Pros
- Much less complicated set up than earlier iterations
- Still fairly reasonably priced
- Rock-solid operation throughout most options
Cons
- Auto-unlock function not but absolutely practical in our testing
- Still just a little bulbous
- You’ll want equipment to unlock the complete profit
Our Verdict
This retrofit lock fixes practically all the issues we encountered with SwitchBot’s earlier good lock; what’s extra, modest however essential upgrades make it a critical contender within the house.
Price When Reviewed
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Best Pricing Today
Price When Reviewed
$119.99
Best Prices Today: SwitchBot Lock Ultra
You can depend on SwitchBot to maintain the pedal down on innovation. The newest class to get the model 2.0 remedy is its flagship retrofit good lock. And in practically each method, the SwitchBot Lock Ultra is an enchancment over the unique SwitchBot Lock Pro. (The even older SwitchBot Lock has been discontinued.)
Specifications
The SwitchBot Lock Ultra is a real retrofit lock that replaces solely the inside portion of your deadbolt {hardware}. It feels surprisingly powerful, crafted from magnesium aluminum alloy. Your current exterior escutcheon (together with the important thing mechanism) and deadbolt stay in place.
This makes set up a fairly fast affair: You pop off the outdated inside escutcheon and drop a small, adjustable body on the within of the door, together with a easy adapter that aligns with the form of your current lock’s tailpiece and connect with the motor. (A collection of frequent tailpiece shapes is included.)
The body is hooked up to the outside escutcheon, both with the present screws you’ve or the replacements offered by SwitchBot (each will most likely match). From there, the SwitchBot Ultra’s inside escutcheon merely clips on to the body. (As a retrofit product with no exterior escutcheon, it carries no ANSI or BHMA ratings, as these wouldn’t be significant.)
The new battery provides a promised operating time of 9 months, and a built-in emergency battery and a supercapacitor permit for emergency operations in case your juice runs out.
The large enhancements of the Ultra over the older SwitchBot Lock Pro (the even older SwitchBot Lock having been discontinued) are seen from the beginning. Where attaching the Pro’s inside escutcheon to the mounting body beforehand required screwing in 4 tiny hex-head bolts, the Ultra requires no screws in any respect. It simply clips onto the mounting body with two tabs, one on both aspect of the inside escutcheon.
Setups like this aren’t normally straightforward to wrestle into place, however SwitchBot’s shocked me by clipping on simply the primary time I tried it: The total lock actually does set up with simply two screws. I mentioned {that a} redesign was so as in my prior review of the Pro, and SwitchBot clearly listened.
New battery design
The SwitchBot Lock Ultra now comes with a chargeable Li-ion battery that the producer says ought to final for 9 months on a full cost.
Christopher Null/Foundry
The different large space the place SwitchBot has made enhancements is within the battery design. The Pro required 4 AA batteries, inserted lengthwise into the lock, making it comically cumbersome. The new lock makes use of a 4200mAh Lithium-ion battery, rechargeable by way of USB-C cable.
The battery is way smaller than 4 AAs and, in consequence, so is the lock, which now juts out from the door lower than 3 inches, making it about half-an-inch thinner. Along with a extra trendy, curvier design, the lock merely appears to be like extra elegant as a result of it’s smaller. Even the torque of the motor has been barely improved over that of the Pro.
As with the Pro, a magnetic sensor can be included with the lock that attaches to the body of your door with a sticker. This tells the lock whether or not the door is ajar or not, which is beneficial for SwitchBot’s auto-lock system. The app has been upgraded and now signifies (with a tiny icon) whether or not the door is open, together with the lock standing.
Installation and setup
As with nearly all SwitchBot gear, the lock is Bluetooth-only out of the field, however in the event you pair it with any SwitchBot hub, it’s going to work over Wi-Fi (and remotely). Setup took no time in any respect once I examined it with a SwitchBot Hub 2 (search for our overview of the SwitchBot Hub 3 quickly).
The SwitchBot app on my cellphone found the lock instantly, with out prompting, and bridged it to my hub and the Wi-Fi community in lower than a minute. (Again, all non-Bluetooth connectivity, together with Matter, is obtainable solely by way of the hub and never the lock itself.)
In observe, the lock is straightforward to make use of. The giant knob is straightforward to manually twist and clearly signifies by way of a small orange notch whether or not the lock is engaged or not. On-demand lock and unlock operations are available on the primary display screen of the app, and a bevy of additional options await the person within the settings menu.
Install the door sensor and the SwitchBot app will inform you if the door is left open (it’s going to additionally log door-ajar occasions).
Christopher Null/Foundry
Auto-locking will be configured to work provided that the door is closed or no matter open/closed standing, and alarms will be set to chirp if the door is left open or unlocked (or each) for a user-configured size of time.
There’s a curious twin lock function that permits you to management two SwitchBot locks concurrently, although I solely had one lock obtainable for testing. A beta function allows you to change the velocity of the lock rotation (which labored high quality in my testing).
A geofencing auto-unlock function, then again—additionally in beta—was haphazard in my testing over the course of every week. It would typically set off on my arrival, however typically it didn’t. Apart from that, the app labored flawlessly, by no means shedding its connection and precisely sending push notifications each time the lock was opened.
The new battery provides a promised operating time of 9 months, and built-in emergency batteries and a supercapacitor permit for emergency operations in case your juice runs out. Sure sufficient, I used to be capable of function the lock even once I eliminated the battery altogether; though I certainly wouldn’t have been capable of for lengthy. (Alerts and alarms gently encourage you to cost the battery instantly.)
An inner rechargeable battery SwitchBot Lock Ultra allowed for the retrofit lock’s way more streamlined industrial design.
Christopher Null/Foundry
The bother with all retrofit good locks is that there’s no “smart” option to entry them from outdoors with out your cellphone, which is why most distributors, together with SwitchBot, embody elective keypads to increase exterior entry capabilities.
New this yr, becoming a member of the outdated Keypad Touch ($50, with PIN and fingerprint help) is the SwitchBot Keypad Vision ($100, or $250 as a bundle with the Lock Ultra), which provides NFC and facial recognition to your unlocking technique choices. Both offer you a welcome and much-needed option to entry your property by way of further means past tapping in your cellphone.
This overview is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the best smart locks.
Should you purchase the SwitchBot Lock Ultra?
The SwitchBot Lock Ultra remains to be not the smallest or most tasty retrofit lock available on the market—the Level Lock Bolt holds that distinction—however SwitchBot’s product is not less than aggressive. And with a $160 asking worth, it represents a great worth in comparison with many options. (The SwitchBot Lock Pro, now $140, will be safely forgotten.)
I nonetheless advocate full good lock kits over retrofit choices for many shoppers, however in the event you’re wed to the way in which the skin of your own home appears to be like—or in the event you’re a renter and your landlord gained’t will let you change the outside lock—the SwitchBot Lock Ultra is value a critical look.