AqaraSmart Hub M3 for Home Automation, Matter Controller, Thread Border Router, Features Zigbee, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, PoE, IR, Supports Alexa, Apple HomeKit, SmartThings, IFTTT

I'm not new to Smart devices. For the past two years, I have been using a Samsung Smartthings hub with their door and motion sensors. The problem? Every 2-3 months I was replacing the batteries in those sensors. I was completely dissatisfied with Samsung devices.Aqara was not the first remedy I sought. Sure, their accessories are dirt cheap, but wading through the number of reviews, there are just as many bad as good. On top of that, the fact that this is a Chinese company raises security concerns.I decided to replace all my Samsung sensors with those from Aqara. Additionally, since I wanted to integrate them into Apple Homekit, I wanted to get the latest and greatest hub from Aqara. And, once again, the reviews on this product were all over the map. At worst, I would return the hub if it didn't work.I am amazed at how quickly I not only set up this hub (pairing it with the Aqara app), but all the sensors and motion detectors I bought in addition to it. I wired the M3 hub directly out of my Eero mesh unit's ethernet output. It quickly connected to the Aqara app and soon afterward, I was connecting my accessories.No issues. Everything showed up not only in Homekit but in the Alexa app as well. Whenever my doors were opened or closed, an alert was sent to my iPhone (iOS 18) and Mac.All of this was set up within 35 minutes out of the box.The only downside to this hub is that it's expensive. It only covers approximately 60-65 feet and I have a very large home. I am either going to have to buy more of these hubs or the cheaper Aqara extender if I want to add more accessories at the further end of my home.I do completely understand, from the extensive research I have done that this is a half-baked product which has a lot of bugs. The fact I am only using it for basic monitoring functionality is probably the reason why everything has worked as smoothly as it has including quick pairing to devices.I will say that I went from being skeptical about Aqara to becoming a huge fan of their devices. I am amazed at how well they work, how long their batteries allegedly last, and how cheap they cost. I'm also optimistic that their new M3 hub will only get better through software updates. It's nice to have a device that can help all my different security devices, Alexa and Google hubs, and Apple Homekit work together.

A really good solid hub. Very reliable. The automations never failed to run. Nice built in speaker with various alarm options. Cool ablity to bundle together multiple sensors into a single Matter "signal". For example--6 water leak sensors--if a single 1 of them registers water, the combined signal fires and alerts my Home Assitant which is connected to the M3 hub via Matter. You can choose what Aqara items to expose to Matter, which is great., it doesn't just puke out everything unless you want that. If I recall it's similar for HomeKit, but I did not get into that too much.Why 4 stars? It cannot adopt 3rd party zigbee. This is not a secret and they do tell you this prominently in the description. But what I found is I need more zigbee routers or else some Aqara sensors that are far away from the hub lose connection. So Aqara's outlets are like $30 and normal generic zigbee outlets are like $12. So I was considering how I would need to add several outlets for the sole purpose of extending the Aqara zigbee network. Aqara may be better quality than most, but the cost of the required network rapidly expanded. Why pay 3x for outlets that are only going to be routers and will not even have anything plugged into them? And I would be adding yet another (third) zigbee network to my existing Hue and Home Assistant networks. Plus the wifi also at the same frequency. And anyway with a generic zigbee setup I can just get an _actual_ zigbee range extender like the Aeotec Zi. So the lack of afforable range extenders is a huge issue with Aqara.Then lets talk about the Aqara app. It is chaotic, jumbled, confusing, phone-only (no computer access except via a MacBook running the iPad version). Dashboards and interfaces you create are trapped on that particular device, not stored on the hub. It's a horrid task to try to set up the same things for my devices plus everyone in my family. So as an automation-only proposition it is good. If you wanted dashbords and you do not live alone with a single phone...it's not a great exprience.If you are all-in on the Aqara ecosystem, this is the only Aqara hub to consider. Its ability to form a redundant cluster with another Aqara hub is spectacular and unique.I am selling mine on ebay as it was not a good fit for my house. I hate to see it go in some ways, but my home assistant box and generic Zigbee routers are cheaper and as a complete system work better. I _am_ still using my Aqara leak sensors, door contact sensors, and temp sensors as they work great...I'm just not using Aqara technology to inteface with them.

I found this device easy to install, synched with the network easily and played well. Just couldn’t get it to recognize other Matter devices which was the only use case I had/have for it.

Good zigbee home automation hub. Lots of great automation and security features built into it and the iPhone App. Easy to set up. Easy to create automations.I added temperature sensors all over the house and inside the refrigerator and freezer. The hub sets off a loud alarm if the freezer fails of the door is left open.We added water sensors, temperature & humidity sensors, and smart locks.Only down side is that it only works with Aqara devices. No third-party devices.