Vocolinc Door Sensor Surfaces on Best Buy Canada

Since late last year, we’ve heard of a few forthcoming products from Vocolinc, namely the VAP1 Air Purifier, and the Vocolinc Humidifier. The last new device we were made aware of was the VS1 Door sensor, which we reported on back in March. It now seems that the latter of these three devices is possibly due soon, as one of our trusted sources briefly spotted a listing on Best Buy’s Canada mobile site – luckily before it was swiftly removed again.

From what is evident here, Best Buy is due to be selling these as a 2-pack, for CA$49.99, which if converted to US dollars, works out at roughly between US$35 – 36 ($17.50 – $18 per unit). If the US stores sell the VS1 2-pack for around this price, that would make these only marginally more expensive (per sensor) than the very popular Aqara Door & Window Sensor, currently listed on Amazon for US$16.99 but without the need for a hub, which is required for the Aqara equivalent, being that it uses Zigbee. The VS1 uses Bluetooth 5.0.

The sensor is also now listed on Vocolinc’s Czech and Slovakian websites, with the price listed as €24.99 on the Slovakian site.

It’s fair to say many customers aren’t fans of Bluetooth in smart home devices, with the usual criticism being slow response times, and limited range. Still, Bluetooth 5.0 has at least done a lot to mitigate the issues. If you’re concerned about too many WiFi devices taking up bandwidth, Bluetooth does offer not only this fix but will also keep working even if you suffer WiFi network issues.

The VS1 will use a standard CR2032 coin-type battery, with an estimated life of 6 months before replacement is required. Whilst the Best Buy listing can’t be verified as the final word on pricing, given Vocolinc’s prices for previous products, we’re expecting it to be reasonably competitive.