Smallest Hub Yet? The Aqara Hub E1 - Homekit Smart Home

hi i'm debra lloyd and welcome to my channel all about making your home smarter with apple homekit hot off the press introducing a car's newest hub their usb powered e1 hub which was officially released in these markets effective today october 26th not only is this a car's newest hub it's also their smallest hub not much larger than an average usb drive and only weighs 58 grams making the move to a car has never been easier i have a product link and discount code in the description but first what features does it have is there anything missing and should you buy it all of this information coming up if you're not familiar with acara they make reliable and easy to use smart home products that are compatible with a variety of smart home platforms in fact the e1 hub works with homekit google home alexa and ifttt though i will of course be focusing on home kit as always i initially didn't give a car much consideration mainly because it wasn't available in canada and then later because i needed to buy a hub when they did come to canada i'd hop onto amazon and think hey there's an affordable accessory like a door window sensor and it works with home kit from this company called acara ah but i need a hub so end up paying considerably more for a sensor from another company thinking that it'd save money because i don't need a hub then a month or two goes by and i pop back on for maybe a motion sensor this time and i go through the same thing i later realized that because of the cost of the other accessories i actually paid considerably more than if i had just gone with a car and purchased the hub stick around and i'll tell you more about how a car adds value to their hubs homekit products have always been more expensive than other smart home platforms and that's a large part of a car's appeal yes you need a hub but once you have it it's so easy and fast to build out your smart home because their sensors are so affordable though i would not recommend a product just because it's affordable reliability is number one it has to consistently work and work well the more i've used zakara the more impressed i am i've been very happy with the performance and reliability of all of my acara products and in part that's because of the hub that makes their products so dependable these products communicate using zigbee which is both fast and reliable i feel like this is a good time to thank akara for sending me their e1 hub to test out and review though i also want to mention this will not influence my opinion of this product if i have critical feedback i will absolutely let you know so let's take a look at akara's newest hub well here it is as you can see it's extremely small and as the name suggests it connects via usb this makes it easy to connect without being obtrusive this simply connects to any usb port such as a wall outlet with usb or a wall charger you can even connect this to the usb on your router or computer or if you have one of those five watt charging bricks laying around from an old iphone then that works as well in fact this is how i have mine installed as you can see it can easily pivot to keep it out of the way i love how small it is it's barely noticeable and setup was a breeze [Music] from the akara app select the e1 hub from the list of available hubs [Music] then scan the home kit code and wait for it to connect [Music] once installed i'm prompted to update the firmware to ensure i have the best performance once that's done you're good to go and you can start pairing whatever child devices you have such as a temperature sensor wireless mini switch or a motion sensor just to name a few this hub is super small and inexpensive but does that mean it's less capable the answer to that is no as a hub the e1 is equally capable with the cars other flagship hubs like their m1s m2 and g2h camera hub this hub communicates using zigbee 3.0 it is capable of connecting up to 128 devices though this device is compatible with all four alarm modes via notifications on your phone if say there was unexpected motion or door window sensor was triggered however there's no speaker like there are on the car's other hubs and no light like there is on the m1s so something to keep in mind if the alarm feature is important to you trust me i get the concern with having too many hubs but the trade-off is performance which is worth it in my opinion i say the same when it comes to lutron caseta and phillips hue threat is here and if you watch my videos then you know i'm totally on the thread bandwagon but compatible accessories are still limited and typically cost more at least for now what i appreciate about a car is how they take something basic like a hub and they add value by including an alarm system or night light an infrared blaster or even a 1080p indoor camera i mean maybe we have it wrong maybe you're buying an accessory that just happens to be a hub i see that you want hub being for someone that doesn't need all the bells and whistles of some of the other available hubs or perhaps someone who's just getting started with the yakara ecosystem and wants to take advantage of all their devices and sensors the one feature that i do have to mention that's unique to this hub is that it's capable of being a 2.4 gigahertz wi-fi repeater within more settings you can actually create a wi-fi hotspot where you can then connect up to two devices this could be any wi-fi devices that are maybe further away from your router so could benefit from the boosted wi-fi you can customize the ssid and password to make it the same as your main network or make it something different if you choose so really while i hope this video has shown you the features and benefits of the e1 hub i also want to share how the affordability of these products make it even easier to enter into the acara ecosystem to build a reliable and affordable smart home as of recording the g2h sells on amazon.ca for 89.99 the m2 is 74.99 and the least expensive a car hub is the m1s at 64.99 the e1hub is available today for only 39.99 canadian that's pretty affordable in my opinion overall i've been impressed with the product and its reliability so to celebrate the launch of a car's newest hub a car has provided a promo code that will give you an additional 10 off the link of promo code is in the description and it's valid now through october 28th once you have the hub you're in the ecosystem and this opens up so many possibilities to explore including door window sensors motion sensors leak sensors buttons and switches so so many possibilities and a car is always innovating and coming up with new products like the hub we discussed today so you just know there's some new cool devices in the works maybe even some that could potentially benefit from the wifi repeater on the e1 hub with the holidays just around the corner not only would these make great gifts but it's the perfect time to smart home your place up and wow your family when they come to visit i'll link in the car playlist in the description which includes videos i've done reviewing their various hubs and sensors so make sure to check those out i'm also working on another car video that i'm really excited about that will show up just how well all of these car accessories work together so keep an eye out for that to drop later this fall thanks everyone for sticking around till the end of this video i appreciate you supporting the channel once again if you're interested in picking this hub up the promo code is good until october 28th thanks as always for watching and i'll talk to you soon

Channel: The Brad Lloyd

Views: 22,400

Keywords: Aqara Hub Homekit, Aqara Hub E1, Homekit, New Aqara Hub USB, Aqara Ecosystem, Apple Ecosystem, Aqara hub install, smart home product testing, Smart home reviews, Zigbee, Team homekit, Tech life, Technology, thread, Homekit 2021, Aqara new product, Smart home automation, Smart home your place up, The Brad Lloyd, Siri, automations, scenes, Start smart home, google, amazon, alexa, homekit 2021, homekit secure video, G2H, M2, M1S, Hub comparison, Matter, Canada, US, France, UK, apple

Id: tqoWUDxL4N4

Length: 7min 47sec (467 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 26 2021