Samsung Galaxy SmartTag review: A stellar smart key finder for Samsung phones
Our Verdict
The Samsung Milky way SmartTag is an first-class fashion to keep the of import items at your fingertips.
For
- Compact size
- Connects to Samsung SmartThings app
- Can control other smart devices and routines
- Long battery life
Confronting
- Limited compatibility
- Lacks Ultra Wideband support found in SmartTag Plus, AirTag
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy SmartTag is an first-class way to keep the of import items at your fingertips.
Pros
- +
Meaty size
- +
Connects to Samsung SmartThings app
- +
Can control other smart devices and routines
- +
Long battery life
Cons
- -
Limited compatibility
- -
Lacks Ultra Wideband support found in SmartTag Plus, AirTag
Samsung Galaxy SmartTag: Specs
Price: $29.99
Listed Range: 390 feet
Tested Range: 225 feet
Water resistant? IP53
Battery: Replaceable CR2032ea
Colors: Black, white
Size: 1.5 10 i.5 x 0.4 inches
Weight: 0.iii ounces
If you consider yourself a forgetful type, the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag might just exist the godsend you've been waiting for. From wallets to keychains to finicky pets, nosotros all lose stuff from time to time, and Samsung has your dorsum with its smarter-than-average key finder, which uses a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) bit to continue all your valuables under your thumb — or at least nearby.
At $29.99 per SmartTag, the entry fee may well be worth the cost of future-you getting locked out of your apartment afterward rushing from one social activity to the side by side, or losing your backpack while you're out on the town. (One time y'all've been fully vaccinated, of grade.)
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Our Samsung Galaxy SmartTag review reveals a long-lasting tracker that ranks amidst the all-time key finders thank you to its extended range and compact design.
Samsung Galaxy SmartTag review: Toll
At $29, the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag falls right in the center of what you'd pay for a key finder. The discount Tile Mate costs less, at $25; the class-leading Tile Pro is more than expensive at $35. The new Apple tree AirTag also costs $29.
Information technology's worth noting that Samsung makes two Galaxy SmartTag devices. It's the Galaxy SmartTag Plus that includes Ultra Wideband connectivity to go with Bluetooth, and it utilize your telephone'southward rear-facing camera to help guide you to your SmartTag; you lot will demand to use a Galaxy S21 Ultra, Galaxy S21+, Milky way Note20 Ultra, or Milky way Z Fold2 with the SmartTag Plus, which costs $10 more the standard model.
Samsung Milky way SmartTag review: Pattern and features
Measuring 1.5 x ane.5 10 0.iv inches, the Galaxy SmartTag is the perfect size for a skipping stone (peculiarly with those sleek rounded edges), merely at simply 0.four ounces, yous may want to proceed it on your keychain instead. Or on your haversack clip. Or a dog neckband. Or a purse handle. Or even inside your wallet, if you feel similar channeling your inner George Costanza.
Samsung's gadget comes in black or white, different the Tile Pro, which now has 5 color choices total. Similar the Tile Pro and the Apple AirTag, Samsung'south tracker uses a CR2032 battery, which Samsung says volition last nigh a year before you demand to replace information technology.
The Milky way SmartTag has an IP53 rating for water resistance, which means it can handle the occasional splash if yous get caught in the rain. In my testing, such drippage never affected the tracker's operation.
Samsung Milky way SmartTag review: Set
Getting started with the Galaxy SmartTag reminded me of just how robust Samsung'due south ecosystem has become over the past decade. Information technology took less than x minutes to pair my new bluetooth tracker with the Samsung SmartThings app on my Galaxy Annotation twenty Ultra. This included downloading the complementary Find app, which unlocks the primary functionality of this device.
If you come across a glitch, or desire to pair the SmartTag to a new phone, y'all can perform a quick reset by kickoff removing the device from your SmartThings app, then removing the battery from the SmartTag.
Samsung Milky way SmartTag review: SmartThings App
How smart tin a Bluetooth tracker get, exactly? To answer that, await no further than the aforementioned SmartThings app, which is designed to streamline accessibility between all of your smart dwelling house devices. By default, you lot'll find your new SmartTag tracker in the app'southward On the Become department as y'all coil downward. From hither, you can modify the ringtone and volume of the SmartTag; check the device's battery status; and fix diverse automations for when you press or hold down the SmartTag's alone push. You lot can rename your SmartTag, as well, which is handy if you have several trackers to keep...err, track of.
To try out the automation feature, I set up my SmartTag to command my smart lights; I have a Philips Hue lamp in my living room named "Me." So now, when I press and hold the SmartTag button, I can turn Me on and off at will. (Which isn't quite the same as shouting, "Hey Google, turn Me on!" when I need some actress low-cal, but still equally useful.) I have a few smart plugs effectually my dwelling house, too, so I plan on using the SmartTag to control my air conditioner this summer.
When you desperately need to discover your stuff, though, the SmartThings Find app also happens to exist where it's at. From here, yous tin ping your SmartTag (using one of x different tones); search for the tracker nearby (the app lets you know if the Bluetooth signal is weak or strong); and fifty-fifty navigate to information technology via Google Maps.
The "Search nearby" push button is useful if yous've misplaced your SmartTag effectually the home; a round estimate lets you know if you're getting warmer or cooler as you chase around. In my testing, all of these features worked well, and the SmartTag's ringer is loud enough; I tossed my keys nether a pile of laundry in my sleeping room, and I could clearly hear it beeping from across my flat. In general, if your phone is shut enough to selection upwardly a Bluetooth signal, yous'll probably be close enough to hear your SmartTag.
For an additional layer of security (and privacy), yous have the pick of encrypting your telephone'southward offline location when it's sent to Find My Mobile by other devices, and only you lot can decrypt it.
Samsung Milky way SmartTag: How it performs
I clipped the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag to my keychain, and used it for a month. As a (hyperactive) freelance writer in New York City, I have an uncommonly eclectic lifestyle, and am constantly using mobile tech to lifehack my workday. It's like shooting fish in a barrel to misplace stuff in my flat or effectually the city -- sometimes for adept -- and losing my keys is one of my pet peeves. (My super doesn't honey it, either.) Plus, as a longtime Samsung Galaxy user, calculation another Samsung device to my increasingly smarter home simply makes sense. Which is good, since SmartTags are only uniform with Samsung Milky way phones, Android OS viii.0 or college.
My apartment has roughly 800 square feet of living space, and as I tested out the SmartTag, my phone never had a problem picking up a Bluetooth signal in the frequently-cluttered abode. I'chiliad constantly misplacing my keys or phone (or both) throughout whatsoever given mean solar day, but now, since either device tin can find the other, I honestly take more peace of listen knowing my stuff is nearby and easy to discover, fifty-fifty if it's out of eyesight. A quick double-squeeze on the SmartTag activates the default alarm on your phone until you lot find information technology, and this worked flawlessly in my testing, like to the Tile Pro.
Conversely, the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag is pretty darn skillful at keeping rail of annihilation information technology's tethered to. My keys are attached to a rock climbing carabiner, and once I added the SmartTag to the mix, locating my backpack at a moment'due south observe was easy, too.
Over the past month, the SmartTag truly saved my bacon on two specific occasions. During the showtime, I had my keys inside a running pouch during a bicycle ride; the pouch slipped out of my pocket and onto the street every bit I biked around Brooklyn one afternoon. By the time I realized the running pouch was gone, I was roughly a mile away from it.
I simply knew that because of the SmartTag, which helped me retrace my steps via the SmartThings Find app, fifty-fifty though by then, my phone had lost the Bluetooth signal entirely. Sure enough, and much to my relief, I found the running pouch on the side of the street, inside three blocks of where it originally lost my phone'due south indicate. My Apple AirPods Pros were in that running pouch, too, by the way, so I was pretty overjoyed to become all my possessions back.
Another time, I left my keys on the cashier's counter at a local cafeteria, and didn't realize my error until I was literally standing in front end of my apartment building twenty minutes later with empty pockets where my keys normally are. Fortunately, I remembered that my keys are attached to technology now. Whew!
When I pulled upwardly SmartThings Discover on my telephone, I quickly discovered that my SmartTag had been "Spotted by nearby Milky way device," which means it piggybacked off a nearby Galaxy user who happened to have their Bluetooth on at the same cafeteria counter. And while this characteristic is great in major metropolitan areas for scatterbrained space cadets who exit their keys at deli counters, it's still a solid use of the gadget'south encrypted tech.
To test out the SmartTag's full general Bluetooth range, I took information technology to Prospect Park and hung it on a fence as I walked beyond an open field. As I strolled away, I kept an eye on the SmartThings Find app to run into when my phone lost the SmartTag's signal, which was at around 250 feet. (The longer my keys stayed in one place, the more stable their signal appeared on the app.) This is far short of the rated 390-foot range, just similar to the Tile Pro's 200-plus-foot range. Unless yous're a narcoleptic groundskeeper, this digital perimeter should help you lot find your valuables in a wink.
Samsung SmartTag review: Verdict
If you lot're a Samsung Galaxy phone user and your train of idea is perpetually leaving the station, having a SmartTag (or two, or three) around your dwelling house is a great way to keep track of your keys, phone, and other easy-to-lose valuables.The $thirty Samsung charges is a small price to pay for the extra piece of listen, and if y'all already have a variety of smart devices connected to your phone, the ability to trigger home routines at the touch on of a button is an extremely practical touch on.
In curt, there'south a lot to like about the simplistic Samsung Galaxy SmartTag, and who knows? It might come up in handier than you think.
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Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/samsung-galaxy-smarttag
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