Best face recognition for smart Locks 2026

Hands-free unlocking is the future of smart locks. The best in-home technology removes the hassle, and opening the door for you when you board is as seamless as it gets – no passports to remember, no need to have a free hand to shake, press, or jiggle the lock. One way to achieve this nirvana is face recognition. You already unlock your phone with your face; why not your place?

Hands-free opening using geofencing it’s been around for a while, but it can be slow and unreliable, and you need an app running in the background of your phone. New features – facial recognition and Unlocking using ultrawideband (UWB) radio. – very good. In my testing, UWB is the best sensor. All it takes is your phone or a watch somewhere to recognize you when you’re approaching, and it’s fast and reliable. But today, the keys are UWB antennas are expensiveand they are very few availability.

It was reviewing one of them, and Beat Sense Prothat I found the problem of using it to unlock facial recognition, a technology that I strongly rejected as an overengineered solution to a problem that has been largely solved. My husband often leaves his phone in the house when he’s working outside or in the garage, which means he can’t turn it on without hands. If you’re like him and don’t want unlocking tied to a device, but want the speed and ease of hand unlocking, face unlock might be for you.

Facial recognition in the smart location uses infrared sensors to create a three-dimensional map of your face. Different companies use different methods – such as fixed light, stereo infrared cameras, or time-of-flight monitors – but they are all designed to do the same thing. The 3D part is very important because it captures depth, so uploading an image will not fool them.

I tested four locks you can buy today with face unlock — the $300 Eufy FamiLock E40, the $350 Lockly Visage Zeno, Lockin’s $199 Veno Solar Face, and Switchbot’s $230 Lock Vision Pro. There is also one on Kickstarter which launches next month, and Switchbot has a two types.

A facial recognition lock that I can buy

The advantages of this group are Eufy FamiLock E40 from Anker. If I’m going for the best technology for my door, I’m going all the way, and the FamiLock E40 is the complete package. Along with a great face unlock feature, it also has a fingerprint scanner, keys, and a physical key, as well as a video doorbell. Put this on your front door, and you’re good to go.

Of all the four locks, the E40 was the fastest to open using my face – it did it in under a minute; I didn’t panic before I opened it. It was the only one that worked consistently when I wore sunglasses. Everyone else did well with hats, but struggled with glasses. The E40 also includes a backup battery that keeps the keyboard working even if the main battery dies and the biometrics don’t work – a nice touch.

The lock part supports Matter smart home, so it can work in the places you choose, and watching videos recorded on the 2K wall on the door does not register. I also appreciate that Eufy has added features to this lock; it looks like a more traditional lock than any of its competitors.

The downsides are that the Eufy is large and expensive, and its lithium-ion battery takes nine hours to charge, though you can still use the lock while it’s charging. A large battery drains quickly; it dropped 40 percent in the test week. Overall, although expensive, the Eufy E40 offers a lot of value, looks good, and works well – as long as you’re willing to pay for it regularly.

There is also a good way to make Apple’s natural products

Some of my favorites are expensive Lockly Visage Zeno. This is the only lock that can do both Apple Home Key and facial recognition. Home Key is a good backup when face unlock is too slow, because it’s easy to swipe your phone or watch to unlock it. When I’m in a hurry and my hands are not full, I just push my watch there; otherwise, I let face painting do the work.

Lockly was slightly slower to open than Eufy, taking about 2 seconds. It also struggled with mirrors; then it was opened, but it took a long time. Lockly is also the oldest version I tried, starting in 2024. Although it supports Home Key, it does not work with UWB Key Unlock; it’s open-to-open only.

I really like Lockly’s style; it’s sleek and compact, with a great design. Its battery life was impressive, lasting about nine months (I’ve been to test the lock for a year; the others for a little over a week). It is the only model that has a spare battery, which supports the vibration of the attachments.

Still, it’s the cheapest lock I’ve tested, and while the facial recognition was good, the keyboard is pretty good. Lockly’s PIN Genie system changes the number pattern every time you use it, and talking to my dad about how to open it while I was relaxing by the pool, and he struggled to get into my house to feed my dog, was a frustrating task. Fortunately, there are now the Bible which allows you to switch to a local machine.

The group is still in control

The other two locks I tested have more room for adjustment, but are much cheaper. Best selling point a Lockin Veno Solar Face with its built-in solar panel for long battery life, it performed well in my short test time. But face unlock was slow and didn’t work with glasses. This lock also has the craziest addition I’ve ever seen on a smart lock – a cartoon emoji that dances when you open it. I could happily live my whole life without an emoji on my front door.

The SwitchBot Lock Vision Pro version it was the worst of the crowd and slow to open – sometimes I had to stare at the reader for a few seconds before they recognized me. The opening of his fingers and palm vein was reliable, but he didn’t like sunglasses at all and could see people who weren’t there.

One night, I was sitting alone in my living room and watching Widow’s Bay when the lock suddenly said, “Please stand by the door and try again.” I was afraid, thinking that someone wanted to enter it. There was no one in there, but it continued. After that I had to turn off the sound in the program to stop.

After testing these locks, I still think facial recognition is more technology than you need for your front door. Even if you don’t want to pay the price of UWB, keypads and fingerprint readers work very well, are widely available, and are relatively inexpensive. It’s a bit touchy, though, and requires you to use your hands.

There are also some tradeoffs for speed and cool face unlocking. The locks it supports are not as expensive as current UWB locks, but they are still expensive. And while there are more facial recognition locks than UWB locks, there aren’t many. I also don’t think we’ll see much of UWB, which is a simple technology, once it starts. These locks also look super professional and require everyone in your family to stand in front of the lock to register their faces (I’m still trying to corral one of mine).

Finally, not everyone will be comfortable keeping their facial features on the door, although for some it may feel safer than using your phone as a key – only Nicolas Cage stole someone’s face. The good news here is that all the locks I tested are saving and storing data locally and not in the cloud, which improves privacy and performance.

Facial recognition is weird at first, but it works and has a cool sci-fi element. After all these technologies, I prefer UWB. “Slow unlock” feels magical because the door is already unlocked when I reach the threshold as opposed to waiting a minute or two for the lock to register my identity. But until more companies adopt UWB and prices come down, facial recognition is the best option for people who want to unlock their phones today.

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy/The Verge