Face Unlock Works. The Fallback Still Decides the Smart Lock
Facial recognition has crossed an important smart-home line: it is no longer just a trade-show trick. A current Verge comparison tested four locks that open after recognizing a face and found the category worth considering, even while judging ultra-wideband phone or watch detection the better direction for hands-free entry.
That makes face unlock a real buying feature. It does not make it the buying decision. A front-door lock still has to fit the door, work with the household's platforms, protect biometric data, and open when the preferred sensor or power source fails.
Four Locks, One Practical Question
The comparison covered the Eufy FamiLock E40, Lockly Visage Zeno, SwitchBot Lock Vision Pro, and Lockin Veno Solar Face. They differ in price, hardware, ecosystem support, cameras, power, and backup methods. That diversity matters more than the shared face-scanning headline.
The right question is not, “Can it recognize me?” It is, “What happens on the day it does not?”
Door Fit Comes Before Biometrics
Eufy's U.S. page lists the E40 at $299.99. It combines face and fingerprint unlocking, a keypad, physical key, 2K camera, doorbell, app control, and Matter support. The useful installation facts are less glamorous: eufy specifies doors 35 to 55 mm thick and does not recommend installing it where a storm door blocks the camera's view.
Those constraints can decide the purchase before software enters the discussion. Measure the door and backset, inspect exterior trim and storm-door clearance, and make sure the existing deadbolt moves without friction. A motorized lock installed on a binding bolt is a battery problem waiting to happen.
Matter Does Not Carry the Whole Product
The E40 can connect through Matter to Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, and SmartThings. Eufy also says its camera stream is not available through Matter, so the vendor app remains necessary for the full video experience.
Lockly takes a different path. Its $349 Visage supports Apple Home Key, Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, plus the Lockly app over built-in 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. Remote Apple Home control and sharing require a compatible Apple home hub.
This is why a logo checklist is not enough. Before buying, write down the exact tasks required in each platform: lock and unlock, status, guest access, automations, video, logs, and remote control. Then verify each one for the exact model. “Works with” rarely means every feature follows the lock everywhere.
Local Faces Still Need a Privacy Plan
Eufy says E40 facial data is stored locally and supports up to 50 household profiles. Lockly says Visage facial data is encrypted on the lock rather than sent to its servers and lists capacity for up to 100 faces.
Local storage is a meaningful advantage, but it is a vendor claim—not an independent security audit. Enroll only people who need access, protect vendor and smart-home accounts with strong authentication, review shared-home permissions, and remove profiles when access ends. A face may be the convenient credential; it should not be the only one.
Test the Failure Path Before Trusting It
The E40 has a 15,000mAh main battery and an 800mAh backup. Eufy says the backup preserves facial, fingerprint, and PIN unlocking while other functions become unavailable.
Lockly's manual is more explicit about degradation: remote access turns off at low battery, facial recognition disables below 20 percent, and the lock warns of a critically low state with three unlocks remaining. A physical key and temporary USB-C power remain recovery options.
Before calling either installation complete, test face recognition in daylight and darkness, a second electronic credential, the physical key, low-battery alerts, and the emergency-power method. Keep the physical key somewhere reachable from outside the locked home.
The Buyer Decision
Facial recognition is now credible convenience. Buy it when hands-free entry materially helps the household and the exact lock passes the door-fit, ecosystem, privacy, and fallback checks.
Skip it when a retrofit lock, Home Key, UWB, fingerprint reader, or keypad solves the entry problem with less exterior hardware and fewer biometric decisions. The winning smart lock is not the one with the most futuristic first unlock. It is the one that remains predictable on the hundredth normal day—and recoverable on the bad one.
- https://www.theverge.com/tech/967183/best-facial-recognition-smart-locks-review - https://www.eufy.com/products/t85m0j11 - https://lockly.com/products/lockly-visage-zeno-series - https://apiserv04c.lockly.com/statics/uat-electronic-instruction/paperless/file/2026/01/13/385e43f0-1414-4b75-bae2-62c9651d407e.pdf