Need a cheap fingerprint-reading smart lock? I recommend this one

Price When Reviewed

$89.00

Best Prices Today: TCL D1 Fingerprint Smart Lock

You most likely know TCL for its TVs, soundbars, and sensible home equipment greater than its residence safety units, however the producer now affords no fewer than six sensible locks (and one residence safety digicam, too).

One of its most bold sensible locks—the D1 Pro Palm Vein Smart Lock—was a greater worth than the much more bold TCL D1 Max 3-in-1 Video Smart Lock, which boasted an built-in video doorbell. Both of these units had their flaws, however if you happen to’re keen to surrender palm vein scanning expertise and an built-in digicam to see your guests, the way more primary TCL D1 is the higher worth.

This less-expensive various retains the PIN pad, fingerprint scanner, and Wi-Fi connectivity in a bundle that’s accessible at Amazon for simply $90. That makes it one of many least costly sensible locks with a fingerprint reader in the marketplace.

Specifications

The D1 has a well-recognized and primary industrial design, with an understated exterior escutcheon that options bodily buttons (which illuminate when pressed) as an alternative of a touchscreen, a regular fingerprint reader up prime, and a conventional keyhole beneath. The lock carries no ANSI or BHMA certifications (have to know extra about these requirements? Our information to smart lock quality and security will inform you every thing that you must know.)

Inside the home, the huge inside escutcheon of the D1 Pro stays, measuring a huge 6.75 inches inches tall (simply barely smaller than the even bigger 7-inch escutcheon on the TCL D1 Max I reviewed in January 2025). This lock is powered by eight AA batteries (not included) as an alternative of a chargeable cell. TCL says contemporary batteries will provide 9 months of juice. A USB-C port on the underside of the outside escutcheon is accessible for emergency entry energy.

Installation and setup

Christopher Null/Foundry

Installation is simple and precisely consistent with the D1 Pro Palm Vein Smart Lock I reviewed in December 2024. TCL features a respectable handbook, but additionally offers bolts in a number of sizes, so that you’ll have to pay shut consideration to make sure you use the correct ones. (Pro tip: You will most likely need the smaller ones until you’ve a massively thick door.) These bolts connect the inside mounting body to the door, and the inside escutcheon in flip connects to that body.

As with the D1 Pro, this requires juggling three screws in two totally different sizes, and options tiny screw holes which might be tough to achieve with a regular measurement screwdriver. Again, I needed to dig round for a software sufficiently small to get the job carried out and that wouldn’t mar the encompassing plastic housing.

As with the D1 Pro, you’ll must handle the lock in Tuya’s Smart Life app, which has not improved in any significant manner since my final encounter with it. Onboarding the lock to Smart Life entails urgent a small button on the lock {hardware} adopted by a numeric code to place it into pairing mode, although the handbook will information you thru this course of nicely sufficient if you happen to comply with alongside fastidiously. Pairing with a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi community was expedient in my testing.

As famous, the lock helps digital entry through fingerprint or PIN, along with the app. The unit helps a most of 50 PINs and 100 fingerprints.

User administration is completed in Smart Life’s “Member management” part, the place every person will be assigned PINs, fingerprints, or each. Nothing appears to have modified about this rickety system since I final encountered it, full with the poor translations and unlucky design selections that will rightfully make you query whether or not to place into it the required religion required to belief it along with your homestead.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Most of the frequent choices for configuring non permanent entry can be found in Smart Life, although one-time restricted entry have to be set to run out on the finish of the day, somewhat than at a sure time. Oddly, non permanent passwords for non-recurring customers can, nevertheless, be set to run out at a given time, or, with the surprisingly named “dynamic” password, after 5 minutes.

The “special password” function from the D1 Pro can also be accessible right here. This function helps you to select a separate PIN that customers can enter if they’re below duress. Tapping within the “special password” sends a push notification to the administrator to this impact. You can even designate a distinct fingerprint for use as for duress incidents. It’s not essentially the most elegant setup, with notifications like “${username} may be hijacked. Please act now!” But it does at the very least work largely as meant.

The Smart Life app is fairly dumb

I stay baffled over Smart Life’s logging, which data all lock opening occasions, however not lock closing or failed opening makes an attempt, each of which can be very important for some customers. I additionally encountered a number of situations the place the lock abruptly misplaced its Wi-Fi connection; the one foolproof manner I discovered to shortly reconnect it was by way of eradicating and changing the batteries—that’s hardly ideally suited if you happen to’re making an attempt to remotely handle the lock. This was most likely essentially the most troubling concern I had with this lock, because it renders the app unusable for a time (as there’s no Bluetooth backup within the occasion Wi-Fi is offline).

Lock operations are easy and fairly quiet, with all actions verbally introduced. The bodily buttons provide a satisfying however not overly loud click on when pressed, together with an digital beep. The location and vertical alignment of the fingerprint reader aren’t ideally suited, however its accuracy is okay offered you retain your finger aligned the identical manner it was scanned, and it really works shortly.

Smart Life’s superior settings for the D1 are minimal. Auto-locking will be configured from 5 to 900 seconds, and audio quantity controls are sturdy. Some Googling might be required to determine what sure choices like “sleep time” are for (seems this disables the app, however not PINs and prints, and prevents it from opening the lock throughout the set interval). Simple assist for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa is included, however you’ll want Smart Life to handle credentials and carry out most different capabilities.

Should you purchase the TCL D1 Fingerprint Smart Lock?

Again, the value of the machine is its strongest promoting level by far: simply $90, and apparently in free-fall as TCL prepares to launch an up to date mannequin. I’ve not discovered every other respected merchandise with a fingerprint reader at that value level, although a number of come shut.

If you’re seeking to spend much less and don’t want a fingerprint reader, check out the TP-Link Tapo DL100, a Wi-Fi sensible lock with a PIN pad however no fingerprint reader that’s going for simply $60.

As with TCL’s different sensible locks, the TCL D1 largely will get the job carried out whereas being tough across the edges. If you’ve a door the place “good enough” safety will suffice, give it a glance.

This assessment is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the best smart locks.