Chipolo ONE Spot Review: The Only Real Alternative to Air Tag
The Chipolo One Spot is a Find My certified Bluetooth tracker, making it the only comparable alternative to the Apple AirTag, and it’s also slightly cheaper.
Bluetooth trackers have grown in popularity in recent years, and it’s no surprise because Apple has released its own version in the form of the AirTag. But since Apple has also opened up the Find My app to third parties, other devices are starting to hit the market with this integration.
Design
A tracker with a round shape, a hole for attaching to bags or key chains and a logo printed on the front.
The battery is replaceable, so when it eventually dies, you can replace it rather than throwing away the tracker altogether. It has IPX5 water resistance, which is enough to keep out rain but prevents the tracker from being submerged in water.
Center is the button used to set up for the first time. It also chimes to help you find it and goes off when you get close to your device.
Support
Chipolo has a number of other Bluetooth trackers, but the One Spot stands out as the only tracker other than the AirTag that supports the Find My app and takes advantage of that network.
Connected to the vast army of iPhones, iPads and Macs, there are countless millions of devices around the world that can report your tracker’s location. For example, if you leave your keys in a cafe cushion, the location will be sent to the tracker owner entirely in the background when a supporting Apple device passes by.
Instead of relying on the third-party Chipolo app, everything is managed in Find My – from setup to tracking.
To pair you need:
Open Find My App and go to the New Items tab.
Click on the “Add new element” button
I can’t directly interact with pop-up cards
Then click on the center of the dot, after which you will hear a chime
Click “connect” as soon as it appears
You can call me “Tracker
Once added to the Find My app, your Chipolo One Spot will appear along with any Air Tags you have or any other Find My enabled products. You can see his location on the map, where he was last seen, as well as the time he was found.
One Spot or AirTag?
The most common question that comes up is how the Chipolo One Spot compares to Apple’s own AirTag. There are three main ways in which the devices differ.
For AirTag, Apple uses its own U1 ultra-wideband chip to provide accurate tracking in the Find My app. It can provide the exact heading on your iPhone as well as the distance to the device you are looking for.
Instead, Chipolo uses Bluetooth to give you a general idea of where your item is and relies heavily on an audio signal to help locate your item.
However, the Chipolo has a much louder speaker than the Air Tag, making it easier to find. The Chipolo is close to 120dB, while the Air Tag was around 86dB in tests.
Another major difference is the NFC chip found in the Air Tag. In lost mode, any iPhone or Android user can tap a found AirTag to see a message about the owner and how to return the item.
Chipolo lacks this feature entirely, although items can still be put into lost mode.