The Digitrak smart suitcase has something that will make any traveler salivate: it includes a luggage scale, an extra battery to charge your devices, and most importantly, a GPS. Big problem when we paid $650: the GPS doesn’t work.
Posted at 11:00 am
We love
Manufacturer Swissdigital Design’s Digitrak is primarily a handsome grey-red suitcase made of rigid plastic, mounted on four wheels and featuring a telescopic arm for carrying. It is 17.3″ deep, 61″ high and 26″ wide. It gives an impression of solidity and good workmanship.
On the top we have a red leather strap and two small buttons. It’s the luggage scale. By lifting the suitcase with its strap we get the total weight, suitcase and contents, in pounds or kilos. We compared her reading to that of our other scale after filling her with books. The two devices differed by 0.8 pounds, which is honest. The manual promises an accuracy of 500g.
To lock the case, there are two padlocks with configurable numbers. You have to open them and inside change the position of a small lever and enter the three digits of your choice.
By pulling up the arm of the case you have access to the more technological part. A replaceable battery is embedded in it, which has two sockets, USB-A and microUSB. You can use these sockets to charge the battery or plug in a device – phone, headphones or tablet – for charging. This removable battery has a capacity of 5200 mAh, which is about the same as fully charging a phone. It also powers another 800 mAh hidden battery dedicated to cellular connection and has an autonomy of three or four days.
So far everything is working. We must then pair the case with our phone by downloading the R-Guardian application for which we will provide a QR code. By pressing a small button next to the battery for two seconds, the case will be recognized by our phone.
The R-Guardian application consists of five buttons at the very bottom of the screen. You can configure notifications when the suitcase is no longer connected via Bluetooth or show the battery level. The most important button is the location. Here we see our suitcase appearing in two states. If the battery is removed, which the manual says must be done before boarding the plane, the Bluetooth is disconnected and the cellular signal is onboard. The suitcase will appear on our map with a “disappear” time when the stack has been cleared. It should then reappear here, broadcasting its geolocation via cellular signal.
With the purchase you inherit three months free mobile connection. You then have to pay around $1 per month, depending on the package, between 3 and 24 months, via Alipay or PayPal.
We love less
Let’s start with the first catch: the QR code to download the R-Guardian application directs us to a Chinese language website. Luckily we found it on the App Store with a simple search.
The instructions in the user manual are very unclear and the application is sloppy.
Above all, the failure of the geolocation is unforgivable. We spent an entire morning testing its capabilities across Montreal, on and off the battery, dropping the case and picking it up again. To recap, the only thing that works properly is geolocation when you remove the battery. We can then clearly see on the map where this disconnection took place, information we received from the phone to which it was connected.
Without its removable main battery, the case never displayed its geolocation, even after an hour’s delay. And our free cellular plan for three months was active, we checked in the R-Guardian application.
Broken device? Battery not charging? Cellular plan activated but not working? Impossible to know, and our app didn’t give us any clues. Of course we didn’t try it on a trip abroad. Maybe we would have been more successful.
You buy?
It would be interesting to have a suitcase that can weigh itself and have the padlock codes changed for half or a third of the price.
But a $650 suitcase whose main attraction, geolocation and cellular communication, doesn’t work? NO. Too bad, the idea is good.
Digitrak
Manufacturer: Swiss digital design
Price : $649.99
Rating: 3 out of 10