Elgato Smart Key

Lou Hattersley reveals how this innovative gadget will 
help you keep track of keys and other objects

The Elgato Smart Key is an innovative new 
gadget and app for iOS users that acts as 
an iPhone proximity and movement alarm. 
You attach the circular dongle physically to your 
keys, and then connect it wirelessly to your iPhone 
using the Smart Key app. Our Elgato Smart key 
review tests the proximity alerts to see if it works 
in the real world.
These kick in when you walk away from your 
keys (because the Bluetooth connection is broken). 
The Elgato Smart Key app also alerts you when 
they are back in range. The Elgato Smart Key 
can also help you locate your keys. It does this 
by providing a map of the last known location, 
and you can get the Smarty Key dongle to emit a 

‘pinging’ noise helping you hone in on the keys.

The Elgato Smart Key has other uses too. You can
leave the Smart Key in your car, for example, and the
mapping function will help you locate it in a large car
park. You can place it in a bag to get an alert that
you’re leaving your bag behind (unless of course,
your iPhone is inside your bag). Elgato suggests
placing it in a camera bag which makes sense to us:
it’s a valuable piece of kit to lose; you can also place
your Smart Key in a suitcase before a flight and it’ll
alert you when it arrives in the baggage hall. We
didn’t actually get to test this final use (next time we
fl y we will).
Each use has a slightly di fferent feature set,
and the Smart Key o ffers the following profiles:

Keychain, Car, Camera, Handbag and Luggage.
Each profile has a slightly di fferent action
depending on when you Connect or Disconnect
to the Smart Key. In Keychain mode it shows
a confirmation message on iPhone on Connect,
and a notification on Disconnect; in a car it
plays a sound when you Connect, and remembers
your GPS position. You can add your

own custom settings too, choosing to
flash the LED and play a sound
on the key; and on the phone you can add custom
notifications and choose from a range of sounds.

On test

The Elgato Smart Key uses Bluetooth 4.0, which
is the newer low energy solution (it’s the same
technology that makes AirDrop possible). But it
still has a drain of sorts, and using the Smart Key
requires you to have Bluetooth turned on all the
time. We’re not too keen on having Bluetooth on
relentlessly on an iPhone, because if the iPhone
connects to a device using an older version
of Bluetooth it drains the battery. But it’s clear
that Bluetooth is becoming a viable low energy
connection for the future.
The range for connect or disconnect appears to
be approximately 20 metres in a clear space. So we
managed to get across the road and start walking
away before the phone made a binging noise. But
it is possible in a larger house to find the connect/
disconnect alerts coming on as you move around.
We tested it in a old Victorian house with thick walls
and with the key in the front door the alert came on
in the kitchen (less than 10 metres away). So if you
live in a larger, or older, house you might find alerts
coming on as you simply move around the home.
The alerts only appear when you move in and out
of range of the Smart Key, however, and you cannot
locate a Smart Key that is out of range of the iPhone
(and especially if it is moving around). This limits the
device somewhat, rather disappointingly it cannot
be used to keep track of the movement of pets,
although it could be used to help locate a missing
cat if you walked around with the iPhone and looked
for the Bluetooth connection to kick in.
Having the alerts come on and o as you walk
around the house can prove to be annoying.
Fortunately you can also set Safe Zones, areas
where the key does not come on or o . Tap Settings
and Add Safe zone in your home and the Elgato
Smart Key app will not give you an alert in that
area. It will wait until you leave the area (using GPS)
and the Bluetooth connection is broken before
issuing a notification. This extend the area that the
phone works, for us we found it kicked in a
little further away (but not much, another 5 metres).
The App does warn you however that
turning Safe Zones on “may drain your battery
more quickly.” We didn’t see any confirmation
of this but assume that because the app is using
Location Services along with Bluetooth to monitor
positioning that it may be causing a drain on
the battery. We used the Battery app to monitor
usage but noted little di fference between using
the Smart Key or not.

Battery

While we didn’t su er from battery drain on the
iPhone from using the Smart Key, the real challenge
is how long the battery life lasts in the Smart Key
itself. Elgato claims that the replaceable battery (a
CR2032) will last six months. This seems credible to
us, and replacements can be picked up for around
£5. This method outlasts the rival HipKey device,
which comes with a rechargeable battery which
needs charging via USB every two to four weeks.

iPad & iPhone User buying advice

There’s little doubting that the Elgato Smart Key
a useful little device, but we don’t tend to forget
our keys so often that we feel the need for a £40
iPhone dongle. But that’s a personal judgement
call and if you’re the sort of person who is forever
forgetting to carry their keychain out the door
you’ll fi nd it invaluable.
So whether the Elgato Smart Key is an essential
device is somewhat debatable. But what is clear
is that the system works, so if you think the Elgato
Smart Key is the sort of device you would fi nd useful,
then it’s certainly the way to go about it.