Sonoff iPlug Gen2 Type F Review: A 16A Schuko Matter Plug With Half a Year of Energy History
A Type F smart plug that commissions straight into any Matter home, carries 3840W of headroom and keeps 180 days of exportable consumption and cost data.
The Sonoff iPlug Gen2 Type F (S61STPF) is a Matter over Wi-Fi plug for European Schuko sockets, rated 16A across 100 to 240V for a 3840W ceiling, which is roughly double what a North American plug of the same family can pass and enough for a heater, a kettle or a workshop tool rather than only a lamp. Matter certification is what defines it: the QR code on the body commissions it into Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, SmartThings or Home Assistant without a Sonoff hub or a vendor account sitting in the path. Around the switching it keeps 180 days of voltage, current, power, runtime and consumption history, exports that data and prices it against time-of-use tariffs, and it will cut the load on current, voltage or power thresholds you set yourself. The limits are the ones this whole class shares: 2.4GHz Wi-Fi only, indoor only, one socket and no USB.
- Matter households
- European Schuko sockets
- High-draw appliances
- Energy cost tracking
- Multi-ecosystem homes
Pros
- Matter certified over Wi-Fi, so it joins Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, SmartThings or Home Assistant directly
- 16A at 100 to 240V for a 3840W ceiling, enough for heaters, kettles and power tools
- 180 days of retained energy history, exportable and priced against custom time-of-use tariffs
- Overload cut-offs on current, voltage and power with thresholds you set, plus a UL94 V-0 housing
- Charging protection that drops the socket when a charger has finished
- Physical button and LAN control, so it still switches without the cloud
- Two year warranty
Cons
- 2.4GHz Wi-Fi only, with no 5GHz band
- Indoor only, with no ingress protection rating
- Single socket and no USB charging ports
- No Zigbee, Thread or Z-Wave radio, so it extends no mesh
- White is the only colour offered
Who is the Sonoff iPlug Gen2 Type F for?
This is the plug for a European home that has already chosen a smart home app and does not want to install another one to run a socket. Because it joins over Matter it behaves the same in Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, SmartThings and Home Assistant, and Matter is multi-admin, so one unit can answer to more than one of those at the same time. The other half of the audience is anyone trying to work out what a specific appliance actually costs to run: the metering here is not a live wattage readout that resets every week, it is half a year of retained history that can be exported and priced against a real tariff. The 16A rating means the appliance in question does not have to be a small one.
What stands out on paper
Three specs carry this model. The first is the electrical headroom: 16A at 100 to 240V works out to 3840W, so the plug is not the weak link in front of a fan heater, an electric kettle or a power tool, and the housing that has to survive that is rated UL94 V-0, the top flame retardancy grade for plastics. The second is the metering depth. It reports voltage, current, power, runtime and consumption live, retains 180 days of it, exports the data, and applies custom time-of-use rates so the output is a cost rather than a kilowatt-hour figure the reader still has to convert. Stated accuracy is 1 percent on voltage, 2 percent on current and 3.5 percent on power at or above 100W. The third is the safety logic being configurable rather than fixed: thresholds for current, voltage and power that cut the supply when crossed, plus a charging protection mode that drops the socket once a charger has been trickling below a set draw for too long, which is aimed squarely at battery ageing. Underneath all that the basics hold up, with a physical button that toggles the load whether or not the network is up, LAN control that keeps the app working when the cloud is unreachable, a configurable power-on state after an outage, timers down to random and inching modes, and a two year warranty.
What to know before you buy
The radio is 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n only. That is normal for the category and usually helps range through masonry, but it can make commissioning awkward on a router that publishes both bands under one network name. Bluetooth is present for the Matter pairing handshake and nothing else, so control always runs over Wi-Fi. There is no Zigbee, Thread or Z-Wave radio, which means the plug adds nothing to a mesh and never acts as a router for other devices; the flip side is that it needs no bridge of its own, only a Matter controller for whichever ecosystem the home already runs. It is an indoor device with no ingress rating, specified from -10C to 40C and 5 to 95 percent humidity, so a damp garage or a balcony is out of scope. One socket, no USB ports, white only, and at 56 by 50 by 84 mm it is a body worth measuring against a crowded extension lead before ordering.
Is the Sonoff iPlug Gen2 Type F worth it?
For an entry-level plug the sheet is unusually full: full Matter commissioning into five ecosystems, an appliance-grade 16A ceiling, retained and exportable metering with tariff-aware costing, user-set protection thresholds and a two year warranty. Against the cheaper Schuko plugs in this catalog that only switch, the metering and the configurable cut-offs are the reason to spend more; against the Type B member of the same family, the difference is the socket standard and the current ceiling the local grid allows, not the software. What it does not try to be is a mesh device or an outdoor one. If the plan is to meter a handful of real loads and drive them from the app the household already has open, this covers the job without adding a hub to the shelf.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Sonoff iPlug Gen2 Type F need a Sonoff hub?
No. It is a Matter over Wi-Fi device that talks to the router directly, and no Sonoff bridge sits in the path. You do need a Matter controller for the ecosystem you use, such as a HomePod or Apple TV for Apple Home, a Nest speaker or display for Google Home, a compatible Echo for Alexa, or a SmartThings or Home Assistant setup.
Which smart home platforms does it work with?
Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings and Home Assistant, all over Matter. Sonoff documents remote control, voice control and smart scenes on all five, with power consumption statistics additionally exposed in SmartThings and Home Assistant. Matter is multi-admin, so it can belong to several of them at once.
How much power can it switch?
It is rated 16A across 100 to 240V, which is a 3840W maximum load. On a 230V European supply that covers essentially any single household appliance, although Sonoff advises against motor-driven inductive loads such as air conditioners, fridges and washing machines because of their startup inrush, and against EV charging.
What kind of energy data does it keep?
Live voltage, current, power, runtime and consumption, with 180 days of history that can be exported, and cost reports built from billing units and time-of-use rates you configure. Stated accuracy is 1 percent for voltage, 2 percent for current and 3.5 percent for power at or above 100W.
Can it cut the power automatically if something goes wrong?
Yes. You set your own current, voltage and power thresholds, and the plug cuts the supply when a load crosses one, with remote restoration afterwards. A separate charging protection mode turns the socket off once a connected charger has stayed below a set draw for too long, which reduces needless charge cycles. The enclosure is UL94 V-0 rated.
Will it work on a 5GHz network?
No. It supports 802.11 b/g/n on 2.4GHz only. If the router broadcasts both bands under a single network name it can help to split them, or to use the router app, while pairing. Bluetooth is used for the Matter commissioning handshake, not for day to day control.
Can it be used outdoors?
No. Sonoff specifies it as an indoor product with no ingress protection rating, rated from -10C to 40C and 5 to 95 percent non-condensing humidity, so it belongs in dry indoor locations.
