The AmazonBasics security safe deserves a 3.5 to 3.75 star rating, but of course partial stars cannot be awarded; normally I'd round up, but in this case, 3 stars is appropriate. Here's why. First, the pros. - It's heavy and the walls are very thick. - The number pad is easy to use, and each number depress emits a clearly audible beep. - The bolts are thick and provide a satisfying "thunk" when unlocking/locking the safe. - The key hole for bypassing the numeric keypad is "hidden" by a removable plastic plate, which is more aesthetic than anything. Now the cons. - The housing for the keypad, lock disengage, and batteries are all on the underbelly of the lid, which is exceptionally thick. Coupled with the fact that the lid is inset into the exterior of the safe, this significantly reduces the total space available inside the safe. Basically: an 8in x 4.5in area in the middle of the safe will only provide about 1in of depth inside the safe, as the lid housing is around 2in thick. There's areas on the edges of the safe where taller items can fit, but they can't be very large overall. - The safe lid is, overall, pretty heavy, and has no pneumatic mechanism or anything similar to aid in neither the opening nor closure of the door. The handle is rather small and easily slips out of the fingers, which can result in the lid dropping back down onto the safe. Which leads us to the next issue: - The battery door is a flimsy plastic slide-on door that easily pops off if the safe top closes too hard. This has often resulted in the door popping off and the batteries all falling out after closure of the safe, without knowing it happened. This of course the requires a hunting down of the backup keys to reopen the safe and reseat the batteries. If one needed to access the safe quickly, this could be a very problematic hinderance. - The lid dropping down can also be a bit of a hazard. Be sure your fingers are clear of the safe. keep in mind too that, fully open, the lid sits at maybe 92 degrees from the safe itself -- a breeze or slight vibration can send the lid careening back down at full velocity. - The latch to bolt/unbolt the safe has no auto-bolt mechanism at all. It's a quarter-turn device which must be locked back once the safe is closed. It's less of an issue with repeated use and build-up of muscle memory, but the amount of times I've closed the door to the safe and forgotten to latch it back is a non-zero number. (I have another safe in another room which has both pneumatic arms to open the door and auto-locks when the door is closed, so maybe this won't be an issue for some other users.) - Speaking of the bolts, they are only on the left side of the safe -- meaning that, theoretically, one might be able to pry the safe open from the other side (although the lid being inset into the safe makes it slightly more difficult.) - Because the lid is hinged on the top, because it's so heavy, because there are no pneumatic arms to help with opening the door, this safe is really only suited for horizontal placement. Yes it's a "drawer safe" -- just make sure that's your use case, and there weren't any plans to mount it vertically. - While it's a bit over 11in in length, its width is under 8in -- keep that in mind if storing 8.5x11 documents without bending them was an objective. All in all, I find the safe to be "meh." I've worked around some of its limitations and overall it'll do for the use-case I need it for. That being said, were I to purchase another "personal safe" again, it would not be this one.
