The Ultimate AirTag Survival Test: Freezing, Dropping, and Putting it Through Its Paces

In this article, we put Apple's AirTags through their paces to see how they would fare in real-world scenarios. Our tests aimed to simulate common situations that users might encounter with their devices, from extreme temperatures to accidental drops.

The Freeze Test: Can AirTags withstand the Cold?

We started by freezing our AirTags in an ice tray to test their ability to withstand extremely low temperatures. We left them in the freezer for 18 hours and checked if they would still function correctly. To our surprise, the AirTag's find my app was still showing up on our device, and when we played a sound, it worked as expected. However, when we tried to open the freezer, we found that the AirTag had developed a small amount of water ingress by the battery. Fortunately, this didn't seem to have any significant impact on its performance.

We then defrosted the AirTag by submerging it in warm water and drying it off. To our relief, it still worked perfectly after being frozen for so long. This test demonstrated that AirTags can withstand freezing temperatures without suffering any major damage.

The Drop Test: Can AirTags Handle Accidental Drops?

Next, we dropped our AirTags from various heights to simulate the kind of accidental drops users might experience in everyday life. We repeated this process 10 times, dropping each AirTag multiple times and checking its performance after each drop. To our surprise, none of the AirTags failed to function correctly.

However, as expected, some of them developed minor scratches on their surfaces. The Apple tag showed a small mark on the logo, while the Spigen tag with a leather finish also had some minor scuffs. Despite these minor cosmetic issues, all of the AirTags continued to work perfectly after each drop.

The Results: What Did We Learn?

Our tests demonstrated that AirTags are surprisingly robust and can withstand a range of situations that users might encounter in everyday life. They performed well in extreme temperatures, survived multiple drops without suffering any significant damage, and still functioned correctly even with minor cosmetic issues.

Of course, it's worth noting that these tests were not covered under warranty, so proceed at your own risk if you want to try recreating these tests at home. Nevertheless, the results of our experiments suggest that AirTags are well-designed devices that can handle a lot of wear and tear.

The Future of AirTags: What's Next?

As we continue to explore the capabilities and limitations of AirTags, there are many possibilities for future testing and experimentation. Some potential areas to investigate further include:

* Heat tests: Would AirTags perform well in extremely hot temperatures? Perhaps using a hair dryer or oven?

* Pressure tests: How would AirTags fare when subjected to pressure or stress?

* Water damage: What would happen if an AirTag was submerged in water for an extended period?

* Battery life: How long would AirTags last on a single charge?

For now, it's clear that Apple's AirTags are capable devices that can handle a lot of abuse. But as with any device, there may be some limitations or quirks that we haven't discovered yet. We'll continue to monitor and test these devices to learn more about their capabilities and potential weaknesses.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso i've just got my hands on a set of apple air tags let's find out how tough they really are now these little trackers are designed to go on everything from your keys to even getting thrown in a bag or a backpack and as a result it seems like they should be able to withstand some pretty rough treatment so i've come up with three scenarios that i think are kind of representative of what might happen in the real world when you're using the air tags so let's head to the testing laboratory no it's just my house i've been here too long i don't know about you but every time i do a load of laundry i always seem to leave something in the pocket so for this test i'm going to see what happens when i throw an air tag in with my regular cold load of laundry and it's going to be in the pocket of something so let's try it detergent and clothes air tag in the pocket because uh i just accidentally left it in there all right i'm genuinely interested to see what happens now apple rates the air tag for ip67 which means it can withstand one meter of water for up to 30 minutes but this one is going to be interesting because it's detergent there's a lot of other stuff going on don't forget this is all super unscientific and really really just for fun all right i'll see you in 54 minutes okay there's about 12 minutes left to go on the washing cycle and i just wanted to see what was happening it looks like it's saying it's with me so it's connected let's see if i can play a sound connecting that's a good sign it's actually playing the sound i can hear it i don't know if this microphone can pick it up but i'm just gonna keep playing it and see if you can hear it over the sound of the washer but trust me it's playing what a sweet song i it makes me feel so happy every time i do a load of laundry and i hate doing laundry so it's kind of nice all right let's open this up and see if the air tag has survived and honestly i have no idea where it's going to be in this big pile let's see if i can take a look it's a lonely little air tag just sitting in the back that's pretty cool all right let's take it out and see how it looks a little scuffed but nothing too major it's working i can hear the sound sounds you know i'm pretty loud too exactly the same as before and let me just put it in the pile of laundry just to make sure that i can actually find it with the nearby finding uwb oh okay okay it's definitely found it two feet yep there we go nearby yep and it's vibrating too everything seems to work as expected well airtag you survived this round i'm pretty impressed so for the freeze test i'm in my kitchen and i have a new air tag so i'm using a separate air tag for every single test and i'm going to simulate what might happen if you live in a really cold climate for example and say you drop your keys or leave them in the snow so let's freeze this all right it's been about 18 hours since i put the air tag in the freezer in the ice tray so i wanted to see first up if the find my app is showing up anything so okay let's take a look at the freeze air tag okay so it says with me which is a good sign see if i can play sound it's playing the sound um but i can't hear anything okay let's try find nearby okay it's getting a signal oh i'm turning around yeah it seems to be receiving a signal so that's a good sign but i can't hear anything so let's open up the freezer and see what happens one frozen air tag that's actually pretty cool it was worth it just to see this all right so i have some warm water here and i'm just gonna defrost this quickly to expedite the process here we go so that water was pretty hot it's gone from really really cold so minus 19 degrees celsius which is just under zero degrees fahrenheit or pretty much zero degrees fahrenheit and now it's pretty pretty hot so i'm gonna dry it off and see what happens if the sound will still play it's working i can hear the sound okay well it sounds like it's freeze proof and find nearby here okay still working well i'm genuinely surprised i thought something might have gone wrong but it seems to be all clear but just before we declare it an absolute victory for the air tech i did want to just take the cover off and check and see if there was any water ingress and i can see there's just a little bit there by the battery but it does look to be completely sealed so i think it's just stopped where the seal has happened so again if you do come into contact with any water or if you accidentally freeze your keys then maybe you should just pop the cover off and just give it a wipe now it's time for the drop test i am going to drop the ear tags they are on a key fob this one is not actually an apple and this one is a spigen one that is a leather finish but i've seen a lot of reports of people saying that the air tags have been scratched after really really minimal use just with keys on them and i have literally only had this fob on the air tag for about i would say a minute and i had the keys just rustling in my pocket and there's already a little mark on the apple logo so full disclosure it's not pristine the moment i drop it so i'm just going to drop it from a couple different heights and then assess the damage on the outside and just of course make sure it still works so i'm going to drop it first from around hip height which is about i guess three feet okay three two one drop first drop not too bad all right i'm gonna just repeat this a couple times just to simulate how many drops that you would actually drop your keys in the real world before they kind of start to get super scuffed lucky last number 10 the air tag popped off okay cool all right let's see the damage okay not too bad there's some definite scuffs that i can see there i almost forgot to do the actual test of the air tag to make sure they still worked after those 10 drops so here we go i'm just gonna play the sound and also do the fine nearby and make sure it works three tests later the air tags are still working as expected and nothing out of the ordinary really happened now you probably noticed that i bought a full pack of air tags so if you have an idea of what i can do to number four which is still pristine i haven't touched that one let me know in the comments below maybe it's a stress test a pressure test of some sort or maybe it's even a heat test like throwing it in the dryer i was a little scared to do that you know batteries and heat don't really mix that well but if you have an idea i'd love to hear about it and of course don't forget this was all just for fun all of this sort of stuff was not covered under warranty so do proceed at your own risk if you do want to recreate any of these at home thanks again for watching and i'll catch you next time are you serious it's still goodso i've just got my hands on a set of apple air tags let's find out how tough they really are now these little trackers are designed to go on everything from your keys to even getting thrown in a bag or a backpack and as a result it seems like they should be able to withstand some pretty rough treatment so i've come up with three scenarios that i think are kind of representative of what might happen in the real world when you're using the air tags so let's head to the testing laboratory no it's just my house i've been here too long i don't know about you but every time i do a load of laundry i always seem to leave something in the pocket so for this test i'm going to see what happens when i throw an air tag in with my regular cold load of laundry and it's going to be in the pocket of something so let's try it detergent and clothes air tag in the pocket because uh i just accidentally left it in there all right i'm genuinely interested to see what happens now apple rates the air tag for ip67 which means it can withstand one meter of water for up to 30 minutes but this one is going to be interesting because it's detergent there's a lot of other stuff going on don't forget this is all super unscientific and really really just for fun all right i'll see you in 54 minutes okay there's about 12 minutes left to go on the washing cycle and i just wanted to see what was happening it looks like it's saying it's with me so it's connected let's see if i can play a sound connecting that's a good sign it's actually playing the sound i can hear it i don't know if this microphone can pick it up but i'm just gonna keep playing it and see if you can hear it over the sound of the washer but trust me it's playing what a sweet song i it makes me feel so happy every time i do a load of laundry and i hate doing laundry so it's kind of nice all right let's open this up and see if the air tag has survived and honestly i have no idea where it's going to be in this big pile let's see if i can take a look it's a lonely little air tag just sitting in the back that's pretty cool all right let's take it out and see how it looks a little scuffed but nothing too major it's working i can hear the sound sounds you know i'm pretty loud too exactly the same as before and let me just put it in the pile of laundry just to make sure that i can actually find it with the nearby finding uwb oh okay okay it's definitely found it two feet yep there we go nearby yep and it's vibrating too everything seems to work as expected well airtag you survived this round i'm pretty impressed so for the freeze test i'm in my kitchen and i have a new air tag so i'm using a separate air tag for every single test and i'm going to simulate what might happen if you live in a really cold climate for example and say you drop your keys or leave them in the snow so let's freeze this all right it's been about 18 hours since i put the air tag in the freezer in the ice tray so i wanted to see first up if the find my app is showing up anything so okay let's take a look at the freeze air tag okay so it says with me which is a good sign see if i can play sound it's playing the sound um but i can't hear anything okay let's try find nearby okay it's getting a signal oh i'm turning around yeah it seems to be receiving a signal so that's a good sign but i can't hear anything so let's open up the freezer and see what happens one frozen air tag that's actually pretty cool it was worth it just to see this all right so i have some warm water here and i'm just gonna defrost this quickly to expedite the process here we go so that water was pretty hot it's gone from really really cold so minus 19 degrees celsius which is just under zero degrees fahrenheit or pretty much zero degrees fahrenheit and now it's pretty pretty hot so i'm gonna dry it off and see what happens if the sound will still play it's working i can hear the sound okay well it sounds like it's freeze proof and find nearby here okay still working well i'm genuinely surprised i thought something might have gone wrong but it seems to be all clear but just before we declare it an absolute victory for the air tech i did want to just take the cover off and check and see if there was any water ingress and i can see there's just a little bit there by the battery but it does look to be completely sealed so i think it's just stopped where the seal has happened so again if you do come into contact with any water or if you accidentally freeze your keys then maybe you should just pop the cover off and just give it a wipe now it's time for the drop test i am going to drop the ear tags they are on a key fob this one is not actually an apple and this one is a spigen one that is a leather finish but i've seen a lot of reports of people saying that the air tags have been scratched after really really minimal use just with keys on them and i have literally only had this fob on the air tag for about i would say a minute and i had the keys just rustling in my pocket and there's already a little mark on the apple logo so full disclosure it's not pristine the moment i drop it so i'm just going to drop it from a couple different heights and then assess the damage on the outside and just of course make sure it still works so i'm going to drop it first from around hip height which is about i guess three feet okay three two one drop first drop not too bad all right i'm gonna just repeat this a couple times just to simulate how many drops that you would actually drop your keys in the real world before they kind of start to get super scuffed lucky last number 10 the air tag popped off okay cool all right let's see the damage okay not too bad there's some definite scuffs that i can see there i almost forgot to do the actual test of the air tag to make sure they still worked after those 10 drops so here we go i'm just gonna play the sound and also do the fine nearby and make sure it works three tests later the air tags are still working as expected and nothing out of the ordinary really happened now you probably noticed that i bought a full pack of air tags so if you have an idea of what i can do to number four which is still pristine i haven't touched that one let me know in the comments below maybe it's a stress test a pressure test of some sort or maybe it's even a heat test like throwing it in the dryer i was a little scared to do that you know batteries and heat don't really mix that well but if you have an idea i'd love to hear about it and of course don't forget this was all just for fun all of this sort of stuff was not covered under warranty so do proceed at your own risk if you do want to recreate any of these at home thanks again for watching and i'll catch you next time are you serious it's still good\n"