Chipolo is looking for a way to extend the reach of its Bluetooth-based trackers. So it's turning to Apple and the tech giant's super-sized Find My network for help.
A new version of the company's wallet tracker, the Chipolo Card Spot, is making its debut at CES 2022. Chief among the wallet finder's capabilities is the fact that users will be able to tap into the Find My network to locate any wallet or purse with a Chipolo Card Spot tucked inside.
When you pair your Chipolo Card Spot to your iPhone, you'll be able to add the wallet tracker to the Items tab within the Find My app that comes pre-installed on iPhones. Apple added the ability to add third-party items like Chipolo's new wallet tracker in a Find My update last April. (Chipolo added Find My support to its key tracker at that time.)
Mark your Chipolo Card Spot-equipped wallet as lost, and you'll get a notification when the Find My network is detected by other Find My-connected devices, which will relay the approximate location of your wallet back to you. There's also a Notify When Left Behind feature that will ping your iPhone with a separation alert, should you leave a location without taking your wallet (and its Chipolo tracker).
As you'd expect from a tracker designed to slip into a wallet, the Chipolo Card Spot is extremely thin — just 0.09 inches. You can't swap out the battery, but Chipolo says the device should last up to two years. IPX5 water resistance is meant to protect the Chipolo Card Spot from splashes.
The latest Chipolo Card tracker arrives at any interesting time. Tile, the leading maker of many of the best key finders, updated its product line for 2022, and while most of the devices impressed us in testing, the wallet-friendly Tile Slim felt like a step back. In our Tile Slim (2022) review, the wallet finder came up well short of its listed 250-foot range. That particularly stung since the new Tile Slim cost $5 more than its predecessor.
Like the latest Tile Slim, the Chipolo Card Spot costs $35. It ships in February, though Chipolo has started taken pre-orders today (Jan. 4). We're looking forward to see how Chipolo's new wallet finder compares to the Tile Slim and what kind of difference Find My support makes.
