I received a Chipolo to facilitate this review. All opinions are still my own.
Having trouble finding your keys in all the organized rubble? Cheese factor: 100%. But how could I grab your attention without a cool flatlay goin’ on?
Despite being a millennial, and living in Silicon Valley I’m not entirely into the techy world. I often have to ask my pal Lauren, or my husband to help when I need to figure out new apps ‘n gadgets. That tech-world moves so fast, and it completely blows my mind.
While I’m not one to name names, there’s someone in our household of two that always late for everything, usually because he’s on the lookout for his lost keys, and wallet. Perhaps I’ll give that anonymous Mister my second Chipolo. Or maybe keep it for myself so I can put it on extra fun things like one of my favourite lipsticks. I mean, the struggle is real, especially for a beauty lover like myself. I can’t be in a predicament like that, looking for my fave lip combo! OMG or your TVs remote control!! Brilliant.
All jokes aside, think about the stress you’ve gone through by losing something like your keys, or your phone. A few months ago I was heading back to Canada, and we had our layover in Los Angeles, I recall opening up my carry-on suitcase in the airport. After closing it, and boarding the airplane — I put the carry-on in the overhead bin. After I sat down, buckeled up and about to relax, I reach for my phone and it wasn’t freaking there. I started panicking, jumped out of my seat and fumbled through my suitcase from below. I bolted to the airline attendant up front who had closed the airplane door milliseconds before I got there. I bursted into tears instantly (lol I know… it was so embarrassing). She was incredibly cold towards me and wouldn’t help. As soon as I got back to my seat, my husband scolded me for losing my phone. I felt horrible! Like I said, imagine the stress you could relieve from yourself having something so simple installed, or even a tracker stuck to the phone. Long story short, it ended on a happy note. I mistakenly put my cell phone inside the carry-on suitcase before we boarded. Something I never do!
It doesn’t look like a kitchy product, as a Graphic Designer I love how the unisex design is a clean and simple item on your key rings. I don’t like to have many things dangling from my set of keys, and this blends in with it all. Plus the logo isn’t blaring in your face as it’s imprinted in, with the same colour as the plastic, and it’s plain on the other side (no logo).
For my Canadian pals out there it’s pretty small, about the size of a toonie (and to the Americans reading, that’s a $2 coin in Canada). For the techy people out there, it’s a bluetooth enabled item finder that you can use via an app on your Android, iPhone or Windows phones. There’s this thing called a geo-fence which alerts you when your Chipolo is out of range. What I think is neat, is that it has a temp sensor to let you know whether your item is inside, or outside! Wild. What did I tell you earlier about my mind being blown?!
Just use the Chipolo Item Finder and boom, keys are found. You may also want to clasp it onto your dogs collar if he/she takes off running in the fields when you go on offleash dog walks with them on the trails. Just sayin’.
Pros:
- Excellent range distance for finding your object
- Super easy to install the chipolo, and you can have multiple users on one chiplo
- Battery will last ~6mths
- Select from 9 chipolo colours
- It comes with an extra battery
- Affordable at thirty bucks a pop
- It rings when you’re searching for it!
- Knows your last known location on a map
Cons:
- It feels cheap
- The keyring (not a huge deal) was really really difficult to put on, I almost busted a finger nail
- Wish the battery was rechargeable
There’s a lot of competitors out there, and while I do see a lot of people having these sorts of objects stuck to their laptops and phones, I definitely won’t be sticking it to the back of my new phone. Especially since there’s a GSP finder on your phone. Instead, I’d rather use it for something that I may lose that wouldn’t have a GPS finder on it: my keys, my suitcase, my wallet, my favourite lipgloss!
Do you need one? Perhaps, if you’re the type of person that loses or misplaces things on a daily basis. It’s accurate, compact and it works.