There’s a new sheriff at the smart-door frontier, and it’s singing “ding-dong” with an attitude. Aqara’s successor to the popular G4 video doorbell—the aptly named G410—just landed at $129.99, and it’s more than just a fresh face. This is one of the only doorbells out there that checks the Apple HomeKit Secure Video box and lets you go battery-powered or hardwired, all without forcing you into a subscription plan.

If you remember the G4, you know it was a solid choice for HomeKit users looking to DIY their way to front-door security. Aqara took everything that worked—HomeKit Secure Video, decent 1080p footage, optional hardwiring—and then turned the dial way past eleven. The G410 captures at 2K resolution in a slightly boxier 4:3 aspect ratio, giving you more vertical view of whoever’s standing at your porch (175 degrees wide, to be precise). All video—live or recorded—is encrypted end-to-end, so even if someone intercepts the stream, they’ll see nothing but scrambled pixels.

Here’s where things get really interesting: the G410 doubles as a multi‑protocol smart‑home hub. Under its weather‑resistant shell are radios for dual‑band Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and Thread, plus an onboard Matter controller. In practical terms, that means your front-door guard can also serve as a command center for any Aqara Zigbee sensors, Thread‑based lights, or third‑party Matter devices you sprinkle around the house—IKEA bulbs and all. For those rolling their own home automation with platforms like Home Assistant, the G410 even supports RTSP streaming, so you’re not locked into any cloud ecosystem.

Most doorbells use PIR or pixel‑change detection to guess if there’s someone at your door—error‑prone when a bush sways or a branch drops. The G410 introduces. …mmWave radar. This sensor actively emits millimeter‑wave signals and measures their reflections to sense presence more accurately, even in complete darkness. The aim is fewer “false positives” and more confidence that the notification on your phone actually means “hey, someone’s here,” not “a squirrel walked by.” Better yet, Aqara has baked on‑device facial recognition, so you can tag frequent guests or family members and tailor notifications (or even trigger a light‑switch routine when Uncle Joe arrives) all without sending your biometrics to the cloud.

Subscription fatigue is real. Ring, Nest, and everyone else have tried to woo us with “premium” cloud plans that spike your monthly bills. Aqara is stubbornly sticking with local storage as the first citizen of its doorbell world. Hardwired setups can record 24/7 straight to a microSD card (up to 512GB) housed in the 95dB indoor chime hub, or drop video onto your own NAS over the LAN. If you really want cloud extras—like longer clip history or advanced AI detections—you can buy into Aqara’s optional plan, but for most users, that local microSD just works and never asks you for a credit card.

Matter is supposed to simplify smart‑home gadgetry, but many of us have half a Zigbee house, a pile of Thread accessories, and a wish list longer than our wiring skillset. The G410 can sit at the nexus, bridging older Aqara Zigbee sensors to a Matter fabric, or joining Thread‑only devices into your HomeKit playground. Paired with the Panel Hub S1 Plus—and hey, you can actually buy that seven‑inch touchscreen now too—it’s practically a control manifesto for the connected home.

Maybe you don’t care about HomeKit. Or maybe Amazon Alexa or Google Home have exclusive bragging rights in your living room. The G410 has multiple cast endpoints: stream to Echo Shows, Google Nest Hubs, SmartThings displays, or anything that speaks RTSP. Aqara clearly didn’t want to leave any ecosystem out in the cold—and for the home theater buff, that choice can mean the difference between “just another cam” and “that’s the one that plays on my screen.”

You don’t have to scour shady sites or wait for the next sale—Aqara’s G410 is shipping now from Aqara’s own online store and Amazon for $129.99 in the US.

If you’re happy to toss your footage into someone else’s cloud and pay monthly for face‑recognition “perks,” you’ve got plenty of choices. But if you’re like me—tinkering with a mix of Zigbee sensors, Thread bulbs, and open‑source automations—Aqara’s G410 is a rare beast: a premium HomeKit camera, a DIY‑friendly local‑storage guardian, and a Matter‑ready hub all rolled into one. It’s the only doorbell I know that asks for no ongoing fees, yet still learns faces, senses presence with radar, and talks every major smart‑home dialect under the sun. That versatility might just make it the new porch hero for any connected household.