Car Trackers - GSM/SIM or iOS/Android?

Car Trackers - GSM/SIM or iOS/Android?

Author
Discussion

Pitre

Original Poster:

4,995 posts

241 months

Wednesday 9th August 2023
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I have been looking at trackers, particularly the Apple Airtag, the Chipolo One, the Samsung Galaxy smart tag and Tile alternatives.

I'm personally inclined towards the IOS and Android options as they don't need any relatively expensive pay-as-you-go SIM cards (although the concept of SIM card type trackers makes them arguably better at actually tracking your car?). I understand that the effectiveness of the IOS/Android types of trackers increases as smart phones become ubiquitous. I believe that GPS trackers are relatively easy to detect for a serious car thief, unlike the IOS/Android tags.

Thoughts/experiences, particularly using these things for car tracking as opposed to lost keys etc?

Pistom

5,577 posts

166 months

Wednesday 9th August 2023
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Sorry, I'm no expert. After trying a few of the cheap GPS ones, I tried a cheap GPS one that worked for me - Vodafone Curve. £1.50/month and just works.

Some review as poor but it does what I want.

hunt123

282 posts

68 months

Wednesday 9th August 2023
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Pitre said:
I have been looking at trackers, particularly the Apple Airtag, the Chipolo One, the Samsung Galaxy smart tag and Tile alternatives.

I'm personally inclined towards the IOS and Android options as they don't need any relatively expensive pay-as-you-go SIM cards (although the concept of SIM card type trackers makes them arguably better at actually tracking your car?). I understand that the effectiveness of the IOS/Android types of trackers increases as smart phones become ubiquitous. I believe that GPS trackers are relatively easy to detect for a serious car thief, unlike the IOS/Android tags.

Thoughts/experiences, particularly using these things for car tracking as opposed to lost keys etc?
Yes GPS trackers can be blocked.

Apple Airtag costs iirc £29, replaceable battery lasts 1 year, no rewiring needed just, hide it which is easy as it's about the size of a 50p coin. After a couple of hours the thieves if they have an IOS device might be notified of its presence so make sure it's well hidden. The Airtag uses a small speaker to help locate it, google how to remove it (it's very easy). Obviously it needs IOS devices within a certain range in order to locate it. Not extremely accurate but accurate enough.

Vodafone Curve is ok, probably more accurate than the Airtag as it uses GPS, i'm not sure you can buy them brand new now, the main negative i found is the need to charge it every 4 or 5 days.

aidkso

4 posts

13 months

Thursday 12th October 2023
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Required a long time to get it and has no reasonable introduce counsel.