Ring, Amazon’s doorbell and camera brand, has announced its first smart lock, and the pitch is easy to grasp: a wheel on the front that you turn to make power when the battery runs out. It goes straight at the biggest fear people have about swapping a key for a gadget.
How the emergency wheel works
Turning the wheel back and forth three or four times, according to Engadget, charges a small motor and a supercapacitor, a part that briefly stores electrical energy. The report puts the output at around 3 volts, enough to run the lock at full power for about 30 seconds.
In that window you can use the fingerprint reader, the keypad, the Ring app or Alexa to get in. The main battery should last about a year on a charge. Those figures come from press coverage, not a final spec sheet.
What else it offers
- fits a single-cylinder deadbolt, with no extra wiring;
- black, silver and brass finishes;
- works with the Ring app and Alexa, inside Amazon’s smart home ecosystem;
- a backlit touchscreen keypad;
- connects through Amazon Sidewalk, Amazon’s shared network, so you can check the lock and control it remotely without relying on home Wi-Fi, according to reports.
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff also sees it as a fit for rarely visited places like remote cabins, where a battery can drain with nobody around.
Price and release date
The lock costs $249. Ring hasn’t set a firm date but expects to launch in the first few months of 2027, and Siminoff says he hopes for closer to January than March. You can register your interest now. Reports also say the lock still needs FCC authorization, the U.S. approval for radio equipment, before it can go on sale.
Coverage doesn’t mention a subscription fee or how well the lock plays with non-Amazon smart home systems, so check that before you commit.
Context
The idea is to remove the one scenario where a keyless door can leave you stuck outside.
Other brands already sell smart locks, but a dead battery is a common complaint. If you are building a connected home, our explainer on Matter shows how devices from different brands can work together, and our guide to setting up Alexa on an Echo Dot covers the assistant this lock works with.
