Gadgetory

today we're taking a look at the Nereus smart outlet available online now for 40 bucks now for most smart plugs communication is mediated between your phone and the plugs by the local Wi-Fi network this one is a little bit different in that it uses bluetooth that means that your phone communicates directly with the plug and vice-versa practically that means that setup instead of taking four or five minutes takes 30 seconds the problem is that Bluetooth has a very small communication range for us at the scene at smart home that meant that when I was upstairs or in the basement I would lose connection with the plug even when I was on the same floor and the plug was pretty centrally located I could lose it if I were kind of on the fringes of the house as far as basic functionality is concerned this plug is so-so using it you can turn things on and off and you can schedule certain commands but it also has an additional feature called proximity while using this feature when you enter the Bluetooth range the switch will activate and when you exit that range it will deactivate this is a cool solution to sometimes finicky geofencing systems the problem is that it really doesn't work very well like I mentioned before Bluetooth range is limited which means that when I was walking around the house I would lose and regain connection which meant that my lights would be flipping on and off throughout the day eventually I just turned off the proximity feature altogether the nearest outlet app is also problematic it's an exclusive app which means that you can't access other products using it even Nereus products overall between app exclusivity and major problems with the Bluetooth functionality I really can't recommend this plug to most users for more smart plug coverage be sure to check us out on cnet.com here at the CNET smart home I'm Dave Freese