amazon Kwikset Halo Touch Fingerprint Smart Lock reviews

The Kwikset Halo Touch Smart Lock allows you to lock and unlock your door with your phone, voice, key, and fingerprint.

There are plenty of smart locks that let you lock and unlock your door with your mobile app or voice, but very few offer fingerprint recognition as an extra option. The $249 Halo Touch Kwikset is one of the few; it supports Alexa and Google voice commands, has built-in Wi-Fi and a mobile app, and is equipped with a fingerprint scanner that allows you to unlock the door with a single touch quickly. It’s a lock that’s sleek, easy to set up, and quiet.

Halo Touch Features and Design

Halo Touch is designed for doors 1-3/8 to 2 inches thick. A stylish buckle, available in a sleek modern design (available in matte black or satin nickel) or a traditionally curved design (in satin nickel or Venetian bronze). It’s a full lock assembly that comes with internal and external locking pins, latches and fixings, mounting plate and mounting hardware, four AA batteries, a pair of keys, and a quick start guide.

Exterior escutcheon measures 4.0 x 2.9 x 0.9 inches (HWD) and has a lock slot, fingerprint scanner, and LED light bar that glows green when the door is successfully unlocked, orange when locked, and red when unlock fails (with such as an unregistered fingerprint). Interior escutcheon measures 5.7 x 2.7 x 2.0 inches with cover. It has a thumbwheel, a status LED, and a removable black panel that gives you access to a removable battery case, two settings buttons, and a programming button. Under the hood is a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi radio and a Bluetooth radio.

The Halo Touch comes with the same Kwikset mobile app that includes Android and iOS versions for Halo Wi-Fi Smart Lock. The app opens to the My Home screen, showing the key’s name and when it was last updated. At the center of the screen is a circle with an icon of a padlock. When locked, the circle is red-and-gasp-the lock icon is locked, and when unlocked, the circle turns green and the unlock icon comes up. Tapping on the circle locks or unlocks the door. At the screen’s top right are the battery level and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth indicators; shed below are buttons for People, History, and Settings.

Click the Everyone button to add a locked user with full-time access or limited access by day to a specific time of day. When you create a user, you can register one or two fingerprints for them. Here you can also enable Secure Mode, which temporarily disables the fingerprint scanner.

History takes us to a screen where one can see the events of lock log daily and how they are implemented (voice control, app control, auto-lock, fingerprint scan). Use Settings to change the lock name, change or set an auto-lock delay time, toggle lock sound on or off, and view phones paired with the lock.

Halo Touch works with voice commands via Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant but lacks support for Apple HomeKit and is not compatible with IFTTT apps that could allow it to interact with other smart home devices.

Install and use Halo Touch

As with the Kwikset Halo, the Halo Touch is a complete locking system, which means I had to remove all of my existing locking hardware to install it, which took about five minutes and required a Philips screwdriver. I installed the Kwikset mobile app from a previous review, but you’ll have to download the app if this is your first Kwikset device.

I selected Halo Touch from the product list, selected the interactive installation guide (you can also download an installation PDF), and followed the onscreen instructions to measure the door holes to ensure the lock properly fit. Then I installed the latch assembly and support plate, passed the data cable through the bottom of the mounting plate, and attached the outer guard to the mounting plate. I plugged the data cable into the port on the Interior battery, mounted the battery in the bracket, and installed four AA batteries.

After the padlock did the auto-transfer process, I fixed the escutcheon cover and pressed the plus icon in the upper right corner of the app to add the key to it. I removed the slide from the internal reservoir and pressed and held the A button for three seconds until the lock beeped and the LED started flashing blue. I pressed Next, and the key was immediately recognized. I paired the key with the app, gave it a name, and selected my home Wi-Fi SSID from the list. I entered my Wi-Fi password and waited a few seconds to lock the connection to the LAN and the remote server. Once connected, the key was automatically added to the list of my Alexa devices. I registered my fingerprint when prompted, tap Done, and the installation was completed.

Halo Touch performed well in testing. Locking and unlocking are smooth and quiet; the fingerprint reader never unlocks the door. The lock responds quickly to application commands and always generates push alerts when the lock is activated. Alexa voice commands to lock and unlock the door work without a hitch, as does the auto-lock feature. Also, the lock always follows my temporary user schedule.

A very versatile smart lock

With Kwikset Halo Touch, you can lock and unlock your door with your phone, with Alexa or Google voice commands, with your fingerprint, or with a set of traditional keys. It’s a stylish padlock, easy to install, and quiet-whisper operation. It responds immediately to all lock and unlock requests in the test and always adheres to the user’s schedule. While you can include the key in Alexa and Google processes, it doesn’t support IFTTT apps that allow it to work with many third-party smart devices like cameras and lighting systems. Wi-Fi Smart Lock, which also works with Apple HomeKit. That said, it doesn’t offer fingerprint scanning, so if and interoperability with other smart devices is a must.

Advantages

Multiple ways to lock and unlock, including a fingerprint scanner

Built-in Wi-Fi

Supports Alexa and Google voice commands

Easy to install

Defect

Expensive

Does not support HomeKit or IFTTT

Limited third-party integration

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