Samsung's SmartTag 3 lets the iPhone owners in a Galaxy household help find lost things

A Galaxy owner clips a tracker to the dog's collar and hands the lead to a walker who carries an iPhone. Every earlier SmartTag worked only with Samsung phones, so the walker's phone could not help if the dog got loose ^[2]. The SmartTag 3 is built for that walker ^[11].

The product-deck version of this is a tracker that crosses platforms. The version people will use is narrower: a tag owned by a Samsung user that the people around that user can also follow when something goes missing ^[11]. Gizmodo reports that non-Samsung Android phones are supported as well ^[6]. The Verge had asked Samsung to confirm exactly that ^[5].

Making the tag smaller cost it the hole for a key ring. Attaching it to keys or a carabiner now takes one of Samsung's protective cases ^[10], and neither report lists a case price. Samsung's accessory list shows where it expects the tag to go: a bike, a luggage handle, a pet collar or a child's backpack ^[13]. Gizmodo adds that the smaller body fits more easily in a wallet ^[13].

On a replaceable CR2032 coin cell, 550 days of normal use is about a year and a half between battery changes ^[4][16]. Power-saving mode stretches that to a little over two years ^[16].

Price and timing depend on the report. The Verge puts the Korean on-sale date at October 7 ^[3]. Samsung said "additional markets" will follow in 2027, and it has not confirmed a US date or price, according to The Verge ^[17]. Gizmodo lists $29.99 for one tag and $99.99 for a four-pack, available in early November, without naming the market ^[18][19]. At Gizmodo's prices the four-pack works out to about $25 a tag, roughly $5 below a single ^[15]. The SmartTag 2 sold for $29.99 ^[14].

Two axes sort the purchase: whether anyone who needs to find the item uses an iPhone, and whether the tag hangs from the item or sits inside it. In an all-Samsung home with tags in wallets and bags, the gains are size and battery, since the SmartTag 2 already covered those phones ^[2][4]. Move that tag to a key ring and add the cost of a case ^[10]. A mixed home tracking a pet or a suitcase is the buyer Samsung pitched ^[11]. A mixed home tracking keys gets the sharing and pays for the case too ^[10].

I think the mixed-phone household with a dog or a suitcase to track should buy one when it can. The tradeoff is a case for anything on a ring and, outside South Korea, a wait that Samsung puts in 2027 ^[17].