In 1989 the first GPS tracking device NAV 1000 was developed by Magellan measuring 8.75×3.5×2.25 inches and weighing 1.5 lbs. It could track for just a couple of hours and cost $3000 – An expensive dinosaur by today’s standards. After more than 30 years we have come a long a long way to the point when GPS tracking devices are so small that you can hold them between your fingertips and have become more affordable than ever.
This review of Trak4 mobile GPS tracker covers everything you should know about the device before making up the mind of buying it. Here is a brief outline of the points covered in this review:
- Why buy a GPS tracker?
- Box contents
- Build quality
- Activation and Setup
- Using the Trak-4 GPS tracker
- Features
- Battery performance
- Subscription Plans
- Comparison
- FAQs
- Customer Support
- Verdict
Why buy a GPS tracker?
If you are worried about your teenager’s driving especially when he/she has been taking their car for a spin all over the town, any time of the day you should probably look into putting a GPS tracker on their car. Or suppose you have your elderly parent at home and you are concerned about their safety when you are away at work. Or maybe you are a business owner managing a fleet of vehicles. You would want to be kept constantly updated about the location, route, and driving habits of your drivers. In all these scenarios a portable GPS tracking device would be the perfect solution for you. The tracker will give you real time tracking and location updates no matter where you are.
GPS trackers have found their use in so many areas such as personal tracking, commercial freight tracking, wildlife tracking, asset tracking, aircraft tracking and so on. All this is possible thanks to the GPS satellites constantly receiving and transmitting location data without even us noticing it. Today commercial GPS technology is found in more devices than any other wireless technology.
What’s in the box?
Trak-4 has kept the packaging of the device pretty neat and simple. The box includes the GPS tracker itself, a wall charger, a quick start guide and couple of charging port rubber plugs.
Don’t expect a detailed printed instruction manual because most manufacturers have done away with that in the interest of conserving trees. Who reads manuals anyways these days as you can find the information you are looking for readily on the internet. The quick start guide has all the necessary information you’ll need to get the device up and running.
Robust build quality
Trak-4 GPS tracker comes in grey color and is made up of sturdy ABS plastic. The unit measures 4.1×2.2×1.1 inches and weighs 6.4 ounces. Inside it houses a Lithium polymer battery making it slightly heavier than other portable GPS trackers out there. But still 6 ounces is hardly what you’d call heavy.
Trak-4 GPS tracker is a weather-proof device so you can use it outdoors as well as indoors. It can be mounted anywhere like vehicles, trailers, equipment or simply pop into a pocket or bag.
As the device is weather-proof it can also be used in marine environment to track boats and vessels. One of the drawbacks we found with the design is the complete lack of indicator lights or switches to let the user know about device status. A couple of LED indicators and a reset button would have been very useful which showed Power on/off, charging, GPS lock and cellular signal status.
Activation and Setup
Before you can start tracking, Trak-4 mobile GPS tracker needs to be activated. The activation and setup process is simple and can be completed in a few minutes. All you need to do is sign up for a new account on Trak-4.com and add the product key of your new GPS tracker. You can select from 3 subscription plans depending on your requirements. More on that later.
Once you have made the payment for your desired plan your device will be activated and you will be ready to receive real time location updates on your account dashboard. Head over to our Trak-4 Activation Guide for a detailed step by step process on how to activate and set up your Trak-4 mobile GPS tracker.
Using Trak-4 GPS tracker
Trak-4 is a universal GPS tracker that can be used to track anything. You don’t have to worry about attaching it to a constant power source thanks to its built-in battery. A majority of GPS trackers users buy the device to track their vehicles driven by a family member or an employee. Trak- 4 is a great device for this purpose. Moreover it can also be used to keep an eye on your valuable assets in transit, monitoring elderly people who need assistance or maybe some important equipment and machinery. It is an easy to use device that can be mounted, stuck or placed anywhere and is ready to do its work.
Features
Cell Trilateration
Sometimes GPS lock cannot be established from covered areas like garages or buildings. In such cases Trak-4 cellular trilateration comes in handy which gives an approximate location based on the nearest AT&T cell tower. This way you will never have to worry about your tracker going dark in bad weather or covered areas. It also has a network fallback feature which enables the device to use 2G cellular signal in places where 3G connectivity is not available.
Update frequency
Trak-4 gives you the option to choose from reporting frequencies or pings ranging from an hour to a minute. Depending upon your requirements you can subscribe for 1 minute, 10 minutes or hourly reporting.
| Ping Frequency | Ideal for |
| 1 Minute | Tracking teenage drivers, Private investigators |
| 10 Minutes | Mobile assets, Elderly tracking |
| 1 Hour | Asset tracking, Equipment, Anti theft |
Alerts and Notifications
When you log into your Trak-4 account it displays all the important information about the tracker and its location such as its GPS position, local weather, battery status, current reporting frequency, last reported etc. Here you can setup your tracker to notify and alert you about your tracker’s whereabouts on your desired phone number and email.
Geozones
You can set up geozones or geofences to confine the tracker to a particular area. Geo zones are virtual boundaries drawn on the map to receive notification whenever the tracker enters or leaves the zone. Think of it just like a security door which beeps every time you pass through it except you get an alert on notification about the event. This feature is immensely useful if you want to confine your subject’s moment to a particular area.
Use with multiple trackers
If you are a fleet owner or wish to track multiple subjects, this feature can be of great use for you. Trak-4 dashboard lets you add multiple trackers in the same account enabling you to track more than one devices and even share access with others.
Other features
Daily check-in : Even when the device is not moving the GPS tracker will report once daily.
Map History: Animated ant-trails indicate the direction of travel of your Trak-4 over time.
REST API for GPS Reports – Use the Trak-4 service as your asset location database. (Business class feature)
Battery Performance
Trak-4 comes with a 4600 MAh Lithium polymer rechargeable internal battery. The company says it can provide up to 18 months of service on a single charge with daily GPS reports, 2-4 months with hourly reporting, 2-4 weeks with 15 minutes reporting and 2-4 days with 2 minutes reporting.
A large percentage of the buyer reviews on Amazon confirm the battery performance is as advertised by Trak-4 and is a great choice for long term tracking. They also have a version with wiring harness to draw power directly from a vehicle battery with 12 Volt systems. If you do not want to keep track of the tracker’s battery level when tracking your car just plug it to the vehicle’s battery. Now even if someone disconnects the car battery your device would still be up and running thanks to its internal battery.
Subscription Plans
Based on the ping frequency Trak-4 GPS tracker comes with three kinds of subscription plans –
Basic, Premium and Elite – offering one hour, 15 minutes and one minute ping frequencies respectively. You can either choose to pay monthly or annually for each of these plans.
| Plan | Monthly Fee | Annual Fee | Ping Rate |
| Basic | $12.99 | $6.99 ($83.88/year) | Every 1 hour when running |
| Premium | $16.99 | $9.99 ($119.88/year) | Basic plan + Every 15 minutes when running |
| Elite | $18.98 | $14.99 ($179.88/year) | Basic plan + Premium plan + Every 1 minute when running |
The best part about Trak-4 subscription is that there are no activation or cancellation charges. You can start using the device fresh off the box without spending a dime other than the subscription fee. The annual subscription option proves to be the cheaper alternative in the long run but if you just want to use it for certain periods of the year you can always choose the monthly fee option.
Comparison
A lot of the Trak-4 GPS tracker features are similar to other portable GPS trackers available in the market. They all offer real time tracking, notifications, alerts and a bunch of other useful tools to keep you connected with your valuables, assets, employees, loved ones and so on. However the things that set them apart are factors like usability, price, design, build quality, customer support and so on.
Many products that have stellar specifications and appear to be a great buy on paper, turn out to perform poorly on the customer satisfaction index. At the end of the day what matters is whether the product succeeds in fulfilling your desired needs and checks all your requirement boxes. Here is a quick comparison of some of the popular GPS trackers with similar specs and features to give you a better idea of how Trak-4 Mobile GPS Tracker stacks up against its competitors.
| Trak-4 | Land Air Sea 54 | Trak-i | Spytec GL300MA | |
| Dimensions | 4.25×2.25×1.1 in | 2.25×2.25×0.8 in | 1.74×1.5×0.6 in | 3x1x1.5 in |
| Weight | 6.4 ounces | 4.8 ounces | 3.2 ounces | 5.6 ounces |
| Price | $48.8 | $47.95 | $28.88 | $49.95 |
| Monthly fee | $12.99 monthly $6.99 monthly | $24.95 | $9.95 | $19.95 |
| Warranty | 2 year limited | 1 year limited | lifetime | Lifetime |
| Coverage | US only | US, Worldwide | Worldwide | Worldwide |
| Standby time | 1 month in power saving mode | 2 weeks | 2 weeks at 1 min reporting, 6 months in battery saving mode | 2 weeks |
| Email and text Alerts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Customer Support
Trak4 website covers a host of FAQs and How To videos about installation, setup and usage of the tracker. However they can definitely make some improvements to their customer support section. I couldn’t find a live chat box to instantly connect with a tech support representative. The contact section simply lists the companies email, phone number and basic contact form. I was expecting the Trak-4 website to be a bit more interactive and open to its potential customers in order to assure them that they are available for help 24×7.
Another important point to note is the lack of a mobile app. What Trak-4 offers is a web app which can be accessed via mobile browser like Chrome or Safari. Although it gets the job done, the experience would have been better with a dedicated downloadable Android and Apple application. Nowadays almost every GPS manufacturer has an app with full functionality which makes everything faster and easier.
Lastly I couldn’t find a detailed instruction manual of the Trak-4 anywhere on the manufacturers website or elsewhere. There’s just a quick start guide that comes with the device.
FAQs
Does Trak-4 have a monthly fee?
Trak-4 is an active monitoring GPS tracker which requires a SIM card to transfer location update data using cellular network. Hence you need a subscription plan to use the service.
Does it have activation or cancellation fees?
No, you don’t have to pay activation or cancellation fees. There is no contract either. You can choose to discontinue using the service whenever you wish without bothering about cancellation fees.
Does Trak-4 come with a warranty?
The device comes with a 2 year limited warranty
How long does the battery last?
Trak-4 battery lasts for around 1 month in power saving mode.
Does it come with and Android or Apple app?
Trak-4 can be accessed via MainGPS.com webapp where you can follow your device and view history, charge-level, and more.
Does it work outside USA?
No, Trak-4 mobile GPS tracker is designed to work only in United States.
Which phone carrier does Trak-4 use?
AT&T
Can it be attached to a vehicle?
Sure, you can use screws or zip ties to mount it on a vehicle. There is also another version called Trak-4 MAG with strong magnets.
Verdict
Trak-4 Mobile GPS tracker is a rugged, feature packed, user-friendly device that can be used to track almost any moving thing. Its great battery life coupled with lucrative subscription plans make the device a must have for anyone looking for a long lasting, simple to use tracking device. If the lack of a proper mobile app and USA only coverage doesn’t matter to you then you should definitely give this gadget a try.
Uppers:
- Robust build quality, weatherproof, can be attached anywhere.
- Easy to setup, activate and use.
- Long lasting battery.
- Great subscription plans, no contract.
Downers:
- No worldwide coverage.
- No lifetime warranty.
- Uses a web app and not a dedicated app for mobiles.