The new Tile Mate is a practical Bluetooth-enabled item finder that measures 35 x 35 x 6.2mm and weighs 7g. But it's not as slam-dunk a decision as it used to be.In addition to new Tile Pro, Tile has also released new Tile Mate, and the Bluetooth tracker also has a replaceable battery. You should still consider the Tile Slim for tracking the whereabouts of your wallet or purse, given its design and decent feature set. It's equally hard not to be disappointed that this new version didn't come closer to the promised range improvements and feels more like a step back from its predecessor. If you're looking for a key finder that's better suited to keeping tabs on wallets, it's hard to top the Tile Slim for its design. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. I don't find the extras that Tile Premium adds to be very essential, though Tile tells me a lot of customers do take advantage of the subscription. You can use your Tile Slim without having to pay for Tile's $2.99/month premium service, which adds additional features like an alarm if you leave your house without your wallet and the ability to share your Tile with an unlimited number of users. I'd chalk up the subpar performance to unfavorable conditions, but Tile's other trackers all delivered ranges more in line with what was promised.Īt least you'll be able to hear the Tile Slim's alarm, which was audible both in my park testing - how could it not be at 80 feet away? - and when I left the tracker tucked inside a coat pocket inside a closed closet and listened from a room away. Needless to say, that's a disappointment, not only because it doesn't come close to the listed range for the Tile Slim (2022), but because it's well short of the distances I got from the last version of this wallet tracker. At my local ferry depot, where there's even more interference, the Slim would disconnect at around 50 feet. While the Mate certainly delivered on its promised range, the Slim tended to drop its connection at around 80 feet when I tested the tracker in a public park. I didn't find that to be the case in my testing. Tile says the Slim can now maintain a connection of up to 250 feet with your phone, the same range as the Tile Mate (2022). Tile plans to add a Scan and Secure feature next year that alerts you when unrecognized trackers are trying to monitor you I imagine this will be particularly useful given how unobtrusive the Slim can be when it's slipped inside a purse or pocket. Press a button in the app, and if the Slim is in range, it will sound an alarm - not as loud as the Pro's but loud enough to hear at a distance.Ī new feature this year includes a subtle QR code on the back of the Tile Slim that allows anyone who finds your lost wallet to scan the code and send you a message as to its whereabouts. You pair the tracker to your phone over Bluetooth, and use a companion app to monitor the whereabouts of your wallet (or whatever it is you slip the Slim into). The Tile logo is in the lower left corner of the tracker, and you can press it twice to sound an alarm on your phone - that can be helpful if you're prone to misplacing your device.Īpart from that two-way find feature, the purpose of the Tile Slim remains unchanged. Available in black only, the Slim has the same sleek appearance as the Tile Pro or Tile Mate. What modest design changes Tile has made to the Slim involve unifying the look of its trackers. That raises concerns among some people about e-waste, though Tile does provide resources on finding places where you can recycle your dead Slim. Instead, the power source inside the tracker should keep it running for three years after that, you'll have to get a new one. Because the Slim is so thin, there's no way to include a replaceable battery.
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