Eufy Smart Lock E30 review: All that matters, apart from Matter

Price When Reviewed

$169.99

Best Prices Today: Eufy Smart Lock E30

Eufy has been awfully busy in the smart lock space. By my count, the company has released at least 16 models over the years; a daunting collection that keeps getting broader. The Eufy Smart Lock E30 reviewed here, however, is a first for the company: It boasts Matter support, which should make for better cross-platform compatibility and automation capabilities.

Emphasis on should.

Specifications

On the surface—which is to say, physically—the lock looks good. Both its interior and exterior escutcheons are reasonably compact and elegant, particularly the exterior, which features a numeric touchpad and a fingerprint reader above a physical keyhole. A classy scoop design transitions the thin, upper portion of the escutcheon into the thicker lower portion, which needs to be larger in size to accommodate the keyhole. Altogether it’s one of the most attractive exterior escutcheons I’ve seen to date.

Inside the house, the E30’s escutcheon is a bit more utilitarian and, at first glance, a little larger than you might think. There’s a reason for that, though, because Eufy makes room for eight AA batteries (included) to power the lock instead of the usual four (or a rechargeable cell). Eufy says that doubling up on batteries means the E30 can run for up to eight months without having to replace them.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Christopher Null/Foundry

Christopher Null/Foundry

There’s a USB-C port on the bottom of the exterior escutcheon should the batteries die before you have the chance to replace them; still, the interior escutcheon doesn’t feel gargantuan.

Eufy doesn’t provide much in the way of a printed manual to guide you through physical installation. The Eufy Security app instead is your friend on this front, and it handily guides you via video through the process of replacing your old lock.

This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart locks.

There are no surprises along this journey: A small frame is bolted on the inside of the door to the exterior escutcheon. A single cable snakes through the borehole and connects to the interior escutcheon. After a little finagling, I had the interior escutcheon flush against the door and attached with three small, included screws.

The lock exhibited rock-solid physical stability throughout my testing and never listed from side to side. Another plus: The lock doesn’t require any flipping of switches or other special settings for it to operate in accordance with the direction your door opens: to the left or right. This ia all figured out during the calibration process in the app.

Installation and setup

Christopher Null/Foundry

Christopher Null/Foundry

Christopher Null/Foundry

With the lock firmly mounted to the door, I was able to start using it after a 20-minute-long firmware update.

The E30 is equipped with a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi adapter, and I quickly had it onboarded to my home network. But note that despite the lock’s support for Matter over Thread, Eufy directs you to first install and set up the Eufy Security app before attempting to join it to a Matter hub, because you’ll still need to do all of your user management in the Eufy Security app.

Fortunately, this work is very intuitive thanks to the app’s overall simplicity and intuitiveness. Users can be configured as Always (24/7 access), Schedule (limited to a single time span or repeated entry based on date or day of week), or OneTime (a single-use code that can also be set to expire or work only during certain times of day). Both Always and Schedule users can register fingerprints alongside PINs of 4 to 8 digits in length. Up to 100 PINs and 50 fingerprints can be stored on the lock.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Christopher Null/Foundry

Christopher Null/Foundry

The app can also be used to manually open and close the lock, and an in-depth logging system keeps track of each open and close operation, although it doesn’t record failed attempts to enter a PIN or fingerprint, nor does it track lockout conditions when too many wrong codes or fingerprints are attempted.

A handful of essential settings options are available, including an adjustable wrong-try protection mode (3 to 10 wrong attempts will lock users out for 1 to 5 minutes), automatic locking (programmable from 5 seconds to 60 minutes), and the option to allow for scrambled passcodes to thwart spying eyes; as long as your PIN is part of 12 consecutive digits, the lock will open. Push notifications for both lock and unlock actions are also available as an option.

Day-to-day use

I had only one problem in using the lock in daily operation, and that was with its fingerprint scanner, which is much more finicky than I’ve encountered on other recent-model smart locks. If my thumb was not positioned perfectly over the center of the scanner and held still, the scanner would usually fail to read my print.

When mounted on a door, where the vertically positioned fingerprint reader is at an awkward angle to your hand, getting a good placement like this every time can be difficult. And sure enough, the scanner failed as often as it succeeded during my tests. Even recording prints during user registration was difficult to complete with a perfect success rate.

The bigger issue, however, is Eufy’s claim of Matter over Thread on this lock. In my testing, the lock would not connect to either an Apple TV 4K or a Samsung SmartThings Station via a scan of its Matter code using those hubs’ respective apps. Error messages weren’t particularly helpful for troubleshooting, either, noting simply “Unable to add accessory” or “Something went wrong.”

Christopher Null/Foundry

Christopher Null/Foundry

Christopher Null/Foundry

Eufy was unable to offer any advice on this front, saying that Matter should be working on the Apple TV and that “theoretically SmartThings Station can work.” I’m not 100 percent confident in that estimation and have to wonder if Eufy’s Matter support is still a work in progress. This is the first time I’ve ever had trouble setting up a device via Matter, which has been surprisingly seamless for me since its introduction. [Editor’s note: My own experience with Matter has been decidedly mixed.]

On the plus side, I was readily able to connect the lock to Alexa (albeit not via Matter) and control the lock via voice commands. Die-hard Apple fans should also note that, even assuming Matter does get working properly, this lock doesn’t support Apple’s home key technology that enables it to be unlocked by holding an Apple Watch or iPhone next to it.

Should you buy the Eufy Smart Lock E30?  

The Eufy Smart Lock E30 comes with a moderate price tag $170 price tag, considering all its features. But if you’re buying one for its Matter support, you might not be satisfied with its compatibility if my experience is the norm.

That said, I expect Eufy will iron this lock’s bugs with a few more epic firmware updates over the upcoming weeks and months. A wait-and-see approach might be the best advice if you’re looking to integrate this lock into a broader smart home ecosystem.