The Fitbit Ace LTE is simply a awesome smartwatch for kids who aren’t rather fresh for their first smartphone. It has tiny games, a nosy small activity tracker, location tracking, and it lets kids telephone aliases matter pinch preselected contacts. There’s nary app store, nary net access, nary smartphone connection, and nary measurement for them to get spam calls aliases texts. It’s down to $170.95 from $229.99 connected Amazon successful some spicy (green and gray, pinch a purple and greenish band) and mild (gray, pinch a grey and achromatic band) during the existent arbitrary shopping event. My girl has been utilizing 1 since this summer, and we some urge it.
Fitbit’s latest fittingness locator sports immoderate of the aforesaid hardware recovered connected the Pixel Watch 2 and a assortment of step-activated games, which tin thief motivate your kid to support moving. It besides offers calling, messaging, and location sharing erstwhile you motion up for a monthly aliases yearly information plan.
The Ace LTE is simply a cross-platform standalone watch; parents aliases guardians group it up utilizing the Fitbit Ace app connected Android aliases iOS. That app is besides wherever you take who your kid tin telephone aliases matter (those group besides request the Ace app), group schoolhouse hours (no games aliases incoming telephone calls), and cheque connected location (though location sharing besides shows up successful the Google Maps app, which is nice). Calling, texting, and location sharing require the Ace Pass, which is $9.99 per period and enables LTE access. There’s nary bearer integration required.
The watch besides has interchangeable bands, astatine $40 a pop, that unlock caller games and activities erstwhile connected. It’s a shameless effort to prosecute the gotta-catch-em-all mode — aliases astatine slightest promote watchband swapping astatine recess — and it’ll astir apt work.
The Verge’s Vee Song did a hands-on pinch the Ace LTE earlier this year, and my family has been testing 1 since June. My favourite point astir it is that it lets my nine-year-old matter me, which I really appreciated during the summertime erstwhile she was astatine time camp. She was capable to show maine her relative needed barren shoes, for example, aliases that the toys astatine the artifact depository they visited looked creepy and that the spot smelled weird. It opened up a full caller measurement of communicating compared to the preset matter replies and 20-second audio clips she had to activity pinch connected the Garmin Bounce.
The Ace LTE is champion suited for kids betwixt possibly 7 and 11 years old, by which property they’ll astir apt commencement to chafe astatine its limitations compared to an Apple Watch aliases an existent phone. But for now I’m cherishing those limitations. Look for my afloat reappraisal soon.