Technical specifications of R412M and R422M82
The SARA-R412M and SARA-R422 cellular communication modules are products of the u-blox company, which offer solutions for IoT (Internet of Things) connectivity. Although both modules are designed for IoT applications, there are some technical and functional differences between them.
The SARA modules we will compare will be the following:
SARA-R412M-02B LTE Cat M1 / NB1 and 2G module
Mainly designed for operation in LTE bands 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 20, 28 and 2G 4-band
SARA-R422M8S LTE Cat M1 / NB2 and 2G module with UBX-M8 GNSS inside
Designed for operation in LTE bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 20, 25, 26, 28, 66, 85 and 2G 4-band
SARA-R412M modules simplified block diagram
S
SARA-R422-01B module simplified block diagram
SARA-R412M-02B | SARA-R422M8S-00B | |
Region | Multi region | Multi region |
3GPP release baseline | 13 | 14 |
RAT (Radio Access Technology) | LTE Cat M1 | LTE Cat M1 |
LTE FDD bands | Band 2 (1900 MHz) | Band 1 (2100 MHz) |
2G bands | GSM 850 MHz E-GSM 900 MHz DCS 1800 MHz PCS 1900 MHz | GSM 850 MHz |
Power class | LTE category M1 / NB1: 2G GMSK: 2G 8-PSK: | LTE category M1 / NB2: 2G GMSK: 2G 8-PSK: |
GNSS receiver | ❌ | u-blox M8030 SPG 3.01 supporting
concurrent reception of up to 3 GNSS
(GPS/Galileo + GLONASS or BeiDou) |
Integrated GNSS receiver | ❌ | ✅ |
External GNSS control via modem | ✅ | ❌ |
AssistNow software | ✅ | ✅ |
CellLocate® | ✅ | ✅ |
UART | ✅ | ✅ |
USB | ✅ | ✅** |
SPI | ❌ | ❌ |
SDIO | ❌ | ❌ |
DDC (I2C) | ✅ | ✅ |
GPIOs | ✅ | ✅ |
MQTT Anywhere | ❌ | ✅ |
Secure boot, updates, and production | ❌ | ✅ |
Ultra-low power consumption in PSM | ✅ | ✅ |
Embedded TCP/UDP stack | ✅ | ✅ |
Embedded HTTPS, FTPS, TLS | ✅ | ✅ |
DTLS | ❌ | ✅ |
FW update via serial | ✅ | ✅ |
u-blox Firmware update Over the Air (uFOTA) | ✅ | ✅ |
LwM2M device management | ✅ | ✅ |
MQTT | ✅ | ✅ |
Last gasp | ✅ | ✅ |
Jamming detection | ❌ | ✅ |
Antenna dynamic tuning | ❌ | ❌ |
Antenna and SIM detection | ✅ | ✅ |
Grade | Professional | Professional |
*: Not supported by the SARA-R412M-02B-00 product version.
**: Supported for FW update and diagnostic only
The SARA-R412M is more geared towards applications that prioritize power saving, having a lower data rate, but still providing advanced connectivity functionality.
The SARA-R422 is best suited for applications that require a high level of security and medium speed data support.

Comparison between SARA R412M and SARA R422M8S