Ring Unveils First Smart Lock With Hand-Powered Backup

Ring is finally making a smart lock — and it wants to kill the one fear that haunts every smart lock owner: the dead battery. The Amazon-owned security brand announced its first-ever smart lock on October 9, 2026, alongside an expanded camera lineup. The headline feature is not the fingerprint reader or the Alexa integration, but a “first-of-its-kind” power dial built directly into the lock itself: arrive home to a dead battery, turn the dial a few times, and the lock powers itself back up enough to let you in.

The lock, in detail

Ring Smart Lock offers four keyless ways into your home: a fingerprint reader, a backlit touchscreen keypad, the Ring app, and voice commands through Alexa. Through the Ring app, you can check lock status, lock the door remotely, and manage who has access — and every event is logged in your Ring app activity feed, sitting next to footage from your Ring doorbells and cameras.

Rather than Wi-Fi, the lock connects through Amazon Sidewalk, Amazon’s shared neighborhood network. Ring says locking, unlocking, status checks, and PIN updates all happen seamlessly in the background over Sidewalk, with no need to worry about Wi-Fi range or router placement. The obvious caveat: you need Sidewalk coverage where you live, and coverage can vary by location.

Installation is designed to be simple. The lock fits a standard single-cylinder deadbolt and requires no additional wiring. On the ecosystem front, it works with Ring Doorbells, cameras, and Ring Alarm, and supports voice commands through Echo and Alexa.

Price and availability

Ring Smart Lock will be available to purchase in the U.S. in early 2027 in three finishes: black, silver, and brass. Ring has opened a waitlist for updates but has not announced pricing. Two footnotes in the announcement are worth flagging now: certain in-app features, including digital arming and disarming, will require a compatible Ring subscription, and Sidewalk coverage is required for connectivity.

Why a hand-powered dial is a bigger deal than it sounds

Dead batteries are the classic smart lock anxiety. Most locks give you weeks of low-battery warnings, but warnings get ignored, and when the battery finally dies you are left fumbling for a physical key you stopped carrying years ago. The industry’s existing answers are workarounds: an emergency 9V battery terminal you press against the lock, a USB-C port for an external battery pack, or just a backup key.

Ring’s approach is different: a kinetic charging dial built into the lock itself, so the fix requires nothing you do not already have on you — your hand. If it works as advertised, it removes the single worst failure mode of the category.

The strategic play: completing Ring’s front door

Ring has helped people see who is at their front door for over a decade, and protect their homes with Ring Alarm. But it has never controlled the door itself — that part of the equation belonged to Schlage, Yale, Kwikset, and newer entrants like Aqara and SwitchBot. A smart lock completes the loop: see, enter, protect, all inside one app and one activity feed.

The timing is pointed. Apple is expected to detail its smart home hub and an expanded lineup of home devices at its “Welcome Home” event on October 13, and reports have linked Apple with LG on accessories including a smart deadbolt. Meanwhile the Matter-era lock market keeps raising the bar: Aqara’s U400 pairs Apple Home Key with ultra-wideband hands-free unlocking, and SwitchBot has introduced face and palm-vein recognition locks. Ring’s announcement, notably, makes no mention of Matter or Thread support — Ring’s devices have historically been built around Alexa, Wi-Fi, and Z-Wave — and it says nothing about HomeKit, Google Home, or SmartThings compatibility. For now, this looks like a lock built squarely for the Ring and Alexa household.

Questions Ring has not answered yet

• Price. With launches from $69.99 (Ring’s own Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam 2K) to $219.99 in the same announcement, Ring clearly wants to be aggressive — but the lock’s price is the number everyone is waiting for.
• Matter and cross-platform support. Nothing in the announcement mentions Matter, Thread, or compatibility beyond Ring and Alexa.
• Battery specs. How long the rechargeable battery lasts between charges, and how many dial turns buy you how much power, are both unknown.
• International availability. The early 2027 launch is U.S.-only for now, though Ring’s cameras ship in many more countries.

For a first product, Ring is betting on its home turf: millions of existing Ring and Alexa households for whom a Sidewalk-connected lock that lives inside the same app as their doorbell is the path of least resistance. The hand-powered dial is the kind of simple, practical idea that could genuinely move the category — if the execution holds up. We will know more as early 2027 approaches.