Eve Energy (Matter) - Smart Plug and Power Meter, app and voice control, automate lights and appliances, for Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, SmartThings, Home Assistant, Thread Border Router needed

Like: the parameters that the plug measures as shown in the picture.The thread network performance was satisfactory—I used the Eve Room with Apple TV and noticed that access to Eve Room was occasionally slow and it sometimes defaulted to a Bluetooth connection. However, with two smart plugs added to the network, coverage extended easily across four rooms. The response is quick, the design is appealing, the quality appears solid, and it’s easy to install and use.Dislike: Eve products are priced higher, presumably due to their quality. However, their larger size might obstruct access to power socket switches. Using two plugs adjacent to each other could also pose a spacing issue.If the plug is connected to the network and controls both the ATV and router, turning off the plug will cause it to stop responding to commands, resulting in the entire network going down.

The good:These are great to use, easy to set up and work perfectly with the apple home app.The setup was very easy, just scan the barcode and it’s connected.These are super secure, there’s no cloud involved and that’s really nice to know with things that matter like your home.Thread support is great and very forward thinking. Works perfectly and seamlessly for a very fast response.The mediumThe monitoring of energy for a specific device is helpful but not essential.The eve app is mediocre and ugly to look at. It’s also not very easy to use as an app. Fortunately you don’t have to as your can use apple home (although many people do dislike that too).The badTo update the firmware of the plug you have to use the eve app, it can’t be done via the apple home app. It doesn’t matter hugely as the plug never connects to the internet. But it doesn’t feel very smart.The plug is very bulky… it covers the whole socket and you can’t put it in a power strip with other plugs. This is a huge downside to these plugs over the hue plug for example which is much smaller.They’re pricey at £39.Would I buy more?… I’m of two minds. It’s annoying how bulky and expensive they are but also they’re the only plugs right now that support thread. I’m going to add one to my basket and give it a few days. Maybe they’ll have a flash sale and hit £25 or something…

These are expensive but they're quite good. Difficulty setting up as I was looking for the "Eve" app on the App Store and could only see "Eve for Matter & H" which meant nothing to me. It turns out that the full name is "Eve for Matter & HomeKit" which is what I wanted. In the interim I had messaged T/S and, to be fair to them they responded next day. By that time I had sorted everything out. The packaging doesn't show what generation the product is and this is a pity. Also, the product description is a bit obtuse.The good news is that once I identified everything correctly it all worked seamlessly and I can access my SmartPlus both on the Eve app and on the Eve app on all my devices - 2 X Macs, iPad and iPhone. Moreover, the Eve app also recognises my 4 X Circle View cameras presumably because everything is HomeKit compatible.

I’ve had a couple of these in the HomeKit config before and found them very reliable. The new Matter version is the same hardware, but you set up with single Matter QR code into the controller platform of your choice. This one I used to act as a link between HomeKit and a non-HomeKit Google Nest thermometer (so I can use Siri to turn on the heating remotely when I set off for home).Set up was simple and connected immediately HomeKit. Once set up, you then go into the device settings and put it in ‘pairing mode’ to get a code to copy into another controller (in my case the Smartthings app on my iPhone). This connected straight away and voila you can set up routines both in HomeKit and Smartthings.Unlike some other cheaper makes, I’ve had no disconnections or hardware failures with the Evos. The Evo app is comprehensive, giving good info on power usage and enabling schedules to be created directly in the app. It also shows your entire Thread network and compatible devices.Yes they are expensive compared to some, but worth it in my opinion if you want rock solid reliability.

Well-made, easy to install and integrate with HomeKit.First of all, DO NOT buy the previous generations that do not support Thread, no matter how attractive the price may seem. The performance of this new generation Eve plug is significantly better than the old ones!When I place my old generation Eve plug and this new one together side by side, with a distance of 3m from my HomePod mini and without any obstruction, my old Eve plug takes nearly 1s to respond, while the new one responds instantaneously (less than 0.5s).When I put both plugs in my bedroom, which is 8-10m from my HomePod mini (with two 100mm thick brick walls in between), the new Eve plug still manages to respond within 1s, while the old one has to take 2-3 seconds.Frankly speaking, my old Eve plug still performs pretty well compared with other Bluetooth LE devices, at least it can stay connected despite being blocked by two walls. (For instance, the Fibaro BLE flood sensor that I had returned would lose connection immediately when it was blocked by a wall.)However, when it comes to response time, the old generation ALWAYS has an obvious delay compared with the new one. Therefore, I’d also recommend NOT to buy any BLE devices from now on, cause Thread is much more responsive and reliable than BLE; and with the rollout of Matter later this year, Thread has a promising future.The only downside of this Eve plug is that it’s a little bit bulky (though it looks nice) and may obstruct adjacent plugs. Let’s hope Elagto will reduce the size of the next generation. Right now this Eve plug is still highly recommended.