Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

A little background: I'm the kind of person who would lose her head if it wasn't attached to her shoulders. OK, not that bad, but my mind can hold a million and one random academic facts, but not the current location of my keys or glasses. So, I was so thankful I was given the opportunity to review several tracking devices, in return for discounts. (I was able to get these offers on Trackr, Mynt & Nut, but not Tile--I bought a lightly used one on eBay just to include it in the comparison, because my review would not be complete without this brand, which is the industry leader currently). I will post pictures at the bottom of them together, side-by-side, so you can see the size and thickness comparison of each (note that the Mynt--the black oval one-- is stuck to my key fob). From one end to the other, you'll see: Tile, Nut, Trackr Bravo, Mynt, a quarter for size comparison (apologies for upside down pics). Also posted will be my screenshot from the app of this particular brand. To follow are my assessment for different qualities and my thoughts on how the brands compared. At the bottom of this review will be any specific stories about the particular brand I'm reviewing here. All 4 allow both the phone to find the device and the device to find the phone, but work to varying degrees, which I'll cover separately. SIZE: Surface-area-wise, Trackr Bravo was the smallest, though Mynt is narrow and long (oval); followed by Nut and Tile, the biggest. Thickness-wise, Mynt wins out (truly is about 2 quarters thick), with Trackr Bravo a close second. Again, Tile is thickest, though its size still isn't obtrusive on a key chain at all (you may not want to insert it into a wallet, though). All 4 can be either attached to a keychain or adhered to something with the included sticky tabs (the Mynt is shown here attached to my key fob). RELIABILITY--PHONE FINDING DEVICE: All 4 worked decently well for this function, though I haven't tested it over varying distances yet (will update when I do). I did test it by having my mom hide the devices under clothes and such, and I would be in a different room with the phone. I did not find much difference in this function. I will say that the GPS locater for Tile & Mynt were spot-on. Trackr's GPS sometimes pointed my device as being located in a Walmart about 2 miles down the road, sometimes at the right place at home. Nut's GPS only uses the last known location of the object, so even after I lost it in upstate NY, it still pointed to the object being in NJ, where it clearly wasn't. RELIABILITY--DEVICE FINDING PHONE: Here's where the real differences came out. All 4 devices (including Tile 2.0, but not 1.0) can use the device to find the phone when you press them--or should, in theory. Tile was the only one that did this 100% of the times I tried within a 100 foot range. Mynt wasn't doing this all the time until I reset it--now, it's been pretty much 100% of the time also, though I will update as I use it more. Nut and Trackr were EXTREMELY spotty/sketchy, especially through walls. Some days, the unit could be right by the phone, and I could not get the phone to ring. Trackr in particular was set to music, and you could tell the music would come in and out for a split second, like as if you had a distant radio station on that had almost no reception. Of note here: you must have the sound on for some to work (but not for Tile, which can ring it even set to silent mode), and for all 4, you MUST ENABLE BLUETOOTH AT ALL TIMES. They use low energy Bluetooth technology to connect, so if you're like me and sometimes turn Bluetooth off to save energy--forget about it if you want to ever find your phone this way. Lastly, you MUST REMEMBER TO LEAVE THE APPS RUNNING IN THE BACKGROUND IN ORDER FOR THEM TO WORK--well, ALL EXCEPT MYNT, I believe (they don't mention this, and I did try with the closed apps; Mynt was the only one that could connect with the phone). DEVICE SOUND: Out of the 4, Tile 2.0 has the loudest sound on the device (an improvement in the internal speaker was made after 1.0, which is why the new ones have 3 tiny holes in the back). Coming in second by my ear was Mynt, followed by Nut. The Trackr was the hardest to hear, especially if your item is buried under a pile of clothes or inside a purse or something. The small alarm is also high-pitched, at a frequency elder adults would have great trouble detecting. BATTERY LIFE: Tile lost big points in this category, because it was near perfect all around otherwise (except for size, but it was still smallish). It's the only one that has no battery replacement option; it is basically a disposable item. For $25 (probably after a year), might not suit everyone. The others have coin batteries you can change fairly easily, so we are talking only a dollar or two (a big difference from $25). So far, Trackr seems to be eating batteries fast (some say they need to replace every 3 months?? not near to the manufacturer's estimate of a year). Mynt & Trackr do both have battery monitors that read how much life is still left, but only Mynt has an exact % reading and the reading appears to be more accurate than Trackr's. CROWDSOURCING TO FIND: I can't confirm this, but Trackr claims to have the largest population to use crowdsourcing to find the devices once they are declared lost. Tile is very popular and right up there as well, I'm sure. I am under the impression that Nut does not have a huge following in the USA, though I'm lacking data to that effect (I will say the one I declared lost in Cornell, 0 people have tried to track). Mynt, I'm not sure about. There's no info in the app itself about crowdfind, but their website mentions this option for lost units. SEPARATION/ANTI-LOST ALERTS: I noticed that Nut, Trackr & Mynt all have these options; still yet to find it in Tile (someone please let me know if it has this option, I can't see it in the app). These 3 send a notification if the object gets separated from your phone by a distance or out of your home wifi range. Nut also has a Silent period in addition to a Silent region (that the other 2 have); that means: no separation alerts within the time range you specify. Good to have, because Nut & Trackr were constantly giving me false alarms when I hadn't even moved the objects they were attached to; and both were sitting next to the phone, unmoved (further making me think them to be unreliable). EASE OF USE IN APP: All of the apps were pretty user-friendly, I'd say. They all have different menus that take some getting used to. All 4 use GPS location finders in your smartphone to display maps (though the accuracy of the locations, as I said, vary). All 4 were easy to bind to my device(s) initially. Trackr is the only one that is integrated with Nest. It also has software which keeps track of how often you ring your device from your phone and vice versa, how many separation alerts you had, etc. It also has a little range-finder that tells you if you are getting closer and farther from the object (I call it a "Marco Polo" function), but in practice, I can't get it to work too well until you're practically on top of the object. Mynt has a TON of customability options for alarm sounds, volume, and what you use it for, etc. I will speak more about this in my Nut-specific review, but I really hate that if you declare a unit lost, you are forced to disable tracking from your own phone--makes no sense. OTHER FUNCTIONS: So far as I can tell, Mynt is the only one that has other options of use, including as a remote shutter for your phone camera, remote for a slide show, playing music, etc. All 4 claim they can also be used to find your car, pet, or child. I believe they all claim to be water resistant, though not submerged underwater. Tile used to be totally waterproof (since it is the only one with no battery drawer), but now the price of the small speaker holes may be that it is slightly less so (though I would guess it could withstand some rainstorms; the pin holes are truly tiny). Sorry about that long general comparison, but here's my specific assessment of Tile: I really love this device and find it one of the most reliable for finding my phone each and every time. Why did I then take off a star?? One reason and one reason alone--the inability to change the battery. This is huge for me--and makes it basically a disposable item, one that I have to pay $25 at least once a year to replace (as opposed to a few cents for a battery, as with the others). The larger size did not bother me, because I still find this to be an unobtrusive piece; modern-looking and simplistic, easy to use, has great crowd GPS functions, very accurate location-mapping, etc compared to the others. Does it have room for improvement besides my complaint? Certainly--and Tile (with its history of being a startup by crowdfunding) is known for its responsiveness to user complaints and Tile 2.0 proves this. Therefore, I have high hopes that they will come out with a changeable battery version in the future, one which will earn that last star back. But as it stands today, Mynt edged out Tile by a hair, since both were highly reliable, but Mynt has battery replaceability, is smaller, and has other alternate functions (and costs slightly less retail per unit). I honestly loved using both, I just wish that Tile would work on the battery issue.