What you need to know
- Google has announced the Fitbit Ace LTE, a kids-only smartwatch aiming to promote a more healthy and active lifestyle.
- Along with various "eejies," "games," and other ways to get kids moving, the Ace LTE also offers calling, messaging, and location sharing.
- In order to take advantage of the cellular connectivity, parents need to sign up for Ace Pass, which costs $9.99 per month or $119.99 per year.
- This new smartwatch is priced at $229.95 and will be available starting June 5 from Google and Amazon.
It's not very often that we hear about a new kids smartwatch, let alone one that comes directly from Google and Fitbit. That's all changing, as the Fitbit Ace LTE looks to offer a completely different way to keep your kids healthy and motivated to move around.
Besides the bands and included Bumper Cover, the Ace LTE doesn't look too dissimilar from the Fitbit Versa 4 or Sense 2. However, despite the similarities, the Ace LTE actually features the same internals as the Pixel Watch 2, even down to the charger.
This new wearable is water resistant up to 50 meters, while the screen uses Corning Gorilla Glass 3. In terms of connectivity, the Ace LTE is equipped with 4G LTE, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, and there's even NFC. The NFC is particularly interesting, as "tap to Pay" will become available "in a couple of months," presumably via Google Wallet.
Along with being water-resistant and quite powerful, battery life should be able to keep up with your little ones. It's rated for up to 16 hours on a single charge, and thanks to fast charging, you can get another 11 hours of juice with just a 30-minute charge.
As for what the Fitbit Ace LTE keeps track of when it comes to workouts, this smartwatch sports a plethora of sensors. These include an accelerometer, optical heart rate, altimeter, magnetometer, gyroscope, and ambient light sensor.
As for software, Fitbit built this new interface on top of Wear OS in order to offer a "bespoke experience." This opened the doors for things like "Eejies," the "Noodle," and "interval-based gaming." According to Fitbit, Eejies are "customizable creatures that feed off daily activity."
Not only are they there to be right beside your kids, providing encouragement, but playing games and earning "arcade tickets" will unlock different customizations. Speaking of games, Google and Fitbit worked with different game studios to create interactive 3D games that can be played right from the watch.
At launch, the Ace LTE comes with six games, but more are planned to launch every quarter. The goal is to get your kids "at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day," along with incentivizing them by building streaks. This is similar to what the Apple Watch offers by closing rings, but children aren't penalized just for missing a day.
Instead, children are still rewarded for partial completion, which is a concept we hope is adopted for "adult" smartwatches. That way, there's no guilt to be felt in the event that your little one wasn't feeling great and spent the day resting and recharging.
Thanks to the new Fitbit Ace app, parents can control and monitor everything that their children are doing with the watch. This includes adding up to 20 trusted contacts for your kids to call or text, along with viewing their location, and more. Do you want to make sure that your child is paying attention in class and not playing games? Set up School Time to keep things locked down while any activities are still monitored and accounted for.
Another benefit is that much like the best Fitbit wearables, the Ace LTE is platform-agnostic. You're able to install the Fitbit Ace app and set everything up, regardless of whether you're using Android or an iPhone. All of this is made possible without needing to give your child a phone of their own.
By now, you might be wondering about how privacy comes into play with all of this. According to Google, the only people who can see your child's location and activity are parents. Additionally, location data is automatically deleted after 24 hours, while activity data remains in the app for a "maximum of 35 days" before it too is automatically deleted.
You also won't find any third-party apps, as your child is only able to access the content that is available out of the box and through subsequent software updates. The same goes for ads, as there aren't any ads being served on this kid's smartwatch. Google also confirmed that none of the data collected will be used for Google Ads.
Last but not least, is how this smartwatch is capable of offering things such as LTE, voice calls, GPS, and messaging without a dedicated phone. Well, all of that is made possible by signing up for Ace Pass.
For $9.99 per month or $119.99 per year, Ace Pass includes the LTE data plan, access to the Arcade, and more. Google worked with different carriers to provide the best coverage possible, and the SIM card is already installed in the smartwatch. All you'll need to do is download the Fitbit Ace app, link the smartwatch, and get everything set up from there.
Unfortunately, all of this means that Ace Pass is required to "access most features." This is rather disappointing, as it essentially turns the smartwatch into a paperweight without a subscription unless, of course, you buy into it.
You can preorder the Fitbit Ace LTE starting today for $229.95 from Google, ahead of its June 5 release date. As an added bonus, if you sign up for the yearly subscription of Fitbit Ace Pass between now and August 31, you'll save 50%, along with receiving a free collectible Ace Band.
