Aqara E1 2K Pan & Tilt indoor camera 📷

This compact pan and tilt indoor camera offers detailed 2K monitoring for living rooms, nurseries and home offices, helping you keep an eye on people and pets with smooth 360° coverage and real‑time alerts. It combines clear imagery, night vision and on-device detection to make everyday monitoring more practical and private.

Key Points

The camera captures at a high 2304 × 1296 resolution, which improves clarity for identifying faces and movement in the home. It has a wide f/2.0 lens and a motorised Pan/Tilt mechanism that enables a complete 360° view, so blind spots are reduced and tracking is more continuous. 📷

Privacy is addressed through an automated privacy mode that physically pivots the lens away and the option to disable audio recording in the app. The built‑in NPU performs person detection and can trigger local automations without sending all footage to the cloud, which may reduce unnecessary alerts. 🔒

Connectivity benefits from Wi‑Fi 6 support for better performance on crowded networks, and the device uses the WPA3 security standard for encrypted wireless links. Note that the camera requires a 2.4 GHz Wi‑Fi network and does not support 5 GHz networks, which could be a limitation in some setups.

Technical Specifications

• Name: Aqara 2K Indoor Security Camera E1
• Resolution: 2304 × 1296 pixels
• Lens aperture: f/2.0 with 360° Pan/Tilt motor
• Night vision: 940 nm infrared backlight
• Storage: microSD up to 512 GB, plus encrypted 24‑hour cloud storage
• Connectivity: Wi‑Fi 6, requires 2.4 GHz, supports WPA3
• Power: USB‑C, requires 5 V 2 A USB‑A power supply (not included)

Usage Recommendations

Place the camera on a shelf or mount it at a central height to take advantage of its panoramic sweep and person tracking. For best live view responsiveness, connect to a stable 2.4 GHz Wi‑Fi network and ensure the router supports Wi‑Fi 6 features if you expect multiple devices to stream concurrently. If long continuous recording is needed, use a high‑endurance microSD card up to 512 GB and check NAS compatibility for backups.

Positive Aspects

Support for HomeKit Secure Video enables end‑to‑end encryption and local recognition when used with an Apple Home hub and an active iCloud subscription, according to the manufacturer. Integration with Alexa, Google Assistant and IFTTT expands automation possibilities, and the automated privacy mode gives quick control over when the camera is active. Consider that cloud AI features such as pet or vehicle recognition require a subscription to the HomeGuardian plan, and some advanced detections are available only within the Aqara Home app.