Aqara Smart Lock U50, Keyless Entry Door Lock with Apple Home Key, Bluetooth Deadbolt Lock, App Remote Control, Supports Apple HomeKit, Matter, Google Home, Alexa, IFTTT, Black

I absolutely love using my Apple Watch or iPhone to unlock my door, especially when I’m carrying groceries or my hands are full. I bought this smart lock because its description clearly states HomeKit compatibility. The setup process was incredibly easy, and you didn’t need to download the Aqara App to connect it to HomeKit. The auto-locking feature is fantastic; it locks the door within seconds of closing it. However, if it doesn’t lock, it’s probably because the door didn’t close properly. This particular model (U50) doesn’t have fingerprint recognition, which I don’t mind. Connectivity is excellent, and I’ve been using it for over six months without needing to charge it (I’ll charge it soon). I believe the battery life is quite good. I haven’t encountered any issues so far and don’t anticipate any in the future. I highly recommend it!

Funciona muy bien

Auto lock when the door closes is unreliable. A third of the time doesn’t lock so have to be always on the lookout if door lock is triggered or not. Other than that it’s been good.

Been using this lock for more than a week. Homekey is very reliable with iPhone 12, 15 and Apple Watch SE. Installation is fairly straight forward. Build quality is very solid. I wish the battery door is easier to open - it need a pry tool and I am sure I will misplace the tool. App has a Homekit standalone mode which allows setting up the lock without an Aqara account. It pairs the lock with Homekit no problem. However, firmware update kept failing in this mode. I had to create an Aqara account to use the full feature of the app, then I was able to update firmware successfully. My HomePod mini is pretty far away from the lock at the back of the house, so querying lock status or unlocking from Home app take a few seconds. This is expected. I am actually surprised that it works over this long distance.

Looks great at first and has very nice build quality, but it’s a nightmare if you can’t guarantee a strong Bluetooth connection between the lock and your primary Apple Home Hub (no WiFi.) I installed this for our garage side door to the outdoors so it wasn’t on the open level of our home near an Apple Home Hub. It only works when within range of our phone. Home Key worked most of the time, but status updates in Apple Home were horribly inconsistent. One option would be the Aqara hub but that only helps you with their own integration or for Google/Alexa. It won’t help with the Apple Home integration issues. We could never see the status accurately and automations constantly failed. Secondly, my garage side door gets morning and mid-day sunshine. The lock acted really wonky when in direct sunlight. It wasn’t especially warm to the touch or anything, and temperature was in low 20s Celsius. Even tapping HomeKey failed multiple times in these conditions. I’d recommend an alternative like Schlage’s Encode Plus, which has built-in WiFi for connecting to Apple home and their own Schlage Home app.