Journey LOC8 Urban Key Organiser Review: An everyday essential

As the self-confessed everyday carry (EDC) sicko here of the WhistleOut team, I love products that either organise, add portability or make it easy to find things quickly. That includes things like a tech pouch with dedicated pockets for all my work gear, a well-designed wallet that keeps everything compact, or an all-in-one key organiser. 

I’ll be honest, it’s 2025, if you’re still walking around with a set of clattering keys, I am officially judging you. Having used an Orbitkey key organiser for several years, I’ve become used to my keys being streamlined and compact, with no need to spend precious seconds rummaging with my keys to find the right one. Instead, every key has its place. But because I'm prone to misplacing my keys — if they're not in *that one spot* on the kitchen counter, they could be anywhere — I'm also a firm believer in using Bluetooth trackers. 

The LOC8 Urban Key Organiser by Journey combines key organisation and key tracking into a single, neat product. The LOC8 Urban has a minimalist design with a single band of leather wrapped around and connected at the edge with the pin mechanism, where keys are attached. The tension means your keys are held tight, looped together in a neat bundle or can be splayed out to use. It includes a small D-ring at the end to attach larger items such as car keys.

Setting up the LOC8 Urban consists of two parts: organising your keys themselves and then setting up tracking. The setup of the keys themselves is easily done without a coin or any tools, like some other key organiser brands. With a twist of the thumbscrew pin, you open the key mechanism to add up to six keys (Journey includes plenty of washers if you have fewer keys).

What I love about this is that when I inevitably put my keys in the wrong order (amateur), it didn’t take much effort to undo my mistake, whereas other brands require some serious tightening and untightening. This increase in accessibility means you can more readily change your set-up if you're going away and need to quickly add or remove a key. 

The D-Ring is reinforced with a piece of material connecting to it to stop it from moving up and over the bend (which I have had happen with other key organisers after years of use). This often happens when you have a heavier car key or lots of accessories on the D-Ring, so I appreciate the simple solution here. 

The LOC8 Urban also comes with what it calls the EDC tool, which is essentially just a bottle or box opener. It also has a small bar jutting out on both sides that helps guide your keys out for quick access. It's sort of fiddly because it's designed to work with as few as two keys. It doesn't always catch the keys on the edges, which then means when you flip them back, your neat stack is now split awkwardly. It's a real nitpick because I did adjust over time to just accessing the keys and pushing them back the one way. Although, while it's a free inclusion, I would've loved the EDC tool to have more functions as a proper multi-tool.

Tracking works with Apple’s Find My system (one of the largest consumer tracking networks in the world). It’s as simple as pressing the pairing button just inside the loop and then opening up the Find My app on your iPhone. With a few taps to add a new item, the LOC8 Urban is as easily tracked as your AirPods. Tracking itself can’t get much better than the current standard. 

Find My leverages Apple’s entire ecosystem of billions of devices to help track and locate the LOC8 Urban Key Organiser. It’s largely the same in function as Apple’s own AirTag, but without the Precision Finding feature. This means once you're at the location of your keys you'll need to rely on sound to find them. Although the noise the LOC8 Urban plays to help you find your keys is about 20 decibels louder than AirTag. 

Many other Bluetooth trackers, including the Pro in the Tile range, Apple's AirTags, Chipolo's products and Samsung's SmartTag rely on replaceable batteries, but the LOC8 Urban goes one step better with a rechargeable battery (charging cable provided). Journey says this should last around four months with a full charge, which takes an hour. While this isn't as long as the 500 days on offer from Samsung or up to a year with an AirTag, the ability to recharge means you don't have to worry about buying and replacing the battery. 

Journey also says the battery lifespan on the LOC8 Urban should be more than 300 weeks, so in theory, you'll get five to six years of usage. My one grumble here is I would've loved a more universal charger like USB-C, but I also understand the need for the Pogo Pin charging cable as part of the product design. 

LOC8 Urban Key Organiser - Final Thoughts

All in all, the LOC8 Urban pretty good value for money at $119.99. As a tracker alone, the LOC8 Urban is definitely on the more expensive side. But if you factor in the price of a key organiser, it's a lot more economical.

Here's a quick comparison of a few ways you could "build" a trackable key organiser.

The configurations that stand out immediately as the two cheapest are the Orbit Key organiser paired with the Chipolo POP or paired with the Tile Pro. The former is compatible with both Apple's Find My and Android's Find My Device, while the latter uses its network of other Tile app users. But once you factor in the cost of a pack of replacement batteries, the slightly higher cost of the LOC8 Urban is pretty negligible, as well as the fact that there's no EDC tool included in either key organiser. Plus aesthetically, its in-built tracking is just that bit more pleasing to the eye.

Dylan Crismale

Digital Content Editor

Dylan Crismale is a Digital Content Editor at WhistleOut, has been writing for almost a decade across a variety of Australian publications. He previously worked as a writer at Finder covering energy, internet and mobile plans. Dylan is passionate about finding the best deals to save people money and educating people about tech. When he's not sat at his desk Dylan loves working out, bingeing TV and hanging out with friends.​

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