A Nuki Smartlock on the front door can be nice

I don't count myself among the smart-home fans, but I purchased the Nuki 3.0 Pro because my wife and I really like the system: "phone in the pocket, door open" with my "new" (since last September) Tesla. After a few problems with setting up the software—which have now been resolved—it works quite well now. I'm curious to see if there are any other interested parties here. The note I want to make concerns the feature most important to me: The door should open automatically when I'm standing in front of it. This only works with this lock if I was far enough away in between—and that's not just a few meters. Approaching the door with my hands full of luggage—and it opens—is just cool. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to go to the neighbor. The next houses are too close, and Nuki doesn't recognize that I was away. But after shopping, it works :D

I have the Nuki 2.0, the predecessor, and am very satisfied with the functionality. However, I deliberately chose not to use the Bridge, so that the front door cannot be opened from outside via WLAN. That somehow seemed suspicious to me. The same applies to the homing function with automatic opening. I think it is better to perform this as a controlled and conscious action. But I really like the automatic locking at a certain time. Only the volume during the locking process could be quieter.

May I ask what happens, for example, in case of internet outage, WLAN failure, malfunction, broken phone, or blown fuse in the house? Is there a backup or just a normal house key?

The lock can be operated normally with the key. The Nuki is placed on the locking cylinder from the inside.

House key.
The Nuki can only be installed on a lock cylinder that can be opened from the outside when a key is inserted from the inside (because the key must always remain inside for the Nuki).
I especially like that the door opens by itself when I come home. That awakens feelings of gratitude in me, even though I know that no one is intentionally being nice to me.

I have been using Nuki since the first generation in my rental apartments and am completely satisfied. The original reason for purchasing was that we repeatedly forgot to (additionally) lock the door and only closed it behind us. Even when we are at home, we basically never insert a key inside to lock it.

Nuki fulfills this function 100%. You can adjust many settings; over the years, the setting "always automatically lock the door after 30 minutes" has proven best for us. It always works and is not annoying at all.

Automatic door opening usually works (95% of the time); if it ever doesn’t (for whatever reason), it is just a quick action on the phone or smartwatch (in my case iPhone and Apple Watch). Perfect for the apartment—whether walking from the elevator toward the apartment door or while climbing stairs, the door opens at exactly the right moment, really great. In the new house, I see a problem, which I will get to below.

Now, first to you . Your problem that the door doesn’t open when you were at the neighbor's is not an error; it is intentional because otherwise, Nuki would always open when you pass by with your Bluetooth device. You can minimally set this area to 100 meters in the expert settings under "Geofence Size."

The problem I anticipate is here. We planned our carport as the building entrance canopy. Since Nuki, as mentioned, opens the door quite reliably as soon as Bluetooth is detected, Nuki will already open the door (pull the latch) as soon as I drive into the carport with the car. In the app, the maximum latch hold duration can only be set to 30 seconds, which means the door will be closed again (not locked) by the time I get out of the car and walk to the door.
If there is no technical reason for this problem (for example, motor overheating from holding the latch longer), it might be worth discussing this with Nuki support; maybe they will increase the hold time and leave it longer to the user. The support is great, feedback is given quickly, and user feedback is often actually implemented (some of my requests have already been implemented—certainly not only because of me :)).

There are certainly problem cases where Nuki cannot always perfectly fulfill the task, but it should work for most things and situations.
I also have an example that can’t work, but that’s not Nuki’s fault. An acquaintance has to drive first over a side street at most 4 meters wide past the house to get to his parking spot. That means Nuki detects the Bluetooth device while passing by, pulls the latch, and by the time he is at the front door, the door is already closed again. Due to the previously described (intentionally programmed this way) setting, auto-unlock works only once until you leave your geofence again. So he cannot use it this way.
At first, it was even the case for him that every time he walked to the house after parking the car, the door was completely open. We quickly found out that the door was incorrectly set (in this case) and you immediately noticed when the latch was pulled (of course, you could want it that way). It was quickly solved by adjusting the door settings, actually the solution for him at first to be able to use Nuki’s automatic door opening. But in practice, it turned out not to be practical for him (stray cats in the house; forgotten shopping and drove away again → the front door open the whole time; etc.).
There are many very useful things about Nuki, but it simply cannot fulfill every situation and requirement; everyone should go through this for themselves and decide whether it makes sense for them.

P.S.: No, I am not a Nuki employee, just a satisfied user :).