Today I went on Amazon (in US) to order a couple more FP1E and the regular price is still $49.99, but the Prime member price has increased from $39.99 to $42.99.
This is getting quite pricey, IMO. In the end, it may be the price which drives me towards the ESP based sensors.
I imagine by now you have settled on something. I AM surprised you wrote off the Apollo devices. They turned out to be my choice after testing several others. They are a little more $ bc they are a small business and I doubt they get the same pricing on components that huge companies get.
That said, I have found them to be extremely reliable. I too wouldâve liked zigbee, but, such is life. They are adequate for fairly large rooms, have configurable zones and sensitivity is set by .25/.75m increments. As far as false positives go, I mounted mine at about chest height and that has been low enough to not be triggered by a ceiling fan (about 6-8ft away). Mounting height and location is honestly the best way to eliminate false positives after tuning sensitivity. I had about 6 in use before I moved. They were reliable enough that I bought another 3 or 4 just to have as backups or to potentially stick at my parents house. Itâs been about a year and a half now and they are one of a select few devices Ive been able to âset and forget.â
Well I have been at this for years already, and I learned a lot but I would still say there is no real definitive answer which was why I made the thread. And I plan to continue doing research as resources allow (I now find myself again with more time on my hands).
Having said that, FP1E are standing head and shoulders above the rest, but they are expensive. And I am still doing extended testing on additional units. Which are also performing equally well, so far. I have not seen any of this dropping out that some people have reported (but I have taken great care in selecting a good Controller, channel, using Z2M, and building out my Zigbee network with plenty of repeaters, etcâŚ).
To me they are just very over priced for what they are. I guess they do have a lot of additional sensors on board, so if you are just starting out and still need all those things in addition, perhaps the value proposition is better. But if you already have separate sensors covering those âotherâ things, the Apollo becomes quite pricey when you are only looking for a standalone mmWave sensor. And ESP/LD24xx based sensors do not seem to be that expensive in general, they can be had for much less from Athom (which comes in an actual injected molded case, and includes mount, cable, charger, etc.) for much less money as well as Screek which are also less. And I have heard good things about those as well, and imagine they should work as well as the Apollo, for less money. But I suppose I should test that supposition at some point.
In fact as I mentioned the FP1E (my current favorite) has gotten so expensive that it might finally drive me to consider the ESP based sensors. But Screek and Athom both take a long time (weeks), shipping from China. Which is something else to consider.
I also need to add some pictures to the OP, as many of these (especially Tuya) devices are similarly named and it can be confusing to tell whatâs what I think.
EDIT:
I am also slowly realizing that light level detection is somewhat related to presence detection (at least in my mind, in terms of controlling lights). And so this is something I think I will add to the requirements. I was sort of trying to keep that separate, but now I think I will start to include that in my evaluations as well.
Has anyone tried the Meross MS600? Iâve been using it via Meross LAN integration and it worksâŚmostly. I havenât added it to HA via the Matter integration though so I might try that. It just seems to disconnect from wifi frequently enough to be annoying and would be terrible if the device wasn;t easily accessible to unplug/plug.
No zones so more like the Aqara FP1E than the FP2.
Man, I was so hyped to get the FP2 felt like I was about to install alien tech in my smart home. But the second I saw that janky USB-C power situation, my excitement deflated like a sad balloon at a toddlerâs birthday party. Now Iâm deep in Google rabbit holes, trying to figure out how to hard-wire this thing like Iâm defusing a bomb.
And bro, the moment I plugged it in? That thing started detecting ghosts. I swear it picked up a full paranormal investigation team in my living room. 
Now itâs just chillinâ in the box again⌠waiting to be returned like an overenthusiastic poltergeist detector. 
Yes, you will initially have ghosts, you have to spend some time setting them up, and once they are set up they work extremely well.
I have 10 of them, they replaced all my FP1âs and FP1Eâs which all failed in the same manner.
One of my FP2âs (master bath room) covers 3 rooms; bathroom, toilet, and walk in closet, this particular one functions in the place of 4 motion sensors, and all of those used batteries which add to the cost, did I mention I dislike batteries.
Agree with @NRA, once you put the FP2 in place and set it up using the app (yes, this is a thing you have to doâŚno way around it) then you can help it learn how to dismiss false positives and define interference zones. I have 3 FP2âs in use and after doing the work to get them sent up I am very happy with their performance.
@rouxdoo @NRA maybe ill give it another shot, but i dont like usb c so im gonna have to do some electrician work to hardwire it some how
Can we please stop discussing FP2, as I have very clearly already stated it is against criteria #1 and therefore off topic for this thread.
roll-eyes in Spanish
Well, idk to be honest mmwave stuff dont meet my expectations, so i cant recommend a good one if the the most popular one is not my taste
Yes, instead of trying to keep things organized, letâs talk about whatever we want, wherever we want, so other people have to waste their (valuable) time sifting through irrelevant information.
There is an entire thread here chock full of good information (which you clearly have not read), instead choosing to default to selection criteria based on âwhat is popularâ. The amount of disdain I have for that level of laziness burns like a thousand suns.
My apologies 
The Sensy one looks interesting; it is WIFI though.
Thanks for sharing.
This appears to be another LD2450 based sensor. Which means you get the neat little map and maybe even multiple target sensing. But these are known to be worse at âpresenceâ detection (when you are still). Which is my main need, although both ways have their applications, I suppose.
Other than that this just appears like âyet anotherâ commercial product based off ESP32. I find most of these quite over priced for what they are. This one is $43 (I did not even look at shipping, which I am sure is in addition) which sounds just crazy to me, when ESP32 and LD2450 sensors are only a few dollars each. I could not tell if this includes a power supply / USB cable or not, but those items (plus the case, swivel mount, etc.) I suppose could close that gap somewhat, but stillâŚ
I only today realized that the FP1E does not even have a light (lux) sensor. 
In the meantime, I also became interested in Bermuda (BLE trilateration) as an additional method of Occupancy detection. In fact, I now think that combining something like that with mmWave might be the âHoly Grailâ of Occupancy detection.
If you put all of that together, it is pointing (at least in my mind) directly at ESPHome. So, finally, I think I will start working in that direction.
Therefore, I am not sure how many more of these Zigbee mmWave devices I will be buying in the future. However please do add your experiences with any other relevant devices, for the benefit of others who may come stumbling along (as I have, and continue to, link to this thread from many places).