eufy Video Smart Lock E330 review – it’s a lock, it’s a security camera, it’s a doorbell, it’s a battery killer!

REVIEW – If you’re a dedicated Gadgeteer, then you probably have a multitool or possibly a Swiss army knife – one of those things that can do multiple things in one package. Today, we’re going to look at just such a device – this time from the home automation folks at eufy. It is the eufy Video Smart Lock E330.  Let’s check out all the features of this all-in-one door entry system.

What is it?

The eufy Video Smart Lock E330 is a smart door lock that you can lock and unlock it with the app, your fingerprint, your personal security code, your Apple watch, your voice (via Alexa or Google), or even go old school with a physical key. In addition to that, it is also a video security camera that can provide notifications of nefarious activity outside your door (or more importantly, alert you to your latest Amazon delivery). Finally, it features a button that serves as a doorbell, ringing right on your phone, Alexa device, or optional plug-in chime. It is powered with a massive 10,000 mAh rechargeable battery pack that is claimed to provide 8-12 months of use between charges, depending on activity mode.

What’s included?

• External lock panel with keypad, doorbell, and camera
• Internal panel with manual knob
• Internal mounting plate
• Battery pack
• In-door deadbolt lockset
• Deadbolt screws, plate screws, internal panel screws, screw hole plug
• Strike plate with mounting screws (optional)
• Two keys
• eufy Security sticker
• User guide

Tech specs

Design and features

This is a tall deadbolt device with a fingerprint reader at the top, a camera right below that, a touch-sensitive keypad, and a doorbell button that doubles as a keyhole cover. This mounts on the outside of your door.

On the back of the panel, we see the two control wires. The flat one is the control and power wire. The thinner one is for the camera. You can also see the tab that extends into the deadbolt to turn the bolt.

The extended ring on the back extends into the deadbolt hole in the door. If your door’s deadbolt hole is smaller, you can remove that piece.  A USB-C port under the panel allows for emergency external power from a power bank if you come home and find that the internal battery has died. The app gives you notifications when the battery is at 10% or less. But, what if you don’t carry a battery pack and cable?

Fear not – just swivel the doorbell button to reveal a traditional key slot. eufy provides two keys and they are unique to the lock. Unlike some other locks, this one cannot be rekeyed so if you install multiple eufy smart locks, you’ll have to carry keys for each one.

The other panel mounts inside the door. The top section is the battery compartment door. Below that, you see the manual operation knob and a mounting screw hole. That gets covered with an included plug.

Directly behind the knob, we see the internal slot that receives the tab on the control panel. The white connector receives the main control cable. The round gold connector receives the camera cable.

Behind the battery cover, we see the battery connector pins, mounting holes, and the setup button. The 10,000 mAh battery pack slides in and the connector slides onto the connector pins.

The USB-C charging port is on the bottom right as are the charge indicator LEDs. 10,000 mAh seems like it will have plenty of power for a long time between charges…or so I thought.  More on that below.

Assembly, Installation, Setup

I was so excited to get the eufy Video Smart Lock E330 installed that I forgot to take photos along the way. But, if you have ever changed a deadbolt, there isn’t anything strange here.

1. Install the eufy app and set up an account
2. Charge the battery pack
3. Remove the old deadbolt
4. Install the new bolt mechanism by inserting it and attaching it with the two screws – this was an issue for me as the attached strike plate was larger than the routed area on my door. A couple of minutes with a Dremel tool with a sanding wheel attached solved the issue, enlarging the hole. There was no need to attach the optional strike plate.
5. Slide the external panel’s tab through the slot in the bolt and hold it against the door
6. Attach the internal mounting plate to the external panel with the included long screws, feeding the wires under the deadbolt mechanism
7. Connect the wires to the internal panel
8. Attach the internal panel to the mounting plate with the three internal screws
9. Verify smooth movement of the bolt action by turning the knob back and forth
10. Install the battery
11. Open the app and add a device – follow the instructions in the app to scan the QR code, press the SET button, connect it to WiFi, calibrate the lock movement, and set up the options

The installation took me perhaps 20 minutes and that included enlarging the strike plate hole. The only tool I needed (other than the Dremel for routing the strike plate hole) was a Phillips screwdriver. I opted for a combo of a power driver for the longer screws and a regular one for the shorter screws.

Here’s a look at the eufy Video Smart Lock E330 installed on the outside of the door.

And, a look inside.

The next part of the setup was to enroll users. I shared the device via the app with my wife. She set up her own account. We both are admins of the lock and can fully control and modify it. You can also share it with users who can use the app to control the lock but not modify it. I set us up as users in the app with our own access codes. I then enrolled multiple fingerprints for each of us. That process involves eight separate reads of each fingerprint. Each one should be aligned slightly differently. This allows for more freedom in placing your finger on the pad. The process was fast and easy and we were good to go. The lock can store up to 50 individual fingerprints across all users.

Finally, I set it up for balanced battery performance with the camera detecting humans and recording 20 seconds upon each recognition and app notifications for human detection and lock/unlock events.

Performance

Let me make this simple. The eufy E330 Video Smart Lock just works. It does everything it says. I cannot argue with the 0.3-second fingerprint recognition claim. It is blazingly fast. The app performs flawlessly. I integrated it with Alexa and she makes sure the lock is locked every night when we go to bed. I enabled 10-minute auto-locking and it locks the door ten minutes after we unlock the door every time without fail. The camera has done a terrific job picking up humans while ignoring cars driving by. Notifications in the app are nearly instantaneous. Video and audio quality are great. What’s not to like?

I can answer that. Battery life. In the specs, eufy claims 8-12 months between charges. I installed the lock after fully charging the battery pack. I set the app for balanced performance, only recording 30 seconds at a time. I installed the lock on Saturday, May 11 at noon. As I write this on Wednesday, May 22 at about noon, or 11 days later, the battery is reporting 42%. That’s 58% use in 11 days or more than 5% battery life lost per day. I’m no math major, but 5% per day is more like 20 days and a lot less like 8-12 months.

After installation, I liked the lock enough that I ordered another similar model, the S230, for my inside garage door. It is essentially the same thing but without the video and doorbell features. That came with an additional battery pack so I will always have one in reserve. That solves one part of the problem, but if we travel for more than 20 days, a regular occurrence for us, the front door lock will be dead.

I contacted support at eufy and they suggested it might be an issue with the battery. I swapped in another fully charged pack. 27 hours later, this is what I saw in the app.

The battery had dropped 7% in 27 hours. As you can see, I have the lock set for balanced power usage so it shouldn’t be beating up the battery. Gee, it must be because we’re activating the lock or video system all the time, right?  Let’s check out the event history since changing batteries.

Hmm.  Three events. A manual unlock not using the motor. A manual lock, again, not using the motor, and a lock from the app when Alexa confirms the doors are locked when we go to bed. The lock was already locked, so again, no motor usage. That sure doesn’t seem like much. I must have beaten it up the next day.  Let’s see…

Wow! So, two manual lock movements, one app lock confirmation, and zero video events. Does that seem like it should kill 7% of the battery? It sure doesn’t to me. Well, if it is the video system killing the battery, let’s essentially turn it off. The video system will not do anything unless the doorbell button is pressed. That isn’t likely to happen since I have a Ring doorbell installed nearby.

After 36 hours, here’s a look at the battery charge:

As you can see, we’re still losing 1% battery life every 12 hours. This should theoretically get me around 50 days before a charge would be required. Next up, I turned off the excellent auto-lock functionality and all app notifications beyond a doorbell push. To summarize, I’ve turned off every single extra feature of this video smart lock. After another day and a half, the battery was still at 90%, so it looked like I finally hit the magic formula for long battery life. Turn off all the features. That’s a shame since the features are what make this a great lock.

I had a conversation with eufy support and they asked if the auto-lock was enabled. Based on that question, I decided to change the power mode back to balanced to enable video surveillance, and also enable notifications for motion detection. I let that go for another day and checked the battery.

The battery life dropped quickly to 86%, so those features were also chewing battery at up to 2% per day. I disabled everything, turning it into a basic smart lock, losing all the cool features of this video smart lock. Dang.

Beyond the sucky battery life, the lock works great. When things happen – it detects a person or we lock/unlock the door, the notifications come nearly instantly.

The app details all the events. If the lock was activated by a fingerprint or a security code, the app lets me know who did it. This would be great for working parents as they could get positive notifications when kids come and go.

The video and audio are good.

Operating the eufy Video Smart Lock E330 from outside the home is super-easy. I tried the keypad and it worked perfectly. You can set up passcodes from 4-8 digits and set up full-time access, timed access, or single-entry access. There is a neat feature that allows the user to enter up to 12 digits, as long as their access code is included in there somewhere. This allows you to enter your code securely, even if someone is watching. While the access code is great, I never use it because the fingerprint process is excellent. It is super-fast and accurate and is the only method we use other than the app. When you leave, you can use your fingerprint to lock the door or hold the lock indicator on the lower right of the keypad. Both methods work well.

I was surprised when the package arrived as eufy included a surprise – a eufy Security Indoor Cam C220.

It is a $35 USB-powered 2.4 GHz WiFi indoor security camera with 360° pan and tilt capabilities, 2K video resolution, and automatic human detection. It was difficult to hook up to my home WiFi. I had to disable 5 GHz WiFi so only the 2.4 GHz was visible and also disable WiFi 6 and then it would connect. I didn’t do a full test but the video looked clear and the AI tracking seemed to follow me as I moved around.

What I like about the eufy E330 Video Smart Lock

• Good looks
• Easy installation
• Excellent performance, battery life aside

What needs to be improved?

• Battery life leaves a lot to be desired – if you don’t want to recharge the battery every three weeks or so, you need to disable the video functionality beyond doorbell presses making eufy’s non-video smart locks a much better choice
• I wish the camera aimed a little higher – if someone tall is standing right in front, their face is not visible in the video

Final thoughts

I really wanted to like the eufy Video Smart Lock E330. It looks good and works great. But…the battery life is a deal breaker for me. We travel. Three-week trips or longer are not out of the norm for us so this means that the lock will die while we are gone. I can extend the battery life by turning off the video functions, but then why would I pay more for this than a cheaper unit without video features? If I was going to buy one, I would pass this up as quickly as I could and just buy eufy’s excellent Smart Lock S230 – that’s what I did for our garage door. If you’re willing to charge the battery every two to three weeks, this is a compelling lock. If not, skip the fact features of this lock and buy a more affordable smart lock that skips the functions you’ll have to disable anyway.

Price: $279.99
Where to buy: eufy and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by eufy. eufy did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.