Simpson & Partners Home 7 vs NexBlue Point 2: build or bi-directional?

Two underdogs, £119 apart

Neither of these is a household name, and both are better than their marketing budgets suggest. The Simpson & Partners Home 7 costs £649 and sells on craft — UK manufacture, anodised aluminium, Accoya wood trim options, a ten-year enclosure warranty nobody else offers. The NexBlue Point 2 costs £530 and sells on specification — V2G-ready, OCPP 2.0.1, lifetime 4G, all in a 2.1 kg box.

The shortest version:

• Simpson & Partners Home 7 — the one you choose because it will outlast the car, and look handsome doing it.
• NexBlue Point 2 — the one you choose because it's ready for charging standards the market hasn't caught up with yet.

What the Simpson's £119 premium actually buys

Build, finish, and a warranty that stretches past most car ownership cycles. The Simpson is made in the UK from anodised aluminium, offered in finishes (Cotswolds Green, Accoya wood) that belong on the front of a house rather than tucked behind a bin. The ten-year enclosure warranty is the longest on the UK market. It also offers a 22kW three-phase variant — useful for the small minority of UK homes with three-phase supply, and unusual at this price.

The asterisk is the warranty itself: ten years covers the enclosure, but the electronics inside get three. In practice that's a claim most buyers won't need to make, but it's worth knowing the big number isn't quite what it looks like. The app is also the weaker of the two — functional, not polished. If front-of-house design matters more to you than app finesse, the Simpson earns its money. If design is the whole point, the Andersen A3 is the obvious alternative at £995, and the Simpson vs Andersen comparison makes the case for paying less.

What the NexBlue's £530 actually buys

More features per pound than anything else at this price, with one honest caveat. The V2G and ISO 15118 readiness means the hardware can eventually send power back to the grid when UK tariffs catch up — no future hardware swap. OCPP 2.0.1 is the newest version of the open charging protocol, which matters if you care about long-term software independence from any one app. The included CT clamp handles both load balancing and solar surplus without the £80–150 accessory most competitors want. The built-in 4G eSIM, with lifetime-free connectivity, means the charger works even when your Wi-Fi doesn't.

EcoPilot handles tariff automation on Octopus Intelligent Go, Octopus Agile and the usual time-of-use tariffs properly — chasing half-hourly slots on Agile, working with the supplier API on Intelligent Go. The Simpson's tariff coverage is narrower: Octopus Go, OVO Charge Anytime, EDF GoElectric. If you're on Agile, that alone closes the price gap within a year.

The caveat is brand maturity. NexBlue is new to UK homes. There isn't five years of forum complaints to comb through, because the product hasn't been around for five years. The five-year warranty partially underwrites that risk, but if you want a fully-settled track record, the Ohme Home Pro at £535 is the safer bet — same price bracket, similar tariff intelligence, more boring history.

Which to buy

Buy the Simpson & Partners Home 7 if:

• The charger will be visible from the street and you care how it looks
• You want a British-made unit with the longest enclosure warranty available
• You have three-phase supply and want 22kW without paying Andersen money

Buy the NexBlue Point 2 if:

• You want V2G-ready hardware without paying Indra or Zaptec prices
• You're on Agile or Intelligent Go and want proper half-hourly automation
• You value features per pound over brand depth

On the wall, we'd hang the NexBlue. £119 saved, V2G hardware that should age well, tariff automation that earns its keep every night — it's the more forward-looking buy for a charger you'll own for a decade. The Simpson is the right answer only if you care about how the thing looks, and are willing to pay for UK manufacture and a warranty headline that isn't quite as generous as it first reads. Both are good. One is just less sentimental value for money.