Apple’s AirTags have been out now for over two weeks releasing on the 30th of April. A lot of reviews have already been circling the web with people’s thoughts on the devices. I wanted to give them a proper test first.
The AirTags are available for £29 each or you can buy them in a pack of 4 for £99 (Thus costing £25 each) I’ve purchased a pack of 4 one for my Dad as he wanted one and then I’ve got one on my keys, one for my wallet and one on my work bag.
A lot of people may not even have to use the AirTags in the lifetime that they have them but it’s a good back-up just in case. Me on the other hand have had to use the Devices already 4 times for my wallet and once for my keys.
The precision finding feature is a fantastic feature for exactly this, I wasn’t sure If I had my wallet on me when I got to the Petrol station for example. I opened Find My and could see that it was in fact in the car with me. But I couldn’t find it in my pocket or in my driver’s door. So, I clicked on the precision finding button. This enabled me to discover that my wallet was in fact in my bag.
Precision finding is a great feature for finding your lost items, but it comes with quite a few drawbacks. First off, it’s a feature only available to the iPhone’s 11 and above this is because it makes use of the U1 Chip which is only in these phones. Secondly it seems to be a bit pants. Even when you’re not near the AirTag it just displays that the signal is quite week only when your proper close does it then display the distant away and that distant seems to be 15 feet. It would be better if it displayed the signal strength kind of like a game of hot or cold.
Another good feature that the AirTags are missing out on is an option which would give you a notification when you’ve just lost connection with something. For example, your keys they just slipped out your pocket or someone has taken them from your pocket, and you’ve got your AirPods in, so you don’t realise. As your iPhone has noticed them lose connection it immediately pings your phone and you realise there gone potentially before its too late. Obviously, this could be an optional feature because you wouldn’t want it to go off all the time, but it would be a pretty useful one.
Accessories.
Now just like the iPhone and the Apple Watch the AirTags come with plenty of optional accessories. It’s probably where Apple are actually making their money on this product with the Leather keyring being £5 more than the AirTags themselves. They do feel like they aren’t cheap products which is good, but it feels a shame that when you buy AirTags most people are going to want to use them for their keys and that makes it a little disappointing that to do so you have to buy an accessory that costs more than the device itself.
Conclusion
The AirTags have been in development for a long time with a rumour that they were going to release them for each event for the past two or, so year and it’s been great to finally get our hands on them. Personally, I like the AirTags it’s a useful product and I love anything that works great with the iPhone system. It would be great if they synced better with iCloud as at the moment, they are only available on the iPhone and don’t appear on Find My on the iPad or Watch. I do think they are good value for money though I was expecting at least £39 not £29. Yes, the key ring is £35 but there is already plenty of third-party accessories available for the AirTags at much cheaper costs.
If you have any questions about the AirTags please feel free to ask on my Twitter www.twitter.com/kylewilkinson46
Thanks for reading
Kyle Wilkinson
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