Wyze Lock Bolt review: This no-frills Bluetooth smart lock is hard to beat

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

• An amazing value
• Addition of a fingerprint reader is impressive at this price level
• Worked perfectly throughout testing

Cons

• Boring industrial design
• Bluetooth only, no Wi-Fi connectivity
• Can’t detect if the door is open or closed

Our Verdict

If you can do without Wi-Fi connectivity, the Wyze Lock Bolt is a phenomenal value. The onboard fingerprint reader and the ability to establish temporary PIN codes from afar are particularly noteworthy features.

At $70, Wyze Labs’ Lock Bolt Bluetooth smart lock is dirt cheap compared to what the rest of the smart lock industry has to offer. Even better, it even includes a few features even advanced smart locks tend to miss.

As is typical of Wyze products, the hardware is no-nonsense and straightforward: an all-black combination of metal and plastic. The exterior escutcheon features a numeric keypad with raised (and rather stiff) buttons, plus a fingerprint reader above. Notably, there is no physical keyhole option for emergency entry, but there is a small USB-C port beneath a rubber flap that can be used if the four AA batteries (included) go dead on you. The interior escutcheon offers no surprises at all, with a simple deadbolt inside a sizeable housing that carries a motor, electronics, and the aforementioned batteries.

This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best smart locks, where you’ll find reviews of the competition’s offerings, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product.

There’s no manual to speak of included, but the Wyze app guides you through setup with great efficiency. If you’ve ever installed a smart lock, you’ll find no surprises along this journey. A metal plate connects from the inside of the door to the exterior escutcheon with two bolts. Another pair of small screws attaches the interior escutcheon to the plate. A cable completes the electronic connection between the two parts. The process is intuitive, and I encountered no trouble getting the job done in far less than the 20 minutes suggested by Wyze.

Wyze Labs

It’s important to note that the Wyze Lock Bolt is a Bluetooth-only product, so setup and use can only take place if your phone is within Bluetooth range. The lock does not connect to Wi-Fi, which means it won’t work with third-party products and you can’t set up automations that, say, turn on a light inside once the door is unlocked.

That said, the lack of Wi-Fi makes for a much simpler and more stable smart lock than many. Setup required all of three minutes for the lock to be discovered and added to the Wyze app, and I never encountered any disconnects or unavailability issues while testing the system. As part of setup, each user is invited to select a PIN of 4 to 8 digits and enroll a fingerprint. The app itself provides a third option for opening the lock—and it’s the only one that requires any kind of wireless connection. The first two options will always work, whether you have your phone handy or not. Up to 20 users are supported, and each user can register multiple fingerprints.

In addition to full-time users, users can be restricted based on date and/or time of day through an intuitive user setup system. You can also provide one-time codes for infrequent visitors. In an interesting design, these do not need to be configured by the user; they are configured automatically by a processor within the lock hardware, and they change every four hours. You simply use the app to retrieve one of the codes, which you can relay to your contact. (The app indicates how long it is good for—four hours max.) In this way, you can provide a one-time code to a visitor without needing to actually be near the lock. It’s rather ingenious and a handy way to let someone into the house if you’re not at home; like all the other features of this lock, it works well.

Christopher Null/Foundry

The only other feature of note is auto-lock, which is configurable between 15 seconds and 15 minutes, and which can be disabled during certain hours if you’re tired of getting locked out of your house. Note, however, that the lock can’t detect whether the door is open or closed, so if you leave the door open, auto-lock might still activate.

The lock’s final feature is a robust log that tracks every lock and unlock operation—even manual ones—as well as any jams or incidents of five failed access attempts in a row. (A modest alarm sounds when this happens, as well.) It’s available front and center in the app, right under the can’t-miss-it lock/unlock button.

Wyze’s Lock Bolt doesn’t connect to the rest of your smart home, but not everyone needs to open and close their lock from across town. That said, this lock is clever enough to offer a way to help you get that done too—even without a Wi-Fi connection.