Roam Smart Tracker Review: Buy It When It’s on Sale, Skip It Otherwise

Apple AirTags are all but synonymous with “trackers that help you locate lost stuff,” but are they the best option? There are certainly plenty of alternatives out there; the Roam Smart Tracker is one of them. The question is, does it reinvent the wheel or merely provide a cheaper one in different colors?

For those unfamiliar with them, Bluetooth item trackers (including the AirTag, Roam, and countless others) pair to your phone to create a sort of invisible short-range tether. If you’ve got one attached to, say, your keychain — a common use-case — you can use your phone to find it, provided it’s within Bluetooth range. That’s usually anywhere from 30-45 feet, meaning it’s most helpful around the house or in other smaller spaces.

So: “Where are my keys?!” becomes a phone tap followed by listening for the tracker’s beeps. Easy-peasy!

Now, if you’ve got the tracker in, say, a suitcase, or attached to the underside of your recently stolen bike, now the tracking goes global, so to speak. By leveraging Apple’s Find My network (or Google’s Find Hub, if you own an Android phone), you’ve got a decent chance of locating the tracker out in the world. It just needs to come within range of someone else’s phone.

So how does Roam’s tracker differ from Apple’s or any of the dozens of off-brand models you can find on Amazon?

Roam Smart Tracker design

For starters, size: The AirTag is about the size of a quarter, but the Roam more closely resembles a round pill-box. It’s maybe three times thicker than an AirTag and at least twice as thick as trackers from Chipolo and Pebblebee.

Why so much larger? I thought maybe Roam had shoehorned in a second CR2032 battery — there’s certainly room for it — but it has just the one, same as an AirTag. And that means it’s good for about a year before the battery needs replacing.

Maybe it uses that extra space for a larger, louder speaker, the better to hear it beeping in a noisy space? Nope. In fact, the Roam isn’t very loud compared to some trackers I’ve tested.

Ultimately, I’m not sure why it’s as thick as it is. The one notable design amenity is an elastic strap that’s wrapped around the edge in a shallow channel. If you pop loose a little door along the bottom, you can hook it around something — provided it’s thin (like a purse or backpack strap), because the elastic is pretty limited in how far it can stretch. For example, it can loop around one of the narrow metal rails on the underside of a bike seat, but nothing of greater girth than that.

There’s also a tiny eyelet embedded in the top, which could slip onto a keychain ring — but not much else.

The Roam does have an IP67 rating, meaning it’s virtually impervious to dirt and water. There’s also a scan-if-found QR code printed on the backside, the better to help someone return your lost item to you should it be found. That’s something AirTags don’t have.

Finally, the Roam comes in your choice of half a dozen colors, including a pleasing blue, yellow, and pink.

Roam Smart Tracker performance

I tested the Roam with my iPhone 17 and Apple Find My, though as noted above, this can also work with Android phones and Google Find Hub. That’s one definite advantage over AirTags, which work only with iPhones.

Put simply, it works as advertised — which is to say I could establish a connection from one end of the house to the other and even one floor down. (No tracker is perfect, however; sometimes you have to move around a bit and try a few times to catch a signal.) The bummer is that it’s just not very loud, so unless you’re in a quiet environment, you might not hear it beeping.

My other disappointment here is that the Roam doesn’t support two-way tracking, meaning you can’t use it to find your misplaced phone. AirTags don’t offer that feature, either, but the aforementioned Chipolo and Pebblebee products do — and it’s really useful, especially if you routinely lose track of your phone around the house.

Should you buy the Roam Smart Tracker?

This tracker may be larger than average, but it’s still a pretty small item overall, so that doesn’t matter much. Where I’m struggling a bit is with price.

Although the Roam lists for $29.99, same as an AirTag, at the time of this writing, most of the color variants are on sale for $14.99. That’s a solid deal for a tracker that also works with Android.

If you’re willing to pay $30, on the other hand, I’d suggest paying $5 more for a Pebblebee Clip 5 — a superior product in nearly every way. In the end, the Roam just doesn’t do enough to stand out from the crowd.

Roam Smart Tracker

PROS:

• Works with Apple Find My or Android Find Hub
• Available in several attractive colors
• Built-in elastic strap
• Half the price of an AirTag (when on sale)

CONS:

• Chunkier than most trackers
• Doesn’t support two-way tracking
• Not loud enough
• Strap doesn’t stretch much

💡 VERDICT: Roam breaks no new ground in the Bluetooth item-tracker game, and in fact comes up short in terms of size and loudness, but if you can score one while it’s on sale, it’s a decent AirTag alternative / Android-compatible option.