Aqara Hub M3 vs X-Sense SBS50 Base Station

The Aqara Hub M3 is the far more capable hub. It supports Zigbee, Thread, a Matter bridge, Bluetooth and IR alongside dual-band Wi-Fi, Ethernet and Power over Ethernet, and it reaches Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, SmartThings and Home Assistant. The X-Sense SBS50 Base Station has none of those protocols and only connects to Alexa and Home Assistant.

The Aqara Hub M3 is a multi-protocol smart home brain: a Zigbee coordinator, Thread border router and Matter bridge in one unit. The X-Sense SBS50 Base Station is a single-purpose safety gateway that only pairs X-Sense smoke, CO, heat and water leak alarms over a proprietary sub-GHz radio, with no Zigbee, Thread or Matter support at all.

No. The Aqara Hub M3 can be powered over Ethernet in addition to USB-C, and it also adds a 5 GHz Wi-Fi band the SBS50 does not have. The SBS50 runs from its own power adapter and connects only over 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, with no Ethernet port at all.

Anyone centering a smart home on Aqara sensors, locks and switches who also wants a single hub to bridge Zigbee, Thread and Matter devices into Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, SmartThings and Home Assistant.

Owners of X-Sense smoke, CO, heat or water leak alarms who need the required base station to interconnect them, get alerts in the app or through Alexa, and hear a shared sounder when one alarm triggers. It has no role outside that X-Sense safety lineup.