I’ve had the opportunity review Proscenic devices in the past and was looking forward to the opportunity to test out their L40 Smart Lock door handle. 

I recently moved into a new place without a garage and as such, I’ve had to carry a house key rather than rely on entering the house through the garage door.

Before I get into the review, let me first tell you about myself. I hate when things jingle in my pockets. I carry a minimalist wallet and whenever possible, I carry only the key fob to my car. I remove the valet or manual key from the key fob so there is no keyring to which to attach my house key. Occasionally, I’ve walked out my front door without my key fob or door key. Locked out! This is so 1980’s!

When I learned of the Proscenic L40 Smart Lock, I was eager to get my hands on a review unit. Let’s see if it met my expectations. 

Build Quality 

The device appears to be made of reasonable quality materials. It is mostly metal but has plastic trim, number pad, and battery cover. The device is available only in black so if your décor features brass, stainless steel, or brushed nickel, this isn’t going to match from a color and finish perspective.

Since most of my house is outfitted with aged bronze hardware, the black finish of the L40 blends in quite well. The door handle consists of two primary parts (inside and outside) that are joined with wires that meet in the middle.  

Installation 

The Proscenic L40 comes with templates which allow you to drill a new door or in my case I used the appropriate template to mark the areas that I needed to drill additional holes to accommodate the aforementioned wires and bolts that hold the two halves together.

My biggest complaint with regards to installation is the additional drilling required to pass the relatively thin wires through the door. I understand that it might not be ideal to send these wires through the large door whole where the latch mechanism is connected but at the same time, there’s significant unused space that could have accommodated the wire without needing additional holes in the door. 

Additionally, the connectors are significantly larger than the wires themselves so you end up needing to drill a much bigger hole. There was also a considerable amount of slack in the wires after they were connected and there is nowhere to effectively store the extra cabling so I ended up needing to drill deeper recesses into my door.

To be fair, the template calls for an oval cut-out which would have probably made storing the excess wire easier, but I didn’t care to remove more of the door than absolutely necessary.  A minor gripe is that despite the hardware being black, the mounting screws were silver so they stand out more than necessary.  

My review unit came with a separate Wi-Fi module that simply needs to be plugged within vicinity and paired to the L40 Smart Lock. 

Features 

Once installed, the Proscenic L40 features multiple unlocking modalities. 

1. Biometric – through an integrated fingerprint reader 
2. Numeric keypad – an 8 character numeric code is required to unlock 
3. IC Card – It comes with two NFC cards that need to be registered via the app and assigned to an individual 
4. Mechanical Key – a laser cut physical key 
5. Smartphone Application 

Setup 

Setup of the door is not quite as intuitive as one would hope. Once the door handle is physically installed, you insert 4 AA batteries (not included) into the interior side of device. You must download the application and it connects via Bluetooth initially.  Unfortunately, this is a separate app from the one I use to control my robot vacuum.

You must create a Proscenic account in order to start using the app as well as the door lock. I was able to log in using my previous credentials. You can create family member profiles and non-family member profiles. Non-family members are able to unlock using biometric, pin code and IC card but not via app.  In order to add a user as a family member, they have to register a separate account with Proscenic. 

You separately have to plug-in and link the wifi module and add the door lock to the wifi module to use the device via Internet. 

The application is fairly limited in function allowing you to unlock the door remotely but holding the unlock button for several seconds, registering additional users, setting pin-codes, check battery status and viewing logs of door lock access.

Device settings are limited to setting the auto-lock feature duration and volume of the door announcements. These same settings can be accessed either through the door lock or the Wi-Fi module portion of the app. 

Performance 

The fingerprint reader is fairly fast and is engaged by simply placing your finger on the central pivot point of the door handle. However, if you do not orient your finger in a very similar way to when you registered, it will not unlock.

I’ve tried turning my finger 90-180 degrees and it fails. I don’t know how many degrees of variation it allows but it’s taken some muscle memory to get the door lock to unlock on the first try.

The door lock goes into “lock down” mode after five failed attempts allowing you to only unlock via the app or by waiting three minutes. Besides finger placement, any rain or sweat on your finger will also prevent the sensor accurately reading your fingerprint. 

Trust me when I say you will lock yourself out at some point or another and need to utilize the app. For guests or family members without the app, it is frustrating.  

Once you’ve unlocked the door, it will re-lock itself unless you hit #5 on the keypad leaving it in an unlocked state.  This cannot be done via app setting so if you are operating the door lock remotely, there is no way to leave it unlocked. In most situations this is probably a best practice so I can’t hate on it too badly. 

I won’t cover the other unlocking as I don’t think that most users would be purchasing this type of door lock for their home installation. If you are an AirBnB owner, I could see where the pin code access would be appealing as guests come and go. 

In summary, here is a rundown of my experience with the other modalities. 

1. Numeric keypad – works well only after you are successful at tapping and holding a finger on the keypad just right to get it to illuminate. There is an “anti-snooping” feature that allows you to enter additional keypresses before entering the 8-digit pin. I’ve found this feature to be needed because more often than not, you are going to inadvertently hit numbers as you try to illuminate the keypad. 
2. IC Card – this is a great option for people who aren’t technically savvy; however, you have to wave the card in front of the keypad first to activate the keypad and then to unlock the door. Not difficult but not intuitive for first time users. You have to register the IC cards to specific users within the app in order for them to work. According to the user manual, this lock supports up to 100 IC cards. 
3. Mechanical key – works just like a regular key except this is inserted into the end of the door handle. The keys are laser cut so I don’t know how easily they could be duplicated or replaced if misplaced. 
4. Smartphone application – once the application is launched, you simply press and hold the unlock button to unlock the door. This is done over bluetooth if you do not have the separate wifi module. This option is only available to family members that are able to use this feature. 

Warranty 

As with pretty much everything else you buy, the Proscenic L40 comes with a one year limited warranty. In the months that I’ve been using the door lock, I don’t have any concerns with the device failing 

Price 

The Proscenic L40 currently sells for about $130 on Amazon. This is aligned with most of competitors available aside from name brands such as Kwikset or Yale which you are more likely to find at a big box home improvement store. 

Conclusion 

Aside from the installation which requires drilling or cutting away more of the door than I would hope and the issue of tucking wires between the door and door lock; I am very pleased with the aesthetics and performance of the Proscenic L40.

This is my first and only biometric door lock so I don’t have anything to compare it against. My only other minor gripes are that 1) batteries aren’t included with the door kit and 2) the Wi-Fi module is not built into the door lock itself.