Before I ever heard of Lockly, we had reviewed a number of door locks, and even had a video doorbell shootout a couple of years ago. A neighbor installed one of the other Lockly door lock models. I was impressed with its fingerprint scanning capability. We had never reviewed a lock with this feature. I don’t know if Lockly was first, as today a couple of the big name brands have a model or two with fingerprint. But, I believe it is Lockly that has pushed that capability to us end users, as a better solution.
like the idea of integrating everything into a single product. Of course, there’s likely to be a feature or two that you can’t find on a combination unit like this Lockly model, that might show up on individual video doorbells or door locks, but, not having “every” feature, is typical for multi-function devices.
This Video DoorBell Review – Background: I just replaced a very small I replaced my front door lock every year or two, to do my next review. In this case so I can review the Lockly Vision Elite – their flagship device. It was time. My last lock was the Kwikset Obsidian, which only had a keypad to open it – no backup key, etc.
My problem with that older lock, is “old tech”. I switched almost two years ago to the Eero 6 Pro Wi-Fi router system – reviewed here, they do mesh Wi-Fi between the 3 Eeros, to cover larger areas.
Like virtually all smart locks, until just a few years ago, my Kwikset relied on Z-wave technology, which was the dominant communications solution for security. But more and more locks and other security devices are going to Wi-Fi and or Bluetooth. In other words, without router Z-Wave compatibility (think SmartThings – Samsung), my old Smart Lock wasn’t very smart at all. It was basically reduced to being a Keypad lock where you could have multiple codes for different people. It was complemented by a Ring Doorbell. This Lockly easily replaces both!
It works!
Note: Or rather, it works really well. The Vision Elite has been protecting our condo now for almost four months. Both my wife, and I, are very pleased with how it performs – and remember, we’ve had 6 different smart locks over the course of 13 years and 3 homes.
First best thing – The side mounted fingerprint sensor is far faster, and easier if you are carrying things, (or anytime), than inputting a 4-6 digit code, or getting out a key! I love the fingerprint capability, and so does my wife.
Video camera quality on 1080p performs very well. We have lights near our door, but it’s still hardly bright at night. The low vision abilities of the Vision Elite have no trouble making everything/everyone nicely bright whether viewing on the app, or recording visitors. I did not try to test it under very, very, very low light conditions, because that doesn’t exist here: Our condo building has good lighting on the walkways to the units, all night – nowhere near as bright as daytime, but not low light conditions.
he doorbell’s biggest limitation is perhaps first time folks finding the doorbell button. People aren’t used to looking at a smart door lock for a doorbell. The doorbell itself is a small silver button. The lock even comes with a stick=on that says “Doorbell” with an arrow. (too big and ugly). We still have our Ring installed, so we’re finding more than half of the folks press the Ring. I don’t expect any problem, though, after I remove the Ring. A few folks though have found the doorbell button, and used it, so I expect that when I remove the Ring, people will still “ring” the doorbell, but on my Lockly. Or, they’ll knock!
The doorbell chimes on the inside when you press the doorbell. If I’m not blasting music or a loud football game, no problem hearing it anywhere in our main area (it is 60 feet from front door to the back of the condo), but it’s not loud enough to penetrate the solid door to the master bedroom when it’s closed, (that’s also by the back of the condo). That’s fine, as we mostly use our bedroom for sleep – (not even a TV in there). At this time Lockly doesn’t offer a wireless interior chime you can just plug into the wall. We do have one for our old Ring doorbell. That said, the lock’s sound is fairly high pitched chime, hard not to notice immediately, and yet, it is rather pleasant sounding. (nice!)
I’ve got my Lockly Vision Elite working with Alexa (that took maybe one minute to set up). I’ve got Alexa locking the door on command but not able to unlock it!
Quicktip: Why is it that most door locks that support voice commands, (ie Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant) won’t unlock using voice?
Consider, letting Alexa unlock your secure front door, is a disaster waiting to happen: Now to lock it, I have it setup so I say “Alexa Lock the Lockly Lock.” Bingo. Locked! So why not have “Unlock the Lockly Lock” work?
Bad idea. In my last house, for example, I could stand outside of my front door, and speak loudly – Alexa lock the “front door” and it would. The point being I wasn’t in the house, it could have been a thief. Fortunately, if I tried yelling unlock the front door it would have refused.
A thief could walk up to your front door, assuming “unlocking” worked by voice, then if the thief could speak loudly enough to be heard by the house’s personal assistant, saying something like “Alexa unlock the front door”, that would work and the thief would be in – in which case, say “bye bye” to the home’s valuables.
Locking the door as you leave is easy. Press a finger to the large touch pad for less than a second and the door will lock. Just like unlocking it, it is very fast – maybe 1 second and it’s locked.
Like many smart devices, there are a ridiculous number of features and options, that most folks won’t need, but ones that some folks will. One I always liked and have set up on this Lockly, is auto locking. I have it set for 45 minutes, but set it longer or shorter.
The Lockly App
Easy, of course to download onto my iPhone, from the Apple App store. I trust the Android experience isn’t significantly more difficult.
Setting up the App is about as straightforward as any. You do have a hub to connect to your wifi router. That hub, I should note, has a slot for a micro (TF) card, to store the doorbell videos.
You get to name your room, create a device – for me, just this one, but again, if I had a 2nd or third Lockly lock (either on my home or maybe Airbnb units if I owned any.)
I’ve taken a number of screen shots and have put them in some sort of logical order. There’s no rocket science here, as anyone who has a few smart home features, like smart bulbs, or a smart thermostat will appreciate.
The first screen captures are of loading and configuring the app, followed by, one important image about using eKey and eBadge features for access. After that, the screen captures are from using the app for normal purposes, seeing who’s at the door, unlocking it…
