Aqara has made a big splash in Australia in the last couple of years with some great smart home products at relatively affordable prices. Today they have signalled their commitment to Matter and Thread with a new multi-protocol Matter controller and some new Thread-based products.
The new Aqara Hub M3 is their newest smart home control centre and includes support for Thread, Zigbee, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and infrared giving it the ability to connect to and manage the ever-growing number of Matter devices on the market.
Its advanced connectivity allows the Hub M3 to be the ideal control centre for your smart home — it also supports 2.4GHz/5GHz dual-band Wi-Fi and Power over Ethernet (PoE) connection for even more connectivity options. Now you can add non-Aqara Matter devices into the Aqara app thanks to the M3 allowing you to control and manage these devices from a single location.
The Aqara Hub M3 offers a 360 degree, 2-way infrared blaster allowing you to use it to control your TV, AC and other IR-controlled devices. It can also work as a Matter bridge for older Aqara Zigbee devices, be used as a speaker, siren or doorbell thanks to a loud 95dB speaker and can be mounted anywhere thanks to the included mount.
The Aqara Hub M3 is expected to ship globally in Q2 2024. We will provide local availability and pricing when it crosses our desk.
The Aqara Boder Router Smart Plug is the first smart plug that also functions as a Thread border router allowing you to easily add Thread devices to your smart home. As with most smart plug sin 2024, it can also monitor energy usage which can be handy to track down where all your energy is being used.
The Aqara Smart Lock U300 is an indoor or outdoor door lock/handle designed to replace a standard door lock (not a deadlock though — they have something for that though). The new smart lock uses Thread and is compatible with Matter and has a battery life of up to eight months. The U300 includes fingerprint security, PIN codes, NFC and supports multiple voice assistants.
The U300 can be controlled using the Aqara app or any Matter app — which is the whole idea of Matter, interoperability.
Expected to ship in the coming months local availability and pricing has yet to be determined but we will let you know more in the coming weeks.
Scott is our resident open technology expert. If you can mod it, or want to use it your way, Scott has probably done it. From Laptops to phones, headphones and game consoles, he’s played with it and wants to see the next generation.
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