It seems like every company who has even the tiniest interest in smart home technology starts with a smart outlet and no smart home is complete without at least a few of them.  They can be used for an endless number of purposes and are an inexpensive way of smartening up your existing products.  VOCOlinc has seemingly burst onto the scene offering affordable and accessible smart home gear and in early 2019, they released their SmartBar, a sleek, compact version of their popular PM1 smart plug.  The folks at VOCOlinc were kind enough to send us out a SmartBar to get our thoughts on it so let’s dive in and see how it stacks up against the competition.

A review unit was provided to myHomeKithome for the purpose of this review, but no compensation was received nor was the content reviewed before publishing. All thoughts expressed are purely those of my own.

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Features

• compact design allows for full use of both outlets
• on/off power state LED indicator
• Anytime, anywhere control via a HomeKit hub or VOCOlinc cloud
• Works with Apple HomeKit, as well as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa

Need to Knows

• WiFi connectivity (2.4 Ghz band)
• iOS 12 or later required
• 1800W / 15A maximum

Pros

Admittedly, I was impressed with the packaging of this device.  It’s very minimalistic yet nothing was left out.  It includes the plug itself, a quick start guide, and a customer support card, as well as a cardboard support for the device and that is all.  The packaging fits in with the minimal design of the SmartBar.  Our HomeKit code is also prominently displayed on the underside of the box and is also found in several other places which is a thoughtful touch. Overall, I thought this was cleverly designed.

As the SmartBar is actually VOCOlinc’s third single smart plug outing, the design and features are  paramount.  What the device may lack in features and bells and whistles, it make sup for in its compact and simple design.  The idea behind the SmartBar seems to be its smart control functionality as opposed to its brethren in VOCOlinc’s lineup which feature USB ports and other features which you may or may not need.  I personally appreciate this aspect of the device since I rarely find myself using these features on other smart plugs that I have kicking around the house.

We’ll go through this in a bit more detail in the discussion of the app, but setup was, as with most HomeKit accessories, ridiculously easy.  It literally took less than 5 minutes including the firmware update.  This is a big plus in my book.

Cons

While I’ve personally never found this particular feature useful, it would be nice if the SmartBar had power metering.  Setting automations to switch on or off a device once a certain amperage or wattage is met can be a money, and potentially, a life saver.  I imagine this was a feature that was cut to reduce size and cost, however.

We’re also not able to control the LED indicator on the front.  While a quick visual indicator of the device’s power state is nice, it seems like the fact that the appliance plugged into the module’s power state would be evidence enough to determine power mode.  Thankfully, the LED isn’t obnoxiously bright like some other smart plugs on the market.

The App

The setup experience was nearly instantaneous.  In some manufacturers’ apps, you have to kind of search through tabs and pages in order to find the add accessory function, but VOCOlinc makes it easy by adding a big + button right on the Home tab  which is your default landing pad upon launching the app.  One thing I did find interesting was that although this device connects over WiFi, I didn’t receive the usual request to have it join my network during the setup process.  This is likely because I already have the Flowerbud connected and it just probably used the data from there.  If intentional. I think it’s a nice detail, but I can see how some might want to be informed of each device that is connecting to their network.

The team working on the app is pretty dedicated to improving the user experience.  Updates go out constantly that fix bugs and improve UI and I certainly appreciate the dedication.  Through the app there are also regular firmware updates which keep the device protected and running smoothly.  In fact, I’ve never setup a VOCOlinc product that didn’t push me to update the firmware immediately after installing it.  

Regular software and firmware updates aside, in terms of functionality for the SmartBar itself, there really isn’t much that HomeKit doesn’t already offer us, .  You can turn the accessory on and off, program a schedule, and you can add it to scenes with other accessories, but that’s really the extent of the LinkWise app functionality.  This isn’t necessarily a negative thing though.  The device seems to have been intended to work primarily with HomeKit or one of those other platforms, so I’m not convinced that a robust, feature rich app would even be worth the investment.

Final Thoughts

I personally purchased VOCOlinc’s Flowerbud and Lightstrip a few months back and have been happy with the quality of the accessories and the user experience and their SmartBar falls in line with this sentiment.  VOCOlinc seems to be dedicated to offering quality and affordable smart home products that are extremely functional and don’t skimp on the user experience.  I appreciate this, especially in a market that can seem to be dominated by high-priced gagdetry.  The SmartBar works as advertised and is a great solution if you are looking for a smart plug that doesn’t take up too much space.  Sure, it may not have a lot of fancy features, but I argue that many of the features we see with other smart plugs really aren’t that useful and drive up the cost and take up space.  IF you’re in the market for a simple, compact, inexpensive, and fairly universal smart plug, I would definitely add the VOCOlinc SmartBar to your considerations.

How do you use smart plugs in your home automation setup?  Do you have the SmartBar or any of VOCOlinc’s other products?  Let us know about your experiences in the comments below.  We update our social medias regularly with news, myHomeKithome Easter eggs, and other HomeKit related goings-on @myhomekithome.

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Links & Resources

Learn more about VOCOliinc’s entire range of HomeKit-enabled products at https://www.vocolinc.com

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