First-Look AirTag Reviews

With AirTags officially going on sale tomorrow at 5 a.m. PT, the Apple-imposed press embargo has been lifted, and the initial AirTag reviews look great. Here is an initial summary – list will continue to be updated as more reporters, bloggers, YouTube personalities, etc. continue to review them.

Also – note to our fans. Want your AirTag unboxing videos featured on AirTagReviews? Submit it to us at (info at AirTagReviews.com) for a chance to be featured on our site, once they ship!

• CNN’s Jacob Krol’s AirTag Review says “Apple’s AirTag was worth the wait”
  • Jacob spent “about a day” with 5 AirTags in the wild and noted that AirTag’s “integration within Apple’s Find My network delivers a wide coverage map” and further stated that “thus far, location accuracy of the tags has been highly accurate.”
  • “Combined with turn-by-turn directions to lost items make [AirTags] something of a necessity for anyone who misplaces their belongings.”
  • Pros:
    • 1) Fast & Easy Pairing – “setup is done in under a minute. Just hold your AirTag next to your iPhone and it will automatically prompt the setup window”
    • 2) Expansive Find My Network – the “network is made up of nearly a billion Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Mac) that can pick up on the Bluetooth signals cast from the AirTag”
    • 3) Deep Siri Integration – you name AirTags during the setup process (e.g., my “Jacket” AirTag) and then its simple – “you can simply ask Siri where your jacket is. And once Siri receives the request, the AirTag will start beeping”
    • 4) Precision Finding is a “Game Changer” – “your phone will give you turn-by-turn directions to the AirTag on-screen. With VoiceOver, a built-in accessibility feature, Siri will read directions aloud to help you find it.”
  • Cons:
    • 1) AirTag accessories are necessary – “you’ll need an accessory to attach [an AirTag] to something. Unlike some newer Tile trackers, there isn’t a built-in adhesive or even a spot for a key ring”

• Tom’s Guide’s Mark Spoonauer’s AirTag Review says “[AirTag is] the key finder I’ve been waiting for”
  • “AirTag feels like a game itself, as its Precision Finding feature can guide you to your lost item using your iPhone, displaying the distance to that misplaced thing and even directional arrows…. This feature is what separates the AirTag from some of the best key finders, like the Tile.”
  • Pros:
    • 1) AirTag Design – “About the size of coat button, the AirTag is quite small… You can also personalize your AirTag with free engravings with characters or emoji”
    • 2) AirTags Are Easy to Pair & Set Up – “This is easily one of the best things about the AirTag. When you get the AirTag out of the box, you simply pull the tag for the battery and then bring the device close to your iPhone”
    • 3) AirTags are Better than Bluetooth Trackers – It’s Ultra-Wideband – “Your iPhone uses UWB to determine the distance and direction to your lost item, and it analyzes input from your phone’s camera, ARKit, accelerometer and gyroscope. When you put it all together, this is what enables you to get visual, haptic and audio cues to direct you to your lost item.”
  • Cons:
    • 1) AirTag Beeping Sound Isn’t Very Loud (unlike Chipolo ONE Spot) – “This is one of my few complaints about the AirTag. The device only has so much surface area to produce sound, so you definitely need to be on the same floor as the lost item to hear the AirTag if it happens to be underneath something.”
    • 2) AirTag Doesn’t Use Rechargeable Batteries – “A rechargeable battery might have been nice, but that would have resulted in a bigger tracker.”

• TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino’s AirTag Review says “[AirTags] seem to work pretty much as advertised”
  • “The setup flow is simple and clean, taking clear inspiration from the one Apple developed for AirPods. The precision finding feature enabled by the U1 chip works as a solid example of utility-driven augmented reality, popping up a virtual arrow and other visual identifiers on the screen to make finding a tag quicker.”
  • Pros:
    • 1) AirTags Are Fast & Highly Accurate – “The instructions to locate the device seemed to update quickly and were extremely accurate down to a few inches”
    • 2) Availability of Great AirTag Accessories – “Host of accessories that seem nicely designed like leather straps for bags, luggage tags and key rings”
    • 3) AirTags Have Privacy Features Built-In – “Privacy features include a ‘warning’ that will trigger after some time that a tag is in your proximity and NOT in the proximity of its owner (aka, traveling with you perhaps in a bag or car)… [also] any AirTag that has been away from its owner for a while — this time is currently 3 days but is variable and Apple could tweak it over time as it observes how AirTags work — will start playing a sound whenever it is moved. This will alert people to its presence.”
    • 4) AirTag’s Billion-Device Find My Network Powers Device Searches – “Nearly a billion devices out in the world that can help to locate an AirTag”
  • Cons:
    • 1) Limited Signal Strength (Like all Bluetooth Devices) – “AirTag location range fits in with that basic Bluetooth expectation. Which means that it can be foiled by a lot of obstructions or walls or an unflattering signal bounce. It often took 30 seconds or more to get an initial location from an AirTag in another room, for instance.”
    • 2) Apple Remote is Not Compatible with AirTag – “No, this functionality is inexplicably not built into the new Apple TV remote”