Tile Slim - Phone/Wallet/Laptop Finder (2 or 3 Pack)


Tile Slim - Phone/Wallet/Laptop Finder (2 or 3 Pack)

These must be old stock. Tile has had these with a user replaceable battery since 2017. From my experience these work “OK” but the battery life is 1 year at best. Then you need to buy more Tiles. No thank you.
If these were water proof (trust me, they are not) one could justify not being able to have a user replaceable battery.
Oh but wait, Timex solved the user replaceable battery on a “waterproof to 30 Meters” piece of electronics (their IronMan Triathlon watches) something like 40 years ago…

Yes, these are old stock. No, Tile Slim never had and still doesn’t have a replaceable battery. One of the trade-offs in order to make it… “slim”.

The new Tile Slim form factor (credit card sized rectangle) was announced in October 2019, so they could be as new as 1 year old. The CR203x battery they use has a shelf life of some 5-10 years. Certainly more than 1 year.

And these are almost 1/3 the price of a new one. At that price, I’ll be getting some.

User replacement battery is mate version this is the Slim version non replicable battery. I should know this since I’ve been selling them… Although, YouTube users are in denial of a non replicable battery…I personally would highly avoid doing such mod unless you really know what you are doing. For so many reasons mainly highly explosive lithium really comes to mind “just avoid” attempting this removal.

I keep forgetting about the average intelligence level of American Adults. I used to be shocked how many people think it takes “special skills” to change out an automobile battery because of “explosive hazard of hydrogen gas, possible burns from sulfuric acid, etc.” Then I saw some real life videos (youtube) of “average” guys setting their houses on fire when attempting to deep fry a turkey, and other (to me) equally stupid things (hooking up car battery backwards, making auto starter jumper connections reversed, etc.) and decided that since if you short out ANY battery it will get hot (cousin put a 9-volt alkaline battery “spare” for his pocket radio “back in the day” in his jeans pocket with a half dozen quarters change. Battery shorted on change and set his jeans on fire) changing out a lithium battery is probably not for about 60% of the general public. Of course I wonder how 40% of them make it home every day. While most lithium don’t actually have explosion capabilities, they do all have the capability of doing at least significant heat damage.
All that being said, I still have no use for an item that the average user reports is dead and needs to be replaced annually.
And oddly, the item that most people use to track these “Slims” (their “smart” phone) is the one thing I keep misplacing. And that is easily found simply by having some one else call it.

The CR203x battery may have a 5-10 year shelf life, but once Tile installed it in the “Slim” it was no longer on the shelf, it is in use and operating the circuitry that allows the tile to be found. And if they can transmit a findable signal for significantly more than a year it would be a good trick. Manufacturer’s own information lists: “Battery: 1-Year Built-in” so if they are a year old already, they are well near the end of their life. I have tried 2 other brands of “finders” that mostly target person who frequently misplaced keys. One used digital encoded RF on garage door frequencies, the other used Bluetooth. Neither used an app, but instead used a hand held “finder base” (transmitter). Since the base transmitter only operated when you pushed a button to locate your missing item, the pair of CR2032 batteries lasted well over 2 years. But the same brand and manufacture date CR2032 in the fobs never lasted 6 months. The receiver is operating 24/7 waiting for a signal that tells it you are searching for it, and that it should sound off.
My daughter bought a pair of these last time they came up here on Woot. Don’t know how old they were, but they were working on arrival. But, 3 months later when she had misplaced her clutch (small purse) she did not find it (in her trunk) for 3 days because the Tile was already dead. The “spare” from the pair that was in her dresser died a few weeks later. She is of the opinion that she would pay $10 for one of these IF they actually worked for AT LEAST a year & somehow warned when batter was getting weak…
I personally think this is technology that still needs quite a bit of improvement.