Chinese firm TCL is launching a brand new 4G children’ smartwatch that lets them make calls and ship messages, permits dad and mom to maintain observe of their whereabouts, and features a built-in front-facing digital camera. TCL introduced the MoveTime Family Watch 2 at MWC 2021, alongside a raft of latest TVs, telephones, and even a pair of smart glasses that mimic an exterior 40-inch show.
While children’ watches just like the Fitbit Ace 3 and Garmin Vivofit Jr 3 focus purely on encouraging children to develop more healthy train and sleep habits, security has at all times been an enormous a part of the TCL MoveTime sequence. The unique MoveTime Family Watch allowed dad and mom to watch their children’ whereabouts through GPS utilizing a devoted parental app, with 3G for making voice calls and sending textual content messages.
In addition to the brand new digital camera, the MoveTime Family Watch 2 options extra correct GPS positioning, plus improved battery life for fogeys’ peace of thoughts (Wareable reviews that it’s going to last as long as seven days between fees). It’ll even be doable for fogeys to arrange geofenced zones, with alerts if their little ones stray outdoors an outlined space.
The watch will go on sale in mainland Europe in August this yr for €149 (about $180 / £130 / AU$240). Global costs and launch dates have but to be introduced.
The subsequent technology
The MoveTime Family Watch 2 is not the primary children’ smartwatch able to making video calls, however that is the primary signal of them changing into mainstream.
Last yr, Fitbit acquired Doki Technologies, a Hong-Kong based mostly startup that constructed the primary kid-friendly watch able to making video calls. The buy led to hypothesis that the following Fitbit Ace is perhaps a totally fledged smartwatch with this functionality inbuilt.
However, this turned out to not be the case, and when the Fitbit Ace 3 arrived in early 2021, it was a no-frills health tracker like its predecessor. It displays exercise and sleep patterns, that are synced to the mother or father’s cellphone, and is full of a variety of video games, however there isn’t any shade display screen, digital camera, GPS or mobile functionality.
It’s doable that Garmin might transfer into this territory quickly (in spite of everything, the corporate made its title in GPS know-how) however for now the MoveTime Family Watch 2 is considered one of only a few wearables that can assist you to hold tabs on children who’re too younger to have their very own telephones.
