I'm a heavy HomeKit user, I have been using this lock for a couple weeks. Here is my take:- Aqara hub or no hub: Both are OK if you know what you're doing. Without an Aqara hub, you'll need to have an Apple hub (HomePod, Apple TV), then add the lock directly to HomeKit. It will work just fine, all HomeKey features or fingerprint/passcode work flawless. Remote lock/unlock/add extra passcode will WORK in HomeKit without an Aqara hub (it DOESN'T work if you try to do those things in Aqara app, if you want to manage the lock in Aqara app, you will need to be within Bluetooth range). That's the thing I want to point out cause people seem to be confused about using the lock with/without an Aqara hub.- I eventually added the E1 hub after using the lock without an Aqara hub for a week, cause remote lock/unlock in HomeKit is too slow. E1 or M2 hub are both fine, the E1 hub got Matter OTA updated too. After installing E1 hub, update it to latest firmware (you'll need to update several times to get to the latest fw). Once done, bind the lock to E1 hub. Then go to E1 hub setting > Matter > Connect Matter to HomeKit. This will create a SECOND instance of lock in Home app (the FIRST instance is when you directly add the lock to HomeKit to use HomeKey features like tapping Apple Watch/iPhone to unlock, add passcode). You should keep both instances of lock, hide the original HomeKit version and keep the Matter version for faster remote lock/unlock/automations. As of now, Matter touch-to-unlock hasn't been updated to work properly with Aqara lock, therefore, the Matter lock doesn't support HomeKey features yet. If you try to remove the HomeKit lock instance (the first one that you scan the Home code on the lock), you'll find HomeKey features no longer work and have to add it again. Hopefully that makes sense (I attached pics to show that I have 2 lock instances, one is bridged from Matter E1, one is added directly into HomeKit).Cons:- Push notifications are hit or miss. I have Matter lock notification on and HomeKit lock off, but it never shows notification for me, only work when I turn on HomeKit lock version's notification instead, but sometimes it won't send any notifications. Also, the Aqara app's lock notifications sometimes work, sometimes not. One thing I've noticed, if Aqara app is currently opening, HomeKit notifications will not be pushed out. And Aqara only sends unlock notifications, not lock notifications. Hopefully that will be fixed with a fw update.
