Hi I'm Rich Brown for cnet.
Today we're gonna take a look at the August smart lock.
So this is a highly anticipated lock for a couple of reasons.
One it's designed by [UNKNOWN].
So he's sort of a well known designer people are pretty excited by that.
It's also pretty effective.
Smart Lock works into your iOS or Android device, as long as it has BlueTooth.
It's not that different from other Smart Locks I've seen, but what we like about this one is that it's really easy to install.
You can actually attach it onto any existing deadbolt.
It also has some effective geofencing features, which is kind of a simple way to tell the lock what to do automatically, depending on your proximity.
you can talk to your phone and see if you're close enough.
It will unlock automatically or as soon as you walk away, you can set it to autolock.
Auto unlock feature for example, has a 100 yard range.
So when you go away from your house and come back with,within a 100 yards of your house, it will unlock.
That's a pretty broad range though, it might be nicer if it was.
Just say ten yards or fifteen yards.
August says there gonna work on that but they need the larger data set from real people using these locks.
That kinda see what Peoples purposes are.
And just the general behavior of the device.
So like I said the lock is designed to work with your existing dead bolt set up.
So as long as your hardware sets flush with your door, you move the standard thumb turn.
Add on a plate that kinda depends on what lock you have installed, there's a couple different options in the box for August.
You **** in the back plate, into the existing key way in the front.
And then you attach the August lock to this plate.
And anyone with basic mechanical competence should be able to install this lock.
Getting it installed on your phone is also pretty easy.
You simply download the August app, turn on Bluetooth, and the two find each other as long as you've installed the batteries in the lock.
Itself.
The basic function of the lock is not only will it work as a standard lock, but you can also use your phone to open and close it.
You can hit this some button here and over bluetooth it will unlock and lock the door.
Now the bluetooth connection is pretty responsive.
It's not instantaneous as soon as you fire up the app, it takes a minute to kind of find itself.
But it works pretty fast and about as fast as it would take to take your keys out you can also assign access to different people provided they have a Smartphone and they have downloaded the [UNKNOWN] app.
There's data tracking in the app so you can see who comes and goes and when and because it's only bluetooth, it doesn't talk to the Internet at large so you can't really control it remotely but it does work with a couple of hubs that will eventually give you that capability.
So, there's a Logitech Smarthome Hub, and it works with the SmartThings also.
It also will eventually have HomeKit support for Apple iOS.
So, while the HomeKit functions aren't turned on yet, we're pretty much expecting that that will mean Siri functionality and potentially interaction with other devices.
We'll see what happens as soon as Apple kinda flips the switch on HomeKit, which we hope will happen later this quarter.
So, of the smart locks we've seen so far August is probably one of our favorites.
It works really well it's easy to install and because you add it to the existing lock nobody on the outside can tell what you have on the inside.
So it's discreet, it looks good, and it's easy to use.
It will cost you two hundred fifty bucks though, so you really kind of have to want to buy into the smart home in order to buy this thing.
So thanks for watching be sure to read the full review on cnet dot com, and for cnet appliances I'm.
Rich Brown.
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