Smart locks are becoming the norm, not the exception, for homeowners who value security. They’re mostly straightforward, affordable and user-friendly , but because smart locks are rarely hardwired, they rely on standard replaceable or rechargeable batteries. Therein lies the biggest smart lock pain point: keeping the battery charged so you don’t inadvertently lock yourself out. Until now, most smart locks have relied on an old-fashioned key as a backup if the lock dies, along with some experiments with solar panels. Ring’s first entry into the smart lock category, announced today and dubbed The Ring Smart Lock , uses a supercapacitor, a first-of-its-kind energy crank built into the thumbturn. Ring has finally entered the smart lock chat with a hand-rechargeable unit
