two thousand and fourteen In, it can be said that smart home products are really popular. Smart home products have gradually expanded from bracelets and watches to all aspects of life. It seems that any product closely related to our life has the necessary conditions to become a smart home product as long as it can connect to the network. For example, only cameras, smart refrigerators, smart light bulbs and the like can be seen. It's a little exciting to see the smart home life created by the manufacturer's promotional video! Recently, I got a smart socket, so how much convenience can this inconspicuous small socket bring to our life?

Appearance design

The whole packaging style is basically the mainstream "passer-by A" packaging style in the market at present, and there is basically nothing to say.

On the back, I believe you can guess with your eyes closed: various product parameters, features, etc. There are two points to note here: 1. This socket has two specifications: 10A and 16A. The personal experience is the 10A product. It is said that the 16A household appliances cannot be connected, and I don't know much about the specifics; 2. Only 2.4G WIFI can be used, and 5G WIFI cannot be connected. This has caused a lot of trouble in personal follow-up experience, which will be discussed in detail below.

Here I want to talk about the difficulty of opening the whole box: there is no auxiliary handle on purpose, and the damping sense of the box is very poor, so it is very difficult to open the box. I hope that it can be improved in subsequent products.

The whole socket is rectangular with rounded corners, which is different from the socket shape we generally know. The official introduction said that the socket is made of flame retardant PC material, which is heavier than the general socket when held in the hand. However, the rectangular with rounded corners gives a good feel. If you experience mobile phone products now, you might use the word "hand fitting"!

I am very confused about the product manual. Except for a QR code and warranty information, there is no product use instructions, and the product packaging box already has the QR code information. I don't know what the purpose of this manual is!

There is a design officially called "child protection door" inside the socket, which is actually a small baffle, which can effectively prevent the bear child from inserting his fingers or other sharp objects into the socket. Because of this baffle, it requires a little force to insert the plug into the socket.

The side is a QR code and bar code. Yes, you can read it correctly. It's another QR code! The QR code on the packaging box and the instruction manual is installed with the corresponding APP, and then the QR code on the socket can be paired with the socket through scanning the APP. The two-dimensional code scanning recognition rate on the side of the socket is very low, and the basic scanning can be successful twice after five times. It is strongly recommended to scan the two-dimensional code on the packaging box.

The socket is not completely white. There is a small part of black mirror design on the top of the socket. The black and white color matching is a bit of a science and technology style. I feel it is good. In addition to the decorative function, the black mirror can easily identify the different working modes of the socket through the indicator light during the use of the socket.

The plug of the socket adopts the national standard three leg flat figure of eight. Maybe for this reason, there is no way to retract or disassemble it. In addition, the larger body always gives a very bulky feeling.

Compared with Xiaomi small box, it can be seen that there is still much room for optimization in the size of the socket. If the size is smaller and the plug is made flexible, the overall experience will be much better.

  After the socket is connected to the power supply, the red light is on, indicating that the socket is in the power supply state. The green light is on for a long time, indicating that the connection to the network is successful. The green light is flashing, indicating that there is a problem with the network.

user's experience

It is very simple to download AAP, install and register it by scanning the QR code on the box.

A very depressing problem occurred during the personal connection process: the router used by the individual supports 5G and 2.4G frequency bands. Usually, the mobile phone is connected to the 5G frequency band. Since the socket is only applicable to the 2.4G frequency band, I switched the mobile phone back to the 2.4G frequency band and still cannot connect to the socket. Finally, the 5G band cannot be closed through the router management background. After two days of tossing and turning, the problem still cannot be solved.

There was no way to solve it at home, so I took the socket to the company. After a friend in the group gave me advice, I was finally able to connect to the network. I had to give up the experience several times in the middle of the journey. I think this socket should be optimized for network compatibility!

After painstaking connection, when entering the operation interface, you can see that there are three basic functions, namely, "real-time, consumption and reservation": real-time display of current and wattage of current appliances; The consumption can display the power consumption for a period of time; Appoint the time when the switch can be opened by intelligent control. For a socket, these are the most basic functions.

When I turn on a 2-liter hot water bottle, I can see the obvious changes in current and wattage when I turn on the power. At the same time, the electricity statistics can be switched between the line chart and the bar chart through a button on the interface. At the same time, statistics can be made according to the "day, week, month, and year". I think that more "day" and "week" should be used!

I tried to control my desk lamp again, and found that the current and wattage were much smaller than that of a 2-liter hot water bottle. Since I was in the unit, I didn't do a long test, so I couldn't make a fine comparison. It is interesting for Bi Jiao to input the unit price of electricity charge to calculate the electricity charge for a period of time. Personally, I think this can be a test for those household appliances that promote energy conservation, such as "only one kilowatt hour per night", to see if they are bragging!

summary

After a period of experience, I think that the imagination space of products such as smart sockets is too small to become the mainstream of the smart home market, because: 1. Smart sockets can only control one product at present, that is to say, if you need to control many products, you need many smart sockets, This is much less convenient than an intelligent router that can control all devices connected to WIFI in the home; 2. Personally, I think it is OK to control devices like simple desk lamps and water heaters that only need to be turned on without too much operation. If you need to control devices like air conditioners and rice cookers that need to be operated, you will be powerless. Personal suggestions for IVYLINK smart socket are as follows:

one . Optimize your figure. Now you are really a little overweight;

two Optimize the network connection. The WIFI environment in the user's home should not adapt to the socket, but the socket should adapt to the WIFI environment in the user's home;

three Add USB interface. Since it is called smart socket, it must be cool!

For products such as smart home, I think the whole set can give play to its advantages and convenience. It is difficult for a single product to give play to its convenience advantages. If you get up in the morning, you need an APP to control the microwave oven, an APP to control the desk lamp, and an APP to control the air conditioner, will it be convenient for you? So at present, whether Alibaba, Baidu, 360, Xiaomi, Meizu and other manufacturers are either open system interfaces or do all of them, or understand that smart home needs a package to have advantages! At present, Xiaomi is moving faster. Lei Jun's idea of "connecting everything with mobile phones" is being implemented step by step. I hope that both giants like BAT and others who are interested in the smart home market can make efforts. After all, competitive consumers can benefit!