World’s First Entirely Smart Door Has Just 24 Hours of Battery Backup in Case Things Go Wrong

An entirely smart door? It might be the future for those unsatisfied with having a simple Ring doorbell installed.

Meet the Masonite M-PWR, the world’s first entirely smart door, and scratch your head at the gimmick of it all.

Revealed around CES 2022, the Masonite M-PWR smart door comes with a Yale smart lock, a built-in Ring video doorbell and motion-activated LED lights and sensors.

That all sounds fantastic if you don’t read the fine print – and it has a lot of head-scratching items.

First off, the Masonite M-PWR smart door connects to your home’s electrical system, so theoretically it’s always powered. However, in the case of a power loss, the entire door has only enough of a backup battery to make it run for 24 hours. What happens if that power loss happens while you’re away from home for longer? Your guess is as good as mine.

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Then, the Masonite M-PWR might have all those nice smart items and features but it doesn’t have a unifying app for them. Instead, to use the Masonite M-PWR smart door you have to have three apps: the M-PWR app, the Yale app and, of course, the Ring app.

And lastly, the price. You’d expect a world’s first gadget to be expensive but basically this is a door that comes with a couple of sensors, a lock and a doorbell – and costs more than four times as much as all those things separately.

ZDNet pinpointed exactly where the M-PWR smart door slams your fingers:

“What’s all this technology going to cost you? The fiberglass Masonite M-PWR starts at $4,000 — and that’s for the basic model. Several finishes/designs/glass options are available, with pricing on the higher-end versions reaching $7,000. 

If you consider that a decent front door, Ring doorbell, and Yale smart lock from the same retailer can be had for under $1,000, this is clearly a door for people who want the finer things. And that price doesn’t include installation, something most homeowners can’t do on their own as the door needs to be hard-wired. 

The door has been available in new construction homes since 2022, but this marks the first time you can buy it separately.”

Still, having a full smart door is a great idea and hopefully the company can refine it further. As it stands right now, a single smart home device requiring three different apps will be a hard sell for even the most security-conscious of homeowners.Also read: Chasing That Brown Aesthetic But Your Devices Ruin the Look? Try These Curated Picks