AirTags vs SmartTags for tracking a stolen car

Taking a look at Apple Air Tags and Samsung Galaxy Smart Tags. How well do these bluetooth gadgets track?

[alienlatino]

Hello there, I got the Samsung Smart Tags, placed one under a truck hanging from the chassis in a city with cold winters, Samsung says the batteries can last up to 8 months but this Smart Tag has 13 months and it's still going. I'm shocked at how the battery is still working when we have temps of -20 below zero in this city. Simply amazing. The tag works like a charm.

[frickenfixit]

Awesome video! Things to note, the tags don't have gps. The variances in location data is because you're getting the location of the phone that "heard" your tag. Samsungs tag is better overall due to the location history. You can see "travel habits" of your thief. A friend found his bike because the thief always stopped at a coffee shop around the same time every Friday so naturally on Friday he went to the coffee shop with police. Sure enough the guy comes rolling up oblivious to the cops cause apparently the police hung out there too. lol

[weir_family]

Just the video I was looking for!!! Well done, I liked all the different tests you did, basically all my questions were answered!

[SevenSixTwo]

10:50 The tags don't actually "pick up" any locations. All they do is send a weak bluetooth signal (ping) and it is nearby phones that pick this ping, then upload the location data of the tag to the Samsung / Apple network. Hence, if one tag send a ping at a different time than the second one, the reported locations will differ.

[yourmarine]

Best complete instructional Samsung smart tag 2 video. You have great calm voice for easy listening too.
Please keep doing instructional videos.

[osut]

I have Smarttags placed in all 4 of my vehicles.

I use the black color.

Since "bluetooth" is a radio signal, and a weak one at that, I do all I can to give my tags all the help they can get. They need to be placed where the bluetooth radio wave has a better than average chance of making contact with the tag.

I went to the hardware store and bought some ½" wide double sided tape. It's kind of a thick foam tape, not thin paper. Stickier than hell, too.

I cut a piece that is about the length of the solid part of the tag, attach it to the tag, and then attach that to the "back" of the rear view mirror up there on the windshield.

If you hide the thing under the dash, under the seat, in the glove compartment or trunk.... it's surrounded by metal. Metal reflects the bluetooth signal and prevents it from reaching the tag. Your hampering it's functioning as intended. They need to be out in the open as much as possible... and up on the back of the rear view.. it doesn't get any more out in the open than that!

If it's up in the air, right by the windshield, the signal has no trouble seeing the tag.

Since all rearview mirrors are black plastic, the black tag blends right in and is not noticeable at all. A person can look right at it and not see it. They're barely visible even if you're looking for them.

[springzor]

Good job on this comparison video. It much better shows the subtle differences between the two products. I think the reason why there is a slight difference even when using two of the same together is because there is not a constant signal being sent out but it probably works with a polling mechanism at a certain interval (like maybe every 30 sec) in order to save battery life.

[thanhiclez]

With the test of the tags being side by side, it was probably pinging the location of the nearest users and that the limitation is that the nearest user can't ping two different tags at the same time which might explain the two tags being in a different location.

[CarolinaMartinez-zdyl]

You never mention if a thief receive a notification of a smart tag is moving with you, if a tag is hiding inside your car.

[ericw]

The tags are probably pinging at alternating intervals based on when they received power, which is why they pick up different locations.

[tofu_golem]

You should test both the Galaxy SmartTag and the SmartTag+, since the Plus version is useful for this exact situation. That lower frequency should reach greater distances and offer more accuracy. It is useless for something like car keys, since you can just use a regular smarttag, then cause it to make a sound when you are close enough, but for this situation, a Plus model would actually be worth it.

[neoanderz]

This should be the 'GOTO' video for whoever looking to pick up these tags!!

[blackburgundy]

Hey u know what, he actually covered everything I was curious about. Good review/testing

[SickPillow]

The tags are showing different locations as you travel, because they are being picked up by different phones. They have to communicate with people's phones in the area where they are, otherwise you don't get any tracking info.

[unbaked_potato]

With SmartTags, enabling the “unknown tag detection” feature in the SmartThings app enables tracking alerts. In my opinion, this makes SmartTags a better option for tracking stolen vehicles compared to AirTags, as many thieves won't enable this feature.

[motconheocon]

thank you so much for driving around and waiting around!

[jamesherman]

You mentioned a way to disable the speaker, but is there a way to disable the notification ability of the Samsung tag? Might keep a would be thief from tearing your car apart looking for the tag.

[quirkygenius]

Great review, and very thorough without bias. Clearly apple vs samsung is a definite bias as to users, because they've already invested in their mobile phone brand/technology. But for either, good information on limitations.

[SteveKolberg]

The latency or delay, that will be my best guess, occurs because the locating method of the devices being Bluetooth is the amount of different signals from each phone interfering and the fact that there is a limit how many concurrent connections one device can have/make... (And maybe because how many tags are around and the increasing amount of accumulating data that has to be processed for the locating by servers)

[Jan-VH]

Really good video. Perhaps you can redo the video while using the SmartTag 2 as it also has Ultra Wide Band next to Bluetooth which makes them even better. And now with Black Friday, you probably have them below $30.