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Aqara's New Thermostat Uses Apple's Smart Temperature Controls

The Aqara W200 is one of the more affordable smart thermostats and includes Aqara's new presence-sensing tech.

Headshot of Tyler Lacoma
Headshot of Tyler Lacoma
Tyler Lacoma Editor / Home Security and Smart Home
Tyler has worked on, lived with and tested all types of smart home and security technology for over a dozen years, explaining the latest features, privacy tricks, and top recommendations. With degrees in Business Management, Literature and Technical Writing, Tyler takes every opportunity to play with the latest AI technology, push smart devices to their limits and occasionally throw cameras off his roof, all to find the best devices to trust in your life. He always checks with the renters (and pets) in his life to see what smart products can work for everyone, in every living situation. Living in beautiful Bend, Oregon gives Tyler plenty of opportunities to test the latest tech in every kind of weather and temperature. But when not at work, he can be found hiking the trails, trying out a new food recipe for his loved ones, keeping up on his favorite reading, or gaming with good friends.
Expertise Smart home | Smart security | Home tech | Energy savings | A/V
Tyler Lacoma
2 min read
Aqara's new smart thermostat on a white wall by a painting.

Aqara's thermostat is one of the new models that's adding Apple's smart temperature adjustments and savings.

 Aqara

I've never seen a smart thermostat quite like this before. The Aqara W200 smart thermostat, which debuted at CES 2026 and is now available to buy for $160, has several smart features for temperature management.

It's one of the first thermostats to support Apple's two new thermostat features, Adaptive Temperature and Clean Energy Guidance. They're similar to smart thermostat features you'd find on, say, the Nest Smart Thermostat and Google Home app, but with an Apple twist. 

Apple's adaptive temperature lets you use your iPhone to set temperature preferences, then turns on modes that adjust your thermostat for you. The thermostat uses mmWave radar for presence sensing, a frequency-based sensing method that doesn't use cameras and can only provide general information, such as how many people are in the room.

With your permission, it can tap into your Apple Maps, Apple Calendar and other information to predict when you arrive at and leave your home, making your temperature settings largely hands-off. 

Smart thermostats are often a great way to save money and usually pay for themselves in a year or two. Apple helps with that, too: There's an "Optimize" tool that works a lot like Nest's Eco Mode, and similar features that automatically adjust temperatures to save energy. 

This thermostat can also act as a Matter hub, a central device that manages and connects Matter-certified smart home products across different brands within a local network. You can use other Aqara smart products (over 50 of them) and third-party Matter-compatible devices, making it an interesting choice for an expanding smart home. It can also serve as a display device to show you the live video feed from your Aqara video doorbell on that screen.

Consider the cost

At $160, it's not the cheapest smart thermostat I've seen -- that's probably Amazon's own thermostat, typically priced below $100. 

But it compares well to the budget Ecobee Smart Thermostat Essential ($140). The Aqara thermostat costs $20 more but offers features I've only seen on advanced thermostats that cost well over $200 before. Those advanced features include full Matter hub capabilities and the ability to use it as a security cam viewer.Â