Aqara Hub M3 review

Aqara Hub M3: Introduction

Smart home nerds, like me, have been waiting for this one for a long time. An Aqara smart home hub that not only does all the things we’ve come to expect from the Chinese Zigbee specialist but also throws Matter and third-party support to the mix.

So, was the Aqara Hub M3 worth the wait?

The short answer is no… it’s a bit of a let-down.

The long answer, which I’ll cover in much more depth below in my Aqara Hub M3 review, is that it probably will be, once the proposed feature list becomes the actual feature list.

Aqara first teased the Hub M3 last year and it then got its officially unveiling back in January at CES 2024.

For an Aqara hub it’s somewhat on the pricey side, with a launch price of $129.99 in the US and £129.99 in the UK, but that’s because it’s more than just an Aqara hub; it’s the brand’s first Matter controller.

Previous Aqara hubs, such as the Hub M2, have simply acted as Matter bridges to get Aqara’s plethora of Zigbee smart home devices up and running with your Matter smart home.

The Aqara Hub is, on paper at least, a fully-fledged Matter controller that can work with non-Aqara Matter smart home devices and is also a  Thread border router too.

That means that it’s not just native Aqara devices can be controlled, but Matter devices from third-party brands, with local control and all the bells and whistles Matter brings.

In theory, at least, read on to find out why – at the time of writing – the Hub M3 is not yet ready to be a genuine rival to the likes of the Aeotec SmartThings Hub and the Homey Pro.

I’ve had the Hub M3 up and running for a few weeks now, here’s everything you need to know…

Design and build

The Aqara Hub M3 is the slickest looking hub from the brand thus far. Sure, it doesn’t have cute cat ears like the Hub G3, but you could always glue some on if that’s a deal-breaker for you.

Instead, the Hub M3 takes its design cues from the M2, with a sleek shiny black matte effect in a square form factor measuring in at 105 x 105 x 36.5mm. On the top is a little LED that is generally blue if things are ok.

On one edge you’ll find a pairing button (which is also used as a reset button if needed) as well as the QR codes you’ll need to pair with the Aqara app and also HomeKit. There’s no physical Matter QR code, instead you’ll generate this inside the Aqara app once you’ve got it paired.

You can mount the M3 using the bracket you’ll get in the box but I’d guess most people will simply just place it on a flat surface.

Flip it over and you’ll see a couple of ports; a USB-C one for powering up, and an RJ45 slot for an Ethernet cable.

As well as wired data, that Ethernet-in can also be used for Power over Ethernet (PoE), which is a great option if you want maximum internet connectivity.

Also built-in, and visible on the underside, is a 95dB speaker that can be used for alerts and as part of a DIY home security system, but I’ll talk more about that in a bit.

Setup and migrating old hubs

As well as that Ethernet option mentioned above, you do also have the option of getting the Hub M3 synced up with your home network over 2.4GHz or 5GHz Wi-Fi.

Whatever connectivity mode you opt for, you’ll find that adding the Hub M3 to your Aqara system is as simple as adding a smart sensor, maybe even easier.

When you first plug the M3 in, you’ll notice that LED flashing yellow and if you fire up the Aqara app then it should automatically detect it and you’ll be asked to scan the Aqara QR code.

If you don’t get the auto-detect option for whatever reason, simply tap the add accessory option in the app and the M3 will be discovered by your smartphone using Bluetooth and you’ll have to enter the QR pairing code manually.

Once you’re all synced up you’ll be asked to ‘Begin the journey of IoT’. What this means is you’ll have to choose between a Matter or HomeKit smart home system. If you choose the former it will, of course, still work with the latter, and I’ll come back to that in a bit.

I chose, and presumably most people will choose, the Matter route as it’s kind of the point of the new Hub.

The next step is deciding whether to have the Hub M3 as the leader of your existing Aqara hubs as shown in this diagram here…

… or choosing to migrate your existing hub over to the M3. I chose the latter as that’s how you can make use of the advanced Edge and ARK features, which I’ll come back to in a bit.

The good news is the migration tool itself is very good indeed; it pulls over all your existing Aqara ‘child devices’ (their terminology, not mine) and keeps all their names, automations and rules. This hasn’t been possible on previous Aqara hubs, so it’s a great new addition.

Even if your existing Aqara devices are powered down during this migration process, the Hub M3 will sync with them when they next power up.

Be sure to read through the migration wording though and, be aware, your current Aqara hub such as the M1S or an M2 will actually be factory reset as part of the migration process.

The migration process only takes a few seconds and you should then find that all your child devices are now listed under your new Hub – and, as mentioned, any associated automations or rules within the Aqara app should still be in place.

I noticed that a couple of my old Aqara devices showed up in the new list but were greyed-out. However, I found that it was easy enough to ‘fix’ these by long pressing the pair button on the devices that were unresponsive. That seemed to un-grey them (that’s not a technical term but I’m going with it) and all of their existing automations were thankfully still in place.

Controlling Aqara devices on the Edge

The Aqara Hub M3 is Aqara’s first ‘Edge Computing’ hub. What that means is that device settings, automations and the like are no longer cloud based but are run locally from the device itself. The M3 actually has 8GB of on board storage to keep everything stored.

Operating on the Edge allows your Aqara system and devices to be immune from internet outages, and, thanks Aqara’s ARK Mode 2, if you have a pair of M3s and one goes down, the other one can take over. I haven’t been able to test this though, as I only have the one M3 Hub in for testing.

What I have been able to test is Aqara’s ‘Device Binding Capability’ feature, where we’re told that if the internet fails, or Aqara’s cloud server goes down, and the M3 Hub itself also goes down then certain devices will still be able to operate.

Currently the LED Strip T1, the Relay T2 and the Ceiling Light T1M are supported for this feature and I tested it using an Aqara Wireless Mini Switch as an end point. It didn’t work with either the T1M or the Light Strip.

Aqara says that this feature will improve over time and that wired-Thread controllers will be part of the Device Binding party.

Talking Thread and the Motion and Light Sensor P2, and the Door and Window Sensor P2 are the only Aqara Thread devices at the moment and both currently have pretty limited features and settings within the Aqara app, but I’d expect functionality on these to be ramped up pretty quickly.

It goes without saying that you can still add regular Aqara Zigbee devices to the M3 Hub too.

Everything is controlled through the Aqara app, where it’s super simple to set up automations, create groups and more – take a look at our detailed Aqara smart home system review for more information on all of that side of things.

I’ve mentioned the loudspeaker up top and there’s plenty of scope to put this to use in the app, such as using it as siren for a DIY smart security system, having alerts when certain rules are met, playing specific sounds when preset conditions are met and so on.

For example, I have my Hub M3 in my garden office and it barks like an aggressive dog if the main door is opened overnight while I’m sleeping. It’s super simple to upload an MP3 to create whatever sound effect you want.

Matter matters

Now we move onto Matter… although I really wish I didn’t have to. Matter integration on the Hub M3, for launch at least, is very disappointing.

I’m confident, knowing Aqara as a brand like I do, that this situation will improve pretty drastically in the very near future but for now, it’s a bit of a mess. Actually, it’s a lot of a mess.

That Matter logo on the box, we were told, was supposed to mean that consumers could grab a Matter product at the store, take it home, and it would just work. As long as they had a Matter controller in place, everything would just work.

However, with the M3 Hub as a Matter controller, that’s quite far from the case. Nothing really works as it should.

At launch there are only three brands officially supported for getting Matter devices synced up with Aqara; Philips Hue (via the Hue Bridge), Nest Thermostats and Leviton Switches and Dimmers.

I have managed to get my Hue Bridge synced with the M3 but it shows as an ‘accessory’. None of the lights the Bridge are associated with seem to show anywhere.

Matter was supposed to be brand agnostic. Across the board we’ve seen ecosystems like Alexa, SmartThings, HomeKit and Google Home slow to react to certain device types – i.e. anything introduced from Matter 1.2 onwards such as air purifiers and robot vacuum cleaners – but this is the first time I’ve come across a Matter controller being fussy with the brands it supports.

Aqara did just announce that it has “expanded connectivity to more third-party Matter devices and the Hub M3 now supports these Matter-compatible device types: Contact Sensor, Occupancy Sensor, Light Sensor, On/Off Light (Wall) Switch, Dimmer (Wall) Switch, Thermostat, On/Off (Smart) Plug, Matter Bridge.”

Aqara also states though that “due to limited resources, we haven’t tested all third-party Matter devices, and as third-party support is still a ‘lab feature’, interoperability issues may arise.”

So that’s all pretty naff and a bit of a kick in the balls for early M3 adopters. But again, I’m sure it will all be rectified pretty soon.

The good news is that I successfully added a TP-Link smart plug to the M3 using Matter, so it seems that things are moving along at least.

I’ve been testing the Hub M3 with a range of Aqara child devices, both old and new, but it’s worth noting that you don’t actually need to use an Aqara Matter controller (just the M3 at present) to get your Aqara Matter-over-Thread smart home devices – such as the Motion and Light Sensor P2, and the Door and Window Sensor P2 – working within a Matter smart home ecosystem. You can sync them with non-Aqara Matter controllers such as the HomePod 2 or an Amazon Echo Hub.

That’s the whole point of Matter, if it has the Matter logo on the box then you don’t need to worry about what brands work with what.

That’s the big idea anyway, although this review proves that it’s not really working out that way in practice.

Integrations with other ecosystems

Now, remember when I talked about first setting up the M3 and the choice between a Matter and a HomeKit system?

Well, there’s a few things you need to get your ahead around if you are in Camp HomeKit, before you make that decision.

The first thing to note is that you can choose the Matter system option, out of the box, and still sync everything up with HomeKit, that’s not a problem. However, be aware that HomeKit will pull in the Hub M3 as a new bridge in the ‘Home Hubs & Bridges’ section, and ask you to add all of its child devices to the rooms they are in.

So, if you want to migrate from an old Aqara hub to a new one, then be sure to do that migration before adding the Hub M3 to HomeKit over Matter.

You’ll then have to delete your old hub as a bridge from HomeKit, and that will then kill of the existing child devices too, so you’ll have to redo any Apple Home automations that these were part of. You’ll also have to rename them and reassign them to any rooms.

That goes for Alexa and SmartThings (and presumably Google Home too, although I haven’t tested on that platform yet) if you’ve got your M2 already added through Matter  – the Hub M3 becomes the gateway for the child devices and other platforms won’t know these are essentially the same devices but with a new leader.

In HomeKit, using the Matter-system mode, you won’t be able to add the Hub M3 itself as a ‘device’ and assign it a room; so you won’t be able to use its alarm functions as part of security automations – you’ll have to configure these within the Aqara app directly.

This isn’t Aqara or Apple’s fault though; Matter doesn’t yet support alarm systems.

In the HomeKit system mode – i.e. you ignored all the Matter stuff during setup – you can use the M3 as a siren in an alarm system and HomeKit also offers more child device features, such as adaptive lighting. There’s currently no option to use the siren if you’re going direct through Alexa.

If you did go down the Matter-system route and you care about such things, you can check if your Hub M3 has joined an existing Matter-over-Thread network by looking out for ‘Router C4’ in whatever network tree tool you use.

The only exception to these child device rules are Aqara’s Matter-over-Thread devices. The likes of the new P2 duo won’t be pulled across to other ecosystems as a result of being paired to the M3, they will need to be added individually to the likes of Alexa and Google as that are standalone Matter devices. That goes for 3^rd-party devices too, like the TP-Link I added to the M3 using Matter-over-Wifi.

I wasted hours trying to get the P2 sensor duo synced up with Matter and the Hub M3 using Thread and in the end just gave up. I think my existing Matter Thread network was causing problems, I don’t think the M3 is capable of merging Thread networks, just creating a new one. Again, that’s not what Matter was meant to do.

Another complicating thing I’ll add to the mix here (wasn’t Matter supposed to make everything easier?) is that you can, if you really want to, actually use both Matter and HomeKit setup modes simultaneously… but I can’t even be bothered to open that particular can of worms.

In fact, I’d totally avoid ‘cross contamination’ of anything as it currently stands. I grabbed the pairing code and added the M3 to Alexa over Matter and, while it pulled over all the child devices, they were mostly unresponsive or slow.

IR blasting

The addition of a two-way 360° infrared blaster means you can even get your AC and AV equipment singing and dancing in your Matter smart home.

This is a superb feature of the M3 Hub. Not only can it fire signals to your TV, AC unit and the like, the IR blaster is also constantly listening. That’s a game changer, I don’t think I’ve come across anything like this in the IR blasting world.

What that means is that, even if you pick up your old dumb remote to control your AC, those signals are picked up and replicated inside the Aqara app, or indeed HomeKit or Alexa, where the temperature changes are reflected in the digital controls.

However, I couldn’t actually get the two-way IR control with my AC working at all. I’ve seen videos online of people doing this so I’m guessing this is a me problem, not an Aqara problem. I can get my AC unit identified and can control it no problem, both through the Aqara app and through Apple Home, but I can’t get remote control button control changes reflected in either app.

I’ve reached out to Aqara about this, and a number of other issues I’ve covered in this review, and I’ll update as I hear and learn more.

Final thoughts

Yes, the Hub M3 is massive disappointment in terms of Matter support, and there’s work to be done on some of the more advanced Edge and ARK technologies but I’ve every faith that Aqara will address these issues in the very near future.

As an Aqara-only hub it’s pretty awesome already, with numerous features that set it apart from its predecessors and so, if you’re looking to create or upgrade a rock-solid smart home with Aqara at the front and center, you can’t go wrong.

I’ll readdress this review soon to include details on any updates and improvements that land, and there’s a very good chance the star rating could see a significant boost if the Hub M3 eventually lives up to its lofty billing.

So be sure to check back for updates.

How we test

When we publish our reviews, you can rest assured that they are the result of “living with” long term tests.

Smart home hubs and bridges play a key part in controlling, a smart home ecosystem, or a range of products that – supposedly – all work in harmony.

Because we’re testing smart home kit all day, everyday, we know what matters and how a particular smart controller compares to alternatives that you might also be considering.

Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and fair and, of course, we are never paid directly to review a device.

Read our guide to how we test smart home hubs to learn more.

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