AqaraDoor and Window Sensor P2, Matter Over Thread, Requires Thread Border Router, Contact Sensor with Remote Alarm and Local Automation, Supports Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa and SmartThings

Aqara makes some of the best smart home technology you can buy, and these are so far the best door/window sensors I've purchased. I really like that it is built with Matter; it works with Apple's HomeKit right out of the box and also paired easily with Home Assistant. No hub needed. If you're very familiar with either of those smart home systems, you know how frustrating it can be if you ever experience an internet outage... waiting for all of your devices to come back online, sometimes needing to be repaired. I have never experienced this issue with these Aqara sensors. They come back online ASAP and I have never had to re-pair them.

I’ve been a long-time Aqara customer with over 35 Aqara products at home — including switches, cameras, and sensors. The original Aqara Zigbee contact sensors have worked flawlessly for years. That history of reliability is what led me to purchase four Aqara P2 Contact Sensors, which use Matter over Thread. Unfortunately, the P2 has failed to meet expectations.Constant Disconnections:After just a few months, the P2 sensors started disconnecting from Apple Home. Unlike Zigbee devices, which reconnect automatically after outages, the P2 requires a manual factory reset and re-pairing. This means removing it from Apple Home and rebuilding every associated automation and shortcut. This disconnection occurs roughly every two months or after internet outages, even though Matter and Thread are supposed to be local protocols. Other Matter and Zigbee devices recover just fine — only the P2 fails consistently.Battery Drain Issues:One of my P2 sensors showed 0% battery. After inserting a new CR123A battery, it dropped to 25% within a day and 0% by the next. Another fresh battery dropped to 75% in minutes. I contacted Aqara support, who attributed it to residual power and advised removing the battery, holding the reset button for 5 seconds, then reinserting it. This did not resolve the issue.Poor Customer Support:Support requires emailing Aqara and waiting 3–4 business days between responses. After weeks of following scripted troubleshooting steps, they concluded that my device was out of warranty and that I would need to purchase a new one. Given the issue appeared after a battery change, this response was especially frustrating.Final Verdict:The Aqara P2 Contact Sensor is unreliable, difficult to reset, and not ready for real-world use. If you’re heavily invested in automations or HomeKit, you’re better off with:• Aqara’s original Zigbee contact sensors, which are far more stable• Or Eve’s Matter-compatible contact sensors, which have performed far more reliablyThe P2 is not worth the time or effort. Aqara’s implementation of Matter is still too immature for a critical-use sensor.

INSTANT updates! Matter compatibility is true and works amazing. Price is a bit high but I don’t regret buying it. The adhesion is very strong and holds up even after moving it to different doors. Size is pretty small. Amazing sleek look. Would recommend, planning on buying more! Very nice to automate with Apple Home

a disclaimer: I actually use this as a way to tell if my deadbolt is locked or not rather than the door being closed. But for everything else my impressions are the same.This is a pretty good product! I pull it out of the box. Set up a new device in google home. Scan the QR code. Wait a minute for google to finish the set up. Stick it where it needs to be stuck. Reapply it with some duck tape after the sensor fell off a few minutes after I set it. Yeah, the adhesion is great... after the glue has had time to set properly. So far that first time was the only time it's fallen off in the month that I've had it. So you just need to make sure that it is supported in some way for at least a few hours to a full day and it should be good after that.The software experience was almost dumb in how simple it was, which is exactly how a smart home device should be. It should be as close to plug-and-play as possible. The Matter standard makes this semi-feasible. I needed it to have matter for a different reason though. The long and short of it is that I don't have access to 2.4 ghz wifi, only 5ghz. So any smart device I get has to be able to connect to my nest hub in some way. Previously this meant scrouring for the rare smart devices that could connect to it with Bluetooth. But now that Matter is getting into the swing of things I actually have some options. And through matter its actually faster to respond than my old wifi and bluetooth devices! The bad news with that is that Matter is still a very new standard. With that come a few trade offs:1. you need a matter hub2. The new tech tax is certainly in effect here.While I'll take having an expensive option over having none at all. 30 dollars for a door sensor is pretty steep. (I got it on a black friday sale for around 20 though so keep checking if you want to save some money) But thats just something that comes with the territory I guess. So far all of the matter devices I'v bought have been more expensive than non matter counterparts. I'm sure as time goes on Matter will get support accross the spectrum of smart devices and prices will go down as the tech matures. But for right now we are still in the early adopter phase and you'll be expected to pay a little more..As far as the sensing part of things. It works. That's about it. It actually comes with 2 magnets which is nice. A pretty, white pill-looking one. As well as a flat, plain metal one that you can use instead of the pill if your situation demands a smaller profile. I do wish they would have put some way of knowing where the sensor needs to line up with the magnet to get it to work so that I didn't have to experiment with alignment as much. But that's a more minor gripe.