Wistiki Voilà – Philippe Starck designed key tracker review
Wistiki Voila
£45
Pros
- Very stylish - Starck, what can I say?
- Presentation is great
- Feels well made
- Performs well
- Friendly interface
Cons
- Pricier than other trackers
You may have already read my review about Tile, the key tracker. Well, as good as it is at doing its job, it probably won’t win any fashion shows. Wistiki, on the other hand, has had some help from renowned designer Philippe Starck for their Voilà.
Keys can be pesky things at times. So can bags, cars and bikes. We know this. We covered most of this ground already in my Tile review.
So, let’s get straight to the burning question. What’s different about the Wistiki Voilà, and why should I want one?
Wistiki Voilà unboxing
It’s not often I do unboxings but, before I even got to the device, I could tell that some care had been taken in the way the Voilà was packaged.
There’s an outer box which slides off and then the inner opens up. These are all presented in classy, understated style.
When you finally get to the device it is nestled in foam rubber and can be extricated easily thanks to a finger gap in the foam.
Once the device is freed you can see a user guide – but can’t quite get to it. This is because it actually slides out of one side of the box.
For such a small object, they have really gone to town on how you first meet it.
Wistiki Voilà design
Imagine asking Philippe Starck to design a USB stick and you’d probably get something similar to the Voilà.
I love his eye for industrial design and I like what he has done for what could be as utilitarian as a key tracker.
The device measures 6.5cm long, 0.6cm wide and 2.2cm across.
At the top is an opening for a keyring, and then at the bottom there’s a small coloured transparent plastic section that covers the circuit board. It actually reminds me of the ONEmicro’s dongle.
There is a selection of colours so that, when you assign them particular jobs, you won’t get them mixed up. I was sent the orange one, but you can also get it in purple, pink or yellow.
Wistiki Voilà performance
Set up
This is the all too familiar ‘download free app’ process we’ve seen and done thousands of times before so I won’t waste too much time on this bit.
Make sure you have your phone’s Bluetooth switched on, download the app, and follow the on-screen wizard. I did try starting off by using the QR code in the user guide but that sent me to a Zendesk site.
The app is available from Google Play and Apple App Store.
You have to register for an account and activate it through email and then you’re almost good to go.
When your app tells you to, just hold down the thumb indentation on your Voilà ’til you hear a tune. Then you’re done.
Voila!
Once you have set it up, you are ready to use the Voilà to track your phone or keys easily.
Press the bell icon on the app and the tracker will play its cheerful 90 decibel tune for around 12 seconds or so.
If you have your keys but have lost your mobile: press the button on the tracker you used to pair it with your smartphone and your phone will ring for about 3 seconds (even when it’s on silent or vibrate only).
On the app, you also have some tracking features that allows you to hunt your keys down. There’s map integration as well as a hot/cold bar that changes as you get closer to your keys.
The Voila also has a range of around 300 feet, so you can communicate with it from quite far away.
However, as the app does track the Voilà’s last known position, it is possible to track your keys from outside of that range.
Just as the Tile does, the Wistiki device will automatically search for other users, and notify them via their app if they should pass in the vicinity of your keys.
If this happens you will then be able to open up a chat with that user to get your keys back. Of course, that only works as long as a number of people use the tracker. But, at £45 a pop, any help will be happily received I should imagine.
A feature I didn’t use is Wistiki sharing. This lets you grant up to 6 users access to a single Wistiki device, which I imagine makes for some incredibly effective family car key-hunting efforts.
To share Wistiki, just tap on the tracker’s icon on the app’s main page, then hit share. Whoever you share it with will need to make their own account, and will then be able to do everything that you can with the app and tracker – apart from adding new users.
I almost forgot to mention. The Voilà can take a dunking. The website states that it is “rain resistant and can be submerged”.
Battery life
According to Wistiki, ‘love lasts 3 years’ – remember, this is a French company and they apparently know a thing or two about this.
I am guessing that, by then, there will be a newer, fancier version. I have a feeling that, as this is a ‘designer’ key tracker, it’s more about changes in fashion than upgrades.
Wistiki Voilà review conclusion
The Wistiki Voilà does look and feel like a well constructed and well conceived device.
I do love the attention to detail, right from the packaging through to the device and even the way the app is designed. You can even colour code your trackers in the app.
All of this does come at a price though. One that fans of Philippe Starck are probably used to paying.
Does it do anything that the other tracker I recently reviewed did? Nope. Does it do anything better than the other tracker did? Nope. Does it look and feel better? Yes.
I can see more people attaching a Voilà to their bags on the outside than the other white tracker (Wistiki does one of them too). It does look more of a bag charm than a tracking device.
I think I’d be more likely to buy a Voilà or the wallet-friendly Hopla as gifts, rather than a plain plastic white thing.
Wistiki Voilà price and availability
You can purchase one of these devices in one of four colours for 49.90€ direct from the Wistiki site.
