Samsung has announced its next Tile/AirTag competitor, the Galaxy SmartTag 2. The new Bluetooth trackers are $30 each and ship globally on October 10.
The design is interesting, with a giant ring on the top and a large overall size. Samsung says the battery, a removable CR2032, will last for 500 days in “normal”mode, while a new “Power Saving”mode will last 700 days (Samsung did not expand on what “power saving”mode does). It’s also IP67-rated.
The big ring on top feels like it should somehow attach to an object, but it’s a solid ring that never opens; it’s not a clip. The press release says you’ll need a “clip or keyring”to attach the SmartTag 2 to something. Samsung’s hero shot shows the tag directly attached to some objects like a key, but this does not appear to be possible outside the world of Photoshop.
Android-wide
While Google and Apple have teamed up to jointly track “unknown”Bluetooth tags being used for stalking across both ecosystems, Samsung does not appear to be involved in this alliance. The company says it can detect its own SmartTags being used for unwanted tracking but does not mention tracking other tags or non-Samsung users being alerted to SmartTag stalking.
Listing image by Samsung