Aqara Unveils Budget Friendly U50 Deadbolt Smart Lock
Aqara has today announced its third new product in the month of May, following on from the Smart Outlet H2 for Europe, and the Hub M3, with Matter. This latest product is the Smart Lock U50, a budget-friendly version to the company’s smart deadbolt lock U100 (review HERE, video HERE), that came out just under a year ago. This lock is designed to replace standard deadbolt locks commonly found in North America. You can check out our review of the U50 below;
Physically, there’s little to distinguish the U50 from the U100, aside from one specific feature missing, that being the fingerprint sensor. This is where the lower price point has been achieved. Whether that’s an important omission for some is sort of irrelevant, as the U50 is designed to sit alongside the U100, not replace it. So if you want that extra feature, the U100 is the lock for you.
Aside from that, the lock now comes in a much darker shade of grey (or black if you prefer) than the U100, with a finish closer to an option available for the U100 in other regions, which were offered not only in the standard gun metal grey, but also silver or the aforementioned black/dark grey.
As with the U100, the new lock features a keypad for use with passcodes, as well as for use with Apple HomeKey via a suitable iPhone or Apple Watch. Optional Aqara NFC key fobs will also work with the U50, as well as the two provided keys as a manual backup. You also have access to the lock via both the Aqara app and your smart home platform of choice. In the case of third-party platforms aside from Apple Home, You can connect this lock to any Matter platform by binding the lock to a Matter-enabled Aqara hub using Zigbee. This then exposes the lock to that platform. This can be done via Apple Home too, although exposing the lock to Apple Home via a Matter activated hub will result in the loss of Apple HomeKey, which is a very popular feature for many Apple Home users.
Perhaps the most important change for users is the option to rekey the U50 in order to use your existing keys. This was nigh on impossible to do with the U100, but the U50 now uses a standard 5-pin deadbolt, making rekeying a lot more straightforward.
Aside from that, the U50 is much the same in all other aspects to its ‘older brother’, with a ton of features via the Aqara app, for things like time-sensitive, one-off, and periodic passcodes. Do Not Disturb options, and of course automation options via both Apple Home and Aqara Home, which also includes the option to associate the U50 with the company’s G4 video doorbell, which allows you to control the U50 directly from the same screen you use to view the live stream for the G4.
You can purchase the U50 from Amazon.com for US$149.99, with a special time-limited 20% OFF discount, using the following code – USCAU50P.
