TP-Link HS100 Smart Wi-Fi Plug is a smart-home product allowing us to switch a power plug from anywhere. It connects to our home WiFi and whatever appliances connected to it become smart devices that we can access from our phones, from any place with Internet connection. We have the option to schedule on/off time for this plug, and we can define two sets of schedules. One for when we are home and the other set for when we are away. Another useful feature from this smart plug is timer. Instead of defining the exact time for on/off toggle in schedule, we can opt to set the plug on/off after a certain time, between 1 minute to 23 hours and 59 minutes.

Setting up process was reasonably easy. Install the app, add new device, then follow the on-screen instructions. I had to wait a bit longer before actually using the smart plug because it asked me to do firmware upgrade. Not a new thing for me as I already own a few other smart-home devices, so I gladly complied.

I have used this smart plug for over 2 months and so far it works as expected. Note that in the first month, somehow I only managed to access my device when I was connected to home Wi-Fi. It didn’t allow me to access my device when I use 4G connection away from home. I am not really sure what changed, but last month I did some cable rearrangement and ended up disconnecting the plug for a while before re-connected it. After the re-connection, now it allows me to access the device from anywhere.

There are many smart plug products available in the market. My very first reason of purchasing TP-Link branded product was because I already owned 2 TP-Link smart home cameras and thought getting another smart-home device under the same brand would allow me to use the same app on my phone. I dislike the idea of using one app for one device, my phone will end up having too many apps.

How wrong I was. Indeed TP-Link HS100 delivers its promise of remote access from anywhere. However, I can not access it from the same TP-Link app I already used for my home cameras. Instead, I need to install another app named Kasa. This Kasa app is also compatible with TP-Link home camera, but not the models that I have. I find this product segmentation very confusing for users.

Other than the fact that this plug annoyingly uses a different app, I am generally happy with the product. It delivers its simple promise reliably, and that’s all we need from a smart-home device.