TackGPS Plus location tracker review: What price for peace of mind?
It’s larger and costs more than an Apple AirTag, but the TackGPS Plus has an ace up its sleeve no other rival tracker has: indoor elevation tracking.
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Note: This review was first published on 16 April 2024.
The TackGPS Plus boasts of being the world’s first GPS tracker with indoor elevation finding capabilities and has up to 30 days of battery life on a single charge. Tack One, the company behind it, is also a homegrown Singaporean brand. We visited their booth during CES 2024 earlier this year and managed to snag a unit for review. I’ve now spent some time with the TackGPS Plus to see if it’s worth your money.
Made of a plastic enclosure with plus-sign etches on the device, the TackGPS Plus is about the size of a car key fob. It's considered lightweight at only 30g, but still comparatively heavier and bulkier than an Apple AirTag (11g). Also, there aren’t a lot of aftermarket accessories for it other than the sleeve Tack themselves sell. These are some considerations to think of in some niche scenarios, such as using it with very small pets.
In the box, you get the TackGPS Plus tracker, a Type-C charging cable, a lanyard and a quick start guide..
The TackGPS Plus compared to my (well-used) Apple AirTag.
It has an LED at the top to determine the device’s status, a button at the top right to trigger a quick alert, a USB-C charging port and lanyard holder. It is weather-proof, so a little rain wouldn’t hurt it, but there’s no information on IP rating, so I’d avoid dunking it in water.
Compared to an Apple AirTag, which only relies on Bluetooth detection by nearby devices in Apple’s closed Find My network, the TackGPS Plus can be located without device or network restrictions.
In addition to GPS and Wi-Fi networks, it has a built-in SIM card for LTE-M1 and NB-IOT support. These are low-power, wide-area network technologies that would offer exceptional coverage for the TackGPS Plus regardless of where it is. This is where the subscription requirement comes in, as they enable cellular connectivity for the tracker. Out of the box, you get 30-days free connectivity, after which you’d need to subscribe to the Tack Connect service. There are two subscription plans to choose from: Standard or Premium. Both offer global roaming in more than 120 countries with unlimited location updates. The difference is faster update intervals and longer location history storage for the Premium plan.
According to the company, TackGPS Plus is accurate up to 3 - 5 m for outdoor GPS, 10 - 30 m for indoor Wi-Fi positioning, and 100 - 250 m for cell tower triangulation should both GPS and Wi-Fi networks fail.
Beyond GPS location tracking, Elevation Finder lets you locate the tracker on the Y-axis. Tack claims their Hybrid Location Technology and AI algorithms are what allow the TackGPS Plus to determine vertical distance between you and the tracker, its main selling point.
While tracking movement, you can also set up Safe Zones, a geofencing mode that will alert you when the tracked object, person or pet moves beyond set boundaries.
Once the tracker is setup and connected, the OurSphere app can be used to locate. It was surprisingly able to track me underground on the MRT train.
TackGPS Plus can be configured with the OurSphere companion app available on both Android and iOS. Once you register a tracker, it’s simple enough to use with direction buttons to guide you to the location of a tracker on Google Maps, and an Elevation button to determine how far above or below you are from the tracker. There are four main Tracking Modes: Standard, Active, Power Saver, and Emergency. These modes affect location update frequency, and are further adjusted depending on the subscription plan you're on.
Beyond these, there are further settings available for more specific tracking, such as Pet Mode which supposedly uses AI to learn your pet's moving patterns and will discard large movements such as car rides. Outdoor Mode improves location accuracy in urban areas with strong Wi-Fi interference, at the expense of battery life. And lastly, EF Precision Mode, as its name implies, is used in conjunction with Elevation Finder to provide highly precise accuracy between the phone and tracker, reducing battery life significantly.
Advanced modes are buried deep within device preferences. A simple toggle within Elevation Mode would have been more convenient to switch between Enhanced and Standard EF Precision tracking for example.
During testing, I left the EF Precision mode on and surprisingly did not see a big drop in the battery life. In fact, from about one week of usage with Active Mode enabled, the battery status on the TackGPS Plus did not drop at all. What’s more impressive, I had sent out more than 20+ alerts using the tracker and it still showed a full battery percentage.
Is it better than other trackers?
There were times that Elevation Finding became inaccurate and misreported locations. The app would then require re-calibration. This inaccuracy seemed more present when the distance between the tracker and my phone was within 10m. The app would state the tracker was a couple of metres above when it was actually below, or vice-versa.
Another issue is the time taken between sending a one-click alert and receiving the notification on the app. Even with the tracker right next to my phone, the time taken to receive a location update could take as little as 8 seconds, to as long as 19 seconds. It would be great if Tack could get this time frame down.
I’m used to the instant Precision Finding feature on the Apple AirTag, which I feel is far more convenient for tracking everyday items. The ability to be guided to the tracker within a room or open area is a feature I’d love to see Tack incorporate into an app update or future products.
The OurSphere app could also benefit from some UI optimisation. Besides the nested mode options mentioned above, a small nitpick of mine is that the Google Maps logo occasionally peeks through behind the "Members" and "My Devices" buttons. Accidentally tapping the logo will redirect you to Google Maps, a frustration easily addressed by enlarging the buttons to completely cover the logo or moving the buttons.
Great for some, not for everyone
From my short time with the TackGPS Plus, the tracker has honestly proved to be quite useful. Features such as tracker location history, geofencing alerts, and elevation finding mode are all great to have in addition to basic tracking capabilities. Marketed as a tracker for pets, the elderly, or those suffering from Alzheimer's and other disabilities, the TackGPS Plus is probably one of the better ones around to know where your loved ones are with its strong suite of location features and ultra-long battery life.
TackGPS Plus subscription plans can be bought in 1- or 2-yearly blocks.
However, the TackGPS Plus is quite costly at S$108. A 2-year subscription plan would set you back another S$96 (Standard) or S$160 (Premium). Unless you are the target market for this device, I find it difficult to justify the high asking price for tracking everyday items.
If you own an iPhone, you could buy a pack of four AirTags and it would still be cheaper than the TackGPS Plus with a 2-year Standard plan. Likewise, if you have an Android or Samsung device, there are also options of getting a tracker from Tile or the Galaxy SmartTag 2.
If you are the target market though, no other rival tracker I know of can do everything the TackGPS Plus can. The indoor elevation finder alone could make it worthwhile for you. Being able to know how high or low in a building to search for a loved one removes one more headache, saving time and effort for extra peace of mind. And that's probably something you can't put a price tag on.
The TackGPS Plus is available on Shopee, Lazada, Amazon, and Tack's official webstore.
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