Shelly looks to raise the bar for smart plugs with its 4th-gen device

If you’re looking to take your first steps in the smart home space, nothing’s easier than deploying a smart plug. Just stick one in an outlet, plug the lamp or small appliance you want to control into it, install a smartphone app, and you’re done!  While there are dozens of smart plugs to choose from, few offer as many features as what Shelly says its Shelly Plug Gen4 can deliver.

This Matter-certified smart plug supports Zigbee as well as Wi-Fi, and can be integrated into any of the major smart home ecosystems, including Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Home Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings. Install the Shelly app on your smartphone and you’ll also get local control of the device for maximum privacy.

The Shelly Plug Gen4 has integrated energy monitoring that can track power consumption in real time. Capable of supporting 15-amp loads up to 1800 watts, the plug has built-in safety features that offer protection in the event of over-wattage, over-current, and both over- and under-voltage scenarios.

Shelly

The plug measures 2.01 x 2.52 x 1.5 inches (HxWxD), so a single plug won’t block an adjacent outlet, and two plugs should fit in a standard duplex outlet. It has an LED backlight that displays the plug’s on/off status while doubling as a night light (users can adjust the LED’s color and brightness). An onboard ambient light sensor can also be programmed to change the backlight’s behavior as well as turn the plug on and off.

Advanced smart home users will be attracted to the plug’s support for Shelly’s own scripting language and script library, as well as JavaScript, to create advanced automations. In its press release, Shelly pointed to one example of a pre-configured script that can automatically reboot networking equipment in the event of an internet outage.

Being an on/off device that supports small appliances such as space heaters and motorized devices such as fans and air purifiers, the one feature the Shelly Plug Gen4 can’t deliver is lamp dimming, but that’s to be expected.

The Shelly Plug Gen4 is available now at Amazon and other retailers for $19.99. We’ll have an in-depth review soon.

This news is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart plugs.