Humax has been in your home for a while now but their products have been far from the interconnected home of smart devices. They are well known for set-top boxes. They seem to be deviating from the norm in search of a piece of the IoT pie.
If you own Freeview or Freesat Android boxes, you already have an idea of what Humax can do. The company seeks to literally plug itself into your smart with a neat oval smart plug that comes with Alexa and Google Assistant straight out of the box.
People with the Humax Aura will have more advanced settings accessible via Google Home. However, you can still use the smart plug without any hub and even if you have no smart device by your side you can turn it on or off using your Humax set-top box remote.
If you still want further automation, you can create smart schedules for your Humax WiFi smart plug after hooking it up to the smart automation platform IFTTT.
Use the iOS and Android App for Instant Control
Just as the case with other smart plugs, Humax still gives you an intuitive smartphone app to control and program the smart plug without going through the third-party automation platforms.
You will use the app for basic controls like:
- Hooking up the smart plug to WiFi
- Setting timers and schedules
- Turning the plug on or off
- Looking at voltages, power consumption, current draw, and total power consumed
- Check graphs of energy consumption
While its smart features are laudable, parents will be happy to note that Humax built in a basic childproofing feature – simple plastics blocking the pin inserts making it harder for your little ones to get accidental shocks.
The plug works on 100V to 240V power outlets, 2.4GHz wifi, Bluetooth, and can support up to 16A of current draw before it goes into power protection mode.
Humax has the plugs in the UK market and plug configuration so far. They haven’t released any news on whether they will be porting their smart plug to other large but different markets like the US and Canada. If you are in these markets, you will have to stick with Wemo smart plugs and other available solutions.