Medion WiFi Plug is cheap and feature rich but – IMPORTANT: Upgrade to firmware v1.1.0 to fix intermittent on/off issue.

We have quite a few of these plugs because they were cheap ($20) hence a good way to get started, to work with a such as a Google Home. This Medion LIFE+ Smart Plug uses the free app called Medion LIFE+ where you will need to register an account, and integration with Google Home and Amazon Alexa is through the app, not directly from the plug. It makes use of 2.4GHz band and set-up must be done using that WiFi band. It supports up to 10A / 2300W so can't use it for large devices but that's the norm. internal use only of course.

For more information, download manual at http://www1.medion.de/downloads/download.pl?lang=au&filename=bda_md93225_au.pdf&id=18787&type=anleitungen

We have only been using these Medion WiFi plugs for a week but there have been plenty of dramas hence this review. Will update this over time as required.

The Good

- It is comparatively cheap (similar plugs with less features cost 3x as much).

- It is well featured - power monitor and automation may be set up based on temperature, weather, air quality, humidity, time, sunrise, sunset or another device. Of course it doesn't carry these sensors inside the unit but gets these information from base.

- It is easy to set up.

- The app is easy to use. It doesn't have some advanced setup features like Kasa has such as default setting upon power failure.

- The unit stays pretty cool while in use. I don't like devices that gets hot unless it is a heater.

The Bad

- While they are small amongst WiFi plugs, you won't be able to put two side by side. You probably don't want to anyway due to interference.

- The blue light on one of the plugs has failed after just a couple of days. The rest are fine. I have done reset several times with no success. This light is useful because flashing light means means it is set up time. Constant blue light means it is on. I don't want to listen to the high pitch buzzing sound to tell it is on.

- As mention, it does produce a very low volume high pitch buzzing sound (like most do).

Personally, I found removing the device in the app non-intuitively located under the top right pencil button, usually meaning rename. Prefer to see a cog instead. Alternatively, a red delete button if you left swipe in the device list, like you do in Outlook. Kasa does that. Thank you Microsoft for driving behaviour through your products.

Here is the drama I mentioned at the beginning - they were turning on (and presumably off as well) randomly between 1 and 8 hours, most annoyingly at night. I contacted both Google support as well as Medion support for help. Google support was very responsive and called me each day despite we knew quite quickly this has nothing to do with Google. Medion support took several days to reply. In the meantime, I tried reset, remove from Google Home, use automation to turn off, but none of them worked. I was on the way to Aldi to return all the plugs when an email from Medion support arrived informing a new firmware (v1.1.0) was produced overnight to solve this very issue. I wish I can find a release notes to read about it.

Imagine when they were turning on randomly, it was the most annoying thing ever. It would turn on in the middle of the night, waking up my partner. I would wake up also because my dogs were running around barking. After a few nights of this, I decided to return all of them until the new firmware came. Very happy to report that all is good since! Confidence restored although I discovered the blue light on one of the plugs stopped coming on. Will be returning that one. It does have 1 year warranty (compared with 3 years from TP-Link).

This experience has also caused me to try out TP-Link (HS110). I was reluctant to do this as one may imagine because TP-Link plugs are 3x the cost of the Medion plugs, not like I am funded by the manufacturer to test their products. Will write another review for that. In short, they are bigger with less features but working flawlessly so far. I also have Arlec WiFi powerpoint and so wish they would update the app or something to make it work with the Google Home. At $50+ compared with $20 of the Medion LIFE+ Smart Plug, it has no chance of survival (as much as I want to back this Australian company).

Why 4 stars despite the drama I had? Because of its price and feature and because Medion has fixed the issue.