Smart home company SwitchBot has announced a new version of its retrofit smart lock, and this one you can unlock with your face. The SwitchBot Lock Ultra ($159.99) works with the new SwitchBot Keypad Vision ($99.99), which uses 3D facial recognition technology to unlock your door. The company also launched the SwitchBot Hub 3, a smart home hub that was first teased in March. The new products are now available for preorder and should ship in June.
SwitchBot claims its lock is the first retrofit smart lock with 3D facial recognition. As a retrofit lock, it can be installed without replacing your existing lock. Instead, the Ultra attaches to the rear of your lock and controls it using a mechanical motor, leaving the front unchanged, so you can still use your keys. The Vision keypad is mounted outside of your door and connects to the lock via Bluetooth.
The SwitchBot Lock Ultra Vision Combo costs $249.99 and includes the lock, vision keypad, and a SwitchBot Hub Mini (a hub is required for controlling the lock outside of Bluetooth range).
Unlike most retrofit locks, Switchbot’s Lock Ultra, and its predecessors Switchbot Lock Pro and Switchbot Lock, are compatible with nearly all existing locks in Europe and America. In addition to facial recognition, when connected to the keypad, the lock can be controlled with a fingerprint, a keycode, and an NFC card. Without the keypad, it works with a traditional key, app control, and auto-unlocking using geofencing (which activates the lock when your smartphone arrives at your house).
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The company says the Ultra can get up to nine months of battery life on the included rechargeable battery and also has a backup battery that lasts for up to five years. It works over Bluetooth and requires one of Switchbot’s gateways to connect to Wi-Fi and integrate with smart home systems, including Apple Home (through Matter), Amazon Alexa, and Google Home.
The lock can also work with the new SwitchBot Hub 3 ($119.99), the company’s latest smart home hub designed to control and integrate SwitchBot’s Bluetooth products. The Hub 3 can bridge up to 30 SwitchBot devices to Matter ecosystems such as Apple Home.
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The new Hub is a complete revamp from the second-gen version. Larger and with a sleek, all-black design, it comes with an integrated stand and features a display, a dial, and four customizable buttons.
The hub also functions as a temperature and humidity sensor, as well as a light and motion sensor. Its display can wake up on motion and show information such as indoor temperature and door lock/unlock status, and the buttons can control smart home scenes.
The dial can connect to compatible devices to control them, for example, adjust the brightness of lights, the volume on connected TVs, and the temperature of a thermostat. SwitchBot says the hub can control Matter devices that are integrated with Apple Home, and it will work with Home Assistant.
The Hub is also an IR controller and can integrate with over 100,000 IR device codes.
The new products are now available to preorder from SwitchBot’s website, with shipping slated for June.
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Jennifer Pattison Tuohy