Eufy FamiLock S3 Max review: a video smart lock with plenty of tricks

Eufy’s FamiLock S3 Max ($399) is a multitasking workhorse. Launched earlier this year, it combines a smart lock and video doorbell in one, and it’s one of the first locks with a digital peephole and a wave-to-unlock function. It also has a keyway, keypad, and Matter support, so it works with all the major smart home platforms (the lock portion at least).

It’s a beast of a door lock, and it screams high tech sitting on your front door. My favorite feature is the integrated video screen, which shows a live feed of who is on the other side of the door without you having to pull out your phone.

If you have a peephole or a window in your door, this might not be much use to you — and you can opt to get the lock without the screen for $50 less. But it’s handy as a quick way to confirm who is at the door before opening it, especially if your kids are home alone or with a babysitter or grandparents who don’t have your video doorbell app downloaded.

As the name implies, this lock was designed with multigenerational households in mind. Instead of a fingerprint reader, it uses palm vein technology to unlock, which is supposedly more reliable, especially for individuals with more finicky fingerprints. That’s a common issue for children, older adults, and my husband, who is a firefighter and has apparently burned off all his fingerprints.

Unlike fingerprint tech, which relies on surface features that can be degraded, palm vein recognition uses infrared light to view vascular patterns underneath the skin.

In my testing, palm unlocking wasn’t any faster or easier than using your fingerprint, and I found it a bit harder to get used to. You have a more obvious target with a fingerprint than with a palm, and I found myself waving awkwardly at the lock a few times before getting the hang of it. I also have a prominent door jamb that sticks out to the right of the lock, limiting my waving motion.

But once I got the hang of it, it worked reliably. Both my kids also picked it up quickly, and my husband really liked it. You can’t wave to lock the door, however, which would be kind of cool; instead, there’s a small button on the keypad that locks it. You can also enable auto-lock in the app.

The touchscreen keypad was responsive, easy to see, and easy to use. There’s also a keyway hidden under the doorbell button, if you need it. The lock connects to your smart home over built-in Wi-Fi, allowing you to control it remotely via Eufy’s app. It also supports Matter, so you can add it to Apple Home and other smart home platforms. It’s only the lock that works with Matter, as cameras aren’t supported yet.

The Matter integration is largely limited to controlling the lock and setting PIN codes through your smart home ecosystem of choice. As usual, if you want to use a device with Matter, you have to sacrifice features. It’s not an encouraging trend.

After all, it’s the integrated video doorbell that’s the main reason to consider this lock. There are cheaper palm vein options available from Eufy, as well as Philips and TCL, if that’s what you’re interested in. At $400, the FamiLock is expensive, but you’re getting two devices in one.

Adding a video doorbell to a lock puts a lot of strain on the battery, and there’s no way to hardwire it. This very large lock comes with a 15,000 mAh rechargeable battery that Eufy claims will last approximately five months. I tested it for a month on the most intensive “peak surveillance” setting, and the battery was down to 41 percent.

You can adjust several settings to help save power, including keeping it on the default setting of only recording when the door is locked, but five months still seems optimistic.

As the battery takes a while to recharge, the lock has four AAA backup batteries to keep basic function while it charges. You can also pick up a spare battery to have on hand.

To help conserve battery life, the FamiLock’s integrated 2K peephole camera only activates when someone presses the lock’s doorbell or if you press a small button on the back of the lock. The exterior doorbell button is very prominent, with a blue LED that lights up on motion to draw your visitor’s attention. Pressing it also emits a doorbell sound. (You can’t connect the doorbell to your existing chime, though you can use an Alexa Echo speaker or an Eufy HomeBase as a chime.)

The lock’s doorbell camera provides clear, crisp video during daylight hours and decent night vision, although my protruding door frame reflected the LEDs, causing the footage to blow out a tad. Its 180-degree diagonal field of view meant I could see top to bottom and all of one side (not the other side, though, because of the aforementioned door frame).

Packages and people were clearly visible, which is most of what you want to see with a doorbell camera. Getting people to press the button was tricky, though, even with the glowing light, as it’s just not where people expect to press.

There’s no fee for viewing recorded footage of visitors in the Eufy app, and videos are stored locally on the device. Live views and recordings pulled up quickly in the app, sending alerts for motion and people promptly.

However, there are no other smart alerts, not even package recognition, which is an odd omission for a doorbell cam. If you connect the lock to an Eufy HomeBase 3 ($149), you get more advanced smart alerts, including facial recognition that can alert you to who is at your door — a handy feature only a few other doorbells offer (including Google Nest, Aqara, and HomeKit Secure Video-compatible doorbells). You also get vehicle and pet alerts, but still no packages.

The video portion of the door lock is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home, allowing you to view a live feed directly over Wi-Fi to a smart display such as an Echo Show. But I find these can be very slow to pull up a live feed; it’s often quicker to just walk to the door.

Eufy recently launched its own smart display for $200, which automatically streams a live view from the FamiLock’s camera when there’s activity or someone rings the doorbell. I tested this, and it pulled up the feed faster than using a third-party smart display, making it a better option if you want a video intercom.

I still prefer separate solutions for a smart lock and video doorbell, but if you can’t add a video doorbell to your door but can replace your door lock, then the FamiLock is a good, albeit slightly overpowered, solution. I’ve tested a couple of video door locks, including an earlier model from Eufy and one from Lockly, and this is my favorite by far.

The best feature is seeing who’s on the other side of the door as I approach, without having to wait to pull up a live video feed on my phone or smart display, bother with a peephole (mine is actually broken), or try to peer through the side window without them seeing me.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge