SMLight SLZB-06MG24U - Zigbee 3.0 & Thread Multi-Connection Coordinator PoE Ethernet/USB/Wi-Fi, EFR32MG24 Chip, USB Passthrough

Radio chip: EFR32MG24 Silicon Labs (Cortex-M4F 80 MHz, 256 KB RAM)

Main chip: ESP32-S3 Espressif (2 cores @ 240 MHz)

Ethernet chip: WIZnet W5500

Supported protocols: Zigbee 3.0, Thread, Matter-over-Thread (OTBR), Bluetooth LE (via ESPHome)

Operating modes: Zigbee Coordinator, Zigbee Router, Matter-over-Thread Border Router, USB Passthrough

Network interfaces: Ethernet RJ45 10/100 Mbps, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, USB Type-C, Bluetooth

External antenna: SMA +5 dB, L-shaped, rotatable in 3 dimensions

Wi-Fi/Bluetooth antenna: integrated PCB, +2 dB

Radio amplifier: up to +20 dB

Power supply: IEEE 802.3af PoE (48 V) and/or USB Type-C, simultaneously possible with opto-electronic isolation

Power consumption: 1 to 1.5 W

Home automation compatibility: Home Assistant (official native integration), Zigbee2MQTT, ZHA, OpenHAB, HomeSeer, Jeedom

Firmware: SLZB-OS pre-flashed, ESPHome compatible, community open-source firmware, one-click OTA updates

Advanced features: USB Passthrough TCP/IP, WireGuard VPN, DDNS, OTBR, 4 status LEDs, physical button

Dimensions and weight: 160 x 24 x 28 mm (86 g), antenna 192 x 12 x 12 mm (15 g)

Operating temperature: +5°C to +35°C, humidity < 60%

The SLZB-06MG24U is the kind of product I wish I'd had from the start of my Home Assistant journey. SMLight took the already excellent SLZB-06M recipe and boosted it with a state-of-the-art EFR32MG24 radio chip (256 KB RAM, EMBER stack stabilized on Zigbee2MQTT and ZHA) and especially a ESP32-S3 dual-core at 240 MHz that unlocks the flagship feature of this series: USB Passthrough. In short, you can plug any dongle (Z-Wave, Bluetooth, another coordinator...) into the USB-C port and your Home Assistant server will see it as if it were plugged in locally, when it's actually on the other side of your house via Ethernet. For an installer thinking about antenna placement, it's a game changer.

On the home automation integration side, it's hard to be more open. The product comes pre-flashed with SLZB-OS, automatically detected by Home Assistant via its official native integration, and compatible with all serious ecosystems (Zigbee2MQTT, ZHA, OpenHAB, HomeSeer, Jeedom). Power supply via PoE 802.3af or USB-C, both simultaneously if you want redundancy thanks to opto-electronic isolation, integrated WireGuard VPN, one-click OTA updates, community open-source firmware possible, ESPHome flashable directly from the web interface. In short, it's 100% local, no cloud, no external dependencies. At around €37 from Domadoo (often on sale around €31), the value for money is formidable against the Sonoff ZBDongle-E which remains a simple USB dongle without networking or PoE.

There are still two things to keep in mind before buying. First, it's a single-radio coordinator: it does Zigbee OR Thread, not both at the same time. If you want to run a Zigbee network and a Matter-over-Thread network simultaneously, you need to aim for the SLZB-MR4U or MR5U (dual radio physically isolated). Second, SMLight releases new models at a pace that can lose a beginner (06, 06M, 06MG24, 06MG26, MR1 to MR5, Ultima, SMHUB...), and the web interface, even translated to French, remains dense. But for a user who wants a reliable, scalable network coordinator perfectly integrated with Home Assistant, this SLZB-06MG24U is probably the best choice in its category today. The rating of 4.5/5 reflects that: not 5, only because single-radio is a real limitation for those who want to do everything with a single box, but everything else is at the level expected from a high-end open source product.