Mijia Add First HomeKit Enabled Lock to Their Range

Mijia, the Smart Home brand for Xiaomi, has announced a new smart door lock today, simply called the Mi Smart Lock E. Normally there’d be nothing inherently interesting about yet another smart lock for the Mi Home system, given that there are currently a staggering thirty-three (33) different locks to choose from in the Mi Home app. However, this new lock, which is in crowdfunding mode at the moment is a new direction for Mijia, being that it’s their first smart lock to be HomeKit compatible.

Smart locks with HomeKit compatibility aren’t anything new, of course, even to the Mi Home system, with the Aqara N100, N200 and P100 all being compatible with Mi Home and Apple HomeKit, but this is the first time a Mijia branded lock will work with HomeKit.

That said, the specs for the new device – which is suitable for doors with mortice locks – isn’t anything that we’ve not seen already with the aforementioned Aqara locks that are already available in China;

• HomeKit compatibility
• Bluetooth connection
• Fingerprint reader built into the handle
• Unlock via regular keys
• keypad for code entry
• temporary keycodes can be used
• built-in doorbell

What it doesn’t seem to have compared to the Aqara models, is NFC unlocking capabilities, which whilst not something that would feature in any HomeKit setup, is nonetheless quite useful.

Currently, the crowdfunding price is 899RMB (equivalent to approximately US$125.00), with the price increasing to 999RMB (equivalent to approximately US$140.00) on release in Mainland China, which is pretty cheap for a smart lock, even by today’s standards.

More info can be found on Xiaomi’s Chinese Mainland website – www.mi.com

Thanks to Guillaume Mamosa @ Xiaomi Domotique, La Communauté Francophone for the find.