Tile refreshes its Mate, Pro, Slim, and Sticker trackers with better range, louder volume, and improved water resistance

Tile is refreshing its entire product lineup today with brand new hardware for its Tile Mate, Tile Pro, Tile Slim, and Tile Sticker Bluetooth trackers. All four trackers are getting sleeker, updated designs, with improvements to both tracking range, volume, and water resistance.

The regular $24.99 Tile Mate is getting its biggest change in years, with a more rounded shape and design and a new black color option (in addition to the standard white). Range is being increased from 200 feet to 250 feet, the volume of the ring is now louder when you’re trying to locate it, and the water resistance has been upgraded to an IP67 rating.

Battery life is also longer on the new Mate — three years, instead of the single year offered on the previous model — although it comes with the tradeoff that the battery is no longer user-replaceable.

Image: Tile

Image: Tile

The $34.99 wallet-sized Tile Slim is also getting similar upgrades to the Mate: a new design that fits in with the other new Tiles, a boosted 250-foot range (from 200 feet), a louder ring, and IP67 water resistance (although, unlike the old Mate, the old Slim was already waterproof, so that’s not as big a change). It also maintains its built-in battery, which, like the Mate, lasts approximately three years before needing replacement.

The $34.99 Tile Pro is also getting a new design, which should help better distinguish it from the regular Tile Mate. The new model has a more rectangular appearance that fits better on a keyring than the old square shape. And like the regular Mate, the updated Pro is also more water-resistant, with a new IP67 rating (compared to the IP55 rating on the old Pro, which only protected against “splashes or a quick drop in water”).

Some parts of the Pro are the same as the previous model: it still has the longest range of any Tile tracker (400 feet), and it’s keeping the replaceable battery (which lasts about a year before you’ll have to swap it out).

Lastly, there’s the $29.99 Tile Sticker, which is getting its first update since it was first released. The new model has dramatically better range (250 feet, compared to 150 feet on the old model), better battery life (three years off the non-replaceable battery, up from two years before), and a louder ring. And like the other new models, the new Sticker also has IP67 water resistance.

Image: Tile

Image: Tile

Tile is also rolling out a new Lost and Found feature on the Mate, Pro, and Slim trackers: the new models now feature a QR code on the back, which can be scanned by anyone who finds a Tile tracker out in the world but isn’t already a Tile user. When the lost tracker is found, scanning it will pop up your contact information so that you can coordinate getting your stuff back. (The feature isn’t available on the Sticker due to size constraints in printing the QR code.)

It’s not quite on the same level as Apple’s AirTags or Samsung’s SmartTags, both of which can leverage Apple and Samsung devices that belong to users who don’t actually own trackers as part of the companies’ Bluetooth networks, but Lost and Found should help expand Tile’s usefulness even when found by a non-Tile customer.

Image: Tile

Additionally, Tile also announced a new safety feature, called “Scan and Secure,” that it’ll be rolling out in early 2022. Once it’s available, Scan and Secure will allow anyone to download the Tile app and use it to scan and detect nearby devices and notify you if there are any unknown Tiles nearby. The goal is to make it harder for someone to use Tiles for malicious tracking purposes (Apple and Samsung both offer similar safety features with AirTags and SmartTags), and Tile is working with the National Network to End Domestic Violence on development and design of the feature. Users who install the Tile app to scan for devices won’t be part of Tile’s finding network, either.

Noticeably missing from Tile’s announcement is the addition of ultra-wideband radio technology for more accurate localized tracking, something that its AirTag and SmartTag Plus competitors both have offered for months. But Tile has an answer for that, too, in the form of the newly announced Tile Ultra, which will bring UWB-powered AR tracking to the lineup in early 2022.

The four new Tile trackers are available starting today from Tile’s website and a variety of retailers, including Amazon, Costco, Best Buy, and Target.