Review: Woox – smart power strip, two cameras and a smart lamp

Woox – smart power strip is everything you  will love to know about. Woox is a brand for various smart home devices, which can be purchased at a relatively affordable price. To get a little familiar with the brand, we take a look at four different products from the manufacturer in this review: the smart power strip, two cameras and the smart lamp.

The manufacturer uses the Tuya. The Tuya Smart IoT Platform consists of embedded network modules that other manufacturers can use to make products such as lamps, switches, sensors, plugs, cameras and other (household) appliances. The devices can then be connected to the internet and in the meantime, the manufacturer, like Woox in this case, can create its own app environment and add functions. Devices that work with Tuya can be linked together via the cloud, regardless of the manufacturer.

The idea behind Woox is in line with what we saw earlier with, for example, KlikAanKlikUit and LSC Smart Connect : the affordable devices should bring the Internet of Things to the masses. The devices must appear attractive due to the ease of installation and use. In addition, the app must ensure as few obstacles as possible, while still offering sufficient functionality. We will check that today. Furthermore, Woox products offer support for Amazon Alexa , Google Assistant and IFTTT .

Woox – smart power strip:Woox R4028 Smart Multi plug

The first product we will discuss is the smart power strip, also known as WOOX R4028 Smart Multi-plug. If you are familiar with smart plugs in general, you will immediately understand what you can do with this product. You can control connected devices – smart and dumb – remotely with your voice or via the app. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go beyond turning devices on or off, but for many people, that’s enough. This way you can always be sure that product x is switched off – otherwise you can still do that.

You can connect a total of seven products: three via a normal wall socket and four via USB ports (such as phone chargers or other devices that work with a USB cable for power supply). With a voice command or via the buttons in the app (or Google Home), you can switch the products on and off individually or in one go. There is one button on the power strip with which you can control the latter. If you want to switch devices off or on individually, you have to rely on the apps. Or of course your voice command via a smart speaker.

You immediately connect the Woox power strip to your own network via WiFi, so you don’t need an extra hub. You can also set schedules per contact point, so that devices can be switched on and off at fixed times. Handy for cameras and lamps, whether they support it or not. Now you can arrange it from one place. You can also set a countdown: when the counter reaches zero, the devices will switch off automatically. Unfortunately, it is not possible to measure the power consumption via the power strip and app.

All in all, the Woox power strip is a fairly simple product. The device costs about 30 euros, which is a great price for a power strip. It is also good to know that the maximum load capacity is 3680 watts, there is a surge protection and that the socket is earthed. In terms of smart functionality, it is all basic and easy to understand, making the product suitable for the less experienced smart home enthusiasts among us: people who want to, but don’t want to go into depth.

Woox – smart power strip:Woox R4553 Smart LED bulb RGBW E27

Woox smart power strip also offers smart lamps, such as the Woox R4553 Smart LED lamp RGBW E27. You can also connect this product directly to your WiFi network, without the intervention of a hub. Although people sometimes find that handy, because there is no extra device for the connection, your network can quickly become full at home when you install several of these types of lamps. It is therefore an advantage and a disadvantage that you connect the lamp directly to WiFi. If you really only need one smart bulb, it can be a great solution.

The smart lamp is also fairly basic, but that does not have to be a disadvantage. If you just want a smart lamp with a number of extra functions, such products offer a solution. What you can do is adjust the color using a turning circle. That works fine, but unfortunately it works less effectively than, for example, Philips Hue. There you can accurately set your own color. Fortunately, there are scenes (that work better with multiple lamps in the house), so that you can quickly change color – and therefore also the atmosphere in the house.

You also have control over the brightness and intensity of the lamp. When you link that to the possibility of making schedules, you can easily set a light temperature for the moment you want to wake up, for example. You can set the system to perform the action every day, so that you can count on the same color, temperature and brightness every day, at the time that you have set yourself. You can manually switch the lamp on and off with voice commands.

Woox – smart power strip: Woox R4024 and R4071 cameras

Although Woox smart power strip is actually marketing two different products with these two cameras, the devices themselves do not differ in terms of technical specifications and for a large part of the possibilities. The cameras can be linked to Google Home and Alexa, have two-way audio, can send notifications when motion is detected, can see up to ten meters in the dark and can both save recordings on an SD card. Cloud storage is also available, but you have to pay for it monthly.

In addition, the Woox R4071 and R4024 record in 1080p (1920 by 1080 pixels), have a viewing angle of 115 degrees and have a resolution of 2 megapixels. The power supply is in both cases via a micro USB cable. A plug is included, but you could also plug the other end into the power strip discussed above (which is what we did). Where the cameras differ is the way in which you operate them in the application: in both cases, you have to deal with a different interface.

In both interfaces you will generally quickly encounter the same functions, such as taking screenshots and talking to people via two-way audio. But the buttons are arranged differently. In addition, it is striking that the image of the Woox R4071 is a lot wider than the R4024, despite the fact that both cameras have exactly the same specifications. What both cameras suffer from is that the image distorts a bit on the side. You then have to deal with a kind of fishbowl effect. Fortunately, it is not very disturbing.

There is also a big difference between the small camera (R4024) and large camera (R4071). The latter seems to be able to cope with light much better, making the image quality much better. The small camera often has dark images, so details can be lost. Furthermore, you can place or hang the cameras. So if you venture to Woox, you can ignore the R4024. They are both equally expensive, but the R4071 is significantly better than its smaller brother.

It is also time to pay attention. Because both cameras do offer support for Google Home, as is neatly indicated. But that doesn’t mean there really is support for Google Assistant. And that is confusing. Because you can control the cameras with your voice via the Google Home, Google Nest Mini or Google Nest Hub , but you cannot request the live images via Nest Hub and view them on that smart display . That support could come later, but nothing is known about it at this point.

Woox: the application

In the free application you will find some general settings for your home, with which you personalize the experience. A nice part is the Notification. You can find it under the heading Ik (at the bottom of the bar) and Information Center. If you swipe left twice, you will arrive at some notifications, where you can see, among other things, that someone is logged into your account. Especially with cameras in the house, you don’t want anyone to enter just like that. And it is nice to know that we can at least see for ourselves when there are uninvited guests in our account.

There are also options with regard to automation, which is useful if you get more Woox products. There is also an integration with the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Adding devices is done in the usual way and works immediately after going through the steps. In most cases, you can switch the above devices on and off on your own, but for the beginner that might be more than enough. This way you can get used to the house of the future.

Woox system: conclusion

At the start of the review, there were three questions: is Woox accessible, is the app clear and are there enough options available? We can say with certainty that Woox is an accessible system. That’s because the possibilities and options are basic and limited, but that doesn’t have to be a disadvantage for the beginner. The app offers quite a few functions, but due to the difference in interfaces, it sometimes takes a while to find the right function. But all in all, Woox does what it stands for: making the Internet of Things accessible.