Apple’s new AirTag ($29) is getting a lot of attention, but Tile has been in the tracker game for many years. The Tile Mate ($24.99), which was revamped in 2020, comes in a close second to the Tile Pro ($34.99). The primary difference is the Mate’s all-plastic body, which isn’t quite as sturdy as the Pro’s metal frame but is still pretty durable. The AirTag is our Editors’ Choice for iPhone users, and the Pro is our all-around top pick for Android, but the modestly priced Mate provides excellent value for money.
Design
The Mate is a small plastic square that measures 1.4 by 1.4 by 0.3 inches (HWD). It’s slightly smaller than the Tile Pro, but it seems larger because it doesn’t have tapered edges.
The design aesthetic is more utilitarian than the rest of the lineup. The small plastic tracker has a white front with a gray button; the back is also gray and has a large plastic cover for its replaceable battery. There’s a reinforced hole to attach a keyring, and Tile sells adhesive packs if you want to stick the Mate to something.
Among the Tile trackers, the Mate is the least durable. It’s water resistant, not waterproof like other Tiles (including the Tile Slim and the Tile Sticker), and lacks the metal frame you’ll find on the Tile Pro. That said, its build quality is excellent and we think it can handle plenty of abuse.
The Mate’s battery will last approximately a year. If you’re not using it frequently, you’re likely to get longer battery life, but testing and changing the batteries on a regular basis is still a good idea. Otherwise, you may not notice the battery is weak or dead until you’re looking for your lost item.
If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of finding the appropriate battery and remembering to replace it, you can subscribe to Tile’s Premium plan for $29.99 per year to get annual battery replacement, 30-day location history, location sharing among multiple users, and Smart Alerts—a feature that sends a notification to your phone when you’ve left an item with an affixed Tile behind. There’s also a $99.99-per-year option, Premium Protect, that includes all the Premium features and adds up to $1,000 of reimbursement protection when your Tile is attached to an item you’ve lost. You’ll want to check out the terms and conditions, though, because the coverage is limited to certain items and scenarios.
Setup and App
The Tile Mate has a couple of benefits over the AirTag. For one thing, it works with both Android and iOS. (This also puts it ahead of Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag, which only connects to Samsung devices.) The setup process on either platform is simple: Download the Tile app, create an account, follow the prompts to update a few settings, and you’re ready to pair your Mate. Once you’re on the main screen, tap Add Tile and press the button on the front of your Mate, and it should be connected to your phone within seconds.
In the Tile app, you can customize the tracker name, ringtone, and icon. Compared with Find My on iOS, Tile’s app feels a little clunky. Each tracker on your account takes up a lot of screen real estate, so if you’re using more than three, you’ll have to scroll down to find the one you’re looking for.
Perfect for a Backpack or Water Bottle
Every Tile offers two-way tracking, another feature that’s not available with the AirTag. That means you not only can use your phone to find your lost item, but you can also double-tap the Mate’s button to locate your phone. This feature even works when your phone is on silent. If you’ve managed to lose both your phone and the Mate, you can also initiate a search from Amazon Echo and Google Home devices, and even from your Xfinity Voice Remote, if you’ve set them up in advance. Unfortunately, Tile doesn’t allow location tracking from its website.
The Mate, which connects to phones via Bluetooth (unlike the AirTag, which uses ultra-wideband), reportedly has a range of 200 feet. This defies pretty much everything we know about Bluetooth, but Tile claims it’s possible if you have a straight line of sight and there’s no interference. When we tested the Mate in a large lobby, range maxed out at about 40 feet.
Audible alerts on the Mate max out at 111dB, but if you’re more than a few inches away, the maximum volume is 87dB. That’s about the same maximum volume you’ll get with your phone on speaker. The Mate’s polyphonic ringtones are high-pitched and easy to hear.
Once the Mate is out of range of your phone, you’ll need to tap the Notify When Found button to locate your item. This puts the Tile in Lost mode, at which point its location can be picked up by anyone who brings a phone with a Tile app within range of the device. The process is automatic, and the person who locates your device via the Tile app never even knows they did so (unless you choose to send an anonymous thank-you note through the app).
We “lost” the Mate, the Pro, and an Apple AirTag in a mixed-use high-rise with a coffee shop, coworking area, and several hundred apartments. The Tile app reported there were 8,000 users within a few miles of our location, so we assumed the Tiles would be located quickly, but it took just over three hours to get notifications for the Mate and Pro. In contrast, the AirTag was picked up by Apple’s network within two minutes. That’s because Tile is limited to the number of people running the Tile app on their phones, while pretty much any iPhone with an active Bluetooth connection can report a missing AirTag.
The address information provided for our Mate was spot on. Since it was close to the front door of the building, we were easily able to get within range and then tap Find in the app to locate it more precisely. If you’re not so lucky— say your lost item is in the back of the building or on the third floor—you’re going to need to walk around until it connects to your phone. Once it connects, you can tap the Find button to turn on the audible alert, and you’ll see a series of proximity rings in the Tile app that turn green as you get closer to your missing item. It’s not as sleek as Apple’s turn-by-turn directions with AirTag, but it works.
Since Apple announced AirTag earlier this year, a number of people have voiced concerns about the possibility it could be used for stalking. Any digital tracker, including Tile’s, can be used for such purposes; unfortunately, there’s not a lot you can do if one is placed on your car or hidden in your belongings. If you’re worried about the potential for misuse, we offer a few tips in our Tile Pro review that may be able to mitigate some of the risk.
Great Value for the Money
The Pro just surpasses the Mate to earn our Editors’ Choice award, but the Mate offers the best value if you can’t find the Pro on sale. For a $10 difference, the only real downside is the Mate’s all-plastic body, and unless you’re sending your Tile-tagged luggage through airline baggage handling or otherwise setting up the tracker to take a beating, the Mate will probably do just fine.
The AirTag is a better value overall if you’re an iPhone owner. In our tests, missing item notifications were much, much faster on the AirTag, and the overall user experience is far better. But the Tile Mate is a great alternative for Android owners or someone looking for a more versatile tracker than the AirTag.
