Apple beats Samsung in South African Bluetooth tracker battle

MyBroadband recently tested the tracking capabilities of four popular Bluetooth smart trackers in South Africa and found Apple’s AirTag performed best.

Unlike GPS tracking devices, Bluetooth smart trackers rely on the large networks of smartphones from various manufacturers to relay their location.

The lack of power-hungry GPS sensors makes it possible to power these devices with much smaller batteries, making them much more compact.

That makes them easier to hide in or attach to laptop bags, handbags, or other valuable possessions.

Before major smartphone makers came into the picture, smaller companies like Tile sold their own Bluetooth trackers.

However, the usefulness of these trackers was limited by the fact that other users also had to have the Tile app installed on their smartphones to help detect the trackers’ locations when away from the primary user’s device.

When smartphone makers launched their own trackers, the potential number of devices that could detect a lost tag grew exponentially.

Samsung was the first major manufacturer to introduce a smart tracker to the market, with the first generation Galaxy SmartTag launching in January 2021.

In addition to the user of the tag being able to track this tag when it is within Bluetooth range, other Galaxy devices can also ping its location.

Apple launched its competitor — the AirTag — three months after Samsung.

Its trackers rely on Apple’s Find My network, which includes iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

Google also recently launched its upgraded Find My Device network for Bluetooth trackers connected to Android phones.

However, the only two third-party tracker manufacturers that support this network — Chipolo and Pebblebee — do not yet sell their devices in South Africa.

MyBroadband previously tested the feasibility of monitoring the movements of Apple and Samsung’s trackers far away from the user’s primary device in June 2021.

In that test, we found the Galaxy SmartTag performed best, with anonymous Galaxy devices in the wild relaying its position 17 times over five hours in the morning on a weekday.

For our recent tests, we added two more trackers — the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag 2 and Eufy SmartLink. The latter also runs on Apple’s Find My network.

AirTag wins by one ping

Our resident engineer put all four trackers in his pocket and travelled to a nearby mall and Gautrain station in a trip lasting around an hour.

He carried no smartphones or other electronic devices on his person to ensure that the only pings received would come from other users’ devices.

In the office, we had an iPhone and a Galaxy smartphone linked to the trackers.

Outside the office, iPhones or other Apple devices relayed the AirTag’s location ten times over an hour, the most of any of the trackers.

In addition, its location was pinged twice on the way to the mall, and it was the only one detected at the Gautrain station.

The Galaxy SmartTag 2 and Eufy SmartTag each recorded nine pings in total.

However, the SmartTag2 was only detected while our tester was moving around the Centurion Mall.

It was not picked up en route or on return from the mall, while the Eufy SmartTag was detected once on the way to the mall, in one of the same locations as the Apple AirTag.

The first-generation Galaxy SmartTag recorded the lowest number of pings, all of which came from devices in the mall.

The table below provides a summary of the number of times each tracker was detected.

Opt-in vs opt-out and other possibilities

One possible reason for the AirTag’s slightly better performance is that Apple turns participation in its Find My network on by default.

Samsung users must opt in to join their devices with the SmartThings Find network upon device setup or by adjusting their settings at a later stage.

The AirTag’s additional pings could also have come from just one iPhone in a car that happened to be driving along with our tester’s.

Considering Samsung has a much larger market share in South Africa, the outcome of similar tests may differ in many other scenarios.

However, this could vary greatly from one area to the next, as some locations in South Africa have high concentrations of iPhones.

Written by Hanno Labuschagne with field testing performed by Wikus Steyn.