Chipolo one spot review: A smart key tracker that works with Apple’s Find My app

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You might well be familiar with the Apple AirTag and how the iPhone-maker’s key finder dealt a serious blow to market-leader Tile when it arrived in 2021. Well, now there’s another contender on the scene.

The Chipolo one spot may lack the classy white and stainless steel design of the AirTag, but it has a very important feature on its side – access to Apple’s Find My network. This means that it works in the same way as a lost AirTag, that is, it can be tracked down with automatic, autonomous help from a network of a billion iPhones the world over, thanks to the app.

The brand also sells a range of key- and wallet-tracking devices that don’t use the Apple Find My network. While that’s good news for Android users, owners of smartphones that don’t run iOS will need to ensure they only purchase the Chipolo one (£22, Chipolo.net) as the spot only works with iPhones and iPads.

The one spot is a small plastic disc, a little larger than a £2 coin and with a hole for attaching it to keys, bags and other possessions you want to keep track of. Its replaceable CR2032 battery lasts up to a year and the device has an IPX5 water resistance, meaning it’ll survive a rain-shower. And an integrated speaker, capable of 120dB, can help you track down the one spot.

But, is the Chipolo one spot worth buying over the similarly-priced Apple AirTag, or is the latter a better option for you? Read on to find out.

Read more:

We connected the Chipolo one spot to our iPhone and our keys. We then tested the tracker by sounding the integrated speaker in our home in a bid to relocate our “misplaced keys”. To test the Find My network, we put the Chipolo in our car a few streets away then returned home and marked it as lost, in a bid to simulate dropping our keys while out on a walk. The Find My network then pinged us with the location of the Chipolo, thanks to a fellow iPhone user walking close by.

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Buy now £25, Chipolo.net

The Chipolo one spot is available now and is priced at £25 for one or £70 for four, with the latter representing a healthy saving of £30. For comparison, the Apple AirTag (Apple.com) is slightly more expensive, at £29 for one, and Apple’s multibuy offer is less attractive, with four AirTags costing £99.

It might be tempting to spend the extra £4 on the Apple AirTag, but a key difference is how that tracker lacks a hole for attaching keys and other possessions. The only way to attach an AirTag to your keys is to buy a keyring accessory, which from Apple starts at £29 – and therefore doubles the initial outlay. Third-party AirTag accessories can be bought for a fraction of that, but the advantage still sits with the Chipolo one spot, as an integrated hole means it can hook right onto your keys.

Read more: Apple AirTag vs Tile pro: Which Bluetooth tracker is better?

Find My integration makes the one spot slightly more expensive than Chipolo’s regular one (Chipolo.net), which is priced at £22 for one, £53 for four and £92 for six. As explained earlier, this is the Chipolo tracker Android phone users should buy, as the one spot is exclusive to Apple devices. It is also worth noting that the one spot does not work with the Chipolo app.

The one spot has a fairly unremarkable design. It’s a small black plastic disc that is light and, while looking cheap, seems tough enough to survive a lifetime attached to your keys. However it is worth noting that this tracker is only available in one colour, whereas the regular Chipolo one is offered in yellow, red, blue, green, black and white.

Either way, it’ll soon be covered in scratches, just like the stainless steel back of the Apple AirTag, but then, these aren’t products bought for their aesthetic appeal.

Read more:9 best key finders to help you track down your stuff

Although larger than an AirTag, the Chipolo one spot is actually the same size as Apple’s leather AirTag keyring case, so once both devices are attached to a keyring they take up exactly the same amount of pocket or bag space.

If you’ve ever used an Apple AirTag, this will all sound very familiar to you. There are three ways in which the Chipolo one spot can help you find it (and whatever it’s attached to). These all involve the Find My app on your iPhone or iPad.

Firstly, a constant Bluetooth connection between the one spot and your iPhone means you can have it play an alarm to help you find it. This is useful when you’ve misplaced the Chipolo nearby, like when your keys have fallen down the back of the sofa. At a claimed 120dB, the Chipolo one spot seems significantly louder to our ears than the Apple AirTag, making it easy to find, even from another room.

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If you misplace the Chipolo while outside – say you drop your keys while on a walk – the Find My app will show where the tracker was last attached to your iPhone via Bluetooth. This should get you close enough to connect to the Chipolo and hear its alarm.

Lastly, you can call upon the Find My network. Mark the Chipolo as lost in the Find My app, leave your phone number or email address so that someone who finds it can connect you (this is optional) and wait.

When a fellow member of the Find My network (in other words, another iPhone or iPad user) comes within Bluetooth range of your lost Chipolo one spot, you’ll be notified through the Find My app and given its location.

Read more: Should you buy Apple’s AirPods Max or AirPods Pro?

All that’s missing compared to an AirTag is ultra-wideband technology (UWB), which lets iPhone users locate their lost possession more precisely when within a few metres of it. That said, while it’s a nice example of how UWB and AirTags work, we think the extra loudness of the Chipolo one spot is a more useful attribute.

Adding the Chipolo to your iPhone is quick and easy, with the process being identical to that of adding an AirTag to Apple’s Find My app. From here, you can give the Chipolo a name and assign an emoji to it for easy identification.

There’s also an option where the app will notify you if it thinks you’ve left the Chipolo behind at an unfamiliar location. You can add exceptions to this rule, like your home, so the app doesn’t bother you every time you leave without your bag, but still pings you if you leave any other location, like a train station, without it.

Once added to your phone, it’s really a case of set-it-and-forget-it, as the one spot will quietly stay connected to your iPhone, ready to help out when it goes missing.

Read more: iPhone 13 pro max vs Samsung Galaxy S21 plus – which supersized smartphone comes out on top?

As we said earlier, the speaker of the Chipolo is especially loud – louder than the Apple AirTag and Tile pro, at least to our ears. This means you can easily find it, even from several rooms away. Handy for when you’ve misplaced your keys, yet again.

During testing, the Chipolo’s alarm sounded the moment we asked it to in the Find My app. When left in our car a few streets away, it didn’t take long for a fellow iPhone user to pass by, which updated the Chipolo’s location in our Find My app. Naturally, how long this takes will depend on the population density of the area, and how many iPhone users are nearby.

At £25, the Chipolo one spot is a must-buy for anyone concerned about losing their keys, bag or other possessions. It connects to your iPhone in just a few seconds, helps you find lost items around the house with a loud alert, pings you if it thinks you’ve left something behind while away from home, and then uses millions of Find My users to help track down something you’ve lost.

It might not look as nice as an Apple AirTag, but for something that’ll spend its life attached to your keys, aesthetics really shouldn’t matter. The one spot is also better value than an AirTag, thanks to not needing an accessory just to attach it to your keyring.