Product Library / Cameras & Doorbells

Protocols: WIFI^{[4][22][27][30]}

Plans and ongoing costs^{[1][6][23][27][29]}

✓ Works without a subscription: Yes.

Vendor account required: Not established — we have not sourced this yet.

No subscription, and Aqara quantifies the saving in its own product copy: 'Save approximately $60 annually with free cloud storage for up to 7 days of event-based clips, eliminating the need for subscription fees.' Two storage paths ship free — Aqara's own 7-day event cloud, and local microSD in the indoor chime (card not included, up to 512 GB). For Apple households HomeKit Secure Video recording rides an existing iCloud+ plan, which is the buyer's existing storage rather than a camera fee. ⚠ Aqara describes NAS storage as 'planned', not shipped, so it is recorded as a future intention and not as a capability.

Maintenance and offline use

• Batteries: AA x6 — manufacturer-stated 4 months per set
• Works without the internet: Partly — some of it keeps working and some of it does not. See the detail below.^[24][31]
• Six AA batteries last up to 4 months by Aqara's own estimate, which assumes 35 wake-ups and a 6-second clip a day, so a busy front door will need fresh batteries sooner. Wired, the batteries become a backup for power cuts, and 24/7 recording to the chime's microSD card only works when the doorbell is wired. HomeKit Secure Video recording needs an iCloud+ storage plan.

Security updates^[12][39]

Aqara states its security-update commitment for this model as a period rather than a date: at least 2 years of security updates from the launch day — Aqara's stated policy, qualified to "certain device models" (the document this comes from names no country, so which markets it legally covers is not stated). That is a floor measured from a starting point the manufacturer sets — a launch or a purchase — rather than a fixed end date, so it cannot be placed on a calendar here. We record the commitment as the manufacturer states it, in our words, rather than converting it into a date it did not give. This is a published commitment, not a gap in our research.

Aqara's general policy promises security updates for at least 2 years from the launch day for certain device models, without saying which. Its August 2024 policy table dates this doorbell's launch to 23 March 2023 and lists its security updates as ending on 30 June 2026, a date that has already passed. Aqara has also signed a UK statement, dated 9 April 2024, promising at least 2 years from the launch day for the Smart Video Doorbell G4 under the model codes SVD-C01 and SVD-C02. We do not show that statement as this doorbell's promise, because Aqara's US store listing and US product pages do not print either code, so we cannot tie it to the version sold in the United States. It was filed under British law in any case, so it would not cover a unit bought elsewhere.

The catch

1080p only — resolution trails the 2K competition.

Who it's for

Apple households wanting HomeKit Secure Video without a Ring-style subscription.

Sources & method

Numbered sources below back the facts marked with the matching number above. This is a research profile: compiled from manufacturer documentation, certification registries, and published testing — we state facts, not verdicts, and we have not physically tested this unit. How we work →

Compatibility and lifecycle information reflects the last-verified date above and can change without notice (firmware updates, cloud-service changes, discontinuations). It is provided as-is, for information — verify with the manufacturer before purchasing. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it. Full terms: Terms of Service.