Aldi tracker review | Auto XS / Streetwize GPS Vehicle Tracker tested

Date reviewed: September 2022 | Tested by: John Milbank | RRP: £39.99 + £30/year | www.aldi.co.uk

There are a huge range of motorcycle trackers available now, with the most popular having already been thoroughly tested by Bennetts BikeSocial here. It’s important to understand though that they fall into two categories:

• Monitored trackers that give you access to a 24/7 monitoring team who will fully track any theft, liaise with the police and, in some cases, secure the bike and help with recovery.

• Un-monitored trackers, which leaves the user to track the bike, notify police and get it back.

The Aldi Auto XS GPS tracker on review here appears to be the same as the Streetwize tracker sold at Halfords, Amazon, Toolstation, eBay and other retailers. It’s an un-monitored tracker that’s claimed to be suitable for motorcycles, cars, caravans and vans. I fitted it to a 2001 Honda VFR800 to find out what it’s like day-to-day, and how good it is in several real-world theft scenarios…

Features

The Aldi / Streetwize tracker is fairly small, measuring just 52x52x18mm, which makes it pretty easy to tuck away on the bike (or attach to a dog’s collar, if you want). Like any tracker though, it must NOT be placed under the seat as thieves will typically rip this off to check if a tracker has been poorly installed.

The Aldi XS GPS tracker has a built-in 1,000mAh battery that’s claimed to last up to 72 hours, though this is with the device in sleep mode. If sleep mode is turned off, or it’s activated by movement, the claimed life is 12 hours. Battery life will vary significantly, but if it’s on a bike, as soon as you ride off it’ll wake up, so don’t expect to use this as a battery-powered device like the Monimoto, which in my testing lasted six months of solid use.

Realistically, as a battery-powered device, the Aldi tracker is only really any good for tucking away over night when the bike’s parked up. And as you’ll need to reach it to charge it, you’ll be unlikely to hide it very well.

Fortunately it also comes with a charging cable that connects to the bike’s battery, however the box on the lead measures an additional 48x82x22mm, and it connects to the tracker via a fragile and not water-resistant micro-USB cable. It works, but it’s far from the most reliable or compact solution.

The Aldi XS GPS Vehicle Tracker uses GPS only for its location, not adding any of the additional technologies seen on higher-end devices.

While this is an un-monitored tracker, you do still have to pay £30 each year for the SIM card installed inside, or £10 every 120 days.

The power supply isn’t huge, but you have to take it into consideration

Fitting

Finding somewhere to hide the tracker and the charging box (being mindful of any potential for water ingress) is the easy part; it’s setting up the device that can be a problem.

While the instructions say you need to open the tracker with the supplied mini-screwdriver to install the included SIM card, mine was already fitted. This unit was purchased online via the Aldi store, and it was sealed, so we can assume that this is how they’re all delivered. One of the screws was loose though, so if you do buy one, check yours.

The tracker comes with a small, comprehensive 56 page instruction booklet, and registering the SIM with ‘1p mobile’ was simple. It comes with £1 credit, which is enough to get it set up, but then you must keep it topped up with at least £10 every 120 days, or £30 / year to keep it activated. The card that has the SIM’s number on warns that ‘heavy use may require additional top-ups to be added’, but after three months of fairly typical use, I still had £29.95 credit.

From this point, the instructions do guide you through the process of setting up your smartphone as the ‘admin’ of the tracker, but the process involves sending specific codes via text message. It took me three attempts before I got the ‘admin okay’ message back, then setting up other items like shock sensing requires more codes. You can also track it by sending the message G123456# to the tracker’s number, which will ping back a location in the form of a Google maps link.

The tracker also works with the TKStar GPS Smartphone app, available on iOS and Android (the system I’m using). Configuring this requires inputting APN settings, though you are guided through these by the instructions too.]

Granted I’m getting old now, but I’m the geeky one at BikeSocial, and found it confusing getting the tracker set up (I taught myself Arduino coding, electronics design and 3D printing as hobbies, to give you an idea of my tech-savvyness). Persevere and you’ll get there, but this is a far cry from the simplicity of Monimoto, or of course a fully-featured monitored tracker from the likes of BikeTrac and Datatool.

The app is definitely not the highlight of the Aldi / Streetwize tracker

Day-to-day use

The TKStar app is horrible.

It’s a generic app, so not all of the functions work as expected (or at all), and it doesn’t communicate both ways with the tracker, so won’t show you what settings it’s applied. For instance, I added my wife’s number as an emergency contact, but there was no way to delete it. In the end I sent a new number that seems to have over-written it, to stop her getting alerts during testing.

Once opened on Android the app keeps running, with a permanent notification on the home screen that it’s open. This notification can only be removed by force-stopping the app.

The tracker itself can be set to send an SMS if it senses any movement, but as it doesn’t know when the ignition is turned on, it’ll do this while you ride it too, so it has to be turned off.

When running, the app will send you a notification of movement, so you can force this to quit if you don’t want them, but you must remember to open the app again in order to get alerts. Of course, if the bike’s stolen and you didn’t have it open, you can still fire it up (or text the device) to get the location.

The TKStar app can show past routes taken but it can only search a period of one day, and is very clunky to use.

Aldi tracker drain on bike battery

When charging the internal battery, the Aldi XS / Streetwize GPS vehicle tracker draws 356mA from your bike’s battery, however this drops to 3mA when the device is ‘asleep’. Wake it up through movement, and it pulls around 100mA.

This is higher than a quality tracker like those we’ve reviewed from Datatool and BikeTrac, which can pull less than 1mA when they’re ‘asleep’, but it’s not too bad. As with all trackers though, if you’re not using your bike for an extended period, it’s worth popping it on a maintenance charger.

We test the current draw of trackers, rather than rely on manufacturer claims

Theft test

All our tracker tests are conducted in the same way – we don’t tell the manufacturer when we intend to perform a mock theft, and while we won’t waste police time to raise a crime number (if necessary for monitored systems), we expect the device (if it’s self-monitored) or operations centre to demonstrate the full service.

Level one: Stolen and left in street: Due to the fact that the Aldi tracker’s own SMS alert isn’t really practical to use on a motorcycle, you have to have the app running for a notification to come through (which still takes the form of an SMS). Once started, the app does stay running, but it doesn’t reboot automatically after a restart, so if you want the notifications of movement, you must remember to turn it on.

As the text comes from the tracker’s number, you can allocate a particularly long / loud alert, but I do prefer the urgency of Monimoto’s phone call, which is far more likely to wake you up at night, or pull you out of a meeting.

During use, I haven’t found the Aldi Streetwize tracker to be reliable in its motion triggers, so it really can’t be trusted to notify you if someone is tampering with, or moving your bike.

However, once a location is either manually pinged or checked in the app, the accuracy outdoors is very good, pinpointing the bike to within couple of metres.

Level two: Stolen and hidden in a building: While the alerts of movement are unreliable, tracking the bike into a building still gives very good results, locating the bike at the location, or very close.

Even in a van, the Aldi tracker is surprisingly accurate

location it’s fitted (a tracker needs a clear ‘line of sight’ with minimal metal blocking it for best results), the Aldi XS GPS tracker was impressively accurate even while being moved about in our test van.

An alert came through of movement during the test as soon as I lifted the bike off its stand, then stopping about two miles from the ‘theft’ point, I checked the app and it showed exactly where I was. Another alert came through, but there were no more during the five-mile test.

The app updated the tracker’s location every 15 seconds, a straight line joining the dots on the map.

Bike jacking

If you’re unlucky enough to have your bike stolen with the keys in, you’ll still be able to track it by using the device as the ignition status doesn’t affect it.

Support

There is no online or telephone support for the Aldi tracker, though it does have a one-year warranty, which usually means you can return it to an Aldi store for a refund.

Aldi XS GPS vehicle tracker review: Verdict

There’s no denying that the Aldi tracker, which is made by Streetwize, can – with careful fitting – be surprisingly accurate, but unfortunately that doesn’t make it something I can recommend for motorcycles, despite it apparently earning an Auto Express award.

It proved accurate when the bike’s hidden in a building or transported in a van, so in that respect it’s good. However, the app is awful to use, and the notifications are unreliable. Monimoto has the advantage here that you get a phone call the moment the bike’s knocked, but when you’re with it, Monimoto’s small fob prevents it from making a call.

The Aldi tracker proved as accurate as the Thatcham-approved fully-monitored high-level trackers that I’ve tested, which is impressive, but you have no support from a secure operating centre that would work with the Police to get your bike back, often within less than an hour. Of course, that service costs money, but given that the Aldi / Streetwize tracker costs £30 per year to keep running, yet the BikeTrac Lite, for instance, only costs £60 per year, the premium product seems the better investment.

A combination of a terrible generic app and a hard-wire system that isn’t suited to motorcycles means there are better options out there. Fit it carefully, and if you can put up with the app then perhaps consider it, but if you have a motorcycle that’s worth putting a tracker on, I’d strongly recommend something better.

For more information on tracking systems, click here.