Home to the most cutting-edge consumer technology, CES 2020 features some of the coolest techs that aren't quite out yet. Here, August debuts a new addition to their smart lock line up, the Wi-Fi Smart Lock. This new fourth-generation August smart lock solves all of the small annoyances previous models have while keeping the same stylish form-factor.
August Smart Locks
Two years ago, August released the Smart Lock Pro. The third-generation Smart Lock Pro was an amazing, study, stylish smart lock with a few quirks. The Smart Lock Pro was able to monitor the door opening and closing, as well as family members entering through the door, but it had to connect to August's Wi-Fi Bridge. The Wi-Fi Bridge was a stand-alone device required for the August Smart Locks to integrate with Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, or Google Assistant. This made the overall package cumbersome and difficult to set up.
Furthermore, while the Smart Lock Pro came with the Wi-Fi bridge, in which, the regular Smart Lock didn't come with the August Wi-Fi Bridge.
August Wi-Fi Smart Lock: What's New?
August has solved all of these problems with the newest August Wi-Fi Smart Lock. Keeping the trend of naming August products literally, the Wi-Fi Smart Lock is capable of connecting a Wi-Fi network and integrate with home hubs or assistants without a separate Wi-Fi Bridge.
It has a similar design to the older Smart Lock Pro but has a 45% smaller volume, and a 20% slimmer chassis. Designed together with Swiss industrial designer Yves Béhar, the 4th generation Wi-Fi Smart Lock maintains much of its predecessors' design themes while making small improvements. It now has vertical ridges instead of small tile-like ridges for a better grip, the illuminated August logo now shows whether or not the door is locked at a single glance, and it's now roughly the size of a doorknob.
The inside has more changes than the out, most obvious of which is that all of the necessary Wi-Fi components being inside the device rather than on an external bridge. It's now powered by two CR123 batteries instead of the previous models' 4 AA batteries. And its wireless features means it can be seamlessly controlled via August's smartphone apps or integration with Alexa and other assistants.
August Wi-Fi Smart Lock: What's Not?
The Wi-Fi Smart Lock still retains just about all the features of the older Smart Locks, and that's not a bad thing, don't fix what's not broken. The Wi-Fi Smart Lock is still able to detect when the door is left open, and when certain members of the families leave or arrive.
However, the Wi-Fi Smart Lock is not compatible with Z-Wave Plus, which only the Smart Lock Pro was compatible with anyway. This means that the Wi-Fi Smart Lock cannot be added to any Z-Wave Hubs.
August says that the Wi-Fi Smart Lock will be available in matte black and silver by summer and that it will have a similar price to the Smart Lock Pro,
