Obviously given that Prime Day is hosted by Amazon, there are a lot of smart home options. Most of them start with the word Echo, sure, but there are plenty of other fantastic deals out there. For example, the 4th-generation August smart lock has dropped to $149.99 (opens in new tab) for the day. It has never gone below $170 before and more regularly goes for around $220, so this deal has some huge value.Â
You have several smart lock options for Prime Day
I bought the 3rd-generation August lock a couple of Prime Days ago. While I’ve owned several Echo Dots, the smart lock was my first move into a more niche smart home product. Instead of a general smart speaker that can answer all of my questions, this is a device meant to do one thing and do it well. But at the same time, I’d always asked myself if it was worth it. I mean, I already have a lock. It does locking pretty darn good. What’s it got to be smart for?
Turns out those smart functions really change the game in a lot of ways. I set my lock to automatically lock itself after it has been unlocked for a few minutes. I’m a fairly forgetful guy, so that’s definitely peace of mind for me. Plus, if I’m ever not sure I don’t have to go all the way down to the door to check. I can just ask “Alexa, is the front door locked?” We can’t be prepared for everything, but it’s nice knowing every exit is closed up for the night without having to do a home tour.
I also love the wireless connectivity. Just this morning I came home with a whole bunch of coffee and not enough hands for my keys, so I pulled out my phone and unlocked my smart lock from the app. I still needed to do a little parkour to open the door itself, but eliminating the traditional Fumble of the Keys from my routine certainly made things a little better.
There are a lot of other little things that make a smart lock really nice to have. I can grant guest access to my sister-in-law so she can come visit with little hassle. I set it up to unlock automatically when my wife comes home from work and lock behind her, and she loves that. Plus I get notification anytime the lock is used, so when my curious 3-year-old who just loves to sneak away whenever he can finds his way to the front door, he’s never getting outside unsupervised.
A great less expensive option
We’ve been following a lot of Prime Day deals, and you can keep track of all the best ones with our Prime Day live blog that continues throughout the day.
