So, daughter came home from school [8 year old] asked if she can have a smart watch. Apparently some kids in her school have got smart watch which has some calling feature or GPS stuff.
Is it normal for 8-10 years old to have such kind of smart watch. If yes, where can i get one for my daughter?
I guess it depends on your school's demographic, but we send our son to a high decile school in one of the highest socioeconomic areas in the country and even in my son's Year 9 class there are probably only 1/3 with a smart band of some sort (Fitbit, Mi Band, etc), and only 2-3 of those with what he'd consider a good smart watch (more likely to have GPS and/or calling, eg. Apple, Garmin, Samsung, etc).
Very anecdotal, I know, but it matches what I've seen generally in this area for kids that age. Kids always talk up how underprivileged they are, and how all the other kids have "X" except them. Go and talk to the other parents and you'll hear a different story.
Another point is that most feature-laden smart watches are far too big for a child's wrist, so unless they want to lug around a small smartphone on their wrist, choice will be very constrained.
Having said that, Mi Band is a budget option that will provide a lot of tinkering value for a tech-savvy kid without breaking the bank. It doesn't have calling or inbuilt GPS, but might fit the bill.
Spark sell them.
They are called spacetalk a all in one smart watch gps that you can call your kids on
Takes a sim card.
Unsure of price but no they are over $200
Monthly sub required to use?
We purchased a Watchipals for Miss 7. Approx $160AUD. They are an Australian company, have more girly designs, and more features. Definitely cuter and smaller on the wrist. But the GPS is not accurate and the set up process was frustrating and not user friendly. So we bought the more expensive Spacetalk watch from Spark, GPS is accurate and love the “school mode” function. Plenty of support from SPARK with set up too.
I tested quite a few of the GPS smart tracker watches from AliExpress for my daughter when she was younger. The best I found was G900A Kids GPS Tracker Watch. It only costs about $30 but does everything, tracking, flashlight, phone, small games, camera etc.
It supports tracking via a sim card that has a 2G network which means you need a Vodafone sim card as I believe only they still have their 2G network running.
The app that goes on the parent's phone is minimally invasive although it does contain some ads. You can change settings from there and bring up a map to see the current location of the watch wherever they are. The watch sim uses very little data as I only remember topping her phone up once.
One thing to look out for when you get a tracking watch is to make sure it supports GPS. Some watches only support LBS which basically shows you the position of the nearest phone tower to the watch (but the actual person can be 200m away). Relying on LBS is obviously not very good for tracking purposes.
I tried looking for the G900a on AliExpress but couldn't find it.
You wouldn't have a link to it would you?
this might be it. my search query was "G900A watch"
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000410730568.html?spm=a2g0o…
Interesting - less than NZ$40 delivered if I am not missing anything.
$Few for a Vodafone SIM (if you don't already have one sitting around), plus say, $20 of credit and you are away for less than $70, and from what @Seifer says, it doesn't (usually) use a lot of data anyway, so maybe only $20 a year to keep the SIM active maybe.
@Alan6984: Yeah it really is that cheap, it makes all other local options look like a rip off (which they are).
That's the right watch @Japo32 linked, but I've purchased several from this seller and never had a problem with any of them: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32854413758.html. His pack is also slightly cheaper and includes a screen protector and other little gifts in there for the kids.
It says it ship from Russia so there might be delays getting it (or might not, I'm not sure how much the war impacts the postal service there).
Thanks
What about attaching these to all humans? A device capable of tracking, listening and communicating; something they carry around everywhere…
Oh wait, we already do!
Yikes, reminds me that someone once told me our smart phones are always listening…haha
implants are just around the corner. (o.o)
Thank you all..
Was about to start a new post but found this. I'm also after a cheapish smart watch with GPS (not LBS), calling and games for my 8 year old child. None of the above links work - I guess G900A has been discontinued.
I've been searching Aliexpress, Temu, Dicksmith, TheMarket but there are way too many options and it's hard to tell which one is good. I see there are 4G options as well. Does anyone know if 4G ones are actually better than 2G and whether it'll cost more to run, e.g. uses up more data?
Can anyone recommend me one?
Hi Jemas
Did you find an alternative solution?
Just come across the page as searching for ideas on child safety (10 year old for to and from school walking).
Trying to figure a way/option.
Also welcome advice from others on active Temu/AliExpress watches etc that have worked well for children with features allowing them to call in an emergency etc.
I'd be pointing out to your 8yr old that anyone who has one of these probably has a nurotic parent who is a) tracking them, and b) forcing them to be in contact all the time (and probably also attempting to bypass most schools no phone policy).
More likely step tracker and watch, or parents old watch (or mentioned nurotic parent)
Cellular smartwatch? Probably not normal. Going to run quite a bit of money. Could have been mistaken for a Bluetooth connected watch which calls through the phone which kind of defeats the purpose. Or a wifi connected watch using messenger or something to call over wifi.