Review: LetsTrack Premium does a good job of tracking your car but it could do more

GPS trackers | If all else fails, a GPS tracker will be able to help locate your car wherever it is. GPS devices are available online and with monthly subscription costs being inexpensive, they are great investments to make. Most models even allow for live tracking and other various car controls including engine immobilizing.

LetsTrack, which calls itself Asia’s largest GPS-tracking service, has a slew of devices for vehicles, one of which we tried recently: LetsTrack Premium.

The device, which costs Rs 8,999 (comes with a free one-year subscription, followed a yearly subscription plan of Rs 1,200) is a handy product that ably does its core job – tracking – besides offering a host of other features.

The device is installed in a car by hooking it up with the electrical systems board. The system does not require any tinkering with the car’s own wiring system but can take an hour or so to be installed.

LetsTrack employs a combination of GPS + GPRS technology (the device has a bundled Airtel SIM) to track when a car is on the move. This means that it is able to monitor movements on most occasions except when, say, a car is located in a basement.

Users can track their vehicles through the app as well as a web login.

Besides real-time tracking, users can set up notifications for a host of events: such as when a car’s engine has been started or stopped, when it moves out of a pre-defined parking zone or when it over-speeds.

Alerts such as when the AC has been switched on or when a car is being driven erratically can also be set up, features that will come in handy if a car is chauffeured, or if it is used as part of a fleet service.

Crucially, the device also allows users to cut off the car engine remotely, a nifty anti-theft feature.

Having said that, two key features – the ability to track whether the car’s AC is switched on and to cut off the engine -- were not available in our Tata Nexon during the time of installation, something to do with compatibility.

While using the app and web login, we got the constant feeling that it has been designed primarily for a fleet user, which would well be the company’s primary customer base.

For instance, on the web dashboard, some of the sections that form part of the menu are ‘attendance report’ and ‘people tracking me’.

This means that valuable real estate in the user interface (UI) has been devoted to features that may not come in handy for an individual user. This could have been handled by creating different UI profiles for an individual user and a fleet operator.

Speaking of UI, the app has undergone a design change recently. While it has helped declutter the overall look, the change also seems to have robbed the app of some useful features, such as navigating to your vehicle through Google Maps.

Since the device has the ability to remotely cut off the vehicle, the company could have also provided the user the ability to remotely unlock the car's door (in case it gets accidentally locked with the key inside) or switch it on (how about switching on the car parked under the hot sun and turning on the AC a few minutes before you reach it?).

A few other features, such as tracking fuel efficiency, does not work accurately.

The device also lacks support from Google Assistant and Alexa, something that a few devices from the competition offer.

All in all, LetsTrack Premium does its core job, tracking, adequately. The price point, though, is something that would offer value-for-money only for fleet users. Besides, the company could consider a radical UI redesign that significantly improves user experience.