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Aqara showed up in Berlin for IFA with a couple of new smart home products, and they are all Matter-compatible. Which is a huge deal, as we start to move towards the Matter protocol taking over the smart home.
First up is the Smart Lock U200. This is a new smart lock that actually doesn’t require you to change your actual lock. This is a retrofit solution, giving users a keyless home access option. As this does work with a NFC card, or specific NFC-enabled mobile devices. You can also use a PIN, fingerprint or a mobile app to get into your home.
Aqara has also announced its Camera E1. This is a smart camera for your home. It’s a Pan/Tilt Camera with 2K resolution. It does support Apple HomeKit Secure Video, as well as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. So you can use your voice to control it. Aqara is using WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 here for connecting to your home and smart devices.
Next up is the Dual Relay Module T2. This is is a versatile home automation solution, and gives you control over various devices, including lights, motorized window coverings, garage doors, boilers, electric heaters and even underfloor heating. It was built on Zigbee 3.0, and supports Matter-over-Bridge, and other major third-party platforms.
Aqara’s Ceiling Light has a LED status light
Many have been wanting smartphones to bring back a LED status light, but Aqara did it with their ceiling light. It’s a multi-color light, and has about 16 million vibrant colors, which enables users to set ideal lighting for different moods and occasions. It does have Matter-over-bridge support, and works with other major platforms.
The ring around the light can serve as a status indicator when linked to other smart home products. This would allow you to program the outer link to show a specific color when one of your other smart devices detects an issue, such as a leak or an open door.
These are all set to be available in the coming months, but Aqara did not mention specific availability dates, nor pricing.
