SwitchBot Hub 3 Review: A brilliant Matter controller

Design and Installation

• Wall or desk mounted
• Works with the SwitchBot app

Think of a smart home hub and throw away that preconception, as the SwitchBot Hub 3 looks nothing like this. In fact, it looks like (and is) a combination smart display and controller, with a front that has a control dial and a wide range of physical buttons. Compared to the simple on/off control on the SwitchBot Hub 2, there’s a lot more going on here.

Not that the Hub 3 looks or feels particularly busy, and it has a sensible, clean layout, with all of the controls within easy reach of a hand.

At the top is an LCD that shows climate and weather information by default, plus it has sub screens depending on which device you’re trying to control.

The Hub 3 is powered by USB-C, with an input port and an output, too.

There’s a choice of desktop or wall mounting, depending on where you want it. For me, I use the SwitchBot Hub 3 in my office, so it makes sense to have it within reach on my desk.

I found the Hub 3 quick to set up, and once plugged in, I used the app to connect it via Bluetooth to the app, and then connected it to Wi-Fi, ready to go.

Device Control

• Supports up to 30 Matter devices
• Offers direct control over SwitchBot devices
• Can remote-control Matter devices

As a SwitchBot hub, the Hub 3’s main job is to make the company’s devices controllable via the internet and Matter. SwitchBot has long ago simplified how its devices work with a Hub, and there’s no need to physically associate a device with a Hub; instead, devices just connect to nearby hubs, whether that’s the Curtain 3, Lock Pro or just the original SwitchBot Bot button pusher.

In that regard, there’s no real difference between the Hub 3 or the Hub 2. In fact, if you don’t want or need a smart display or the physical controls, then a screen-free Hub Mini is a better, cheaper choice for you.

The Hub 3 comes into its own if you’ll use its physical controls and have a lot of devices that you want to connect via Matter. For Matter, the Hub 3 can be quickly connected to the smart home system of your choice, whether that’s Apple Home, SmartThings, Homey or Amazon Alexa.

Once the Hub is added, individual devices have to be added for Matter, appearing in your smart home system. Up to 30 devices are supported, which includes all of SwitchBot’s existing line-up of products, plus the added extra of being able to add as many smart buttons as you like.

Each smart button is a virtual button that appears in your Matter controller, so you can assign it a control. Matter buttons can be labelled in the app, and it makes sense to give them a meaningful name that explains what they do, such as ‘Close office blind’.

From the main control panel, Matter smart buttons are accessible after hitting the Device button. All smart buttons are grouped under one menu, where they appear in list form: just use the dial to scroll down to the one you want and click to select the option you want.

Smart buttons give me a neat, quick way to perform simple actions. For example, I’ve got three set up to open, close and part-close my SmartWings Matter Blinds. It’s great on a sunny day to quickly part-close the blinds to shade my desk from the hot sun.

This level of control is straightforward but a bit basic, which is why the Hub 3 also directly supports SwitchBot devices, offering more direct control.

For example, add a SwitchBot Roller Blind, and the touch buttons at the top offer 10%, 30%, 50% and 80% open levels; the on/off button opens/closes the blinds fully; and the dial can be used to select a percentage level of open or close.

A device’s abilities limit what’s available. With a SwitchBot Bot, for example, there’s only a choice of on/off, mimicking the button press option. Still, it’s handy to have this kind of direct control. I’ve got a SwitchBot Bot connected to my printer to turn it on and off. With the Hub 3 I can quickly turn the printer on when I’m ready to print.

SwitchBot device control is extremely fast, faster even than using the app. A quick tap of the control and then the action I want is almost immediately applied to the connected device.

Beyond Matter and SwitchBot devices, the Hub 3 can also be used to control a variety of other devices, from an Apple TV to a Fire TV. I set up the FireTV, which required me to pair the Hub 3 to the FireTV Cube via Bluetooth.

Once connected, the cursor keys on the dial are used to navigate the menu, on/off turns the device on or off, and I can play and pause media. It’s an interesting integration, but is it better than using the official remote? Not really, I can’t work out when I’d want to control my FireTV Cube via this method.

IR control is also available, with a transmitter on the back. As with previous hubs, you can get the Hub 3 to learn remote commands for a wide variety of devices and then control them all from the Hub’s main interface.

While all connected devices are available by hitting the device button on the front, the SwitchBot Hub 3 also has quick access to two devices with a click on the left or right cursor pad. Configurable in the settings menu, this option makes it very quick to control my most used devices.

I have my printer control set up as one of the options, so I can get the printer turned on when I need to print something out; without the Hub 3, I had to get my phone out, open the SwitchBot app, find the Bot, and then control it.

Smart Display

• The display shows temperature and humidity
• Can pull in data from an external source

As well as controlling devices, the SwitchBot Hub 3 has a screen used to show current information. By default, it uses its integrated sensors to show the current conditions in the room you’re in, displaying temperature and relative humidity. These readings are also logged to the cloud.

Provided you’ve configured your home with an address, the display will give you the current weather forecast, with a temperature reading and an icon showing conditions, such as sunny or cloudy.

It’s handy to have this information on tap, but you can also switch the temperature source. If you have a SwitchBot Meter Pro CO2, then you can display all of its readings on the Hub 3 instead.

I’m not sure how useful that is: if the Meter CO2 was in the same room, then you could just look at that; and I’m not sure why I’d want to see temperature, humidity and CO2 readings from a different room in my house.

More useful, to me, is that the SwitchBot Hub 3 can be used with the Indoor/Outdoor Thermo-Hygrometer sensors, which can be placed outside. I use a sensor so that I can see what the weather is like outside.

It’s a shame that there’s not a button to quickly change between indoor and outdoor readings. Once paired with an external sensor, the only way to get the SwitchBot Hub 3’s internal climate readings is to open the app and look there, which isn’t as convenient.

Should you buy it?