The Schlage Sense Pro unlocked my door like magic

A couple of years ago, I reviewed the Schlage Encode Plus, a smart lock where all you had to do was tap your iPhone to unlock the door. Well, Schlage is back with a smarter smart lock where you have to do even less.

The Schlage Sense Pro uses Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology to detect when you’re actually walking up to your door, and unlocks it automatically — no tapping, pin codes, or fingerprints needed. But is this the new best smart lock for iPhone owners? I tested it out for over two months on my door to find out.

Price and availability

The Schlage Sense Pro went on sale in June 2026, and costs $399. It comes in two finishes: Matte Black or Satin Nickel. The company sells the lock alone, or with a matching lever starting at $449.

Design

There’s nothing overly radical about the look of the Sense Pro. Both halves are rectangular boxes with rounded edges. The exterior portion of the lock measures 2.7 inches wide by 4 inches tall, and is about an inch thick — about the same dimensions as the Yale Assure 2. The Sense Pro only comes in black or silver, and only one design; Schlage’s other smart locks all come in a variety of trims.

The Sense Pro’s number pad sits on the top quarter of the front panel in two rows of five. While it’s easy to use, it feels odd that Schlage didn’t use the whole face to make the numbers even larger, similar to something like the Yale lock.

Inside, it’s also standard fare: A large rectangle with a throw to unlock the door, and a removable panel at the top for the batteries. I like that the batteries are housed in a separate, removable cartridge, which made them easy to install and replace.

Installation

Installing the lock was similar to other smart deadbolts. You have to remove both sides, as well as the bolt itself, and replace it with the one provided by Schlage. One minor difference is that you have to connect two, rather than one wire between the two halves of the lock.

You can connect the lock directly to your smart home system of choice — I used Apple Home — but you’ll also want to download the Schlage app and register the lock there as well, so you can get such things as firmware updates.

You can create access codes using either the Schlage app of the smart home app of your choice, but codes created in one app can’t be managed in the other. For example, I created a code in the Apple Home app, which was visible in the Schlage app, but I couldn’t delete or change it there. Conversely, the codes I created in the Schlage app did not appear in Apple Home.

In the Apple Home app, you can specify whether the Sense Pro should unlock itself if it senses you approaching from the left, right, or center.

Performance and battery life

It’s like magic. With my iPhone in hand (or pocket), I simply walked towards my front door and the Sense Pro unlocked itself when I came within a foot or so. The lock was also smart enough not to unlock if I was merely loitering around the front.

The Sense Pro’s keypad was also responsive, I also liked that, after entering a code, I didn’t need to then press another button for the door to unlock.

While the Sense Pro should last up to six months on a charge, I found its batteries had drained to 51% after just a couple of weeks of use. I then switched my Apple Home hub from an Apple TV that I have in my attic office to an Apple HomePod mini, which was just one room away from the lock, but the battery continued to drain at a precipitous rate.

As it turns out, I had the lock connected to both Apple Home (via Thread) and to the Schlage app (via Wi-Fi), which the company says is not recommended — when you’re setting up the lock, you should pick one or the other. However, if you go the Schlage app route, you can then connect it to your Apple Home system within Schlage’s app.

After resetting the lock and having it connect solely through Thread, the battery drain was much less, and in line with what the company would expect.

The company also recommends against using Lithium and rechargeable batteries, so stick with alkalines. Should you ignore the warnings and the lock runs out of power, there’s a USB-C port on the underside of the exterior part of the lock; plug in a portable charger to give the lock some temporary juice to get it to unlock.

Smart home compatibility

The Schlage Sense Pro is Matter-compatible, so it can be connected to Apple Home, Alexa, and Google Home. Additionally, it will also work with AirBnB and Ring.

At the moment, the UWB-door-unlocking feature only works with iPhones. However, the Schlage Sense Pro is Aliro compatible and, once certified, is expected to support Aliro digital keys in Samsung Wallet and Google Wallet later this year, according to the company.

That means that if you own a Samsung or Google device enabled with UWB, you’ll be able to use hands-free unlock; if you have an NFC-enabled device, you’ll be able to use tap to unlock. However, a specific timeframe for the rollout of these features has not been announced.

Verdict

As the Aliro standard — which will let you use any smartphone to unlock a door just by walking up to it — becomes more common in the coming years, I suspect we’ll see more locks with the same capabilities as the Schlage Sense Pro.

However, even now, the Sense Pro has some competition in the form of the Aqara U400, which also lets you unlock your door via UWB and an iPhone. This Matter-compatible lock worked well in our testing and, in addition to a keypad, it has a fingerprint reader, giving you an extra option to unlock the door — all for $100 less than the Sense Pro.