Oakter Smart Home Kit Review: Personal IoT Ecosytem

Chilly winds are waltzing outside your window and the coziness of the blanket has taken over, just when you realize that a far off table lamp has to be switched off, or the geyser switched on. It is then that you strongly thirst for Harry Potter’s magic wand. Oakter, a company settled in the National Capital Region, has a solution to save your lazy ass. Oakter’s Smart Home Kit lets you take full-fledged control of power sockets in your house, or office, right from your smartphone. Futuristic? We look deeply into it.

Serving not only slackers, Oakter Smart Home Kit could be a significant aide in the lives of ailing as well as elderly beings. By downloading Oakter’s app into their smartphones (Android/iOS) you can toggle connected devices on or off, by staying inside your snuggly blanket.

The bundle contains a central controlling Hub which is the heart of the system, two 6 ampere sockets which Oakter calls Smart Plugs, a 16A socket/Smart Plug, a 25A Smart Box for remotely controlling MCB’s embedded in your switchboards or for controlling appliances like Air conditioners, and an Infrared-enabled remote control – called touch leaf – which works in vicinity of each of the plugs, as well as the Hub.

Each unit has an LED light which beams white when the devices are in Off mode and turns amber when the device is turned on.

Convenient Set-up 

Any individual with basic knowledge of technology can easily set up the Oakter Smart Home ecosystem. For initial setup, users must download the Oakter Application and login with the default credentials of the device, and then connect to Oakter Hub over Wi-Fi. Once connected to the smartphone, the LED turns to amber. Users can then migrate to their home Wifi network and are required to set up an account using their email id.

Once connected successfully, you can take control over the appliances connected to Smart Plugs via Oakter app.

Intuitive App Interface

Everything you desire (in context of control) is located right on the main screen of the app. Users can assign pictures and names to different connected Smart Plugs in order to save themselves from being baffled by them. Users need not necessarily be connected to their home Wi-fi networks after initial setup and can control remotely (as long as the hub received wi-fi signals). Users can also advantage from this by controlling Smart plugs simply over 2G if they are experiencing a disconnect from the signal towers.

Setup, Connect and Forget the Switch

Oakter’s Smart Home Kit is capable of nearly wiping off the click sound of switches from your memory. The admin of the Smart Home kit can annex four additional power users who can toggle the Smart plugs On or Off through their smartphones. Additionally, the Oakter App gives you the feasibility of Scheduling the powering on or off of these Smart Plugs. The App diligently notifies when there is a change in the status of any of the connected devices.

Further, users can order additional Smart Plugs over the app, to be delivered at their doorsteps. There is even a Smart Thermostat and a Smart Door Lock.

Users can assign up to three devices which they can control via touch leaf. This is evidently helpful for older people who do not cherish being so familiar with technology.

Favourable, But is it Really SMART?

In an age where we are contemplating the use of IoT in our lives, the Oakter Smart Home kit makes your life immensely convenient, but cannot qualify to be called a smart "connected" setup. For starters, it would be great to see these Smart Plugs keep a track of units of current consumed at their input and output ends, thus giving an idea of power efficiency of these devices.

Further, the app doesn’t notify users if a device has been continuously running for an alarmingly long time. Neither, does the app send notifications or Usage statistics over email. Thus it remains to be a closed Black Box system. On a positive note, the smart plugs can be manipulated even during Wi-fi outage, using the Touch leaf controller.

Overall, it is a good starting point for home automation. The Oakter Smart Home Kit is priced at Rs. 10,000 for the aforementioned package. Other Smart home offerings such as those from Mi or D-Link are similarly priced. But given that the Oakter Smart Home Kit is a fruit of “Make in India,” we shall expect more attractive pricing in future.