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If there’s one thing Chinese smart home manufacturers can’t be accused of, it’s resting on their laurels, and Aqara is no exception, with the announcement that their latest smart lock, the Aqara N200, will be released on March 9th, but only initially in Mainland China, although third party outlets like AliExpress, Banggood and GearBest are likely to follow for international buyers.

This lock follows on from last year’s product, the Aqara N100, which has many of the same functions, despite a few changes under the hood along with a slight visual change.

As can be seen in the image above, visually they are fairly different, with the N200 being more square in shape than the pill-shaped N100, along with a two-tone design utilising black plastic with a grey metal housing. Both feature built-in doorbells and fingerprint scanners, as well as NFC. regarding the fingerprint reader, the N200 will feature a new, customized ‘blue gem’ fingerprint mode, built into the handle, that enables the lock to have a high identification rate and be more durable. the keypad section uses a scratch-proof IML panel, that makes it suitable for more environments.

The lock itself isn’t suited for many US doors, that are usually of the deadbolt variety, with these locks designed to work with mortice locks of various sorts, although these types of locks are generally considered more secure. According to our sources, as with the N100, the N200 will be HomeKit compatible. It should be noted, however, that only the standard lock portion will be exposed to HomeKit, with things like fingerprint and NFC options being solely the preserve of the Mi Home or Aqara apps.