Find
your cash.
Remember
when we reviewed TrackR Bravo, the Bluetooth tracking tag to help you
find your lost items like your keys or bag? We were pretty impressed,
especially how it can be tracked by other people and have
notifications sent to your phone to let you zero in on your missing
stuff. Thing is, as good as the TrackR is, you could never use one to
keep tabs of your credit cards or cash... until now. Teaming up with
TrackR, Ekster have created the Senate Wallet, and we gave it a
thorough testing.
What is it? Well, the Senate Wallet is just that; a wallet designed to carry up to eight credit cards with a multi-purpose strap to lash a few notes to it. The wallet is hard and inflexible, and with a good reason, as inside the calf skin leather body is a great deal of clever-doing.
First
up, it features RFID and NFC blocking capabilities, to stop your
cards being scanned or accidentally communicating with contactless
payment points. That in itself is pretty important these days,
especially as we move increasingly toward cashless payments. But the
real showstopper is the integration of the TrackR technology.
Instead
of having one of the Bluetooth tags dangling from the wallet, Ekster
has taken a TrackR apart and inserted the gubbins into the lining.
This means that the Senate is one complete piece of kit with nothing
loose. The only indication that the wallet contains any kind of
electronics is the covered Micro USB port on the base.
To
discover how the Bluetooth tracking technology works, check out our review of the TrackR Bravo, as it is essentially the same. In a
nutshell, you can track the location of your wallet (and therefore
your cards and cash) by way of an app which displays the exact
position on a map. If you are ever out of Bluetooth range (and a
notification can be set to sound when your phone and wallet become
separated) you can use the community finder ability whereby other
TrackR app users can help you find it, without being alerted
themselves. It's basically like piggybacking on other people's phones
to cast a wider net to find the wallet. Oh, and the wallet's battery
can last for up to six months on a single charge, giving you plenty
of time to find it.
And
it works, very well. We tested the location tracking just as we did
the TrackR Bravo and the Bluetooth was always very strong and
reliable – while in range of about 100 metres. Outside of that we
were happy to see that the community tracking worked just the same,
with alerts popping up in the app that someone's phone had detected
the missing wallet (or rather the wallet we had intentionally hidden
behind a lamppost!).
As
an actual stand-alone wallet, it's also quite nice. You slide in the
cards and they clip confidently into place and stay there. No amount
of shaking or dropping will shift them, not until you press the
bottom switch and they pop up, neatly fanned out to make it easy to
grab the one you want. The wallet is a touch thicker than we were
expecting, but fitting in the tracking tech has obviously bulked it
out slightly. Still, it feels robust, is easy to grip, weighty enough
that you'll be aware of it in your pocket, and looks awesome.
The
Ekster Senate Wallet should wins points purely for the RFID blocking,
but then being able to track it if you lose it as well is a real
winner, and uses Bluetooth technology excellently. Great peace of
mind, and great style.
$99
Visit
eksterwallets.com