Tile Slim Review

Reviewed by Kelvin Tebbs

I have happily welcomed the Tile Slim to my recent addition of helpful technology. If you’re as forgetful as I am, any gadget that helps to prevent the loss of an expensive item or accessory, is a massive benefit to my everyday life, especially when it’s only £24.99 and I’m safe in the knowledge that for the next 3 years, the Tile Slim will help me to easily locate my items.

The Tile Slim has recently had an update from the previous generation, which some of you may be familiar with. The former version was white in colour and thicker in size, yet in my opinion was made from a less durable and rugged material and it had a squarer design, so it was harder to place or hide discreetly inside your wallet.

This latest version of the Tile Slim has had somewhat of an overhaul, not only in its appearance but it has changed shape too. It has some brand new features and I believe it is all round, a much better device. It is the largest of any of the Tile devices, but is also the thinnest, designed to fit nicely in your wallet (the size of a credit card), bag or any low-profile place. The design is black, unlike most of the other Tile’s, and has a nice feel texture to it.

With a 200ft range and a built-in 3 year battery, the Tile Slim is relatively cheap. Unfortunately though, once the 3 years is up – you need to go out and buy a replacement device.

Whilst the normal features of a Tile still exists with this product i.e. locating your wallet, the great thing about a Tile Slim is that you can ‘Ring Your Thing,’ meaning that it can provide a melody to help locate the device that is lost or missing. This is very similar to what you could previously do (if you’re old like me) with a whistle or clap locator for your keys. However, there is no need to whistle at the Tile Slim, instead you can use the app to play the sound clip. The front of the Tile has three, small pin holes, which is where the speaker is located and from where the sound is expelled when you are ringing your device.

As an added benefit, this feature is bi-directional. Thus allowing you to also press the Tile Slim to help locate your phone. Pushing the logo on the front of the Slim will cause your phone to play a tune. Again, this is very handy if you are like me and always misplacing your phone around the house. I normally ask my wife to call my phone so that I can find it but now I no-longer need to involve her in my saga of locating my mobile phone.

Something very interesting, is that you can also use a ‘Community Find’ if you lose it in an outdoor space. Although, this relies on other people also having a Tile device and the app installed on their phone. Tile uses their background app to feed information back to you. I can certainly see this working well in a location with a lot of traffic such as; busy streets in a city centre, airports, events or maybe even at a festival.

Historically, people may have used the Tile Slim to help keep a track of their laptop by sticking the Slim to one of the laptop’s surfaces. However, since the release of the Tile Sticker, this is probably better catered for by the alternative option within the Tile range. Whilst the Tile Slim might still be used for this purpose, the Tile Sticker has more of a ‘button type’ design using an adhesive sticker to allow its owner to conveniently stick it to any surface. The only reason I would probably still use the Slim for this job instead, is because the Tile Sticker is not only thicker, but it only has a 150 ft range when compared to the Tile Slim’s 200ft range (if it’s in plain sight of the device).

The device does require you to download the Tile App, standard for most devices these days, and also requires you to use data on your mobile phone in order for it to work.

The set up was easy, simply open the app, click to a new ‘Tile’ device from the list, and synchronise the devices by hitting the ‘Tile logo’ button on the front of the Tile Slim. By following the on-screen directions, this took me no more than a minute to carry out, and as part of the process, it asks what item you plan to use the device with. I chose my wallet, but it gives you plenty of other ideas and locations for the device, including; wallet, purse/handbag, phone, toy and many others.

A few things to briefly mention, is that the Tile does, and will store the location history of where the device has been. Handy if you’d like to keep your children safe and know where they’ve been. Other features include Smart Alerts, so you are automatically notified if you leave your wallet behind in a bar or at a restaurant. It will alert you before the forgotten item becomes an issue. The Tile Slim also works with Siri, so you can use voice activation to help you find your Tile and device. Another simple, yet effective and much appreciated function is the ability to change the ringtone and pre-set the default tile volume, something handy if you know you’re likely to use the device outdoors or perhaps in your office. This helps you to discreetly locate the items with minimal impact disturbing others.

Overall, I love the device and would highly recommends its purchase. With small children, you could see this being slipped into their backpack and know that when you are picking them up from school, it will make it easier to locate them if necessary. I myself will mainly keep the Tile Slim tucked neatly inside my wallet and will move it to my laptop case when travelling on the train, tube or attending any conferences.

I would rate this product 4.5 out of 5. The only thing I could see as an area for improvement, is for it to be designed so that you could insert a replacement battery and for that, I would happily pay a little bit extra. Nevertheless, I would recommend the Tile Slim to everyone and I see it as a perfect gift, especially with Fathers Day just around the corner. My Dad would love the Tile Slim as much as I do!

Rating: 4.5/5

RRP: £24.99

This product can be purchased from TILE here.