William Gallagher
The Chipolo ONE Spot is now available to pre-order, offering a small price benefit, and a built-in keyring hole, over AirTag, its fellow Find My device from Apple.
Announced ahead of Apple's launch of the AirTag, the similar Chipolo ONE Spot device tracker is now available for pre-order. It's the first third-party tracking device to use Apple's Find My network, and it offers similar functions to the AirTag, but with advantages.
The first is that built right into the tracker is a hole so that it can be fitted to a keyring. Apple's AirTags require the separate purchase of an accessory in order to be attached to a ring.
Then Chipolo is selling the new tracker for slightly less than Apple. A single Chipolo ONE Spot costs $28, instead of Apple's $29.
More significantly, a four-pack of Chipolo ONE Spots is currently slated to sell for $90. That's a nine-dollar saving over Apple, but Chipolo's site suggests that at some point the four-pack may go up to $112.
AirTags are more water resistant, being rated at IP67 — meaning they can be submerged in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. The Chipolo ONE Spot is rated IPX5, which means it can resist splashes.
The Chipolo ONE Spot is louder, however, Unofficial tests suggest that the AirTag speaker can go up to 64dB. Chipolo states its new device can achieve 120dB. AirTags can also use the iPhone's ultra wideband for precise finding, where the ONE Spot cannot.
Chipolo currently states that its pre-orders for June are sold out. Ordering now will see devices shipped in August.
AirTags and the new Chipolo ONE Spot are currently the only tracking devices that are compatible with Apple's Find My network. Tile offers alternatives that use its own proprietary network, and AppleInsider has extensively compared the three devices.
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19 Comments
It would be good if the article could mention something about whether the battery is replaceable, and expected battery life.
This is a solid option over Tile since it works with Find My, but the lower IP rating and the lack of UWB makes this something I'm not likely to recommend over AirTag.
It's a replaceable 2032 and expected to last a year.
What is Chipolo doing to prevent stalkers and abusers from using this device to track their victims? Will it alert someone that a device not registered to them has been following them? If so, do you have to install a Chipolo app and register an account in order to be notified, even if you don't have any Chipolo tags yourself? Will the Chipolo tag start making a noise after some period of time if its owner isn't nearby? I'm just asking because Apple's AirTags have some anti-stalker features, but a bunch of people on these forums seemed to think they hadn't done enough in that area. Now we have this Chipolo announcement, and I can't find a thing on their website about any measures whatsoever that they've taken to thwart misuse of their devices, other than the potential that there might not be enough Chipolo users out there for their phones to usefully relay a victim's location back to the stalker.