U-tec Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter review: Is Matter enough?

A few years ago, the options for high-tech cross-platform smart locks were somewhat limited, but these days we're spoiled with options. That's great news for us buyers who now have plenty of Matter-supported stylish options, but not so great for lock manufacturers who have to compete more than ever.

At the beginning of this year, U-tec announced its own Matter lock option in the U-tec Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter, and at the time, it was the first smart lock to support the new unified smart home standards. But the lock still hasn't been widely rolled out, and if you want one for yourself, you have to join a waitlist on the U-tec website. In the years since its announcement, other Matter-supportive options among the best smart locks have launched, meaning it has to do more than ever to actually compete. Can it do so?

U-tec Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter review: Price and availability

The U-tec Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter is available right now from the U-tec website. It comes at $199.99, and is only available in one color, called “Black & Satin Nickel.” It’s a little pricey compared to some other modern smart locks out there, but if Matter support is important to you, you may be willing to pay a premium. If not, though, expect more Matter-enabled locks in the very near future.

U-tec Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter review: Design and installation

The U-tec Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter isn't a retrofit lock like the August Wi-Fi smart lock or some others, so you’ll need to completely remove the lock that you already have in your door to install it. That said, as someone who has uninstalled and installed many locks, it only took me around five minutes, and I suspect most will be able to do so within 15 minutes.

Of course, after setting up the lock physically, you'll need to set it up with your smart home. While the lock supports Matter, I recommend setting it up with U-tec’s U home app, as this will unlock (no pun intended) the ability to set up advanced features like auto-locking and the fingerprint sensor. To set it up in the U-Home app, simply open the app and hit the "Add Device" button. You'll be walked through the process of installing the lock, and it worked seamlessly for me.

The lock also comes with an optional door sensor, which you can choose to install if you want. The door sensor is a small white rectangle split into two parts, one of which will attach to your door itself and the other to the door frame. This sensor allows the lock to know if your door has been closed, so it can automatically lock the door. Generally, I find these sensors to be pretty ugly, and I wish companies would figure out ways to make them look sleeker. That said, the sensor was easy to install using the included hardware.

The Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter is relatively stylish, and has a satin silver body with a black plastic face on both sides. The use of that black plastic does make it look a little cheaper than it otherwise could have, but it doesn't feel overly cheap or poorly made. On the exterior portion of the lock is a pin pad with numbers arranged in a circle, along with the fingerprint sensor and a good old-fashioned keyhole. The buttons on this part of the lock felt clicky and responsive.

The interior portion of the lock is a little bulkier than the exterior. You can remove a cover on the top half of this part of the lock to insert or remove the batteries. The lock requires eight AA batteries to run. Thankfully, it comes with batteries to get you started.

U-tec Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter review: Features

The U-tec Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter offers a solid selection of features, and I like that there's a fingerprint sensor built straight into the front of the lock. That said, there are other locks out there that are even more versatile than this. U-tec’s lock, for example, doesn't support Apple Home Key, so you can't use NFC to lock or unlock your door like you can with the Aqara U200 or the Schlage Encode Plus.

If you're anything like me, you won't necessarily use the actual smart home features of the lock all that often, though they will come in handy from time to time. Instead, you'll stick to using the fingerprint sensor built into the lock. I found it was responsive and accurate, unlocking the door in under a second every time. The same was true of the pin pad – however, you likely won't end up using the pin pad except if the fingerprint sensor fails.

The accompanying app offers all the features you would expect from a modern smart lock. There's an auto-lock feature that lets you have the lock automatically lock itself after a preset period of time or based on the status of the door sensor. There's also an auto unlock feature, which leverages your phone's GPS to unlock the door as you approach. I found that this feature was pretty slow, so I left it disabled. I didn’t love the idea of U-tec knowing my precise location all the time anyway.

You might love or hate the fact that the lock works through replaceable AA batteries. I prefer rechargeable batteries for environmental reasons, and I like that some companies have been including two batteries, so that you can always have one charged up and ready to go, without any downtime. Of course, you could get around this by simply buying rechargeable AA batteries. Regardless, the eight AA batteries that power this lock will last up to one year in Matter mode or two years in Bluetooth mode, according to U-tec. I wasn't able to really test this in only a few weeks of using the lock.

U-tec Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter review: Smart Home integration

The big feature offered by this particular lock is its support for Matter, the universal smart home standard that allows the lock to be easily added and controlled from any major smart home platform. In other words, whether you use HomeKit, Alexa, Google Home, SmartThings, or any other big platform, you'll be able to use this lock. It also supports Thread, which means it will participate in your smart home mesh network for better responsiveness. To use the lock remotely, you'll still need a Matter hub, which could come in the form of a HomePod, Apple TV, or compatible smart speaker from Google or Amazon.

All that to say, the lock excels when it comes to smart home integration. You can't really do much better than Matter support, even if the Matter standard could offer more features, like support for fingerprint sensors and other advanced functions in the spec itself. This would do away with the need to download apps like the U Home app. For now, however, you could get by with only turning to the U home app for setup and sticking with your preferred smart home ecosystem the rest of the time.

U-tec Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter review: Verdict

When the U-tec Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter was announced, it was announced as the first lock to support Matter. Now, almost a year later, it has yet to widely roll out and there are now other locks that support the Universal Smart Home standard instead. For a little more money, you can get the $269.99 Aqara Smart Lock U200, which also supports Matter, plus it has more features like support for Apple Home Key.

For this much or less, however, the U-tec Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter is one of the most versatile locks you can get, especially if you're willing to buy a lock that replaces the entirety of your existing lock.

But it can't help but feel like this is a short-lived win. Matter support is going to roll out much more widely over the next year or so, and fingerprint sensors are becoming more common on smart locks, too. It's likely we'll see locks like the Yale Assure Lock 2, which cost less than the U-tec, add Matter support soon – not to mention locks that support ultra wideband for hands-free control. For now, however, the U-tec UltraLoq Bolt Fingerprint Matter gets things right at a reasonable price.