Ubiquiti Networks mFi mPower Wi-Fi Power Strip Review

Concluding Remarks

Stacking Up against Similar Products

Coming to the business end of the review, it is clear that mPower presents better value for money compared to other similar products. The UFO Power Center comes closest in terms of functionality to the mPower, but costs more per switched outlet. However, for the extra cost, we have an excellent iOS app. The iOS app for the mFi is still in its infancy, and the Android version is non-existent right now. The industrial design of the UFO Power Center is more striking, but is definitely not a good fit for our lab environment (and we suspect, a majority of the use cases of our readers). The mPower is more conventional in appearance, and that is a definite positive. The Belkin Wemo Insight switch launched this month seems to have similar functionality, but the cost per outlet is thrice that of the mPower. Belkin is arguably better on the mobile app side of things, but it might not be worth 3x the cost for the tech-savvy consumer.

Wi-Fi enabled power switches are an upcoming product category, and another product that we saw during our Amazon search was the Home NetWerks 43601-BX-HN. Most vendors of home automation / IoT products have a business model reliant on subscription fees. They typically charge consumers monthly for cloud access to the devices they have purchased. The product linked above is an example. Most home automation technologies (even those provided by big companies) have some sort of subsription fee attached. This is where Ubiquiti's mFi product line stands out. Ubiquiti allows the mFi controller software to be hosted and controlled on a local server. Any tech-savvy consumer can then open up the local mFi host machine for access over the Internet. In essence, Ubiquiti manages to provide the complete framework for automation and also allows you to control it in any way as you deem fit. This will prove to be a big draw for consumers who don't want to pay a monthly fee for a service they could handle themselves.

Despite the communication protocol between the mFi controller and the mPower / mPort products being proprietary, these run Linux and have provision for root access. That opens them up to a variety of possibilities, as we have shown in our custom application.

Power Consumption

Update: A number of readers have asked for power consumption numbers. A screenshot is presented below, with the window on the right showing the currently running processes / resource usage on the mPower. The window on the left shows the power consumption recorded by the UFO Power Center simultaneously. We find that the mPower unit consumes around 1 W at idle with the network interface up.

With a load connected, the difference in power measured was around 1.2 W.

Final Words

We conclude the piece with a summary of the pros and cons / wishlist for future products in this lineup:

Pros:

• Excellent value for money compared to competing solutions
• Utility-grade power measurement ICs provide high accuracy
• The unit is not tied down to a cloud service (and it is not reliant on an active Internet connection for control and use)
• Open platform provides full access to the collected parameters
• The mFi product family looks outstanding, considering that this is the first generation
• The mFi controller is a full-fledged automation controller with provision for advanced rules creation, analytics, scheduling and event reporting

  Cons / Wishlist:

• For the mPower family, it would be nice to have a rackmount version, a weather-proof version for outdoor use and, if possible, conversion kits for existing in-wall outlets
• A dimmer / light switch variant would drastically increase the target market size
• It would be nice to have an increased sampling rate for the electrical parameters (similar to that of the Watts Up? meters which allow users to visualize the current surge that happens when a power-hungry appliance is switched on)
• It would be nice if it were possible for the mPower units to measure sub-1 W power, or at least report it without making leakage power responsible for activating some mFi rules.
• The mFi controller software needs rework for better stability / compatibility
• Official mobile apps for mFi control would broaden appeal
• It would be nice to have official APIs for integration with other home automation systems
• Multi-outlet mPower units could do with at least one unswitched outlet (always-on)