FitBit Ace LTE for Kids Google Smart Watch Fitness Tracker Review

FitBit Ace LTE for Kids Google Smart Watch Fitness Tracker Review

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Takeaway: Fun, durable, easy to use smartwatch for kids with games and fitness/activity tracker.

Thank you to Best Buy for sending me this product for free to try. You’ll receive the watch puck, screen bumper, Velcro wristband, and USB-C charger. The Spicy version of this watch has a green, purple and white color palette versus the mild’s plain black. The square bumper for the watch face snaps on easily in any orientation. The wristband has a clip on one side that you press into the slot at the bottom of the watch face until it clicks. To remove the wristband, press the black bar just underneath the clip to release it and pull firmly. The case can also be removed by pulling one corner away from the screen and pressing gently on the watch face to pop it off.

The watch puck itself is lightweight, weighing only 28 g or around 1 oz. It measures 41mm square and is about 13.5mm thick. The wristband loop at the top adds an additional 4mm to the length. On the right-hand side are two buttons, the lower white button has a play symbol on it, and the upper green one has a circle on it. On the back, all the biometric sensors are inside this circle and the four silver circles are the charging contacts. Note that the ‘+’ and ‘-‘ symbols on the left and right hand sides, these will help you orient the charger correctly as it is not reversible. The cable should always be on the same side as the buttons while charging, as shown on the diagram attached to the charger. The charger is magnetic though so once the watchface is close enough to it should self-align and snap in place.

The charger requires a DC adapter with a USB-C port and at least 5 Watts output, though one is not included. When plugged in and charging, the watch will start up automatically. It charges quickly though in just over an hour and a full charge will last around 16 hours, so I recommend charging the watch each night. The first time you turn it on, you’ll see the peace sign logo and a loading bar followed by the setup instructions. Just tap the screen, select your language, then on a parent’s mobile device, download and install the Fitbit Ace app. In the app, log in using a parent’s Google account. You’ll have to allow permissions for notifications and the microphone, then tap the ‘Add a Fitbit Ace LTE’ message in the middle of the screen. Select ‘My child will wear the watch’ unless you’re setting up for yourself.

If your child doesn’t already have a Google kids profile under your account, you’ll need to create one by adding their name and birth date; then, there are some terms and conditions you’ll need to agree to, an identity verification step, and privacy notice. And finally you can pair the watch to the app. Once complete, the watch will automatically sign into the WiFi network your phone is connected to, if available. Since this watch is for my nephew, we’ll enter me in as Uncle Philip.

The view in the app for parents allows you to call and message the watch, locate the device, track the wearer’s activity history, and manage their contacts. And optionally you can setup a payment method in Google wallet so the wearer can make purchases using NFC tap-to-pay. With the Fitbit Ace LTE for kids, only parent’s can add trusted contacts, up to 20, who can use the app on a mobile device to call or message the watch. You can also set up “school time” hours which toggles off notifications and the arcade during school hours on applicable days.

When charging, the watch face in standby shows the remaining battery life, time, day of the week, and day, though not the month, making the bold assumption that your child know which month it currently is. The ring around this information also represents the remaining battery life. To access other features of the watch, you’ll need to wear it.

The flashing green light in the middle is a sensor that detects whether or not the watch is being worn typically by measuring heart rate. Putting on the band is fairly easy. You’ll just rest you wrist on the band, feed the end of the band through the loop on the watch face, then fold it back on itself and secure with the Velcro. Make sure that the band is tight enough that the back of the watch face makes good contact with the skin without slipping or being too tight.

The watch’s Avatar is Scout and they’re just a fun character who will walk you through the different features of the watch. Your child can then setup their own avatar called an eejie and they can customize features like their hair, eyes, mouth, and even skin tone. When you’re done, just tap the check button at the top left. Shaking the watch on this screen will change your eejie’s clothing randomly, again tap the check mark to confirm.

The next part of the set up explains the green home button then directs you to the quests screen by swiping right. Quests are different activities, challenges, and goals, for example the first quest is to walk 500 steps, while wearing the watch, so it can track your movement. Then when you reach that goal, you’ll earn a star and completing the challenge unlock Bit Valley. You can also earn a starter star by learning more about the watch. For example, pressing the Home button takes you to your apps, which is basically the move goal activity tracker, alarm, stopwatch, and timer, and calls and messaging to approved contacts. With the more recent system update, you should also see Google Wallet.

Since I’m the only approved contact for now, we can tap on my name, then if I send an emoji from the watch, I can see it pop up as a notification on my phone. I can view the message and call history for this device and send a reply in the app; and that’s enough to earn the quest star for this challenge.

Calling works the same way and the call will connect through the Fitbit Ace app. There's a built-in microphone in the watch for calls and sending voice messages as well, and it also supports voice-to-text typing. Which is pretty useful as the on-screen keyboard can feel a tad cramped, even for kid fingers. The Move Goal allows your child to decide how much physical activity they think they can complete each day which tracks both active and light activity, steps, and floors. Each type of activity contributes points towards your daily score, which awards a set amount of XP once the goal for the day is reached. The minimum is 45 active minutes which is worth 90 pts and awards 1200 XP. But you can also choose 60 and 75 active minutes as the goals as well. And when setting new goals they start the following day. Swiping up on the home screen brings up notifications and swiping them to the left clears them.

The other main feature of this watch is the arcade, which is accessible by pressing the lower play button. Playing games in the arcade will earn the user tickets which can be spent in the items store to buy new outfits and decorations for your eejie’s and their personal quarters. You’ll also collect items as rewards for clearing levels in the games. However, games and level progression require you to unlock them through completing quests before you can play, so you’ll have to earn your arcade time with a little physical activity.

Let’s return to the home screen for now. If you swipe down from the top you’ll see some quick access icons: battery saver mode, bedtime mode (which has since been replaced by calls and messaging), ring and notifications toggle, do not disturb, and screen brightness, which has three levels with adaptive brightness on and 5 levels when adaptive brightness is off.

If you see the gear icon it means you need a system update, since after the update it’ll change to the arcade icon. But tapping it brings you to the settings. If you don’t see the gear icon, press and hold the upper home button until the watch vibrates. Then release it and scroll all the way to down the bottom of the menu options and select Settings.

In the Settings menu, you can modify connectivity options like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, mobile signal, and NFC. The Ace LTE has a built-in SIM card for 4G connectivity, though it requires a monthly or annual subscription to Ace Pass, and you’ll need this for call and messaging capability, as well as location services, when there is no Wi-Fi. NFC allows the watch to make payments with Google Wallet, if you’ve set that up as a parent.

In display options, you can change the watch face by selecting from the available noodle characters, which is a progress bar for activity tracking that will lengthen to fill the perimeter of the screen as you earn more points for physical activity. So here you can see the noodle is progressing around the screen and I’ve earned 30 activity points. You can also change the font and look of the time, change the screen timeout or even set the screen to always on. The watch responds to gestures as well, like tilt to wake, touch to wake, and touch and hold to access the display settings.

As for most of the other menu options, a lot of them are informational only as there’s nothing to change or set, with the exception of sound and vibration which lets you set different volume levels for calls, alarms, notifications, and media, or alter haptics behavior.

In accessibility, you can enable TalkBack, which is a screen reader that reads content on the screen for users who have difficulty reading or seeing the screen. You can also enable magnification executable with 3 taps, change text size, and enable color correction customizable to the specific type of color blindness which I thought was cool.

In the security menu, your child can setup a screen lock pattern or PIN. For the pattern you have to swipe the dots in the correct order, and the PIN will be a four digit code. If your child forgets their pass code, you as a parent can unlock the watch remotely with a parental PIN from the mobile app. And in Device Administration you can toggle Find My Device, which has since been renamed to Find Hub, which lets the parent locate, lock, or erase the device through factory reset. While I don’t love that this setting is accessible to the child, it can be remotely re-enabled in the app by a parent.

If there’s a system update, it will only download and install when the watch is charging and above 95% battery. New devices are eligible for the Preferred Care extended warranty against accidental damage if you enroll within the first 30 days of activating the watch. At the time of this recording the cost was $29 for 2-years with the following coverage terms.

When testing the GPS locator using find my device, it accurately determined the location and address, displaying it on a map, and it even noted that the watch was not currently being worn. Oh, and it looks like I finished the Starter Quests and now have access to Bit Valley.

Bit Valley is your eejie’s virtual world and you can customize different spaces with items you collect, like this plant. So here’s my eejie, and I can change their appearance as well as their outfit now. And if you swipe right, you can access the stores where you can purchase new items with tickets earned from playing the games or meeting your daily activity goal. Attaching a new wrist band will also reward the user with new digital items.

Swiping up in Bit Valley allows you to add a friend, who also has an FitBit Ace LTE watch, though parents will need to enable this feature first. Friends, once added, can see your eejie, house in Bit Valley, and activity progress and friends can visit each other but not send messages between the watches.

We’ve also now unlocked the arcade so let’s check out the games. I’m going to give Smokey Lake a try. It’s a fishing game that uses a 3D virtual environment, so you’ll have to move around and turn in different directions to view different parts of the map. The games are also physically engaging, and this game requires you to throw out your arm while wearing the watch in order to ‘cast’ the fishing line, then bring your arm back in quickly to reel in your catch. I like that all the games are free of commercial breaks and any sort of advertising unlike most mobile phone games.

The watch is waterproof to 50 meters deep and it survived just fine going in and out of the swimming pool. The bumper works well for protecting the edges of the watch face but provides no direct impact protection for the OLED touchscreen. It is Gorilla Glass 3, so it should be resistant to bumps and scratches. The nylon fabric watch band dries slowly after getting wet which is a bit uncomfortable, and after repeated removals, it tends to get a bit fuzzy looking from the Velcro.

As for personal privacy, the watch does not send any recorded health data to Google and it gets purged after one month. Location history is also deleted after one day, and your child will not be able to download and install 3rd-party apps from the Google Play store.

One thing I felt was missing from the watch is a calendar for reminders, which I think would be useful for parents to set up reminders and pop-up notifications for their children so that they can stay on top of activities, events, and daily tasks. You can, however, set up a timer and alarm (which can be one-time or daily) as well as use a stopwatch feature on the watch.

Overall, I think the Fitbit Ace LTE is a great kid-focused device that’s part smart watch and part fitness tracker. The goals and games seem like a fantastic way to motivate your kids to get excited about completing physical activity on a daily basis and my nephew has really been enjoying using it this past year. For parents, it lets you stay connected to your child, so you can view their physical activity history, call or message them from anywhere and see their location live, as long as you have an LTE subscription, giving you peace of mind as your child starts to explore their independence.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. #CommissionsEarned
Buy it at Amazon: FitBit Ace LTE for Kids Google Smart Watch Fitness Tracker [Affiliate Link]