Fi Dog Collar Expert Review (Series 3 Model)

Dog trackers nowadays are very innovative. You can even train and monitor a dog now off-leash with just the use of a smart collar. One of the smart collars on the market right now is the Fi Dog collar (Series 3 model). The new model was announced in October 2022.

Keep on reading this article so that you’ll know more about this newfound gem in dog training! I tested and used over 30 different dog GPS trackers, but I personally use Fi for all four dogs of mine and I will provide the most expertise review about Fi Collar and explain how it is better than the others.

Fi recently released a new Series 3 model, which is cheaper than the previous one. How come? Seems to be an effect of competition, Tractive collar has recently done some upgrades and they are selling their collar at cheaper price points. However, let’s stick to Fi Collar in this review.

The Fi Smart Dog Collar allows you to track your dog remotely anywhere and anytime. It also uses its own app to locate and track your dog and also serves as an activity tracker for your dog’s daily activities. This dog collar is made by Fi and is available in 4 colours for its band which are:

• grey
• yellow
• blue
• pink.

The new Fi Series 3 comes in blue.

This collar is perfect if you want to train and track your dog off-leash and is always on an adventure.

Once you buy the Fi dog collar, you need to register your account on their own-developed application. This app allows you to track the whereabouts of your dog using the Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking and the LTE-M network. The collar serves as a locator of your dog when you check it on the app tracking from the Fi base.

DISCLAIMER: I need to let you know that Fi sent me the collars for the sake of doing this expert review. If you purchase an item using my link, it provides me a small referral fee. They also shared a discount promo code with my readers.

Due to COVID-19 shipment delays and the global crisis of electronic parts, Fi dog collar might not be in stock. If you see it available and decide on purchasing one, I would recommend buying it as soon as you can.

Fi Dog Collar Technical Features Review

For the Fi collar to work properly, you need to have both the app and the collar itself. Keep on reading and let’s take a look at the technical features of the Fi collar.

Tracking

Fi smart collar combines the use of GPS tracking and LTE-M networks for tracking your dog. It utilizes up to three constellations of satellites which are very helpful when locating your dog’s coordinates. With this technology, tracking the dog’s location can be accurate up to 7ft in radius on an open sky. The LTE-M network that is used for low power and long-distance communications, communicates with the GPS when tracking your dog. This new technology that is first used by Fi for tracking has a signal that can reach up to 30% more than the usual networks can reach. With these two technology combined, you can worry less about the whereabouts and exact location of your dog. The tracking system of the Fi collar is also capable of notifying you when it has detected that your dog has escaped from your yard.

Sleep Tracking

Fi has recently added a new sleep tracking feature to their collar which I find decent. Your dog’s sleeping habits are a good indicator of his general health. If they change, it might indicate a potential health problem. Fi Smart Dog Collar has the ability to notify you if there are any changes in your pup’s sleeping pattern.

For example, your dog regularly wakes up during the night to drink extra water. Fur parents aren’t normally aware of this behavior, but with Fi collar’s Sleeping Tracker, you can now see whether there is something to be concerned about.

Size

The Fi GPS dog collar has a wide variety of sizes ranging from small to extra large. For the small size, it has a collar length of 11.5 to 13.5 inches and is perfect for small breed dogs such as Boston terriers, Frenchies, and pugs. If your dog has the same size as the bulldogs, corgis, and beagles, then you must choose the medium size collar which has a length of 13 to 16.5 inches.

Is your dog belongs to the large breed ones and has a neck measuring between 16 to 22.5 inches? Then you should opt for a large-sized collar like my dog.

Fi smart dog collar is also fit for large breed dogs including standard poodles, Siberian huskies, and golden retrievers. The extra-large collar has a length of 22 to 34.5 inches and is perfect for bog dogs such as bloodhounds, great Danes, and mastiffs. 

Color and Design

If you are into fun colors, then the Fi dog collar is just right for you! This smart tracking collar that allows your dog to be off-leash is available in colors including gray, yellow, blue, and pink. For series 3 I got a blue one:

The band itself has also a cool design that has doodles of lines and they also have a Fi Maker program in which buyers can choose different designs and materials for the accessories of the collar. Some of these custom*made designs include a band made of leather, a chic design made of beads, and a bright and bold band made of polyester webbing.

Waterproof Rating

The Fi dog tracker is completely waterproof, even to the water of the ocean! The Fi collar has a waterproof rating of IP68 and it can be submerged into the water at 1.5m deep. It can last being submerged for up to 30 minutes without malfunctions. This is perfect for you and your dogs if you love being on an adventure near bodies of water and the wet season.

Battery

The battery of the Fi smart dog collar is rechargeable and can last up to months depending on your dog’s activities. If your dog got lost and the collar is in lost dog mode, it can last up to 2 days. If your dog is active and the collar just uses the GPS for tracking, the battery life can last up to 3 weeks with a 2-5 minutes refresh. The battery life of the Fi dog collar can last up to 2 months with a 2-5 minute refresh time if your dog just walks outside your home since the collar uses both the Wi-Fi and GPS for tracking your dog’s location. And if your dog is a lazy bum and just stays at home and never goes out, the battery life of the collar can last up to 3 months before being drained.

The App

The Fi GPS collar uses an application where you can see the real-time location of your dog from the Fi base. This base is the basepoint of the tracking and is usually set in your house. It is helpful especially for lost dog scenarios since you can be notified when your dog has escaped and can pinpoint its location.

The activity tracker on the app tracks and shows a report of your dog’s daily activities including the number of steps it has made. What’s cooler is that you can set and customize our dog’s daily goal to make it healthy. With the activity tracker, you can also compete with other Fi users and see your dog’s rank among others. Connecting with other Fi users near you is also possible with the app.

You can also add many dogs and owners to your Fi account in the app. This will help you to monitor your dog’s location remotely in real-time and you can have access to the history of any owner that you added to your account. This is very helpful if you are left your dog with a dog sitter as you can set boundaries on where the sitter is allowed to walk your dog and can see your dog’s exact location. Worried that you might lose your dog during the night? Worry no more! Using the app, you can choose your dog’s most loved colour and set it as the colour of the LED light on its collar.

Subscription

When you buy the Fi dog tracker, subscription package options are also offered. This subscription is for your GPS plan since the tracking collar uses the GPS/LTE technology to track the dogs. Subscribing means you can also check the daily, weekly, and monthly history of activities of your dog.

You can also track your dog remotely, anytime, and anywhere with monitoring alerts. The subscription options they offer are for a year, two years, and three years. These can be paid end of the subscription period or weekly. You can save up to 5% if you choose the 2-year plan and up to 16% saving when you choose the 3-year plan. If you have the budget, you can go for these two to have a long GPS plan for your collar. The is no subscription plan too:

Feature	GPS/LTE Subscription	No Subscription
Today’s Health Activity	✓	✓
Past Health Activity	✓	X
Location When Connected to Base/WiFi	✓	✓
Location When Connected to Owner (Fi Mobile App)	✓	✓
GPS Location	✓	X
Walks with Owner	✓	✓
Walks Without Owner	✓	X
Notification When Dog Exits Safe Zone	✓	X
Lost Dog Mode	✓	X

Fi also offers a 30-day free trial of these subscription plans. The current subscription prices (as of January 2023) for Series 2 model are:

• 1 Year Plan: $99 ($1.89/week)
• 2 Year Plan: $186 ($1.79/week)
• 3 Year Plan: $248 ($1.59/week)

The subscription price for Fi Series 3 collar:

• Month by month: $19/month
• 6 months: $102 ($17/month)
• 1 Year: $192 ($16/month)
• 2 Years: $336 ($14/month)

Make sure to check the latest pricing on their website.

Fi Smart Dog Collar Series 2 VS Series 3: What Changed?

Fi has recently released a new model of their smart dog collar, the Fi Series 3. It has the same main features as series 2 but what’s new about series 3? Here are some of the changes and updates you should look forward to:

50% Smaller

Fi Smart Dog Collar Series 3 is 50% smaller compared to series 2. It is half the size of the Fi series 2 thus, it is also lighter. This is an advantage for the small breed of dogs who finds series 2 a bit heavy.

Additional Sizes and Collar Choices

This new series also offers more collar sizes: extra small and extra large. The extra small size has neck measurements of 9.75″ to 11″ and 3/4″ wide. While the extra large size collar is a one-inch wide collar and measures 19.75″ to 30.5″ for your pup’s neck.

Given this, there are now more options to choose from. You can better select a collar that fits perfectly to your dog. Aside from that, series 3 also offers eight different collar choices. 

50% More Pull Force

The body frame of the Fi Series 3 is made entirely of stainless steel. It can now withstand 400 lbs of static force compared to the 300 lbs of pull force of the Fi Series 2. Fi Series 3 dog collar is now more durable and can help you keep your dog on a leash with its better pull force.

2x LTE Network Distance Coverage

The LTE-M signal from all Fi Collar has a 30% greater range than that of any other cellular network. With Series 3, Fi increases signal sensitivity by another 100% to ensure that your dogs can be located even in the most remote locations.

40% More GPS Satellites

Four positioning satellite constellations are used in Fi Series 3. This gives the Fi Series 3 collar an advantage in dog tracking as there are 78 satellites that can immediately locate your dog within a 6-foot radius.

Waterproof

We know that all Fi smart dog collars are waterproof including the Fi Series 3. This new collar is not only waterproof but also rated both IP68 and IP66K. 

Your dog can swim, play, and dive in any sort of water, including salt water, fresh water, and chlorine, thanks to the Series 3 and 2 Collars’ ability to withstand immersion in water up to 1.5 meters deep for up to 30 minutes.

Because it has passed IP66K testing, the Series 3 Collar can be sprayed with water for up to three minutes at 150 PSI in a 1/4″ stream without getting damaged.

Price

The Fi Series 3 subscription has a minimum subscription period of 6 months and costs USD17 per month. A one-time activation fee of USD 20 is also required and will be billed to you upon placing your order.

This may be more expensive than the Fi Series 2 options, which start at USD1.59 per week (depending on your selected plan).

Fi Dog Tracker General Features Review

Now that we know the technical capabilities of the Fi dog collar, let’s tackle next its general features:

• The collar features smart power management as it will connect to any WiFi access points inside and outside your house to minimize battery usage.
• It is dog-proof and adventure-proof as it is made of armoured aluminium faceplate and internal metal armour. These materials make the collar resistant to dog bites and other things that can break the usual dog collars.
• Fi smart collar has a longer battery life that can last between 2 days up to 3 months depending on usage and activities being done.
• Fi dog tracker has increased antenna sensitivity up to 4x the usual which is very useful for locating dogs in remote areas and areas that have less signal coverage.
• Fi shows a more accurate and reliable escape detection when the dog escaped your Geo fence with the combined technology of GPS and the LTE-M network and the algorithms used by the collar.
• It has a better signal coverage for locating and tracking with the use of the GPS and LTE-M network.

Pros and Cons Of Fi Collar Series 3

Like any other product, the Fi dog collar has also its pros and cons. Check the table below to know more about these

What Sets The Fi Dog Collar Apart From Its Competitors?

There are already many GPS dog collars available out there in the market for all the dog owners and trainers to choose from but it can get conflicting at times because there are now way too many iterations of them. However, in our opinion, the Fi Dog Collar just has that edge that sets it apart from the others and here’s why.

The company behind Fi makes sure that your voices are heard and they always take it to the next level when dealing with the customer’s feedback. With their newest release of the Fi Dog Collar Series 2, they made sure that the wifi integration has far better accuracy than its previous model, the Series 1. This means that it has now better escape detection accuracy, reliable signal, and longer battery life which can last up to three months.

The Fi Dog Collar is also the first to utilize the LTE-M network which reaches farther than LTE, 3G, 4G, and 5G networks. The GPS tracking ability is also much faster than its competitors as it uses constellations of satellites that buffs up its accuracy and tracking speed, especially in an open area and sky.

Fi Smart Dog Collar Vs. Other Smart Collars

The Reason Why I Consider Fi Collar As Best GPS Collar For Your Dogs

The top three dog GPS collars we picked are Tractive, Whistle, and Fi smart dog collars. There are products that are comparable with each other such as the Tractive and Whistle; however, we have tested them ourselves, and one of them stood out for us: the Fi dog collar. This is because even though all of them have very similar features but one has improved more on their dog collar’s overall model or product but the Fi dog collar made their version even better.

The Tractive GPS dog collar is better than the Whistle GPS dog collar in one way or another and vice versa. Tractive gives you live location updates of your pup with a 2- to 3-second update rate while Whistle does this every 60 seconds. They both record your pup’s location history however Tractive also shows you the altitude and speed of the collar and therefore can give you data about your dog’s speed and your height above sea level. They both allow for you to set up and customize safe zones or virtual (GPS) fences where you can choose where you want to let your dogs stay and be safe or stay away from.

Both the Tractive and Whistle dog collars require you to have cellular coverage so it works where your cell phone works and you guessed it, it will not track your dog without any network coverage. The Tractive dog collar receives signals from satellites in space to calculate your dog’s location and is then transmitted via a cellular service for better tracking while the Whistle 3 uses GPS, wifi, and cellular service to track your pups.

The Fi dog collar just has it all and has some features better. It sends you your pup’s live location updates with GPS and has a 1-, 5-, or 15-minute update rate depending on the state of the Fi dog collar. This dog collar still requires you to have a cellular data network to track your pup however it has a better method of locating your dog by using LTE-M network and GPS and by utilizing constellations of satellites to better track your pup’s coordinates. It even has a lost dog mode feature where it increases its attempts to locate your pup once every minute with the LTE-M and GPS.

How Fi Collar Series 2 Is Better Than Series 1 (Previous Model)?

The Fi Collar Series 2 possesses all the features and benefits you can get from the Series 1 but with added features and improvements and gives you more freedom to roam.

The module of Fi Series 1 requires you to have the Fi Bases for the device to be able to track indoors and the Fi Series 2 improved on its limits and made it wifi compatible for you to be able to track your dog wherever there is wifi connection. The GPS antenna of Fi Series 2 also has 4 times better coverage than the previous one. The Series 2 also improved its battery performance for travel and if you live in a larger home.

Conclusion

With all the features it has, I believe that buying the Fi dog collar is worth its price especially if you are into leash-free life for your dogs. What I like the most about this product is its long-lasting battery life. This will save you time from charging it now and then and also saves your electricity consumption from charging! I also like the cool designs of the collar itself. What I dislike about it is that it can be overwhelming for a first-time user to understand everything about the collar and the app – how it works, what it can do, how to set up things.

I hope this article has helped you to know more about the Fi collar. If you ever decide to buy one, take the time to discuss it with your dog’s vet so that you can set goals in using it. If used properly, I believe that this will help your dog have its leash-free, healthy, and happy life. It can also give you peace of mind since you can easily locate your dog using its tracking system.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you found this review helpful and decided on buying Fi, I would highly appreciate if you use my referral link for purchasing. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. It will keep me motivated to buy expensive dog gadgets, properly test them and provide unbiased reviews.

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