Having a smart home hub that can control your devices can make your life much smoother. Rather than having to rely on each individual device to do its job or having to program them all for each individual use, a smart hub can help by automating processes and keeping everything connected, at a minimum, under a single app. Many advances have been made in recent years regarding smart home devices and their connectivity protocols. Matter and Thread are two technologies that are at the forefront of the future of smart home devices due to their ability to allow devices to become their own hubs or facilitate connections between devices that do not come from the same company.
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Aqara is one of the leading smart home device manufacturers on the market today. Its catalog of devices is extensive, ranging from smart bulbs to smart blinds to smart security cameras and much more. Traditionally, the company required one of its hubs to automate many of its devices. Its latest hub, the M3 Hub, offers some of the best features of its predecessors while adding new ones. With Matter, Thread, Zigbee, and Bluetooth connectivity, you’ll be able to use the Aqara Hub M3 with dozens of devices. Here’s more of what the new hub offers.
Aqara M3 hub
Recommended
The M3 Hub is Aqara’s latest smart home hub. It can connect Matter devices and is a Thread-based router. It can also connect via Zigbee and Bluetooth, giving owners a ton of flexibility with their smart devices.
- Compatibility
- Zigbee, wire, material, Bluetooth
- Colors
- Black
- Dimensions
- 4.13″ x 4.13″ x 1.44″
- Power
- 5V
- Matter protocol
- Thread-based router
- Powerful speaker
- The Aqara Home app is not the easiest to use
- Works best with Aqara devices
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Price, availability and specifications
Available now
The Aqara Hub M3 was announced at CES 2024. It just became available this week and has started shipping. It was planned for the second quarter of 2024 but without a fixed date until now. It costs $130, more than double what the Hub M2 currently sells for. The Hub is not heavy at all and fits in the palm of your hand. It measures 4.13″ x 4.13″ x 1.44″, allowing you to easily move it from place to place in your home if you wish. You can also mount it on the wall, as it is Comes with mounting kit and screws.
Aqara M3 hub
- Compatibility
- Zigbee, wire, material, Bluetooth
- Colors
- Black
- Dimensions
- 4.13″ x 4.13″ x 1.44″
- Power
- 5V
Design
It is different from its predecessor
This time, Aqara has decided to make its Hub a little more square. The Hub M2 is rounded, while this one is boxier. You can power the device in two different ways. It has a USB-C port for plugging it into a wall outlet and it comes with a cable. There’s also an Ethernet port that lets you plug it into your router or USB hub, potentially giving you a hub plugged into a hub. Either way, connecting it to your local connection via Ethernet or Wi-Fi is simple.
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You need to download the Aqara Home app to use the device. Once you download the app and add the M3 Hub as one of your devices, you’ll be able to customize how you want to use it. You can also connect the Hub to Apple HomeKit, Google Home, Amazon Alexa and other smart device systems. It can also be connected to a third-party Matter ecosystem. It also serves as a Zigbee 3.0 hub, allowing you to connect many older, non-Matter-compatible Aqara devices to it.
It doesn’t have a camera, which Aqara was specific about and noted in its CES announcement to highlight the hub’s privacy features.
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Features and performance
All this happens through the application
I tested the Aqara P2 motion and light sensor and the Aqara P2 door and window sensor and connected both to the M3. It took a while to figure out how to navigate the app, as the instruction manual you receive from Aqara is minimal and requires you to scan a QR code to get a longer e-manual, which is aimed more at you show how to install or modify your devices. battery.
The main feature I used the M3 Hub for was to send me a notification if someone walked in front of the motion sensor or if the window opened or closed. To do this, I had to put automation in place. They come in the form of IF/THEN prompts and you can choose from a number of different responses. If someone walks past the motion sensor, you can receive a push notification on your phone or an email. But you can also ask the M3 Hub to play a sound, which is a convenient way to alert you. The speaker goes up to 95 dB, which could scare away any potential threats if someone breaks into your house. It also allows you to choose from a bank of noises or even customize your own.
With the M3 Hub you can also adjust the sensitivity of your Aqara Matter-over-Thread devices. Both sensors I tested had these protocols, so I was able to adjust the light sensor or play with the alignment of the door and window sensor. It also features a 360-degree bi-directional infrared emitter, which provides enhanced detection when a conventional infrared remote control is used.
Another big change between the M2 and M3 is that it allows two Aqara Thread devices to link together, allowing the two devices to communicate even if the Hub loses power. So your smart blinds could be linked to your smart light sensor and continue to work, even if the M3 Hub was offline.
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Competitors
The best value for money
Without a doubt, the Aqara Hub M3 is the most affordable hub with Matter-over-Thread technology. Something like Amazon’s Echo Hub has a similar idea, but has a touchscreen and lets you see camera views from it. It is much more expensive because it has more features. But if you’re okay with using the Aqara Home app to see what your Hub is doing, you might not need it.
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Verdict: Should you buy the Aqara Hub M3?
If you are brand loyal and a big Aqara fan, you should definitely consider the M3 Hub. This will allow your new Aqara devices to work well with your old devices, and Aqara has announced that it will soon roll out the ability to sync with non-Aqara devices, meaning this Hub will only become even more useful. For what I need it for – providing alerts when sensors detect presence – the Hub works perfectly. I want to add more devices and see what else it can do in the future.
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This article is sponsored by Aqara.