Apple AirTag vs Tile (2021): Choosing Bluetooth Tracker Tags

The Bluetooth tracking device space is heating up with the launch of the Apple AirTag. It goes mano a mano with the likes of Tile, which has constantly been one of the strongest players in the game for years now. 

The question then is, can the AirTag keep up with the competition? The short answer is yes, as it has plenty of advantages owing to its U1 ultra wideband (UWB) chip under the hood and robust Find My network. However, it doesn’t exactly blow Tile out of the water across the board. After all, Tile offers more options—namely, the Tile Pro, Tile Mate, Tile Slim, and Tile Sticker—and wins in terms of compatibility.

Apple AirTag vs Tile Comparison Chart

Performance

The Apple AirTag has a better network than Tile.

When it comes to connectivity, the Apple AirTag beats Tile since it also uses UWB besides Bluetooth. The company didn’t mention its range, but it’s safe to say it’s about 100m. Meanwhile, the Tile Pro can stay connected up to 122m, the Mate and Slim up to 61m, and the Sticker up to 46m. All work fairly well in this regard, which is expected from tracker tags of this caliber.

As noted, one notable advantage the AirTag has is its Find My network. Apple even made it accessible to third parties, which basically means its infrastructure is bigger than ever. In comparison, Tile’s counterpart doesn’t really compare. For a general idea, there are more than 10 million Tiles in the wild, but even so, its network isn’t as ubiquitous as Apple’s.

This is important because this determines how effective Apple’s Lost Mode and Tile’s Notify When Found are. For the uninitiated, these are two similar features that help you find an item you’ve lost by using other connected devices in their respective networks to pinpoint its location. Essentially, the bigger the network, the better your chances are of finding your things.

Now the AirTag is powered by a replaceable CR2032 coin cell, but Apple also didn’t state how long its life is. However, it might last anywhere between six months and one year, similar to the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag Plus, which also uses UWB and Bluetooth. The Tile Pro also houses a CR2032 battery, and the Mate has a CR1632 cell, both of which are replaceable and rated to go up to one year. On the other hand, the Slim and Sticker have integrated batteries that’s estimated to last up to three years.

Click here to see our comparison between the Apple AirTag and Samsung Galaxy SmartTag.

Build and Options

Tile provides more choices than the Apple AirTag.

Boasting an IP67 water resistance, the Apple AirTag can survive up to 30 minutes in water at a depth of 30 meters. The same goes for the Tile Slim and Sticker, but unfortunately, the Pro and Mate can only withstand splashes or the occasional accidental spills. At the very least, they’re generally more durable and don’t get scuffed and scratched as easily as AirTags.

In the same vein, Tiles come in a wide variety of form factors and sizes for different purposes. For instance, the Slim is made for wallets, sporting a thickness and shape as two typical credit cards stacked on top of each other. If you try the same thing with an AirTag, you’ll have to make do with a bulge in your wallet.

Speaking of options, Tiles have more color options. For one thing, the Pro is available in Black, White, Ruby Red, Azurite Blue, and Rose Pink. You only get one color option for the AirTag, and it’s silver. But in its defense, you can get a free engraving of your initials, emojis, or both. Not only is that a nifty way to personalize it, but it also helps tell your tag apart from others.

By design, the Pro and Mate are easier to attach to various objects because of their key ring holes, while with the AirTag, you’ll need to purchase a separate accessory if you want to hook it on bags and keys. That could get expensive real quick, and that’s not even taking the Hermès accessories into account.

Features

The Apple AirTag is packed with more features than Tiles.

One of Tile’s best features is you can ring your smartphone by pressing on the Tile button twice, even if your device is in silent mode. Needless to say, that can really come in handy. However, the Apple AirTag outshines Tiles in more ways than one in this department. For starters, it has Discovery. If you lose a tag and any good samaritan who owns a smartphone with NFC—be it an Android or iPhone—finds it, they can tap on it to find out how to contact you and return it, assuming you left your phone number, that is.

Then there’s the AirTag’s safety feature. If a tag is away from a paired device for three days, the tag will ring. That way, it can be easily found and dealt with accordingly. By the same token, an iPhone can detect and notify you if there’s an unknown tag with you after three days. These are measures made to protect users from being stalked or other nefarious purposes. In contrast, Tile doesn’t have an equivalent.

But what makes the AirTag stand out is Precision Finding, which uses its UWB capability to find a tag’s exact location. On your iPhone, you’ll see how far your tag is from you, and you’ll also get visual cues that’ll point you to the right direction. However, you’ll need at least an iPhone 11 or 12 to use this.

For the record, you can also have the AirTag and Tiles make a sound via the app, which is pretty much a standard for most high-quality Bluetooth tracker tags nowadays.

Compatibility

Tiles have better compatibility than Apple AirTags.

There’s no getting around it. Apple AirTags only with iPhones and iPod touches running at least iOS 14.5 and iPads running iPadOS 14.5 or later. In other words, it won’t connect to your Android device.

This is where Tile comes out on top, as its tracker tags play nicely not only with Android but also iOS and even Windows. In addition, they also have Google Assistant and Siri support. It goes without saying that the AirTag only has support for Siri.

See how Tile compares to Pebblebee, another Bluetooth tracking device with Android and iOS support.

Verdict

Apple AirTags are for iPhone users, while Tiles are for everyone.

For iPhone users, the choice is obvious since you’ll get more out of the Apple AirTag than with a Tile. You’ll get things like Lost Mode, Discovery, Precision Finding, and a load of safety features, not to mention that you’ll get to take advantage of the robust Find My network. 

But if you’re an Android user or maybe even an Android and iOS user, then Tiles are worth considering. They’re compatible with both of the major mobile platforms and come in different shapes and sizes, such as the square Tile Pro and Tile Mate, as well as the card-shaped Tile Slim and button-sized Tile Sticker. On top of that, they aren’t lacking in features either.

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