iPhone tracker tag specs: what each number means

What do the specs on a tracker tag actually describe?

They describe the hardware only, because the finding is done by software that comes with the phone.

A certified tag contributes four things: a radio that broadcasts, a speaker that can be made to sound, a case that survives being carried, and a battery that keeps the first two going. Everything else on the screen, the map, the alerts, the encryption, belongs to Apple and is identical across every certified product. So the spec sheet is not a feature list. It is a description of the object on your keyring.

What does 60 m of Bluetooth range mean?

It is the distance over which your own phone can talk to the tag directly, not the distance at which it can be found.

Those are two different numbers and the difference matters. Inside that radius you can press Play Sound and hear the result. Outside it, you are no longer talking to the tracker at all; you are reading the last sighting reported by somebody else's passing device, which has no distance limit but does have a time limit. The figure also assumes open air, walls, bodies and metal all shorten it.

How loud is 80 to 100 dB?

Loud enough to locate by ear across a room and through a layer of fabric, which is exactly the job.

For scale, ordinary conversation sits around 60 dB and a busy road around 80. A tag at the top of its range is comfortably above the noise floor of a normal house, which is why the alarm rather than the map is what usually finds a set of keys. It is not, and should not be, loud enough to be heard from the far end of a street.

What does IP67 protect against?

Dust completely, and water down to short immersion, not swimming and not a washing machine.

The two digits are separate ratings. The six is the dust figure and it is the top of that scale: no ingress at all. The seven is the water figure, and it covers immersion for a limited time at shallow depth. In practice that means rain, a spilled pint, a wet coat pocket and a drop in a puddle are all fine. A cycle through a hot wash is a different kind of stress and is not what the rating promises.

What is a CR2032 and why does it matter?

A standard 20 mm coin cell, and it matters because a sealed-in battery turns the whole tracker into waste when it dies.

The cell is the most common one in the world: watches, car fobs, scales, bike computers. Up to two years is the realistic life for a tag, shorter if the alarm gets a lot of use or the tracker lives outdoors in a cold winter. Replacing it is a twist of the back, a swap, a twist to close, and the cost is roughly that of a coffee. A tracker whose battery cannot be changed has a two-year lifespan by design.

Which dimensions actually matter?

The 9 mm thickness, far more than the 36.3 mm square.

Width decides whether something looks bulky on a keyring, which nobody minds much. Thickness decides whether it will sit in a card holder, an inside jacket pocket, a passport wallet or a laptop sleeve without making a lump. Weight at about 10 g is below the threshold at which anyone notices it hanging on keys.

What does MFi certified mean here?

That the chip inside is licensed by Apple to join the Items tab, with location reports encrypted end to end.

It is the difference between a tag that appears alongside your other Apple hardware and one that needs its own app and its own account. We have written about the certification in detail, because it is the single spec that decides whether the rest of the sheet is worth reading.

How Orbit Tag helps

Orbit Tag is the product those figures were taken from, and they are printed here in full rather than rounded up for a listing: ringing to 60 m or 200 ft, an alarm between 80 and 100 dB, IP67 sealing, a CR2032 rated at roughly two years, a black shell of 36.3 × 36.3 × 9 mm weighing about 10 g, and an MFi certified chip whose reports Apple encrypts end to end.

The small practical touches are not on the sheet but decide whether it stays attached. The key ring hole is moulded through the case rather than sold separately as a plastic holder, and two rings arrive with it. The back twists off by hand for the cell, so nothing is glued and no tool is needed.

The two absent specs are stated as plainly as the present ones. Android support does not exist, at any version: this wants Apple hardware on iOS 14.5 or newer. And there is no ultra-wideband radio, so no Precision Finding and no direction arrow.

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