The GeoZilla GPS Tracker can find your dog if he gets out of the yard, even if he takes a plane to Reno. Or it can locate your lost luggage if the airline accidentally ships it to Australia.
There are plenty of tracking tags that can discover your keys in your living room, but the GeoZilla GPS Tracker uses built-in cellular-wireless access so it can be found anywhere.
Read on to find out if this is the ultra-portable global tracker you’ve been hoping for.
GeoZilla GPS Tracker review
GeoZilla’s isn’t like the bulky GPS trackers of the past. It’s small enough to put on the collar of medium-size dog, or tuck away in a piece of luggage. Specifically, it’s 1.8 inches by 1.6 in., and 0.7 inches thick, with very rounded corners and edges. It’s a mere 1.0 ounce.
The exterior is black on silver, with a diamond pattern. No one is going to mistake it for jewelry, but this product looks nice enough.
On the front of the GeoZilla GPS Tracker is an SOS button, and the power button is on the right edge, next to the micro-USB charging port.
There’s a protective plastic case you can put the accessory in while it’s in use, and a nylon pouch too. Both include loops to make it easy to attach this tracker to a child’s backpack or pet’s collar, and there’s a small loop built right into this GPS too.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
GeoZilla software
This accessory requires the free GeoZilla Find Family & Friends application. The name works as a description — it allows users to track other users of this app. Of course, it can also follow the location of the GeoZilla GPS Tracker.
This software can follow someone with an iPhone or Apple Watch, so the stand-alone tracker is for pets or objects that don’t have an Apple device.
The location of the GeoZilla GPS Tracker shows up on a map, and the exact address can be displayed. It’s as user friendly as one could hope.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
You’ll get a text with the exact GPS location if someone presses the SOS button on the tracker, and an alarm shows up in the application.
The app also shows the battery level of this accessory, and gives reminders when the charge is getting low.
Beyond the GPS Tracker, parents might consider adding a subscription to GeoZilla Premium. This offers alerts when someone you’re tracking leaves or arrives at a location, if they’re speeding, displays weeks of location history, and more.
GeoZilla GPS Tracker performance
To test the GeoZilla GPS Tracker, we attached it to a harness on an indoor/outdoor cat and let him roam. With the iPhone app, we were able to find him whenever we wanted, and afterward see everywhere our feline friend had gone throughout the day.
Just be realistic about what kind of accuracy to expect. The consumer GPS system isn’t designed for pinpoint accuracy. The GeoZilla GPS Tracker and the associated software can get you within 50 feet or 100 feet of what you’re look for, but you’re on your own after that.
The tracker has a built-in speaker but there’s no way to make use of it. The developers need to let you play an alarm so you can find your lost item if you can’t immediately see it. In the mean time, consider pairing this accessory with a Tile Pro. This will help you close in the last few yards.
Also, the most often the tracker’s location is updated is once every five minutes Think of it as a current location, not a real-time location
in our testing, the battery lasted 5 days to a week, despite the tiny size of this accessory. How often you use the app to get the real-time location of the tracker seems to have a big effect on battery life.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
GeoZilla GPS Tracker final thoughts
This hardware/software combo can be amazingly useful if your dog jumps the fence — you can see that he’s three blocks east. Or it can reassure you that your suitcase made it to the airport with you. If little Bobby loses his backpack again, you can see it’s at Timmy house.
Being able to find something with a habit of wandering off can be a tremendous relief. That’s what GeoZilla GPS Tracker gets you.
Despite packing in a GPS, cellular phone, and battery, the hardware is small enough to easily attach to a medium-size dog. It’ll take up essentially no room in a backpack or suitcase.
But GeoZilla really needs to let users play an audible alarm on the tracker. It’s the only feature conspicuously absent.
Pricing
A GeoZilla GPS Tracker is $49.99 on this company’s website.
Buy from: GeoZilla — $49.99
It communicates with your iPhone over cellular-wireless networks, so this tracker requires a data plan. That costs $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year.
When considering a purchase, just ask yourself, how much is peace of mind worth?
GeoZilla provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out more in-depth app reviews of Apple-related items.
