Take black and watch out for scratches. Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 watches your keys or saves your dog walks

Samsung has several years of tradition with locators. The square “pillow” SmartTag was the first to appear on the market, which later received an improved SmartTag+ variant enriched with UWB support. This year’s variant has changed shape, switching to an oval design with a distinctive ring for threading a lanyard or key ring. At the same time, it improved the increased resistance (from IP53 to IP57), extended the duration of one charge, added some modes and made it more difficult to remove the battery.

In the basic package, you will receive a SmartTag2 in the selected color, in which a CR2032 battery is inserted. You can pull it out of the locator using the enclosed pin

We received the SmartTag2 in a white color variant for testing, but it is not quite ideal. Even the first addition to the key ring left an imprint of dirt and also a scratch on the outer white cover in the narrowest place. While the inner part of the ring is metal and there is no risk of scratching, the outer one is practically a matter of course. Especially if, like me, you try to attach the locator to different things. Even at the narrowest point, the locator is very wide, and you have to stretch the rings a lot when threading them. When you have almost put it on, it is enough to have the ends of the ring slightly unsharpened, and the scratches are gone. This is also why we would much rather choose the black version.

Official presentation of the SmartTag2 locator:

When carrying the locator, you can put your finger through its ring, but much more often you pin or tie it to something. There is one miniature speaker on the body, which can beep according to certain actions of the locator. On the other hand, there is an action button hidden under the locator logo, which has several possible uses. Either you can use it to find a nearby phone, or you can use it for automation in the SmartThings ecosystem.

Adding SmartTag2 will offer your Samsung smartphone automatically

Of course, the locator would have liked a firmly integrated battery, unfortunately this time too it contains a replaceable CR2032 battery, which was part of previous generations of locators. However, in lost mode, the most important thing is that a potential finder (or thief) who notices the locator cannot easily remove the battery. While before it was a matter of seconds to remove the battery, this time there is no chance without a pin. And few people carry it in their pockets.

Only works with Samsungs

The Galaxy SmartTag2 is part of Samsung’s SmartThings ecosystem. And, although this application is also available for phones of other brands, you can only add a new locator to your account for phones from Samsung. The locator will only appear on the display if you bring it close to the phone. Alternatively, just scan the QR code on the back box of the locator, through which you can choose to add it to the SmartThings application.

Searching via UWB through the camera’s viewfinder

You can name the locator, change its icon and place it in a virtual “room”. By default, the locator is placed in the “Moving” section. You can also adjust the volume, which is accompanied by decent vibrations. Choose a higher setting, but even that may not be enough in noisy environments. The locator also has a polyphonic ringtone that plays when you want to locate it at your destination. You can choose from ten variations, even at high volume we could still imagine a louder ringing.

If you forget the locator somewhere, the phone will alert you with a notification. And this turned out to be a very important feature that already saved me during testing, so I kept coming back for forgotten keys. You can add another member to your account to share your device’s location with (Samsung phones only) and control your other smart devices. Automation after pressing and holding a button is also intended for them, which can result in the execution of a certain routine. E.g. to change the status of the device or for notifications, etc. If you press the button twice in a row, you can ring the smartphone that is set as the primary one for the button.

The button on the SmartTag 2 can also be used for automation

In Lost mode, you can leave contact information and a message for the finder, which will be shown on the display if the locator is read via NFC. The finder will see information on their phone screen, thanks to which the locator can be delivered to you with the item, ideally still attached to it.

The battery indicator registers only three intervals (16 – 100%, 6 – 15% and 0 – 5%), and when moving to the second level you should already slowly buy a new battery. However, you have plenty of time for that. The SmartTag2 lasts about 500 days on one battery, and when the power saving mode is activated, it lasts about 200 days longer. As part of it, you will lose volume and ringtone settings, button actions, ringtones, search using the camera, and some search functions will also be lost. Last but not least, there will also be a Pet Care mode…

Finding and tracking pets

You don’t only need to place the SmartTag on objects of daily use (keys, laptop bag, car, suitcase,…) but also on a dog collar. Samsung has a separate Pet Care module for this, in which you set the breed, age, weight, vaccinations and name of your dog, whose movements are then monitored by the application. When walking with your four-legged pet, you can see exactly where it moves on the maps. The phone records the route according to its GPS and the deviation due to the intensity of the Bluetooth Low Energy signal from the locator. In ideal conditions, this happens up to a distance of 120 m from the phone, but in practice, always count on a significantly smaller distance.

Attach the locator to your dog’s collar (again, we recommend the dark version) and you can have your every walk together recorded

As part of the search, the position of the locator, as well as other Samsung devices, will be displayed on the map. You can navigate to the last known position of the locator via Google Maps, if you are there, you have two options to find it. Depending on the strength of the signal, you will know whether you are moving away from it or approaching it. If you don’t see it at your destination, you can still ring it. You can also find the locator thanks to UWB technology, directly in the camera’s viewfinder. Its actual position is shown by the green arrow. In all cases, we found the hidden locator, the function works practically the same as with the Galaxy SmartTag+.

If you have a Samsung phone and want to protect your valuables, the SmartTag2 is a more than worthy successor to the SmartTag+ locator. If you choose black, you will eliminate the most significant deficiency. Or you can buy a protective cover with it for 400 to 700 CZK, with which you don’t have to deal with scratches and scratches. But the locator itself costs 990 CZK, so buying it with the cover is quite expensive. The new model directly replaced the predecessor, so there is a good chance that you will no longer find the older SmartTag and SmartTag+ anywhere.

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