Ring Unveils Its First Smart Lock With a Built-In Hand Crank for Power

Ring has announced its first smart door lock, adding a product category that had been absent from its lineup of doorbells, cameras, and home security gear.

The standout feature of the device, called simply the Ring Smart Lock, is a hand crank built into the thumbturn. The company describes it as an "energy crank" that lets users generate power when the batteries run flat. According to Ring's announcement, cranking the lock a few times powers it back up, a design aimed at easing concerns about dead batteries.

Users can operate the lock in several ways, including a fingerprint reader, a backlit touchscreen keypad, the Ring app, and Alexa voice commands.

Alongside the lock, Ring introduced four new indoor and outdoor 4K cameras and an entry-level 2K indoor pan-and-tilt camera.