A glimpse into what could have been

The SwitchBot Lock Ultra can convert almost any existing door lock into a smart lock. Combined with the SwitchBot Keypad Vision, home entry doesn't get much more sci-fi than this—and I'm pleased to say that the experience isn't all about gimmicks. SwitchBot actually delivers, but the modular setup holds it back.

6/10

Brand

SwitchBot

Connectivity

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Integrations

Matter

Compatible Locks

Universal

The SwitchBot Lock Ultra is a universal smart lock that works with an existing door lock without making any allegations to the door, making it available to homeowners and renters alike. When combined with the SwitchBot Keypad Vision, you can re-enter a space via facial recognition, fingerprint scan, passcode entry, NFC card, or via a phone app. Matter-compatibility means the lock integrates with all of the major smart home platforms. 

Pros & Cons

• Works with most doors
• Compatible with all major smart home ecosystems via Matter
• Face scans work reliably
• Excellent software and mechanical performance

• Requires too many components
• Cost quickly adds up
• Lock can fall off door if adhesive fails, so remember to keep your key on you

Price and availability

The SwitchBot Lock Ultra costs $140. An adapter kit may be needed for some locks (such as mine) that costs an additional $20. The SwitchBot Keypad Vision costs an additional $100. That said, you can regularly find bundles and discounts both on the SwitchBot website and (often, but not currently) via Amazon.

A universal design

One downside of smart locks is that they aren't the prettiest additions to a door, especially on the inside of a home. The SwitchBot Lock Ultra is a pretty serious offender in this regard. The black, cylindrical-shaped unit will stand out like a giant plastic leech on most doors. Though anyone who owned the previous SwitchBot Lock will notice that the newer model is smaller and, hard as it may be to believe, sleeker. If, like me, you end up needing the universal adapter to make the lock work with your door, then the hardware will look even bulkier as it protrudes an extra half inch or so.

Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek

Since you don't have to replace your existing lock, you might assume this one would be easier to install than others. From my experience, the reality is just the opposite. Replacing a deadbolt doesn't require all that many steps. By contrast, lining this unit up with an existing lock and attaching the adapter was a tedious affair.

Since installation is something I only had to do once, I quickly forgot about it, and you might not find it all that complex if you don't have prior familiarity with other locks to compare it to. On the positive side, there's zero chance of needing to drill any new holes because the existing ones don't line up. Just be sure to take your time and get everything lined up right. Because if anything is loose or slightly off, the lock will fail to work as expected. I know from experience, to the point where I, personally, am eager to switch back to my previous smart lock.

The Lock Ultra comes in black and silver, and there are interchangeable battery plates that can spice up the look. These faux wooden panels may offer a pop of distinction if they happen to complement your home decor. These covers slide off to reveal a removable battery with a USB port for charging. Unlike many smart locks, there are no AA batteries involved here.

As for pure practicality, the design makes sense. While the round knob for unlocking the door isn't as immediately obvious as the lever on most deadbolts, it's easy enough to figure out. The red dot faces down when locked and toward the door frame when unlocked. You can twist it manually or tap the knob for it to lock and unlock automatically.

I find the Keypad Vision's design to be more subdued. There's a simple keypad with a nice typeface, a check mark button for confirming the end of your passcode, and a lock button. Underneath the numbers, you'll find the fingerprint reader. Above them, you'll see the camera.

Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek

The Keypad Vision connects wirelessly to the Lock Ultra, sending it a signal to lock or unlock. There are two ways of mounting the keypad to a wall, either via screws or an included 3MM sticker. Depending on your door, you can mount the keypad facing directly out or at a 15-degree angle.

The keypad is IP65 waterproof and dustproof, so you can comfortably place it wherever you need to. On the downside, there's nothing stopping anyone from detaching the Keypad Vision from your wall. This wouldn't help them break into your home, but it would be an expensive annoyance.

Every entry method you can think of

The Keypad Vision markets a staggering twelve different ways of entering the home. The keypad is the most obvious, and it's simple to set up via the SwitchBot app. While the software is, sadly, cloud-dependent—it's also remarkably fast, simple, and intuitive. As someone who has other SwitchBot products in my home, I was surprised to find that I consider the Keypad and Lock Ultra to be the easiest to configure. Their functions are very straightforward compared to the SwitchBot Hub 3 or even small devices like the Motion Sensor or Meter Plus.

But you aren't here to read about the keypad. The inclusion of facial recognition is what sets this lock apart from all previous universal smart locks and distinguishes it from SwitchBot's own Keypad Touch. Pleasingly, adding your face is even more straightforward than adding a passcode. After navigating to the right section of the app, you simply stand in front of the keypad without wearing a face covering and tap a button on the app. A moment later, the process is complete.

Where you place the keypad matters. For optimal performance, you want to place the keypad eye level, but the app provides a secondary placement option for families where multiple people will be interacting with the lock. Since I have kids who need to be able to reach the keypad, ours is more in front of my chest than my face. Still, it's able to recognize me as I stand in front of it normally. The process seems to improve after the first few uses, with the lock presumably learning more about your face and where it needs to look.

SwitchBot's privacy policy states your face is only ever stored on the keypad itself, so that data never goes up to the cloud. This means the data risks aren't that different from a fingerprint lock, which also stores your fingerprint on the device.

While facial recognition is nice, it's not the fastest option. I've been using a fingerprint lock for over a year, and nothing quite beats the ease of placing a fingerprint against a scanner on your way to reaching for the door handle. It's a convenience approaching that of unlocking a phone whose fingerprint scanner is on the power button. Since the Keypad Ultra's face recognition feature requires the lock to be placed a bit farther away from the door handle than most locks, the fingerprint scanner is a tad less accessible, but it's still faster to place a finger against the scanner than to wait the extra second or two before the camera recognizes you. That said, we're talking a matter of a second or two, and I've increasingly opted to wait that extra second.

Since the Lock Ultra is a retrofit kit, you always have the option to unlock the door via your existing key. If you prefer to carry a key with a different physical form factor, the Keypad Vision comes with a credit card-sized NFC card that you can tap against the keypad to unlock the door. Alternatively, you can use your phone as a digital key.

While this sounds like overkill, it makes this a delightful lock to share with family members, significant others, or various roommates. Each person can stick to the method that works best for them, and there's always a fallback available if one method fails. Forgot your card? Use your phone instead. Fingers too wet for the fingerprint scanner? Just use your face. Can't remember the passcode? Reach for the card.

Excellent performance with one serious drawback

Out of the box, the lock does not lock the door behind you automatically, though there is an auto-unlock feature in beta. I consider this a plus. As I learned with my previous Lockly locks, auto-locking creates issues with doors whose slight misalignment or warping requires them to be nudged in order for the deadbolt to slide out. The auto-lock mechanism is also the component where I experienced issues with said Lockly lock, with the lock often immediately locking as soon as we unlock, requiring us to manually unlock the door twice whenever we leave the house.

The Lock Ultra boasts a powerful motor for locking and unlocking the door. This is a more valuable feature than I realized. The door seems to lock and unlock instantly, significantly faster than any of my previous keypad locks. It's a pleasant reprieve after a year or so with a malfunctioning lock that, when new, opened and closed in at least half the time.

Fingerprint scans are near instant. Much like the scanner on my Galaxy Z Fold 6, there isn't much of a cognitive delay between when I touch the scanner and when it scans. I can't say the same about facial recognition. There's a white indicator light at the bottom that flickers when it detects motion and is attempting to scan your face. It turns green if it does and goes dark when it doesn't. I typically saw this white light blink at least once before a successful scan.

Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek

If I'm wearing a beanie, as I typically do in cold weather, that increases the chance that it's going to fail. I was able to work around this by adding a separate face scan of me with my head covered.

Unfortunately, there's one issue with this product's design that can't be fixed based on performance alone. My Lock Ultra is attached to the door via the provided 3mm sticker. You're going to want to be sure that adhesion is absolutely secure, because if it falls off, your keypad will tell you the door is unlocked even when it isn't. Your Lock Ultra is instead lying on the floor, going through the motions but not actually interacting with anything.

When this happened to me, I could not figure out why the keypad kept saying the door was unlocked when it clearly wasn't. My son eventually opened the door from the inside and pointed out the lock on the floor. If you're in an apartment with only one entryway into your home, I would highly recommend making sure you continue to leave the house with your regular key to fall back on, just in case.

This is an issue that doesn't affect most smart locks, where the deadbolt and keypad are a single unit. SwitchBot’s module approach opens up the lock to renters who don't have permission to replace their deadbolts, but it opens up a serious vulnerability in the process.

A Matter-compatible option for any smart home ecosystem

I'm on the lookout for a lock I can integrate with the rest of my Matter-based smart home, so Matter compatibility, for me, is a big part of the Lock Ultra's appeal. Matter support means the lock can be added to any of the major smart home platforms, such as Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, or Samsung SmartThings. SwitchBot's lock is Matter-compatible, with a catch.

You won't find a Matter QR pairing code in the box. To integrate the keypad with Home Assistant, I had to first dive into the settings for the SwitchBot hub that the lock is connected to. There, you can find a pairing code for the hub. After you add the hub to your smart home ecosystem, the connected SwitchBot devices you select will come along for the ride.

Once added to your smart home app of choice (in my home, that's Home Assistant and SmartThings), there's no indication that the Lock Ultra is connected via a hub. It just appears alongside all of your other devices. Within Home Assistant, the lock has two functions. One is to lock and unlock my door from within the app. The other is to tell when the door is open.

This is thanks to a magnet placed on the door frame during the installation process. Unfortunately for me, Home Assistant hasn't accurately given me a good read of when the door is actually open, but that's possibly due to me having the magnet placed on the extreme outer edge of its recommended distance away from the lock. The instructions recommend a distance of 0–50 mm.

What's visible varies based on the platform. SmartThings provides me with control over the lock, but it does not tell me if the door has been left open.

In either smart home app, I can add the lock to automations, such as unlocking the door when a garage door opens. I don't actually have a garage, but I would be hesitant to add the lock to an automation in general. I don't want any false positives or unexpected behaviors leaving my door unlocked, especially when it's easy enough to unlock via face scan or fingerprint. It's not like I have to fumble in the cold for a key. But there are other automations I can see value in, like having the locks automatically lock at night if you have a house full of kids who run in and out of the house throughout the day.

Should you buy the SwitchBot Lock Ultra and Keypad Vision?

All in, this is an expensive smart lock. Since you need both the SwitchBot Lock Ultra and SwitchBot Keypad Vision, you're looking at around $250 before applying any discounts—and you'll also need a hub if you're looking to integrate this with an existing smart home ecosystem. That can set you back another $60 if you're not purchasing one as part of a discounted bundle.

Are you getting your money's worth? While I can't speak to how well this unit holds up after a year or two of use, I'm inclined to say yes. So much about this lock, from how quickly the motor turns the lock to the way the keypad's chimes and voice prompts sound, is a step above most digital locks. You're buying this lock for facial recognition, fingerprint access, and Matter-compatibility, but it's all the small things that really make it stand out. Unfortunately, I've had too many issues with the Lock Ultra to give this setup my wholehearted recommendation. At the end of the day, it just doesn't feel as secure and reliable as the prior, less complicated keypad locks I've owned.

6/10

Brand

SwitchBot

Connectivity

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Integrations

Matter

Compatible Locks

Universal

The SwitchBot Lock Ultra is a universal smart lock that works with an existing door lock without making any allegations to the door, making it available to homeowners and renters alike. When combined with the SwitchBot Keypad Vision, you can re-enter a space via facial recognition, fingerprint scan, passcode entry, NFC card, or via a phone app. Matter-compatibility means the lock integrates with all of the major smart home platforms.