Aqara A100 Zigbee Smart Lock (review)

Posted by March 24, 2022 431 Views

For what seemed like the longest time, I was desperate to find a lock suitable for our apartment in Taiwan to round out the smart home ‘collection’. A couple of years ago, I finally managed to achieve this with the Nuki Smart Lock 2.0 (you can read the review HERE or watch the video HERE), which is essentially a retrofit device that fits over the top of the existing Eurocylinder lock and key. In the two and a bit years it has been in use, I’ve been fairly happy with it, but just recently it began to exhibit some strange behaviour, which seemed to be a warning sign to start looking elsewhere for a replacement.

In what couldn’t be better timing, Aqara luckily contacted me, asking if I’d like to test out their new A100 Zigbee smart lock. I was ready to say “Yes!”, but the issue of installing something like this was of major concern to me. Aqara was already aware of the requirements needed to install such a device and said they’d arrange for the installation with a local locksmith into the deal. It makes sense of course, as a badly fitted lock, wouldn’t really make for a good review!

So, with everything arranged, come the day of the installation, it all went very smoothly with both the installation and subsequent Smart Home integration (which happily, was left to me). As it stands, the A100 Zigbee, the company’s international version for the A100 series locks, is only available in a handful of countries in Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan etc), along with Russia, although there are tentative steps to get the lock into European and hopefully the US as well. That’s not for me to dwell on though, but if you want to know what makes this one of the best locks I’ve had the chance to test out, then read on.

PACKAGING | CONTENTS

As the A100 isn’t the kind of product you’re going to pick off the shelf as such, the packaging, whilst informative, is rather more functional than eyecatching. However, it protects everything really well, and given this came from Hong Kong to Taiwan via Japan, Vietnam, Mainland China, and The Philippines (I kid you not), the box held up admirably! Good to know, given the contents aren’t cheap.

As you can see from the box, this is aimed at international markets with Chinese for Asian markets where Chinese is used (Singapore, Malaysia etc), English for most other places (being it’s the Lingua Franca), and Russian for Russia (obviously).

The packaging states the A100 works with Apple HomeKit, as well as Aqara Home, and uses Bluetooth, although as the product name implies, Zigbee is used as well to some degree, which we’ll go into later. The one thing that’s not mentioned on the box is that the lock will also work with Google Assistant.

Before I go into the parts, a bit of info on the A100 series locks is in order;

All of the models – the A100, A100 Pro, and the A100 Zigbee – feature a variety of ways in which you can unlock the door, although the options vary slightly between models;

Fingerprint sensor
Keypad
Physical key
NFC card
Bluetooth
App unlock (remote unlock only for the A100 Zigbee)
Apple HomeKey (A100 Pro and Zigbee only)

There are in fact four models, although one of them – the A100 X – is only for installers that might be involved in contracts for new apartment builds, so the X model isn’t something you’ll be able to buy as such. That leaves three different models available to the public;

A100 – This is only sold in Mainland China, and doesn’t have HomeKey or Zigbee connectivity
A100 Pro – This is also sold in Mainland China, and it does use Apple HomeKey, but not Zigbee.
A100 Zigbee – This is the international model, sold outside of China, and uses both Apple HomeKey and Zigbee integration

We’ll come back to this information in more detail later in the review.


Swiftly onto the contents, and there’s a manual in Chinese, English, and Russian along with a cardboard ‘cutting guide’. The manual is only for setup once the lock has been physically installed, and doesn’t contain any information on fitting it into your door at all. The cutting guide is really the kind of thing you’d expect to see for professional installers, although, if nothing else, it’s still useful to give you a rough idea of where holes will need to be cut. More on that in a bit.

As for the rest of the contents, you get the main lock itself, which is a mortice type lock that contains a group of three deadbolts, as well as a latch bolt, and a night latch. There are pins and screws of all types, a couple of ’emergency’ keys, a one-sided Eurocylinder lock, and finally a strike plate.


The remaining parts are the outer sections of the lock; Aqara are known by now for their minimalist take on product design, and just like the Aqara Hub M2, these parts are unadorned, large slabs of metal with a textured matt black coating, with very little else that sticks out too much at all. It’s a really excellent example of clean and understated industrial design.

The outer section has slightly more to it than the inner section, mostly due to the touch screen containing the keypad, whilst the keypad is replaced with a battery compartment on the inner section.

Starting from the bottom of the inner section, there’s a night latch that can be manually turned to give you a bit of extra security on top of the triple deadbolts and the latch bolt. The latch bolt can only be disengaged with a physical key or by administrators, which I’ll go into later.


Besides the handle, there’s the battery compartment, which holds eight AA batteries. The lock actually functions on just four of these batteries, with the other four acting as a backup when the first four die. All told, you should be getting around 18 months of use from the entire set of eight batteries. If for any reason there’s an issue with these batteries, you’ll get a push notification to let you know there’s an issue that needs looking into.

The inside of the battery compartment cover contains the HomeKit code, and as there’s no other instance of the HomeKit code, it’s wise to make a note of it, even if you don’t think it’s likely you’ll lose the cover. Below the battery section are two buttons labelled Setting [sic] and Reset. The latter of these is obviously to reset the lock if required., whilst the former allows for initial set up and direct control of certain aspects of the lock, in combination with the app and the built-in voice prompt.



The outer section of the lock features, at the bottom, the Aqara branding, with a circular plastic disc housing the eurocylinder lock above it. If you need to use the key for whatever reason, you push the cover in at the bottom slightly to allow for the cover to pop out at the top, so you can pull it down and insert the key. I can’t really see myself using the key at all, given all the methods available to me, but it’s there all the same.

PHYSICAL INSTALLATION









As previously mentioned, installing this lock, whilst fairly straightforward in many ways, really does require both the right tools and a good understanding of how it all lines up without screwing it all up, which I’m very capable of achieving! If you’ve fitted a lock like this before and have the right tools, that’s great, but I’m very happy to leave it to the pros, as seen above.

WHAT UNLOCK METHODS DOES THE A100 ZIGBEE OFFER?
FINGERPRINT SENSOR

Above that is the handle, which incorporates a fingerprint reader/sensor. This, in my opinion, is the way the vast majority of users will prefer when it comes to unlocking the door. As you have to hold the handle to open the door anyway, placing your thumb (if you have one) over the sensor as you turn the handle, is the logical and most natural way. Obviously, there will be some that will want to know what happens to the fingerprints (biometric data) that the lock records. According to Aqara and the app when you begin adding prints, all data is stored on the lock alone. No information is uploaded to any server, and all data can be removed from the lock at any time. Of course, if you still feel suspicious of giving up your thumbprint, which is entirely understandable, you still have other methods at your disposal.

KEYPAD

The keypad allows you to enter a previously set up code of between 6 ~ 10 digits to unlock the door. More details on this later, but it’s useful for either guests, one-off visitors or infrequent family visits to your home.

APPLE HOMEKEY

If you’re an Apple HomeKit user or even simply own a compatible iPhone, you can use Apple HomeKey;

iPhone SE (2nd generation and later)

iPhone XR

iPhone XS | XS Max

iPhone 11 | Pro | Pro Max
iPhone 12 mini | 12 | 12 Pro | 12 Pro Max
iPhone 13 mini | 13 | 13 Pro | 13 Pro Max

Additionally, HomeKey is also available on Apple Watch Series 4 or later.

Once the lock is installed and added to HomeKit, the main user has the option to add a digital key to their Apple Wallet, alongside any other digital credit or loyalty cards you might store in there. Simply putting the phone against the keypad unlocks the door. Other users will also get a digital key, and be able to use this function if they have access to your HomeKit home. However, at present, it seems the A100 Zigbee does not support Apple’s Guest Access function, which allows you to generate temporary or permanent codes directly within the Home app. The Aqara version of these functions is still available via the Aqara app, however.

Apple HomeKey has two modes – Standard and Express; Standard mode requires you to authenticate using Face ID or Touch ID on your phone before HomeKey will work. This isn’t relevant on Apple Watch, as by wearing it, authentication is already a given. If you activate Express mode, this authentication is not required, although of course slightly less secure. The interesting thing about Express mode is that if your iPhone battery dies, there’s still enough power to keep HomeKey working, so even with a dead battery, you can still unlock your A100. This isn’t possible with Standard mode, as the phone needs to be actually on and functioning to authenticate either your face or print.

AQARA NFC CARD

These are small plastic NFC cards about a quarter of the size of a regular credit card, that allow you to unlock the door by simply placing said card against the middle of the keypad. It’s just as fast as Apple HomeKey too. The A100 locks don’t come with these NFC cards as standard and are an optional extra purchase.

BLUETOOTH (VIA APPS)




Both Aqara Home and Apple Home use Bluetooth as a direct connection to the A100, and once connected, you can unlock the door in either app via the relevant UI. in HomeKit, as long as you have a ‘Home Hub’ (Apple TV 4+, HomePod/Mini), then you also have remote access to the lock, in terms of being able to check the status and lock or unlock it. In the Aqara Home app, you also have remote access as long as you’ve bound the lock to an Aqara hub. Remote access, in this case, gives you pretty much all of the options you would get when directly connected via Bluetooth.

PHYSICAL KEY

Aqara refers to these as Emergency Keys. This is due to the perception that will all the other options available to you, the key would only be seen as a last resort for opening the door. Nevertheless, these keys function just as you would expect of any key, it’s just that it’s not quite as straightforward to use them, as the lock is hidden behind the aforementioned plastic cover.

WHY “A100 ZIGBEE?”

This question has come up a few times, as some are not aware the word Zigbee used here, is actually part of the product name, not something I’ve added. Essentially, locks in HomeKit rely on Bluetooth for a direct connection to your phone, so that there’s no reliance on a WiFi network or cloud connection when most needed (i.e. you’re outside and want to get inside…). HomeKit locks use Bluetooth to connect to an Apple ‘Home Hub’ connected to the internet and iCloud, for remote access (so you can access the lock when not directly connected) and automations. So, if you were to use this lock solely in HomeKit, this is how things would work and there would be no need for a Zigbee hub.

The reason for binding the lock to an Aqara Zigbee hub – which incidentally seemed to show the option to connect to the original M1 Aqara hub – is that first, if you were only using Aqara as your smart home platform, this is the only way to get remote access to the lock. The Aqara hubs don’t either have Bluetooth functionality (M1, M1S, E1) or don’t utilise existing Bluetooth (M2, S1 MagicPad) in the way that an Apple Home Hub does. With Zigbee being far superior, it really makes no sense to utilise Bluetooth to connect to a Zigbee hub anyway.

The second, and perhaps more important reason, is that with the lock bound to a Zigbee hub, you’re able to make use of automations that allow the lock to interact with other Aqara Zigbee devices in your home. Whilst HomeKit allows some perfunctory automations with the lock and other HomeKit devices (which, by the same token, shouldn’t be discounted), when it comes to what’s possible with Aqara, the lock becomes an automation powerhouse. We’ll come to this in a bit, but for now, let’s look at the lock in HomeKit.

A100 ZIGBEE IN HOMEKIT



It’s fair to say that in HomeKit, the Aqara A100 Zigbee is really just a standard lock. There’s very little you can do with it in HomeKit that can’t be done with most other locks. You can see the battery levels, and you can make use of automations that detect when the door is locked or not, use geolocation to lock or unlock the door (this is actually of no practical use for the most part), and with the use of contact sensors, the state of the door position (open or closed) can be utilised. Not terribly exciting, but then that’s the way it is currently for locks in HomeKit to a large extent, and the power of automations in locks largely lies in their own respective apps.

Going back to the Geolocation feature, the reason it’s not really of much use is because of the way the lock itself functions; when the door is closed, regardless of the state of the mortice deadbolts, the latch bolt can’t be opened from outside unless you ‘unlock’ the lock, which basically allows the outside handle to engage the latch bolt and therefore open the door. The unlock status of the latch bolt only occurs for a mere 2-3 seconds, so unless the lock unlocks as it detects a Bluetooth connection between the phone and lock, it’s not going to work, and even then, you’d have to be pretty quick at turning the handle before it locks up again.

With this, you can look at the lock as having three stages of security – the latch bolt is always locked except for when you unlock the door from either the inside or use one of the various methods to unlock it from the outside.


As you can see in the pictures above, here are the three locks – from top to bottom, the latch bolt, the mortice deadbolts, and the night latch.



The latch bolt can be used to keep your door locked for the most part, as it can only be opened with the internal handle. The latch bolt will disengage briefly when you use any of the unlock methods, before becoming locked again. It’s important to note that whilst some locks (including the Nuki Lock 2.0 I previously used) can pull the latch into the lock body, meaning you can literally push the door open without even pulling the handle down, in the case of the A100, there are no electronics that allow this to happens, so when the lock disengages, it still stays in place until you pull the outside handle down.

The mortice deadbolts are similar in that you need to pull the handle down to disengage them. What’s different is that you need to engage them by pulling either the inner or outer handle upwards, so in this respect, when you unlock the door with a fingerprint, NFC card, Apple HomeKey etc, the latch automatically disengages, but the deadbolts are unlocked physically, once you pull the handle down. The latch also unlocks physically of course, but unlike the deadbolts, the latch will re-engage again, whereas the mortice deadbolts need to be physically locked if required. The third lock is the night latch, which, like the deadbolts, is purely physical, although yet again, there’s a slight differentiator with this lock.

First of all, the night latch can only be engaged from the inside, using the night latch thumb turn. You can’t lock it from the outside like you can with the deadbolts. In addition to this, if someone has engaged the night latch, only an ‘admin’ can fully unlock the door using all the unlock methods, including the night latch. If you’re not an admin, and therefore designated a ‘general’ user in the Aqara app, you won’t be able to open the door if the night latch is engaged, with the only exception being via a physical key.



One point to note is that whilst the A100 is essentially locked to the outside when closed, regardless of whether the mortice deadbolts are engaged or not, the Aqara app will show the A100 as ‘not locked’ if the deadbolts aren’t engaged, whilst the Home app will show the A100 as locked, regardless. Only when you engage the deadbolts will the Aqara app show the A100 as ‘locked’.


When you set up the lock in the Aqara app, you are the ‘admin’ by default, as it’s your account the lock is set up in. When you come to add more users, you can decide whether they’re also going to be an admin or a ‘general user’. In addition to this, you can also set up the different types of access methods they can use, which is one of three basic methods;



The first screenshot above shows current users and the methods by which they’re able to unlock the A100. In my case (The Host – or admin), I’ve added fingerprint, passcode, and NFC card options, as well as having Apple HomeKey, although as this latter option is an Apple feature, so it’s not listed in the Aqara app. In the second screenshot, you get options to add any or all of these methods. The third screenshot shows the option to decide whether a user is an admin or a general user, with the latter being restricted to locking or unlocking the door, and enabling or cancelling Away mode (more on that later).



Of these three methods, only the passcode option is possible to create remotely, with the other two methods requiring you to be with the lock physically.

Adding a fingerprint is quite similar to the process of registering a fingerprint on the iPhones that use Touch ID, which involves building up a picture of the print with repeated presses that cover as much as the print as possible. A Passcode simply requires creating one of between 6~10 digits and confirming the number a second time. Registering an Aqara NFC card simply requires you to place the card on the keypad/card reader so it can register it, and you’re done.

A100 ZIGBEE IN AQARA HOME

The previously mentioned options for adding users that have access on a permanent basis is obviously reserved for permanent members of the household, generally speaking. However, there are times when you want to give access to certain people on a temporary basis, be they visiting relatives, workers carrying out a home renovation, or maybe a cleaner or dog walker, for example. Guest Access is something that Apple offers, that you can make use of within the Home app, however, it seems to be restricted to locks with keypads, and unfortunately, even though the A100 fits this description, Guest Access doesn’t appear to be an option at this time. Aqara does its best to create something similar, although it is slightly lacking, as I’ll show.


The main screen for the A100 in the Aqara app has a large icon to lock or unlock the door, and three options below; User management, Log, and Temporary Password. We’ve already seen what’s involved with ‘user management’, so the next thing is Log, which as you may have guessed is a log of all A100 lock activity. You have two logs, one of which is labelled ‘local log’. These logs are gleaned from the lock itself when you’re connected to the lock directly, using Bluetooth. ‘Cloud log’ records all the same data, but is uploaded to the cloud, so that you can access all the same data when you’re not within Bluetooth range of the lock. Cloud logs can only be recorded if you’ve bound your A100 to a Zigbee hub.

These logs will record when the door was opened, closed, locked, partially left open, as well as when and who opened the door, and with which method they used to unlock the door, so it’s pretty comprehensive. These locks won’t be able to tell you who has locked or unlocked the door from the inside, as there is no means by which to determine this in the way that the external part does, but it’ll still tell you if the door was locked, unlocked or open from the inside, and at what time.



The final option – temporary password, allows you to generate two distinct types of passcode; You can add a one-time passcode or a periodic passcode. For the former, the passcode is automatically generated for you and will expire after 20 minutes from the minute it’s generated, which means it’s probably best to generate such a code when the person who needs to gain access is quite near to your home. Once the code has been, it can’t be used again, or once the 20 minutes expires, the code also becomes invalid. This code will be added to the list, and will automatically be deleted once it expires.

You can either copy the passcode, and send it to someone in text form, or alternatively select ‘screenshot is saved’, which will generate an image like the one above, which you can then forward to the intended party. The image contains the code, as well as the effective period it’s valid.


Periodic passcode is a little different, as you can assign a start and end date & time, as well as create your own passcode, although you can generate one automatically if you prefer. You can also give the user a meaningful name, like ‘dog walker’ or ‘cleaner’, for example. The limitation with this option compared to what is offered by other locks that either come with a keypad built-in or separately is that you can’t customise which days of the week this type of passcode can be used for. So, as an example, you can’t have it so that this code can be used just on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, between certain hours, and you can’t set it so that the code is open-ended in terms of any expiry date. You could create a permanent passcode of course, but then you’re unable to restrict it to certain days of the week or hours of the day. Hopefully, they can address this to offer something more in line with what other locks provide, although with a very comprehensive logging record, in one sense, it doesn’t really matter.


Like the one-off passcodes, you can share the periodic passcode, either by simply copying the code, sharing via WeChat (something that’s more popular in China), or saving to your photo album, which generates a sort of screenshot, as seen below;

Once again, all the details are saved for the recipient, so there’s no question of what the code is, or what period of time the code is effective for.

THE KEYPAD

If you don’t want to use your fingerprint to open the door, the keypad area is you’ll be using the most. Using the keypad for passcodes is the obvious one, but to use Apple HomeKey you also have to place your iPhone next to the keypad. This is also the case with the Aqara NFC Cards, which you place in the centre, roughly where the ‘5’ is located.

When you enter your code, you need to confirm it by pressing the tick mark in the bottom left corner. Once that’s done, the lock will disengage, a sound will be emitted from the lock, and a thin LED strip will briefly flash white. If you enter the wrong code, a different sound will play, and this strip will flash red. If you’re entering the code wrong but realise it’s wrong before completing it, you can tap the back arrow on the keypad to start over.


Aside from the ten digits, the tick, and the back icon, you get a further three on the bottom. The first of these is a ‘padlock’ icon. This will flash, accompanied by a beeping sound, to warn you that the door has been left ajar or open. You can customise the length of time this alarm plays, and whether it plays at all, as well as adjust the delay time before it sounds. All of these options give you a choice of 5 to 30 seconds in 1-second increments. You can see the first option – Ajar door warning – can’t be disabled. I suspect that this is meant to be what in HomeKit is shown as ‘Door jammed’, as door ajar is, in theory, the same as door unclosed.

The other icon that shows in red is the battery-low warning, which you’ll hopefully never see, as the app will also notify you when the batteries are due to be changed. On the subject of low or dead batteries, the underside of the exterior portion of the lock, in addition to being home to a small speaker, also has a USB-C port. This can be used in conjunction with a power bank, in the event your batteries have totally died, so the power bank gives the lock enough juice to get it working again until you can get replacement batteries.

The final icon depicts a home with an arrow facing outward. This is the Away mode button, and as the name implies, this can be used to activate your Aqara alarm system to Away mode, if you’ve already closed the door behind yourself, on your way to work. Once set up, you only have to tap it once whilst the keypad is lit up, and it’ll set all of your hubs on the same server/account to Away. You can also create an automation that will do the opposite, and in my case, I’ve created an automation that disables the alarm whenever I unlock the A100 with my fingerprint, NFC card, iPhone or passcode. Pretty cool.

AUTOMATIONS

I mentioned early on that once you connect the A100 to a Zigbee hub, you get a lot of choice in terms of how the lock interacts with other Aqara devices, via automations. This is where things get exciting because when it comes to automations in HomeKit involving locks, there’s not too much to choose from. With automations in the Aqara app, you’re also limited in one sense, as these will only work with other Aqara devices, but seeing as nearly all Aqara devices are HomeKit compatible anyway, you fare better.



Not only can you create automations based on the state of the lock, but you can do so based on who has unlocked the door, and with which method they did so – NFC card, fingerprint, passcode etc. You can also create automations based on whether the handle has been lifted and even whether the lock has been opened from the inside or outside! The potential for some really wild automations, based on what other Aqara devices you have, is quite mind-boggling, especially if you think of some of the things you can do with the Aqara G3, which contains facial recognition technology, or the G2H Pro, with its use of custom ringtones.

WHAT DO I THINK OF THE AQARA A100 ZIGBEE?

If you’re a regular visitor to the site, you’ll know I’m generally a fan of Aqara products, and although the company’s move into HomeKit started with a bit of a shaky start, they’ve really gone from strength to strength to become arguably one of the best providers of HomeKit compatible products on the international stage. That’s not to say everything they do is perfect, but that’s another conversation. When it comes to the A100 Zigbee, you have to look back at the company’s previous locks to see how the company has arrived at a lock I’d consider worthy of the term “Flagship product”. I’ve long regarded the company’s locks as stylish, and although similar locks have come and gone by Xiaomi, which were at times equally as desirable, I really wasn’t keen to dive into the Mi Home side of things as much as I did in the past. Moving to today, and after having tested this lock for around three weeks, which has involved quite intensive and ongoing testing (let’s face it, a door is going to get a lot of use on a daily basis), I’ve quickly gotten used to it. I’ll be honest, using the fingerprint sensor to open the door feels the most natural thing to me, even at the beginning, and it’s not hard to imagine that if the design was somehow ergonomically less than comfortable, it could easily be a different story. This sort of segues into the design, which I just have nothing bad to say about. it’s stylish, solidly built, but also understated and best of all, has the ‘wow factor’ that only really surprises you when it works its magic – be that by unlocking the door in the blink of an eye (or a fingerprint…), or by triggering an automation that really gives you that feeling of a truly automated home. Of course, I already had this to some extent with the Nuki Lock 2.0, but aside from the weird behaviour it began to display, it didn’t have all the bells and whistles that the A100 has.

Are there any downsides? Well, I don’t consider the need for pro installation to be a negative, but it must factor into some peoples’ decisions as to whether it’s worth the additional cost involved, not to mention that your door will potentially need to be “cosmetically adjusted” to some extent. I think at present, the only negative is that it should give you the option for Apple’s Guest Access feature, which this is ideal for. That said, we don’t have a need for such things, in all honesty, so I’m really not going to miss it. Aqara’s version of this feature is also slightly lacking, but once again, if I’m not going to use it, it’s not a big deal in any way to me personally. The pros vastly outweigh these minor cons, so I can’t really say anything bad about it. The A100 seems to have it all. The thing that clinches it for me, is that my wife is very happy with how easy it is to use, and I couldn’t ask for more really!

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