Trackers for the little things in life

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It’s a lovely idea: a plastic fob that you can clip or stick to almost anything and never lose it again. But the Tile has always had a problem. The built-in battery (which lasted about a year) couldn’t be swapped, leaving you to post your dead Tiles back for discounted replacements. Now, finally, they’ve added a battery compartment cover. The Mate takes a CR1632 battery, while the slightly bulkier Pro (£30 from www.snipca.com/29506), which doubles the claimed wireless range to 300ft (90m), a CR2032. Neither will cost you more than a couple of quid.

Those ranges are longer than before, and the built-in beeper is 50 per cent louder, but little else has changed. Each Tile contains a Bluetooth chip that your smartphone can detect when it’s within range. They don’t have GPS or internet, so they’re only of use for items that are normally around the same places as your phone. When you need to find a Tile, you open the app and it tells you where all your Tiles are now or were when last detected. If you go to the location and can’t see your Tile, you can make it beep.

Still can’t find it? Mark it as ‘lost’ in the app (see image below), and when any other Tile user passes near it, their app will silently contact you via Tile HQ. There are lots of Tile users in densely populated areas, so it’s not too unlikely – the company claims it finds two million Tiles a day.

It’s pretty obvious that the fixed battery design was to keep people buying new Tiles, and to replace that source of revenue they’ve launched an optional Tile Premium subscription. This adds ‘smart alerts’ that warn you when you move out of range of any of your Tiles, lets you manage multiple Tiles and accounts, shows a 30-day location history and sends you new batteries automatically. At £30 a year, it’s probably unnecessary, but smart alerts should really be standard.

Rivals like Trackr and Chipolo lack the huge network of users, while various no-brand wireless tags aren’t so much cheaper that they seem worth taking a chance on. We’d go for Tile, but be aware that many places are still selling earlier versions, so look for ‘with replaceable battery’ in the description. SPECIFICATIONS Bluetooth LE tag • 45 or 90m maximum range • IP55 water resistant • 35x35x6mm; 7g (Tile Mate)

• 42x42x6.5mm; 16g (Tile Pro) www.snipca.com/19841 VERDICT For any item that’s normally in the vicinity of your smartphone, this is an effective tracker

★★★★★

ALTERNATIVE Chipolo Classic Gen 2 £22 With similar features and replaceable batteryy but shorter range, this is also worth considering