Smart lock companies have spent 2024 developing clever ways to gain access to your home, including Aqara’s iPhone home button options, Philips‘ palm scanner, August’s keypad and fingerprint smart locks, and even Lockly’s Face ID lock. All of this already sounds quite futuristic… but is there any magic in them?
I’m talking about the magic of having the driver’s door of my car open without any action or touch other than me pulling the handle. I’m talking about smart home locks that see me approaching and take action – so I don’t have to stop and interact with something when I really just need to run inside to use the bathroom.
Luckily, at CES 2025, many smart lock manufacturers are ready to introduce models that support contactless passive entry. This means you won’t need to take extra steps like pulling an RFID key fob out of your pocket or slamming your Apple Watch against the panel to unlock the door. (That was last year!)
One of the most promising locks from the show was Schlage’s new Sense Pro Smart Deadbolt, which features an ultra-wideband (UWB) chip that tracks the trajectory and movement of your smartphone to know when to unlock it for you.
Schlage isn’t the first to announce the use of UWB in a smart lock; U-tec’s Ultraloq Bolt Mission, which was introduced last year, is credited with this. The Ultraloq was announced without support for the new Aliro smart access standard supported by Google, Apple, Samsung, and other companies (i.e., without support for unlocking Apple Home with a hands-free solution).
Now Bolt Mission is here at CES, with a launch date of “Q1 2025,” a price of $399, and a promise that Aliro and Apple Home will be coming in the near future. There’s also Lockly Secure Pro, which promises Apple’s contactless feature, costs $379.99, and will be available in Q4. While it will still be some time before many of these devices hit the market, UWB-enabled smart locks are obviously coming soon.
Of course, many companies still use other unlocking technologies instead of UWB. These include palm scanner locks such as TP-Link’s Tapo PalmKey and TCL’s Smart Lock D1 Pro, both of which claim to use artificial intelligence to scan the vein patterns on your hand. Meanwhile, others, such as the Lockly Styla, are designed just to look good. Heck, if you want to have everything but UWB, you might want to check out SwitchBot’s new Lock Ultra, which has literally 16 different unlocking methods that can be done with your hands.
Smart lock manufacturers are trying just about everything right now, including adding digital peepholes to locks in the new Lockly Vision Prestige and TCL Smart Lock Ultra. But what smart homes are really missing today is the feeling of a new car: when you finally pull out of the parking lot and no longer have to think about outdated ideas like “lock, unlock, and push to start.” We have yet to see these locks in action to see if they can reliably and safely fulfill their hands-free function. But the opportunity is there. I hope that smart lock companies will keep this transformative feeling in mind when they launch UWB products this year.
