Oppo reportedly working on its own version of Airtags

Although object trackers have been around since as early as 2017, they were essentially a niche product. They could now be what smartwatches/fitness bands/TWS earbuds were some time ago- yet another part of the ever-increasing 'ecosystem' brands are looking to create. Oppo appears to be the first Chinese OEM to express interest in the object tracker market. We stumbled upon it earlier via a patent filing.

Renders of what appear to be OPPO's Airtag/Galaxy SmartTag equivalent showed up on Weibo (via XDA Developers). There isn't particularly unique about its shape. It does, however, come with a USB Type-C port for some reason. This is a less than ideal solution, as it makes Oppo's yet-to-be-announced trackers prone to water damage. Furthermore, it adds yet another piece of equipment that requires charging. Wireless charging functionality would have been ideal, but Oppo could have left it out due to increased costs.

Another noteworthy feature that Oppo's object tracker offers is UWB (ultra-wideband) functionality. UWB is ideal (and more accurate) at tracking objects nearby. Bluetooth and NFC could be included, too. There is, however, one slight problem. None of the Oppo phones launched so far come with a UWB chip. Assuming this leak is accurate, some of Oppo's future offerings could ship with a UWB chip. Unfortunately, that does nothing for Oppo's existing customers, who will have to miss out on the object tracker's best feature.

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