Children’s smart watches: why you need them, how to choose + top 3 models | Articles | Gadgets, gifts and accessories

In 2021, the vol­ume of the glob­al smart­watch mar­ket grew by 23.8% (com­pared to 2020). Ana­lysts from Coun­ter­point Research believe that there will also be growth in Europe and North Amer­i­ca in 2022. More and more peo­ple are real­iz­ing the ben­e­fits of smart­watch­es. They are bought by adults (as a smarter ana­logue of an elec­tron­ic bracelet), pen­sion­ers (for health con­trol) and even chil­dren. About why the lat­ter need such a gad­get and how to choose a chil­dren’s smart watch, they told in this arti­cle.

Smart and use­ful gad­get for kids. Pho­to: pandarank.com

Why does a child need a smart smart watch

Impor­tant: the set of options is dif­fer­ent in dif­fer­ent mod­els. For exam­ple, in some, com­mu­ni­ca­tion is pos­si­ble only through wire­tap­ping. In oth­ers, through video calls. In this para­graph, we describe the options that are avail­able in dif­fer­ent mod­els. The exact set of fea­tures must be spec­i­fied when pur­chas­ing the mod­el of inter­est.

This gad­get is need­ed for:

- con­nec­tion with the child. Smart watch­es can be an alter­na­tive to a smart­phone. Such mod­els have a slot for SIM-cards, a mobile com­mu­ni­ca­tion mod­ule and a “White List” of con­tact num­bers. Only those num­bers includ­ed in this list can call the device. The gad­get will reject oth­er calls. Calls can be audio and video;

- lis­ten­ing. This is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to qui­et­ly con­nect to the gad­get and lis­ten to what is hap­pen­ing around the child;

- loca­tion deter­mi­na­tion. This is pos­si­ble thanks to the GPS receiv­er (glob­al nav­i­ga­tion) and / or the LBS mod­ule (using cell tow­ers). It is bet­ter that both mod­ules are built in. The result will be more accu­rate;

- send­ing an SOS sig­nal. The child press­es the but­ton, and a mes­sage is sent to the par­ent num­ber that help is urgent­ly need­ed;

– deter­min­ing the pulse, count­ing the num­ber of steps tak­en. These func­tions will be need­ed if you need to mon­i­tor the health of the child. For exam­ple, when it is impor­tant to col­lect sta­tis­tics about heart rhythms.

With the help of some devices, you can not only com­mu­ni­cate, but also take pic­tures. Pho­to: produkexperter.se

At what age can a child be given such a gadget

It is impos­si­ble to say the exact age. Since there are no offi­cial texts and unbi­ased sta­tis­tics. But psy­chol­o­gists do not rec­om­mend using any gad­gets under 3 years old.

In addi­tion, it is impor­tant to eval­u­ate:

- the lev­el of devel­op­ment of the child. For exam­ple, can he use the func­tions of the device (con­scious­ly press the SOS but­ton, see the time);

- behav­ior and habits. There are chil­dren who tear off their bracelets, watch­es, ear­rings, they can throw out what they don’t like. For exam­ple, when they do not yet under­stand the price of things;

- Is there a real need for a gad­get. For exam­ple, a child under 3 years old who does not go to kinder­garten and spends all the time with his par­ents. In this case, there is no need to track its loca­tion;

- the desire of the child. If he does not want to wear the device at all, he will either act up or try to take it off.

You can def­i­nite­ly buy a smart watch for a school­boy. Espe­cial­ly if he is in pri­ma­ry school, he gets to school. But do you need such a gad­get up to 6–7 years? It all depends on the points above.

Each par­ent decides when to intro­duce gad­gets to chil­dren. Pho­to: inews.co.uk

How to choose the best smart watch for your child

Display

It can be black and white (E‑ink) or col­or (AMOLED, LSD). The first ones are suit­able for read­ing text, they are very ener­gy inten­sive. But there are few­er such mod­els on the mar­ket. Even the cheap­est mod­els (for exam­ple, Pro­like PLSW523OR) already have a col­or screen. It attracts atten­tion more eas­i­ly due to its col­or­ful­ness, pic­tures, inscrip­tions, etc. are bet­ter vis­i­ble on it. LSD dis­plays are dim­mer, AMOLED are brighter.

Smart watch dis­play diag­o­nal ranges from 0.5 to 2 inch­es. It is bet­ter to choose the size by attach­ing the watch to the child’s hand. The screen should not pro­trude much, be wider than the wrist. Oth­er­wise, he will cling to clothes, objects. As a result, the child is uncom­fort­able and there is a high risk of dam­ag­ing the gad­get.

Material

The body can be made of met­al or plas­tic. The light­est are plas­tic. The alu­minum case is heav­ier, but more durable.

Glass can be plas­tic or min­er­al. The first is lighter and cheap­er. With care­ful use, it will last a long time. The min­er­al coun­ter­part is more expen­sive, but more scratch resis­tant.

How to choose the right mate­r­i­al? Deter­mine what is more impor­tant: weight, price or impact resis­tance of the mod­el.

Impor­tant: the child should be com­fort­able in the clock. There­fore, it is bet­ter to try on before buy­ing. Pho­to: forbrukerradet.no

autonomy

An impor­tant para­me­ter. The more the gad­get can work on a sin­gle charge, the bet­ter. After all, a child may for­get to charge it before school or stay overnight with a friend (with­out charg­ing). It is opti­mal to choose mod­els that can work from 2 days on a sin­gle charge.

Capabilities

There are many options for mod­ern chil­dren’s smart watch­es. If you do not want to over­pay, it is bet­ter to choose oppor­tu­ni­ties accord­ing to age and needs.

Basic func­tions that most watch­es have: incom­ing calls, SOS but­ton, loca­tion detec­tion, wire­tap­ping.

Addi­tion­al: zone selec­tion (home, school, etc.), cam­era, hand­held sen­sor, games, flash­light, pic­ture gallery, watch calls, activ­i­ty track­ing, heart rate detec­tion, GPS nav­i­ga­tor.

Most of the addi­tion­al fea­tures are use­ful and inter­est­ing for a stu­dent, not a kinder­garten stu­dent. For exam­ple, activ­i­ty and heart rate track­ing are impor­tant for an ath­lete.

Protection

Chil­dren are games in the sand, care­less wav­ing of hands, falls, spilled water and oth­er dan­gers that await gad­gets. The alu­minum case and min­er­al glass can pro­tect against scratch­es and impacts. But from the ingress of sand, dust, splash­es and even falling into the water — the lev­el of pro­tec­tion is IP67 and high­er. If the child is engaged in swim­ming, it is bet­ter to choose a watch with IP68 pro­tec­tion and above.

Mois­ture pro­tec­tion is an impor­tant para­me­ter for a gad­get. Pho­to: thietbidinhvigps.com.vn

Top 3 Best Smartwatches for Kids 2022

Prolike PLSW13PN

The first mod­el in our top smart watch for kids. This is a bright gad­get with an attrac­tive design. The mod­el is avail­able in pink, blue, lilac. At the time of this writ­ing, the price is 3,230 rubles.

Advan­tages:

• pro­tec­tion lev­el IP67. This means that the case is her­met­i­cal­ly sealed. It is pro­tect­ed from dust and debris. Also, for a few min­utes, the watch can be low­ered into water (to a depth of not more than 1 meter). The device will also with­stand rain splash­es;
• there are sev­er­al games, an alarm clock, a call func­tion (you can call both on the clock and from them), the SOS but­ton, record­ing the his­to­ry of move­ments;
• there is a cam­era and a pho­to gallery, you can take a self­ie.

Geozone Active

Anoth­er mod­el of smart watch­es with IP67 water and dust resis­tance lev­el. Oth­er advan­tages:

• you can receive calls and make them (to autho­rized num­bers), send an SOS sig­nal;
• there is a built-in cam­era — through it you can make video calls or take pho­tos for mem­o­ry. They are saved in the Gallery. The cam­era can be con­trolled from a dis­tance. For exam­ple, par­ents can turn it on remote­ly to view the sur­round­ings;
• bright design — there are options for straps of yel­low, pink, green and oth­er col­ors;
• sil­i­cone strap. It does not mold, does not cause aller­gic irri­ta­tion;
• On one charge they work up to 4 days.

The price at the time of this writ­ing is from 4,000 rubles.

A smart watch is a smart assis­tant that facil­i­tates the inter­ac­tion between par­ents and chil­dren. Pho­to: geozon.ru

HUAWEI WATCH KIDS 4 Pro

Huawei watch smart­watch is the best mod­el in our rat­ing. The price at the time of writ­ing is 10,000 rubles. For this amount you get:

• sta­ble sig­nal. The com­pa­ny uses its own algo­rithm, which improves the sta­bil­i­ty of the con­nec­tion;
• video calls in HD qual­i­ty through a spe­cial appli­ca­tion HUAWEI Mee­Time;
• the abil­i­ty to track the move­ment of the child in real time;
• safe device. TÜV Rhein­land cer­ti­fied. It con­firms the water resis­tance of the gad­get, the safe­ty of the mate­ri­als from which it is made;
• per­son­al assis­tant. The watch tracks the dura­tion of expo­sure to the sun, the type of sports activ­i­ty. Gives rec­om­men­da­tions (for exam­ple, on chang­ing activ­i­ties);
• spe­cial mode “Swim­ming train­ing”. The watch has a mois­ture pro­tec­tion lev­el of 5 ATM (you can dive 50 meters under water). And the smart mode rec­og­nizes the swim­ming style, the num­ber of strokes, the dura­tion of the work­out, and gives use­ful rec­om­men­da­tions.

We hope that our guide and review of smart watch­es will help you choose the best gad­get for your child.