Parenting a baby within the digital age could be a scary factor. It’s onerous to know get the best gadget to your youngsters that may allow them to slot in with out giving them an excessive amount of free reign. The web is full of risks that commonly masquerade themselves as harmless. Finding a tool that offers your youngsters the connectivity they crave with the required security measure in place could be daunting.Garmin Bounce is a smartwatch for youths that does precisely these issues. It strikes the best stability for a smartwatch designed for youths beneath the age of 10. It’s primarily a Garmin Vivofit Jr 3 (opens in new tab) with LTE connectivity and messaging capabilities. Like the Vivofit Jr 3 it contains loads of actions that’ll preserve your youngsters and accountable, a sturdy design, and a pleasant smartphone app that makes it simple for folks to handle the whole lot.It’s not as full-featured because the TickTalk 4 (opens in new tab) but it surely would not need to be in an effort to be nice. My 8-year-old son has been utilizing it since mid-November and I’ve had loads of time to place it by its paces and be sure that that is the smartwatch you need to purchase to your little one. Because of its sheer ease of use and total high quality options, I’ve already named it top-of-the-line youngsters smartwatches (opens in new tab) you should buy.Pricing and availability(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)Garmin Bounce is obtainable now from Garmin for $149.99. As of this assessment, Garmin solely sells the watch immediately by its web site.Garmin additionally manages the LTE plan used to attach the watch which prices $10 per 30 days. You can not bundle this community connectivity together with your present telephone plan and you will not want to fret about managing telephone numbers or SIM playing cards. Garmin does all that for you.See the Garmin LTE protection map (opens in new tab) earlier than you determine to buy to make sure your space has ample protection.Today’s greatest Garmin Bounce offers (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab)How it really works(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)Since the Garmin Bounce is kind of a Garmin Vivofit Jr 3 with a bigger battery and LTE/Wi-Fi connectivity, it makes use of all the identical options of that exercise tracker. It even makes use of the identical Garmin Jr app to connect with the watch and handle options and messaging.Parents or guardians will obtain the Garmin Jr app on their gadget, log into their respective Garmin account and pair the watch with the account. If you need to add extra dad and mom, guardians, and even caregivers you are able to do so within the app. Each sort of account offers a distinct permission stage. Friends can solely ship messages to your youngsters whereas dad and mom or guardians have entry to all settings and GPS location of the watch.Image 1 of 5(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)Aside from altering settings and managing the watch’s location, the app can be used for sending and receiving messages to and from the watch. This retains it separate out of your common suite of messaging apps and ensures there isn’t any confusion whenever you (or one other individual) converses together with your little one.The app may also be used to play an exercise recreation that grants a lot of strikes every day your little one is actively carrying the watch. The extra energetic your little one is, the extra strikes they’ll make within the recreation. The draw back is that they’re going to want to make use of your telephone to play it.What I preferred(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)Like most youngsters’ watches with LTE connectivity, the Garmin Bounce is pretty giant for a kid’s wrist. Thankfully, it is in no way heavy, weighing in beneath 40g. That’s about the identical weight as a Pixel Watch (opens in new tab) and some grams lighter than most Apple Watch fashions.Despite what I believed was a frightening dimension, my son by no means as soon as stated something about it being uncomfortable or obtrusive within the two months he is been carrying it. It’s actually not smooth and will not earn type factors from anybody however that is in all probability OK. Garmin does, at the least, make the watch in numerous designs so your little one can really feel prefer it was extra of a private selection.(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)Expect 2-4 day battery life on a single cost relying on use.While it is acquired LTE connectivity that might simply drain a watch battery in a matter of hours, Garmin’s nice use of low-power tech and clever community administration means you will see between 2 and 4 days of battery life relying on what number of options your little one makes use of. If they just like the sleep monitoring operate, anticipate extra like 2 days most out of a single cost.My son additionally discovered use the watch inside a couple of minutes time regardless of this being his first smartwatch. Garmin’s UI may be very intuitive and it helps that the 2 bodily buttons all the time carry out the identical operate: the highest button is the motion button, whereas the underside button goes again. Everything else is navigated by way of the contact display screen.(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)My son discovered use the watch inside a couple of minutes’ time regardless of this being his first smartwatch.The dad and mom’ app can be extremely intuitive and simple to make use of. Features aren’t buried in sub-menus and those you care about are entrance and heart when the app is launched.Want to know your kid’s location? Tap the placement tab on the backside. Want to message your little one? Tap the join tab on the underside to open the messaging part. Even the icons make sense at first look and do not require learning or thought.Likewise, messaging on the watch is useless easy. Swipe left on the watch face and also you’re dropped at the messaging display screen. All accessible contacts can be found within the record and a baby can message you with simply two faucets and their voice.They can decide to make use of the on-screen keyboard to sort however my little one discovered that voice messaging was way more environment friendly. Unless he needed to ship goofy emojis which, on this case, additionally emit a spread of hilarious sounds that youngsters love. The speaker is loads loud and clear and we by no means had bother understanding each other.Image 1 of 4(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)Messaging and GPS monitoring from the Garmin Jr app are useless easy to make use of.The app does a tremendous job of delivering notifications for principally the whole lot. You’ll get an alert when the watch has a low battery, full battery, when your little one leaves or arrives residence, once they’re taking part in video games or doing an exercise, and so on. If these get overwhelming, you’ll be able to flip all or any of them off within the app’s notification settings.The watch additionally did an ideal job of retaining observe of my son’s location when he left residence with a pal or went to follow. If for any purpose, I misplaced him and wanted the watch’s assist discovering him, the livetrack GPS function was so simple as might be. Tap the placement tab on the backside and increase, an immediate stay location map seems on the display screen.You may even faucet LiveTrack to allow a 30-minute window of real-time location monitoring for extra pressing requests. Similarly, the watch can activate this function when your little one begins an exercise on the watch, and is then was a useful map after the exercise has ended.You can totally convert your youngsters’ allowance to digital foreign money with the watch’s coin system.Like the Vivofit Jr 3, dad and mom can assign totally different chores or different each day actions to their little one with timed reminders for every one. Chores could be assigned a coin worth and children can earn cash as soon as the chores are carried out. While cash aren’t used for something on the watch itself — I believed this was a bit unusual — they can be utilized to redeem parent-made rewards.Think of it roughly as a method to give your youngsters an allowance by way of digital cash which can be then tracked by way of the app. You might make a reward for something you need, from an evening out getting ice cream or an upcoming online game your youngsters have been pining for.If your little one attends faculty throughout common hours and will get simply distracted on their watch, you’ll be able to allow scheduled faculty mode that’ll flip the whole lot off besides emergency messaging.What might use work(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)Cell reception was surprisingly poor in sure buildings.While most of my complaints in regards to the watch are pretty minor, I did run into one regarding downside that is not prone to be simply solved with no {hardware} redesign. Poor cell sign.Based on Garmin’s LTE protection map, I shouldn’t have any difficulty with cell protection besides within the highest elements of the mountains in my space. Needless to say, I usually discovered that many buildings had been sufficient to erode sign power to the purpose the place the watch could not ship messages.Worse but, the watch did not proceed to retry sending messages as soon as the sign was established. When my son discovered this was a difficulty, he turned panicked and stated “what if I get kidnapped and I don’t have a signal?”I am unable to anticipate the watch to work miracles the place the sign would not exist, however I additionally wasn’t placing it in excessive situations the place cell sign ought to be a difficulty. In all circumstances the place the watch had no sign, a telephone sitting proper subsequent to it could be working simply superb.To get round this, you’ll be able to add a Wi-Fi community within the dad and mom’ app to assist get round this however, inevitably, you are going to find yourself in locations the place the watch has no cell protection and you do not have the Wi-Fi arrange on the watch.(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)Charging may be very gradual. 2+ hours to get a full battery.Beyond that, as I beforehand stated, my complaints are minimal. As you’ll be able to see from the picture above, the display screen is already scuffed and dinged after simply two months of use. Not certain what this implies for longer-term utilization however, whereas it is actually not unbreakable, it does nonetheless appear fairly sturdy.Charging is gradual regardless of the way you slice it. I’m speaking over 2 hours to get a full cost from a useless battery. It additionally makes use of a proprietary charging port on the again of the watch to cost however, at the least, it is the identical cable that ships with all Garmin watches. In different phrases, it is not onerous to seek out good alternate options for a couple of dollars (opens in new tab).Per my son’s request, I’m noting that the watch “doesn’t have enough games on it.” Truly, there are a whopping 2 video games included on the watch whereas a 3rd can be utilized to race associates or siblings who even have a Garmin watch. It’s surprisingly paltry and there would not appear to be a method so as to add extra. I totally anticipated a number of TI-83-style calculator video games on right here.Even the included video games do not have sufficient ranges. My son breezed by the maths video games in two days and was dissatisfied that he already beat it.School mode additionally wants extra choices. As it stands, faculty mode is principally simply on/of with a fundamental scheduling mechanism. We’re a homeschool household so our lives look fairly totally different from a child who sits at a desk in a faculty constructing all day. Primarily, I’d wish to see a “bedtime mode” that successfully does the identical factor.It does have a “do not disturb during sleep” operate enabled by default however that does not forestall my little one from taking part in video games or tapping on the watch at night time until I simply take it away from him. And what is the level of including sleep-tracking options if I’m taking the watch away?The competitors(Image credit score: Chris Wedel / Android Central)Garmin actually struck a chord with me on the Bounce, because it presents a really splendid set of options for the age group and value. But, in the event you’re in search of extra options, two watches stand out among the many pack.The TickTalk 4 presents an onboard digital camera with video calling help, a large 1,000mAh battery, iHeartRadio included, and a number of different options that Garmin would not provide right here. It’s bigger than the Bounce, twice as heavy, and $30 costlier, although, however you actually get what you pay for.If your little one would not fairly want video calling however would nonetheless wish to take goofy selfies at arm’s size, the Spacetalk Adventurer (opens in new tab) is the way in which to go. This one can be twice as heavy because the Garmin Bounce however presents extra superior options like a coronary heart fee monitor and full telephone name performance.Should you purchase it?(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)For youngsters who simply want a fundamental smartwatch with location monitoring and messaging capabilities, Garmin Bounce is a fairly splendid possibility. It’s not too costly up entrance, though Garmin’s $10/month plan is probably going costlier than what your provider presents for simply including a smartwatch to your telephone plan — these traces are sometimes as little as $5 a month.While I did run into cell power points in some buildings, this may not be a difficulty for everybody. In truth, it was my solely main grievance with the watch, as the remainder of the negatives had been largely niceties that I’d wish to see added or fastened in a software program replace. Aside from the lengthy charging time, after all.Still, it is onerous to argue with Garmin’s experience on this sector. It’s taken the tried-and-true Vivofit Jr 3 and added LTE connectivity and messaging help for peace of thoughts, and the app and watch are each useless easy to make use of. This is the children watch to get in the event you’re not fearful about including a digital camera, apps, or tons of additional options.
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Garmin Bounce builds upon the profitable design and app of the Vivofit Jr 3 and contains LTE connectivity, GPS location, and messaging capabilities right into a enjoyable smartwatch for youths.