As one of the lucky people to try out the U600 lock I thought it was worth me sharing my experience, especially as someone with a Yale Conexis L2 Lock.
Firstly build quality seems really good, comparable to the Yale. The all black aesthetic is nice and blended nicely into my grey wooden door. I’m not a huge fan of the keypad on the outside but the black buttons do make it blend in and not look too out of place.
I feel like other reviews have touched on the main points so I will focus on the comparisons between the two smart locks I have. So the yale works by locking specifically once the handle is lifted, it cannot be locked without lifting the handle or the mechanism will jam. This is annoying but ultimately best for security. Secondly (my biggest issue) this lock will relock after 30s unless the door is opened. This made making automations to unlock the door a massive pain in the ass. If it was based on a device coming home and someone didn’t open the door straight away the door would relock and without alternative methods to unlock, it was just frustrating. Ultimately this was solved and has since been flawless but it was a big pain to get right. Once the door is unlocked and opened it does then stay unlocked from inside and out.
Now onto the U600, this lock does seem to fix many of my frustrations with the yale. The fingerprint unlocking is very fast and so is remote unlocking but I think the biggest change is that this does not lock based on lifting the handle. In fact, it doesn’t even need the handle lifted to “lock”.
Ultimately I don’t think the lock even knows when the multipoint is engaged which I think is a big shame, its great that the lock has the ability to lock without the multipoint engaged but it would be awesome to have the ability to be notified when everyone is out the house and the door is not fully secure.
This also means that if the door is set to auto engage the lock it will lock after a set period (3s - 10min) after unlocking, regardless if the multipoint is engaged. This is great for someone living in a busy neighbourhood where doors are kept locked but for someone in the middle of nowhere and who is used to leaving the door unlocked when in the garden etc, it is frustrating to constantly unlock the door. I would have loved to have seen a feature where the auto-lock could be either tied directly to when the handle is lifted or tied to camera based presence. For example, lock the door when front door camera has not detected a person for 5min.
So to conclude:
The U600 is an excellent smart lock, feels well build and full of features but ultimately still has some quirks that need to be understood if integrating into your daily routine.
The locking mechanism is excellent if looked upon as way to have the door “locked” at all times, even if by a reduced level of security but if you are someone who is happy leaving their door unlocked for constant coming and going it could be frustrating.
It is worth saying the lock is extremely quick to lock/unlock, much faster than the yale.
Things I would change:
I would have loved to have seen the ability to have the lock only lock when the handle is lifted as currently if auto-lock is turned off you have to both lift the handle and manually lock the door.
Note of security:
I’m not a security expert or locksmith so would love to have seen some external validations on how secure this lock is. I checked with my insurance company prior to installing and would highly suggest this is something everyone does before installing any smart lock.