Honeywell Getting Ready to Release the LYNX Touch L5200 and L7000 Security Panels!

For many of us New Years is when we promise to start trying to lose weight, eat better, stop procrastinating or whatever else you might have resolved for the coming days. Honeywell, on the other hand, has announced its release of two new security systems, the Honeywell L5200 and the L7000.

While we're a bit fuzzy on the details, their announcement in Security Systems News gives us some delicious details about what we can expect from the new systems. According to Honeywell's senior director of marketing, Alan Stoddard:

the soon-to-be-released Honeywell LYNX Touch 7000/L5200: You can view video on display and connect 84 zones. It has a 7-inch display; two-way voice over wifi, and a number of other newer features.

Does this mean you should hold off on getting the L5100 or VISTA system? We wouldn't recommend it. there is no indication from Honeywell when these systems will be out, though we are hoping to see them in the first half of this year. And since the L5100 just saw a new update back in September, chances are, the release of the L5200 will simply be a slightly updated L5100.

New features? Maybe some. More zones? Definitely. But since the L5100 already handles 64 zones, there are very few for whom the L5100's zone count is limiting. So if you're looking for a great system, the L5100 is still the best wireless security system that any security company has to offer. But that will, very soon, no longer be the case. The other advantage of the L5100, for the moment, is that the ecosystem of products is highly developed. Honeywell's L5100 Connect app, was released years after the L5100 was created. The app, which allows for local control of the L5100 from any iOS or Android tablet device, is robust, beautiful, and elegant. Will the L5200 have anything like it when it's released? While we're working to confirm with Honeywell whether it will or not, if I were to bet money on it, I think the best assumption is to expect no added features. The L5200s features will in all probability be very weak at first, like any security system that is newly released. The L5100 is likely to be the better system for at least a year after the L5200s release. So I wouldn't be too reticent to purchase the current system. But chances are that once the L5200 is released, it won't be long before the L5100 is no longer available which means that you'll have to upgrade, like it or not.

This has been an eventful year for Honeywell, as they just released their 6162 and 6152 keypads for the VISTA series panels. Again, making programming and changing settings easier for the end user, Honeywell is proving their commitment to the newly emerging community of DIY home security enthusiasts.

The L7000 sounds vaguely familiar, as Honeywell retired their 7-inch tablet mid-last year recognizing its poor reputation and slowness. The mid-7h (as it was called), while not well loved, had a beautiful giant screen, but being it was nothing more than a glorified Android tablet, its reception was fairly lukewarm. Presuming Honeywell can take the beautiful, much-loved 7-inch display and marry it to the wonderful functionality of their other AUI mounted security systems and keypads (such as the L5100 or the Tuxedo Touch) the L7000 sounds like it will be a welcome addition to their line of products.

The new system may require new communicators, though we aren't sure about that either. All we really sort-of know is that the L7000 and the L5200 are going to be basically the same system. The L7000 may have a few more features than the L5200 (like maybe it will handle more total connect cameras, since we presume that this will allow for cameras to run through it like the Tuxedo currently does), but like I said, we don't have much information yet either. But it is an exciting bit of news since it shows that Honeywell is committed to continuing its excellent updates to already state-of-the-art hardware.