Samsung’s new Bluetooth trackers have a giant keyring on top, UWB support

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  • Samsung’s new smart tags.

  • Samsung says they’re good for finding your keys and (presumably full-sized) luggage, bikes, and cars. By the way, none of these attachment styles are actually possible—the ring does not open, so it can’t attach to an object like this.

  • A side view. That’s the battery tray on the bottom, which holds a CR2032.

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.

Everything about the tag requires being in the Samsung ecosystem. There’s UWB support for a compass-like finding mode, but UWB is only compatible with Samsung phones. The device is managed through the Samsung “SmartThings Find” app and your Samsung account. If it gets lost, the Samsung Galaxy Find Network will track it. Google plans to launch an Android-wide tracker ecosystem soon, which will help offset the dubious size of these single-vendor tracking networks, but it’s not out yet.

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.

SmartThings originally started as a smart home platform, and integration with this app leads to some interesting features. If you have the latest SmartThings smart home hub, these tags can be used as an “at home” presence detector for running smart home automation. If you attach it to the family pet, you can get distance alerts, so you’ll know if Fido runs away from home.

Listing image by Samsung

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1973705