TCL D2 Plus Fingerprint Smart Lock review: It’s better than basic

Best prices today: TCL D2 Plus smart fingerprint lock

TCL entered the smart lock market in late 2024 with ambitious and expensive locks that have been hit or miss, perhaps rushed to market without enough testing. The manufacturer has since taken a step back and is expanding its range in a slightly more thoughtful manner, notably with the launch of this affordable offering, the TCL D2 Plus Fingerprint Smart Lock Plus.

Features

The TCL D2 Plus looks a lot like its big brother, the TCL D2 Pro, but with a major change under the hood: the Pro is a palm-vein scanning lock, while the Plus relies on a more pedestrian fingerprint scanner as its primary authentication system. The biggest advantage is that the change allows the price to drop: an MSRP of $110 compared to $170 for the Pro model. That $60 difference makes it a solid value.

The lock’s aluminum-clad exterior, rated IP55 for waterproofing but lacking ANSI/BHMA certification, offers only a few surprises, including the aforementioned fingerprint scanner, a touch-enabled numeric keypad, and NFC card support (the SKU reviewed here doesn’t come with any cards, but you can buy the lock that comes with multiple fobs on Amazon for just a few dollars more). An exposed physical keyhole, accompanied by two keys, provides another means of entry.

Christopher Null/Foundry

A discreet doorbell button is integrated into the lock keypad. When a visitor presses the button, you will hear a chime and receive a push notification on your smartphone. This product is not a video doorbell, however, and it has no video functionality; TCL also does not offer a secondary chime that can be installed inside the home. A USB-C port at the bottom of the exterior escutcheon can be used for emergency access if the lock’s batteries die while you’re away.

Speaking of batteries, you’ll need to bring your own: eight AA batteries, which TCL says will provide about 6 months of battery life. The lock connects directly to your 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network, eliminating the need for a smart home bridge or hub. Both Amazon Alexa and Google Home are supported if you want to expand your ecosystem beyond the basics of the TCL Home app.

Installation and configuration

Christopher Null/Foundry

The installation process for the TCL D2 Plus is the same as entry-level locks, with two bolts connecting the exterior escutcheon to a mounting frame inside the door. The interior escutcheon mounts to this frame with just two additional bolts, and a single electrical cable connects the two components, making it a quick installation compared to the rest of the industry. Setting up all eight piles appears to be the most expensive part of the process.

More good news: TCL has ditched the horrible Tuya app it initially relied on for the TCL D1 series and now has its own mobile app, TCL Home. This is a big improvement and setting up the lock with this app was simple. The app automatically discovered the lock once powered on, and pressing a button under the battery cover completed the onboarding process. By answering a few simple questions, the lock was added to my Wi-Fi network and after three (!) firmware updates it was ready to use.

Using the TCL D2 Plus Smart Fingerprint Lock

The TCL D2 Plus is largely intuitive and easy to use, although you’ll need to spend some time in the settings menu to fully optimize it. One option I recommend changing immediately is to turn off “Device Security”, which requires you to enter a PIN into the app every time you use the app, which quickly becomes very tedious.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Other settings cover the basics: Auto-lock can be set between 10 and 120 seconds (although the lock doesn’t have a door sensor and locks whether it’s open or closed), and False Attempt Protection lets you specify 5 to 10 incorrect authorization attempts before disabling the lock for 2 to 5 minutes. Notifications can be set individually for unlocking, locking, doorbell presses and alarm conditions (such as activating lock on bad try).

Each of these activities is recorded in the Events tab on the Home screen and is summarized by day and week in the Home Assistant tab. An additional feature of this tab is called Homecoming Reminder, which is a type of alarm/reminder that will send a notification to the administrator if a configured user has not returned home and unlocked the door within a time frame that you set. It’s clearly designed for parents to keep an eye on their kids, and it worked well in my testing.

Christopher Null/Foundry

User management is well designed, with credentials assigned on a user-by-user basis. Each user can be assigned multiple fingerprints, PIN codes (4 to 8 digits) and NFC cards. The lock supports up to 100 credentials of each type in total. Fingerprint and NFC cards still provide 24/7 access; PINs can be set as permanent or time-limited, although there is no possibility of recurring passwords which are only valid, for example, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Duress PINs can be used to send an alert to the administrator if a user unlocks the door under duress, so that the administrator can notify the authorities. Finally, unique, immediate-use passwords can be generated on demand within the application; these expire within 10 minutes and only one can be active at a time.

I didn’t encounter any major issues while working with the TCL Home app or the lock entry systems during several days of testing. My only real complaint about using the lock was some aspects of the hardware itself. The button requires a lot of pressure to get the bolt to extend all the way, and the motor can’t do the job either, even if the bolt did. most of the way to full extension – just a few millimeters.

Christopher Null/Foundry

I also wasn’t thrilled with the way the deadbolt moves when extended, feeling a bit loose and unstable. Without formal testing, it is difficult to know how physically secure the lock is; but anecdotally, it just doesn’t seem that safe. Please remember that the lock is not ANSI/BHMA certified.

The bell on the front of the lock, meanwhile, seems like an afterthought. The little icon only lights up if the keyboard is turned on, and I would never realistically expect a visitor to find the button to press. However, it is very simple to accidentally press it when trying to unlock the door. My advice: mute it and forget it’s there.

Should you buy the TCL D2 Plus Smart Fingerprint Lock?

I’ve seen the street price of the TCL D2 Plus Fingerprint Smart Lock go as low as $80, making it a pretty good deal. It’s a bit less of a bargain at its $120 MSRP, but it still seems like a reasonable price for what you’re getting.

At the very least, this lock is a dramatic upgrade over the still-available TCL D1 series, putting TCL in a much better position to merit consideration in the smart lock space.

This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart locks.