Making the smart home actually 'smart' and connected to the internet requires real gadgets, and Aqara's latest batch is all about securing doors. If you've ever wondered how technology could improve your front door, all you need to do is look at the kind of gadgets on the way from manufacturers of smart home peripherals. Between cameras made for the front of house and cameras in doorbells, the general vibe you might have expected is a visual approach to securing the main gateway to your home. But it doesn't have to be the only way to keep the entrance gated and secure. Aqara is showing what else you can do with some recent additions to its smart home range, as it completes its range of smart home products with a number of gadgets that are clearly about what's going on at the front of the house, and perhaps for windows and doors elsewhere. The new additions are four strong and include a doorbell, a lock and two types of sensors designed to connect to the range of smart home platforms already on the market. That starts with the first of these, the Aqara G4 Doorbell, a doorbell system that uses AI-based facial recognition to find out who's at the door, send notifications to your phone when they've arrived, and interact with Aqara's other talk gadgets. It works with smart systems from Google, Amazon and even Apple's HomeKit, with Aqara noting that it's the first battery-powered doorbell to play with Apple HomeKit, something Ring's equivalents haven't yet offered. From the sound of it, it should also work well with Aqara's Smart Lock U100, a door lock replacement that supports a fingerprint reader with up to 50 fingerprints, while unlocking is also possible with a keypad or even an Apple gadget. Simply put, if you have an Apple Watch or the Home app on an iPhone, tapping a registered smart lock will open the door. Door locks aren't known for being wired, and the Aqara U100 is no different in this way: it supports a battery life of up to eight months, uses AA batteries that can be easily replaced, and is IP65 water and dust resistant. The other two smart home gadgets from Aqara are a bit different, but still built with the front of the house in mind. The $59 P2 Door and Window Sensor is a simple sensor designed to let you know when a door or window is open, and can play with home automation platforms by triggering functions when either condition has occurred. For example, if the front door opens at a time you didn't expect, you could get an alert or even activate another gadget, such as a connected thermostat. Meanwhile, the $197.99 Aqara FP2 presence sensor is different again, costing about four times as much and using mmWave radar technology to detect people in different positions. This means you can place the FP2 in areas around the home to detect the presence of more than one and up to five people, with one sensor able to cover multiple zones across a 40 square meter space. The sensor also covers light sensing and can trigger home automation routines based on things that happen when the lights are off. “We have expanded our offering here locally in Australia to help Australians unlock the full potential of building a smarter, safer home that meets their needs,” said Mark Berahmand, Business Development Manager for Aqara in Australia. “Our latest products offer an unparalleled level of versatility and are suitable for a wide range of applications and different types of homes,” he said. “Whether you are a tech-savvy enthusiast, a busy professional looking to streamline your daily routines or a creative looking for innovative ways to enhance your living space, our solutions are designed to seamlessly integrate and adapt to your needs. lifestyle.” Availability of the Aqara range sees the gear arrive in Officeworks stores and other select dealers across the country, with the G4 doorbell for $239.99, the U100 Smart Lock for $499.99, the P2 door and windows sensor for $59, and the occupancy sensor FP2 for It's worth noting that some of the Aqara features may require one of the company's hubs, which starts at $49.99, but can also be found in the combined camera and Zigbee G3 Hub, which we tested last year and costs $194.99 locally.