Tile Slim Review | PCMag
Most tracking devices are meant to attach to things, but the $34.99 Tile Slim is designed to fit in your wallet. It works with both Android and iOS devices, and has a battery that lasts for years. It isn’t quite as versatile as the similarly priced Tile Pro, which easily slips on a keyring, but it’s a better fit for your billfold or other narrow spaces. Ultimately, the $29 AirTag offers a wider potential network of people to help you locate your lost item, but it only works with Apple devices. For Android users, the Tile Slim is a good bet for tracking down your lost wallet.
The Tile Slim is about the same height and length as a credit card, but twice as thick. It measures 2.1 by 3.4 by 0.1 inches (HWD) and is easy to slide into a wallet or handbag without creating extra bulk. It’s available in black, though Tile tends to offer limited-edition seasonal colors.
Made of textured plastic, the Tile Slim has small holes for its speaker and an internal button you can use to locate your phone. Despite its plastic build, the Slim is quite durable. It has an IP67 rating so you don’t need to worry about getting it wet, and we flexed it back and forth multiple times and it felt fine.
Tile says the Slim’s non-replaceable battery will last about three years; from our own experience, we’d say that’s a fair estimate if you’re using it infrequently. Once the battery dies, however, you need to buy a new tracker. If you’re looking for a model with a replaceable battery, the Tile Pro is a better bet.
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4.0
Excellent
Apple AirTag
4.0
Excellent
Tile Pro
3.5
Good
Tile Mate
3.0
Average
Samsung Galaxy SmartTag
3.0
Average
Tile Sticker
AirTag vs. Tile: Which Bluetooth Tracker Should You Choose?
Setup and App
All of Tile’s products work with Android and iOS and are easy to set up. To activate the Slim, download the Tile app, create an account, tap Add Tile in the app, and press the button on the front of the tracker.
It takes less than 10 seconds for the app to identify the tracker. Once it’s connected to your account, you can customize it by assigning a different name, changing the ringtone, and creating a Siri Shortcut if you’re using an iPhone.
Left to right: Tile Sticker, Tile Mate, Tile Pro, Tile Slim (Photo: Steven Winkelman)
The Tile app isn’t as sleek as the Find My app on iOS. The app’s home screen quickly becomes cluttered with large icons if you’re using more than a handful of trackers; we wish Tile would add a list view or an option to change the icon size for a more user-friendly experience.
Each time you add a new Tile, you get a free year of Tile Premium, a subscription service that provides additional features. The service includes unlimited location sharing, a 30-day location history, and an extended warranty. There’s also a Smart Alerts feature that sends an alert to your phone when you leave something behind with a Tile tracker attached (it’s worth noting Apple offers a similar feature without a subscription).
After your first year is up, it costs $29.99 per year to renew.
Using the Tile Slim
One of the perks of Tiles is that they work two ways. If you’ve lost your wallet, simply open the app and tap the Find icon that corresponds with your Tile Slim. If you’ve lost your phone, double tap the button on the Tile and you’ll hear an alert, even if your phone is on silent. If you’re afraid of losing both, you can set the Slim up to work with different smart home devices like smart speakers and even an Xfinity X1 Voice Remote. Unfortunately, Tile doesn’t let you track devices from its site.
Tiles get location information via Bluetooth, unlike AirTags, which use ultra-wideband (UWB). In optimal conditions, Tile claims the Slim has a 250-foot range. That’s great in theory, but in practice, you’ll need a direct line of sight with no interference to get anything close to that. We tested the Slim in a mostly empty garage and a busy building lobby to determine a realistic range in a couple of different conditions.
In the garage, we were able to connect to the device from 60 feet away, while the range in the lobby was a little more than half that.
The Slim’s speaker maxes out at 112dB. Once you’re more than a few inches from it, the maximum volume is 85dB, which is loud enough to hear without a lot of background noise. There are several polyphonic ringtones to choose from, but we wish the company offered a more melodic tone like you get on the AirTag.
If you lose an item and the tracker is out of range, tap the Notify When Found button in the app, and if someone with the Tile app comes within Bluetooth range of your lost item, you’ll receive an email and notification with the location. The process happens entirely in the background, so other Tile users won’t be aware they’re close to a missing item when you receive an alert.
There’s also a new Lost and Found feature that allows anyone who finds your Tile to scan a QR code to get contact details. Adding your contact information is optional, and if you choose not to, the person will be directed to a Tile homepage instead.
We tested the Slim alongside an AirTag in a large apartment lobby with lots of foot traffic. With nearly 11,000 users within a few miles’ radius, we expected to get a Found notification and email from Tile within minutes.
While the AirTag was located within seven minutes, it took two and a half hours to get a notification from Tile; granted, that’s far better than the nine hours we waited to get an alert from the last-generation Slim, but it’s still a long time. If you were unfortunate enough to leave your item in an area with lots of traffic, there’s the risk someone will simply pick it up and walk away.
Once your tracker is located by a fellow Tile owner, getting it back in your hands can be a challenge. The notification we received in testing correctly identified the building, but that’s not terribly helpful in a high-rise. If you have some idea of where you left the tracker, great; otherwise, you’re going to need to walk around until you’re within close range of it.
If a non-Tile user finds your item, they can scan the QR code to contact you
Once you’re in range, you’ll see it’s no longer marked “lost,” at which point you can tap the Find icon to hear an alert. Unlike the Find My app that works with AirTags, Tile doesn’t provide turn-by-turn directions to your tracker; instead, you see a circular proximity locator with multiple rings that turn green as you get closer. It’s not the most elegant solution, but it works.
Regarding privacy, any tracker, including all Tile models, can be used inappropriately. But Tile’s upcoming Scan and Secure feature is a move in the right direction; it will let anyone with the Tile app scan for unassigned trackers in close range.
The Right Tile for Your Wallet
The Tile Slim has a unique form factor and a long-lasting battery, and it works with just about any phone. Its speaker is loud, which makes it easy to remember your wallet if you’re racing out the door, but if it’s out of range, it may take some time to be located by another Tile user’s app.
Ultimately, the AirTag is our top pick in this category for its lower price and superior connectivity, but it’s only available to Apple device users. The Tile Pro is a close second, while the Tile Slim is a good alternative if you’re primarily concerned about losing your wallet.
Tile Slim
Cons
-
Limited range
-
Non-replaceable battery
-
More expensive than the AirTag
The Bottom Line
The Tile Slim isn’t quite as versatile as some other tracking devices, but its svelte design is deal for keeping tabs on your wallet.
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Tile Slim (2022) review: Same great design, less range
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Wallet-friendly version of Tile’s key finder feels like a step back
(Image: © Tom’s Guide)
Tom’s Guide Verdict
The Tile Slim (2022) is still the best option for adding a slender tracker to your wallet. But the range isn’t as good as promised, and that’s hard to swallow given the price increase over the Slim’s predecessor.
Pros
- +
A perfect fit for wallets
- +
Slick design
- +
Two-way find feature
- +
Three years of battery life
Cons
- –
$5 more expensive than its predecessor
- –
Promised improvements to range didn’t show up in our testing
- –
Battery isn’t replaceable
Why you can trust Tom’s Guide?
Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what’s best for you.
Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.
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Tile Slim 2022 specs
Size: 3.4 x 2.1 x 0.1 inches
Listed range: Up to 250 feet
Tested range: 80 feet
Water resistance? IP67
Battery: Non-replaceable/3 years
Colors: Black
The Tile Slim (2022) hasn’t changed much from the revamped tracker designed specifically for wallets and purses that wowed us two years ago. Normally, that would be good news — we were big fans of the previous Tile Slim, and this version is still the go-to tracker for keeping tabs on your wallet since it’s a perfect fit.
However, one of the promised changes — longer range — didn’t materialize in our Tile Slim testing. This particular Tile tracker is still worth it, particularly if you’re looking for a thin device that’s well-suited to slip into tight places.
But we’re not as enthused with this edition as we were with its predecessor, especially after a modest price hike.
Tile Slim review: Price and availability
The Tile Slim (2022) costs $35, a $5 hike from what you had to pay for its predecessor. That may seem like a small jump in the greater scheme of things, but it does mean the Slim now costs as much as the Tile Pro, one of the best key finders with longer range and a louder alarm.
You’d also pay as much for Apple’s AirTag, which offers Ultra Wideband connectivity for precise tracking — something you won’t yet find on any Tile. Of course, the round AirTag isn’t really suited for slipping into a wallet the way the Tile Slim can.
The Tile Slim remains all about the design. At 3.4 x 2.1 x 0.1 inches, it’s roughly the size of a credit card, and it can slip easily into a wallet, billfold or purse. Like the other key finders in Tile’s 2022 lineup, the Tile Slim offers IP67 water resistance.
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
Because the Slim is so thin, there’s no way to include a replaceable battery.
Instead, the power source inside the tracker should keep it running for three years; after that, you’ll have to get a new one. That raises concerns among some people about e-waste, though Tile does provide resources on finding places where you can recycle your dead Slim.
What modest design changes Tile has made to the Slim involve unifying the look of its trackers. Available in black only, the Slim has the same sleek appearance as the Tile Pro or Tile Mate. The Tile logo is in the lower left corner of the tracker, and you can press it twice to sound an alarm on your phone — that can be helpful if you’re prone to misplacing your device.
Apart from that two-way find feature, the purpose of the Tile Slim remains unchanged. You pair the tracker to your phone over Bluetooth, and use a companion app to monitor the whereabouts of your wallet (or whatever it is you slip the Slim into). Press a button in the app, and if the Slim is in range, it will sound an alarm — not as loud as the Pro’s but loud enough to hear at a distance.
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
A new feature this year includes a subtle QR code on the back of the Tile Slim that allows anyone who finds your lost wallet to scan the code and send you a message as to its whereabouts. Tile plans to add a Scan and Secure feature next year that alerts you when unrecognized trackers are trying to monitor you; I imagine this will be particularly useful given how unobtrusive the Slim can be when it’s slipped inside a purse or pocket.
Tile Slim review: Performance
Tile says the Slim can now maintain a connection of up to 250 feet with your phone, the same range as the Tile Mate (2022). I didn’t find that to be the case in my testing. While the Mate certainly delivered on its promised range, the Slim tended to drop its connection at around 80 feet when I tested the tracker in a public park. At my local ferry depot, where there’s even more interference, the Slim would disconnect at around 50 feet.
Needless to say, that’s a disappointment, not only because it doesn’t come close to the listed range for the Tile Slim (2022), but because it’s well short of the distances I got from the last version of this wallet tracker.
I’d chalk up the subpar performance to unfavorable conditions, but Tile’s other trackers all delivered ranges more in line with what was promised.
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
At least you’ll be able to hear the Tile Slim’s alarm, which was audible both in my park testing — how could it not be at 80 feet away? — and when I left the tracker tucked inside a coat pocket inside a closed closet and listened from a room away.
You can use your Tile Slim without having to pay for Tile’s $2.99/month premium service, which adds additional features like an alarm if you leave your house without your wallet and the ability to share your Tile with an unlimited number of users. I don’t find the extras that Tile Premium adds to be very essential, though Tile tells me a lot of customers do take advantage of the subscription. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.
Tile Slim review: Verdict
If you’re looking for a key finder that’s better suited to keeping tabs on wallets, it’s hard to top the Tile Slim for its design.
It’s equally hard not to be disappointed that this new version didn’t come closer to the promised range improvements and feels more like a step back from its predecessor.
You should still consider the Tile Slim for tracking the whereabouts of your wallet or purse, given its design and decent feature set. But it’s not as slam-dunk a decision as it used to be.
Philip Michaels is a Managing Editor at Tom’s Guide. He’s been covering personal technology since 1999 and was in the building when Steve Jobs showed off the iPhone for the first time. He’s been evaluating smartphones since that first iPhone debuted in 2007, and he’s been following phone carriers and smartphone plans since 2015. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics, old movies and proper butchery techniques. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.
A wide range of ceramic tiles for every taste and budget in the Trade House “Stroitel”!
With all the refinements of modern industry, a better material for bathroom decoration than ceramic tiles has been created.
Water and ceramic tiles do not just coexist peacefully there, but form their own special world. Choosing a tile design for your own bathroom, we can make this place in your apartment truly comfortable for every member of the family. After all, the bathroom from a purely functional room is increasingly becoming a place of relaxation.
Trade house “Stroitel” presents a wide variety of collections – for every taste, for every budget. Let’s try to classify them to make it easier to understand this abundance.
1. Classic style is a lighter background tile for the walls, a darker one for the floor. A real classic design is pastel colors and rather strict decor. A number of tiles-inserts with drawings. The color scheme is rather restrained. Borders of moderate width with a simple pattern.
2. Geometric style is for those who prefer a more relaxed design of ceramic tiles. Despite the “boring” name, the room can be given a very non-trivial look.
Using monocolors (that is, tiles of the same color, without streaks), any patterns are laid out on the walls and floor. The brighter the colors you choose, the more attractive the pattern will look. The base can be anything – for example, glossy white. The highlight can be in a non-standard layout, that is, the layout method.
3. Embossing. Instead of the usual smooth ceramic tiles, a convex surface is used. Designers surprise with their imagination, modern ceramics is not without texture. The tile can have smoothed convex patterns or deliberately angular shapes. With electric lighting, such options look especially advantageous – otherwise from a different angle of view. The slightly embossed surface of the floor tiles also plays a purely utilitarian role – you are guaranteed not to slip on a wet floor.
4. floral tile is designed to play an important role in creating an exquisite design in your home, elegantly and harmoniously reflecting the connection between man and nature.
There are many people who love and appreciate natural beauty and want to bring it into their homes. But flowers, as you know, do not live long, but their images, captured on ceramic tiles, can give you joy for many years.
5. Playing with the format. Finishing all surfaces in a row with the same 10 x 10 cm or 15 x 15 cm tiles is an option that is almost completely a thing of the past. Increasingly, designers are offering to combine square and rectangular shapes, larger and smaller tiles. Even in a very small bathroom, large tiles can look great. Rectangular tiles, laid horizontally, “stretch” the room in length, laid vertically – “stretch” the space up.
When using tiles of different sizes, it is often not necessary to cut them, this is very convenient. The combination of ordinary tiles and mosaics is fraught with interesting possibilities. The use of mosaics allows you to perform smooth curved surfaces, which can be relevant for a bathroom.
A wide range of colours, surface types and proportions to meet every need of our customers. Our prices for bathroom tiles will pleasantly surprise you!
Everything you need for a bathroom (tiles, plumbing and much more) in Kaliningrad you can find in stores TD “Stroitel” .
Competent specialists of our stores will answer all your questions at the following addresses:
Kaliningrad, st. Gagarina, 239,
Kaliningrad, st. Polotskaya, 1
Store phone: (4012) 777-239
Store hours: from 8.30 to 19.00 without breaks and days off
Website: www.tdstroitel.ru
as an advertisement
Facade tiles as an option for exterior decoration of a private cottage match your aesthetic taste, wallet capabilities and climatic features of the area where you decide to settle.
Of course, first the “purse”, and then the rest of the requirements come into play. But this problem, in general, has already been solved: the most expensive elite materials have long had their “democratic” counterparts, which are very rarely inferior to the originals in terms of quality, reliability, practicality and appearance.
Specialists of the construction industry also include facade tiles to the materials “the same, only cheaper”.
Expensive “original” – inexpensive “copy”
Facade tiles are an economical substitute for aristocratic natural stone, heavy-duty artificial porcelain stoneware and facing bricks. These materials put a serious burden on your wallet and the foundation of the house, have expensive processing and labor-intensive installation. Reliable, durable, beautiful, but very expensive.
Another problem is that these materials are not always available on the market in the required assortment, and the lack of choice at exorbitant prices is too much!
And this is where facade tiles come in – with low production costs, an endless choice of texture and color options, the ability to external and very naturalistic imitation of any elite material. Do you want natural hewn or chopped stone, facing or clinker bricks, bright ceramic tiles? Please! Facade tiles will ideally “repeat” the look of any finish, remaining an order of magnitude cheaper than the original.
And more about the advantages of
It is worth paying attention to a few more indisputable “pluses” of facade tiles, which often make the material an uncontested choice.
- The facade of not every house or cottage can withstand expensive natural finishes (even if it can withstand the budget). Stone and brick have a bearing load that the existing foundation of the house cannot always cope with. The front tile has a thickness of no more than 14 mm, eliminates the additional load on the load-bearing walls and foundation, is mounted on finished surfaces without cement (laying on glue).
- Lightweight façade tile allows you to limit yourself to a light foundation and less expensive materials for load-bearing walls. And this is a very serious complex savings.
- Installation of facade tiles also has a low cost, allowing you to save on cement and plaster mortars. The tile requires only smooth load-bearing walls and “sits” on an inexpensive mounting adhesive.
