 8 to 24 volts DC) for permanent power. That choice makes it friendly to renters, who can mount the battery version anywhere without wiring, and to homes with an existing wired chime that prefer never to think about power. The honest note here is that the batteries are standard AA cells rather than a rechargeable pack, so keeping it powered means swapping in fresh batteries a few times a year rather than recharging a USB unit.

The included chime-repeater is more useful than a simple bell. It plugs into an outlet, carries a loud 95-decibel speaker so a ring is actually heard indoors, extends the doorbell's wireless range as a repeater, and hosts the microSD card that holds local recordings. Bundling the chime means the box contains everything needed to hear the door and store footage locally out of the gate, with no extra accessory to buy. One caveat worth flagging: the doorbell and its chime are paired as a set, so they are meant to be used together rather than mixed and matched with other units.

Who should buy it

The G4 is the right doorbell for an Apple household that wants a true HomeKit Secure Video camera at the front door, tied into the Home app and Siri, without paying a doorbell-brand subscription on top. It suits buyers who value named, local face recognition, who want the flexibility of battery or wired power, and who like that a chime and local storage come in the box. For an iPhone-centered home that bristles at monthly camera fees, it is the clearest answer to the HomeKit gap the other doorbells on this site leave open.

Who should skip it

Buyers who want the sharpest possible image should skip it, because 1080p trails the 2K rivals in this category. Households outside the Apple world, with no HomePod or Apple TV to act as a home hub, lose the HKSV half of the pitch and would do better with a doorbell built around their own ecosystem. And anyone whose main worry is porch theft and who wants a clear top-down view of a package on the mat should prefer a doorbell with a tall or dual-camera field of view instead of the G4's 16:9 frame.

How it compares

Against the eufy Video Doorbell E340 reviewed here, the two are near mirror images: the E340 offers a sharper 2K dual-camera view with a package-catching downward lens and built-in local storage, but no HomeKit at all, while the G4 counters with full HomeKit Secure Video and local face recognition at 1080p through a single wide lens. An Apple household picks the G4 precisely where the E340 tells it to look elsewhere. Against the Ring Battery Doorbell and the Ring Wired Doorbell, the contrast is the site's whole thesis: Ring's hardware is polished and its Alexa integration unmatched, but recorded history requires a Ring Home plan with no local option and no HomeKit, whereas the G4 stores footage through HKSV, a free Aqara cloud tier, or a local card, and charges no subscription of its own. Ring wins on ecosystem for Alexa homes; the G4 wins outright for Apple homes that refuse a monthly fee.

Verdict

The Aqara Video Doorbell G4 is the doorbell this site needed to point Apple households toward. It delivers genuine HomeKit Secure Video with end-to-end encryption, adds local face recognition that names visitors without a subscription, and bundles a capable chime that also holds a local microSD library, so footage can live in iCloud, in Aqara's free cloud, or on a card at home, always without an Aqara fee. Its limits are real and easy to weigh: 1080p rather than 2K, a 16:9 view that is better at faces than at packages, AA batteries instead of a rechargeable pack, and an Apple home hub plus iCloud+ needed for the HKSV path. For an iPhone home shopping to avoid a doorbell subscription, it is the most straightforwardly recommendable pick on the site.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Aqara G4 require a subscription?

Aqara charges none. Local face recognition, a free seven-day event cloud tier, and local microSD recording in the included chime all work without any Aqara plan. The one requirement is on the Apple side: HomeKit Secure Video needs an iCloud+ plan and an Apple home hub, though HKSV recordings do not count against the iCloud+ storage quota.

What do you need for HomeKit Secure Video to work?

An Apple home hub, a HomePod, HomePod mini, or Apple TV, must be on the network to record events, and the account needs an iCloud+ plan for the encrypted storage. Most Apple households already have both, and because HKSV footage does not use the iCloud+ quota, it adds no storage cost.

Does face recognition work without HomeKit?

Yes. The G4's face recognition runs on the device through the Aqara Home app, independent of HomeKit, so it tags household members and frequent visitors and can drive automations even for buyers who do not use Apple Home. It is a local, no-subscription feature.

Is the chime included, and can it store footage?

Yes. The G4 ships with a chime-repeater that plugs into an outlet, plays a loud 95-decibel alert, extends wireless range, and holds a microSD card up to 512GB for local recording. That means the box includes both the indoor chime and a place to keep footage locally, with no extra accessory required.