The whole idea of Bluetooth-enabled trackers like AirTag, Tile, SmartTag, and more, is to track—and preferably to do so discreetly—so people with bad intentions will not remove it and cut short your tracking. Well, not the PhotoTag. Granted, the new Tile and SmartTag2 are not as discreet as they originally were, but they still do not beg for attention like the PhotoTag does, which literally has a photo to get you looking.
Then again, it might just throw people off. Who would have thought an e-ink keychain is also a tracker, right? I would not. But of course, now I am fully aware.
PhotoTag works like just about any tracker, but it is clever enough to leverage both Apple Find My and Android’s Find My Device, hence bestowing itself as one of the coolest and most powerful trackers around. I am not going to dispute those claims. It is cool because how could it not be when you can put your favorite photo on it and change the image whenever you want? It is powerful because it works with both iOS and Android.
Billed as the world’s first Bluetooth keychain tracker with a color e-ink screen, it behaves exactly as you would expect from an Apple Find My or Android Find My Device accessory. It searches via Bluetooth and gets picked up by nearby devices, whether Android or iOS. Its whereabouts are then pushed to Google or Apple’s cloud servers, allowing you to locate it.
Having a screen also enables something other trackers cannot do: custom contact information. You can display your name, phone number, email, and more directly on the screen. Or, if you prefer to stay a little more discreet, you can make those details retrievable via a QR code displayed on the screen. This allows anyone who finds your item to contact you easily.
As a tracker, it does what trackers are meant to do. It lets you track whatever it is attached to and offers an audible alert via a built-in alarm. Using your phone, you can ping the tracker and follow the sound to find it.
Power comes from a CR2032 button cell, which delivers up to 10 months of use, with alerts when the battery runs low. On the spec sheet, it features a 1.54-inch color e-ink display with a 200 × 200 resolution, a built-in 75 dB buzzer, Bluetooth 5.2, a 100-meter real-time tracking range, and an operating temperature range of -5° to 45°C (23°F to 113°F). The aluminum alloy and ABS plastic construction is IP65 rated. It weighs just 15 g and measures 34.4 × 45.7 × 8.2 mm, which is very much keychain-sized.
Out of the box, it includes a variety of attachments such as a keychain, pet collar mount, luggage tag, and more to get you started.
The PhotoTag E-Ink Keychain Tracker is now available at a discounted price of US$32.99 (usual price US$49.99).
Images: PhotoTag.
