Garmin Bounce LTE Kids Activity Tracker In-Depth Review: 2 Months Later!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- Here's everything you need to know about the Garmin Bounce LTE Activity tracker, and how well it works in real life.
Garmin Bounce LTE on Amazon: amzn.to/4blV4Nz (helps support the channel!!!)
0:00 Pricing, Size, Battery, Overview
3:20 LTE/Cellular: Location/Messaging/Tracking
11:12 Activity Tracking, Games, General
17:08 GPS Sport Tracking
19:38 Worth it or not?
Garmin is continuing both their kids activity tracking product line, as well as their LTE adventures, in a new device that combines both of those: The Garmin Bounce. The Bounce is essentially a Vivofit Jr. kids activity tracker that’s been given a huge screen, combined with both GPS & LTE capabilities for kid tracking, and even a mic & speaker for audio messaging. The intended age range is 6-12 years old, though, like most kid things, you can under/over-shoot that a bit depending on your kid.
In our case, we’ve been using a few of the Bounce units for a few months now. I’ve had two of our (oldest) daughters using them 24×7, as well as both my wife and I taking turns wearing them to understand the features a bit more from an adult standpoint. However, as a family all three daughters have had Vivofit Jr. activity trackers for many years, so we’ve already got a pretty good feel for how that side of the equation works.
As noted, there are basically two sides to the equation here: The activity tracker piece (including built-in GPS for workouts), and the LTE location tracker & messaging piece. And then of course, layered atop all that is the Garmin Jr. app. In this review, I’m going to dive into all those pieces, one after another. If you’re unfamiliar with the site, I do in-depth reviews of sports technology products - digging in deep to find both the good and the bad.
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#GarminBounce #VivofitJr - กีฬา
Surprised Ray didn’t just have kids just to test this thoroughly 😂. Not in the market but it is interesting to see such a comprehensive look at one of these trackers for kids. 🎉👍🏻
Purchased the instinct 2x solar and the bounce for my lil gremlin. Thank you for the great reviews
Not being able to call from a contact without the app, i.e. grandparent from a landline, is a deal breaker. Gizmo2 for the win. Thanks for the review.
Thank you for this review! We just ordered the latest (?) Bounce's for my kids aged 7 and 9 who also do quite a bit of cargo and regular bike riding and they were so excited watching it last night!
Thank you Ray. The ability to add multiple school/restricted modes is sorely needed. I agree, distraction is now a significant issue vs the good old days of the Viviactive Jr. I keep checking for software updates with the hope of gaining more restriction schedules!
Hopefully we'll see something there!
My 11 year-old son has had this for a month and it's been useful many times. The intent was to hold off on a phone for a couple of additional years and it's perfect for that. He can have more freedom and we can communicate when needed.
That's good to hear... My daughter is 10 and I've been debating getting her an Apple Watch for some connectivity without a whole phone. My only concern with this one was the watch screens seemed a little juvenile for a kid heading into middle school. Not a problem for your son?
@@Jillwillrun No concerns at all. He's just happy to have it. He's now in 6th grade and will be 12 in a few months. It's useful when his after-school programs get canceled or when he's skiing on another part of the mountain with a friend. I'll probably get my 8 year old daughter one in a year or two when she's doing more independent activities.
@@brianvallelunga4659 I just got the Bounce for my 10 year old, since you mentioned skiing, do you know if the Bounce can be used for tracking Skiing?
@@brianvallelunga4659 do you face battery issues ? Some people say it have only 7 hours autonomy not even a whole day at school and esp after school where it plays its most important role.. tx for your reply in advance
I had the vivofit jr for my 2 kids for 4 years and I was excited to upgrade them to the bounce. Seeing that the bounce has similar activity tracking as the vivofit jr I felt that it was not advanced enough for my 12 year old. The chore tracking was very cool for the kids.
I went with Apple Watch SE2 in family setup mode for both kids. The Cost over 2 years is not that much more since the cellular plan with my carrier is more than half of the Garmin service.
Yay! Been waiting over 24hrs for this review
Donezo!
Got one of these for my 11 year old daughter at Christmas here in Australia. Ray, absolutely agree with everything you said, charge time and battery life being my biggest issue. But for the price, I love it and she loves it - who care's about the size.... I am concerned about battery life with our device, we are getting just over 24 hours from a charge. She does wear it to bed, we actually wanted the sleep tracking feature, which as parents we love - but we have limited what the device does, set up wif-fi where available and still not getting anywhere near 2 days of life from the device.... that said, I think it is an awesome version 1 product....
"Got to go." Where are you going? You're stuck in the garage?
That was fun. Thanks for the fun video.
Thanks for this! You answered literally all of my questions!
This would almost be a perfect fitness tracker for a senior needing added benefit of emergency notices & minimal mini-messages.
Thanks for reviewing this. Very helpful 👍👍
Great review, thank you. have been considering this and it is helpful!
Thanks for a thorough walk-through, as always. My 10 year-old daughter has a Vivofit jr.3 now, a jr.2 before that, and I was thinking about a Bounce for the next time, however will probably skip that, since she's happy with the Vivofit jr.3, and has a phone too. Might consider a 'Bounce 2' in 2024-2025 perhaps, or possibly another smartwatch then, with a decent battery lite/charging time...
Thanks for yet another excellent review!
Comming from Denmark I would advice AGAINST buying this Garmin Bounce. The battery life, recharge time and a broken screeen 3 days later that cost the same as the watch to fix is a no-go for us (unfortunatly we already bought two).
This is a very intriguing new option. We currently have two Verizon Gizmo Watches which are for $100 each, $10/month for the LTE plan ($35 activation fee). They are largely similar overall except for a few main differences:
1. They also allow for voice calling (when text or recorded audio message aren't enough)
2. Their step counter are completely inaccurate (kinda of makes sense as Verizon is a phone company... while Garmin is a active-life device company). In general their tracking is more simplistic (they do have boundaries, checkins, and active tracking which drains battery quicker and only recommend for 30 mins).
3. They don't connect to wifi so their battery drains faster, last is 1-3 days depending on usage.
4. Locked into Verizon (US only).
Garmin bounce has battery for less than 24 hours and takes a couple of hours to recharge. So basically recharge at night and die in afternoon
I have this watch and pay for the subscription. I have a 10 and 12 year old. It's short of not giving them a phone. We went out of the country and it also worked.
That's awesome
Great review, curious little product. Also, on the side note could you stop with the rain this month its been too much lately. Thanks!
Hi Ray, thanks for the review, great job.
I moved to Switzerland some time ago, kids here walk around by themselves, unsupervised, from, to and between kindergartens and schools, and this takes some getting used to. GPS watches are not unusual, many options are available from the local mobile operators, relying on a SIM card, which offers also some typical cellular applications, including voice and video calls.
I didn't want this whole package, I like the setup of Garmin with more restricted functions, but something bothers me still and I'm interested in your view.
We already "lost" our son a few times, mild versions of it though. He's 6, twice he found his way home by himself and once he sat there waiting at the bus stop eating from his lunchbox, after missing the bus to the canteen. Switzerland. Don't ask. All kids do it, so you just accept it.
1) The voice messages are great for 99% of the time, but I wished I could reach my son for a voice call, next time he's lost. This should be possible in principle given the LTE connection, but it's neither possible now nor announced as a feature for future FW updates.
2) Equally important, the tone and vibration for incoming messages are hardly ever enough for my 6yo to notice, even more so in winter with heavy jackets and hats. My messages hang there, evidenced only by a small icon on the screen, my son unaware of it. I would like to see an "emergency mode", where incoming messages from guardians are accompanied by a continuous sound until they are read, or even a ping option in the app that triggers such sound on the watch. Right now I send a message and get no reply, I know where my son is but not if he's ok, until he replies.
3) scheduled on / off. When my son arrives to Kindergarten he might take the watch off and then wear it again when the morning is over. Same when he goes to gymnastic, or other activities. It would be great to be able to switch off the watch directly from the app, and plan an automatic restart after a set time (e.g. auto turn on after 3h, etc.). This way battery life would significantly improve.
What's your take on these features, anything we should / could expect?
Thanks, Luca
Hi Luca, very nice insights!
I agree the sound/alerts can seem a bit low at times. I think it'd be difficult for Garmin to put live LTE calling in this device, given I suspect it doesn't have the hardware internally (processing overhead) to pul this off. Plus, Garmin hasn't rolled out that feature on any other watch, so it'd be new ground for them.
As far as scheduled on/off, I suspect you're actually saving a fair bit of battery already if your son is taking it off. In my testing, the battery savings were massive when the watch is just sitting on a shelf/etc, as it appears to basically go into a super-low power state. That said, all of my tests have been in places where WiFi was connected. I wonder if it's possible for you to get the WiFi for the Kindergarten/school, so that it hangs out on WiFi vs LTE.
@@Dcrainmaker Thanks, I'll check if there's any wifi option, I doubt though.
The only thing that has stopped me from buying this watch is the lack of calling as an option.
I gave my kid a coros pace 2. I wish I knew about this Garmin kids watch.
The GPS stuff looks exactly like that of a Tractive GPS dog tracker, including circular boundaries and live tracking - also charging and battery notifications.
Indeed, lots of bits from other Garmin product groups here. Garmin has long been the king of re-use.
Awesome product! What do the kids see on the screen when its in school mode? The time and their steps? Thank you
Great content man! Living in NL?
Will sub. And bought it for my son (in a few mins ;))
Nice review. May you please provide a bit more details about the alarm clock? My ASD+ADHD kid needs to be reminded constantly to eat, drink water and bathroom so I’ve been using apple watch to set up those specific schedules. The thing is my kid kept accidentally broke the watches (mostly broken screen). I’ve been searching for cheap alternative watches but so far none of them can make up to 20 alarms except the apple watch. I hope you’ll answer my comment.
Great video.
Super tolles Video 😊👍🏽 welche Uhren hast Du noch für Kinder als Empfehlung?
Beste Grüße Nico
thanks for the review. how did you get the picture on the watch face?
Kid - 50,000 steps
Garmin - You sure you are a kid ?
16:39 Awww man! The kids version gets 4 week and 12 month views but my Connect app only goes up to 7 days. I have to go to the website to view longer :(.
Interesting that the kids don't mind the size. A similar thing happened with my partner where she didn't want my old Garmin watch because she said it was too big, but after wearing it for awhile she doesn't mind the size now.
Huh, weird. Good point. Especially since the adult app shows 1d/7d/4w/1yr views for steps, but not sleep. I feel like it used to though? Actually, in looking, it does for Sleep Score, but not sleep itself. Literally, every other field shows the same 1d/7d/4w/1yr except Sleep. Odd.
This was an amazing review, thanks! A question (just out of curiosity) : If I recall correctly: health data for the VFJr was stored at the parents Garmin account. I guess it is the same for the Activity data as well. But... When the kid gets 16, is there a way to "migrate" his/her data to a newly created account? I can see the workaround with fit file exports, but I'm curious if Garmin has thought of this or not.
My understanding is there is some account migration, but I’m actually not clear on how it works. I’ll poke and find out.
@@Dcrainmaker Thank you! On a related note, this age limit always seemed "strange". I get that it is to comply with some US child protection laws, but it seems, that there should be something inbetween having an "adult account" and having "kid account on the parents profile". 10/12 - 16 seems an odd age to have in the ecosystem: too old for kids stuff, too young for full featured adult stuff. A "less junior" and more "teenage" themed option of the mentioned "kids companion app" could maybe be the middle ground, where the parent still holds all the information legally, but the teenager has access for more mature features.
This is especially interesting with regards to Garmin Clipboard, which has high school teams as a target audience as I understand.
Sorry for the long comment, and thank you for your insights!
@@MateHegyhati yeah it's strange they don't enable 12-15 yo children to use Venu or Forerunner. You have to lie about their age to create a GC account. Apple let's a lot younger kids use their AW, why can't Garmin?
Oh, also didn’t catch if there is any insurance or protection plan available. A spill from from a bike might spell disaster for the watch?
Ray, you do the best analysis on the net of these devices as far as I know. Could you please also add the level of high frequency radiation that these devices generate (such as WLAN, 5G, LTE, Bluetooth Ant+ and so on). Speaking as a person who is hyper sensibel, I'd much appreciate it. Not knowing how high it is and even not knowing if I can turn that radiation off or not, is the most important info for me when deciding to buy. btw, it is measured in µW/m². There are a lot of different broadband meters out there already wo do measure pretty accurate. All the best!
Thanks for the review, much appreciated!
My kiddo currently has the cheapest ($50) Xplora watch (XGO3), but the software is horrible so I was looking to upgrade. However, I'll have to pass on the Garmin.
1. No camera (XGO3 has that)
2. No voice calls (for real!? XGO3 has that)
3. No ability to add custom messages (such lazy software development)
4. No ability to add friends regardless of hardware
This part of the industry has such a long way to go unfortunately.
I'm pretty sure that you can add custom messages.
In the Xplora or the Garmin?@@cyclewise6926
Thanks to my Easyfone KW2 smartwatch because the features work perfectly and accurately. It's a new product and budget-friendly. It has voice calls, voice messaging, group chats, can add friends. You can also disable the notifications if the child is on classes. What I really liked it is the GPS tracker coz it really works great.
Any idea's about the UK availability, I'd want one for my daughter.
i would love to have the option for video call and picture shot, also audio listening. son going to school soon and i am starting to get a little concern about his safety
Audio listening isn't allowed in many schools; this way the product is allowed in schools
This maybe lower entry cost alternative to an apple watch for kids.. (monthly the same) not to mention I am constantly worried my kids loosing or breaking apple watch 😅
Yup, definitely a solid alternative price-wise.
Are you ever going to go back to your full review of the GoPro Hero 11 Mini? Thanks!
I actually shot a fair bit of it (again) about 10 days ago. Hoping to edit it here in the next week. The short version is mostly “shrug”. The size isn’t that different to make it really compelling, while the lack of screen makes it harder to use. All while not costing that much different. There’s nothing wrong with it, but I think it fell short of expectations.
Do you know if there are replacement bands for this watch? Thank you.
Do you know how many geo fences you can make?
We've had one for about a month and have had mostly good experiences. Our notifications are not as timely as yours and we've had messages just not go through. Hopefully it's just growing pains of a new product and not signs of something more systemic.
Sounds like ya gotta move to the Netherlands for faster messages… 🤣🤣🤣
Hi, I live in Switzerland, also having the same issues, but I think there's a problem with the antenna, which also heavily affects battery life. Garmin is sending me a replacement, I hope this solves it.
I am looking for a 13 yo but don't want to go to phone yet. The features on the bounce seem excellent but is it a little too "kiddish"?? any suggestions on alternatives for a teenage group?
What about emergency calls while in school mode, like 911, unfortunately in the US that is an issue now with schools?
How does it work without the LTE in daily life? Having a watch to follow up on the vivofit junior 2 the kids have seems very interesting, but I don't see any reason to pay for features I don't care about.
Hopefully there will be a way to export all data the kids collected over the years to a full garmin account when they get old enough for that.. (I still have a couple of years before that is the case)
It would just sync when near WiFi or near the parents phone. I used it in the UK and US that way (my EU editions aren’t compatible in the US, and the UK isn’t enabled currently at all).
They almost had me hooked. But then the no call feature & shutting phone off during school. I mean I know need to stop phone for school. But what happens if kids get out early and parent/sitter forgets. While never happened, never know.
I would assume the school would simply call you, when the child is still there? I mean, that's what our's does.
Are the parents able to send custom messages or voice messages to the watch?
Yup
If my child already has a phone I guess this wouldn’t be any good for me. Seems like I could get him a vicoactive or even an older forerunner for cheaper
I find it a little strange that the kids watch has lte but newer Garmin don’t. I guess there’s just not enough touch screen garmins for it to be useful.
The 945 LTE does. But yes, newer ones lack it. I see this as step building. Garmin is putting the things in place, one piece at a time…
Battery life is disgraceful. We start everyday with a full charge at 8am. Goes into school mode from 9am -3.20pm, by 5pm the watch is completely dead. All settings on their lowest to save battery, connected to wifi, only a couple of messages sent, no activities tracked or anything like that and it still dies everyday within 7-9 hours.
If GPS is active, it'll kill any battery outside of a phone. My advice, if they're at a location you trust, such as school, try to turn GPS off
Yeah ours is stone dead in no time. My daughter is playing with it a lot since it's new and she's excited but it feels like it's always charging.
What’s the upgrade path like? Can they convert their child accounts into real garmin accounts as they grow into an adult device?
Not yet, but it’s something Garmin is working on
@Dcrainmaker do you know if it still allows tracking and calling for help in school mode?
Tracking yes, calling no.
Hey Ray.
How do the messages come through to your phone? Is it SMS/MMS or via the Garmin Connect app?
Also, school mode has nothing but steps available, are they still able to activate the emergency mode?
It's push notification from the Garmin Jr. App. So basically like any other notification, except that they leverage the 'Critical Time Sensitive' option (at least in iOS), that means that notification can (if you set it to), override other settings. And nope, in school mode you can't trigger emergency mode. This is where I could probably make a comment about not being an issue as we don't live in the US...but, I won't.
Does the LTE only work in the country you are paying for? So for a trip to the US, where I would find it more needed it would not work?
It works within the regions. So basically, the US/Canada one works across regions, and the European ones work within Europe. But when I brought the EU one to US, no LTE coverage (app still works though).
Ray, is garmin going to add LTE in the high-end watches (955, fenix 7) in the future?
I certainly hope so…
It's in the 945 LTE already. I wouldn't expect a FR955 LTE, but rather, probably something in the future.
My kids have had the watches for two months and they work great. I thought I read that if their friends also had a bounce they could message them too. Do you know how to set this up?
How’s the battery? I read a lot of reviews saying it doesn’t last even 8 hours? May you please give some feedback?
We haven't experienced that. In the beginning, they played with them a lot. And the more you use it the quicker is runs down. But if they're just wearing to and from school and sending a few messages back and forth, we can easily get two days out of it. @@BaoNhi886 Oh, and if it runs low on battery or need to be charged, we get a notification too.
So you can't actually call them on this watch?
this watch should have MIPS display instead of LCD, it's way more convenient
is it possible to just phone over the watch? I think this would be pretty easy to implement...but will Garmin do it?
As in, don't use LTE?
@@Dcrainmaker sure I can use LTE but in the video I just saw audio messaging and not the possibility for just calling mom or dad... question is: is calling possible with the abo or is only messaging available?
@@invadertube ahh, gotchya. No, just messaging. No live calling.
@@Dcrainmaker do you know if this is going to be supported in the future?
@@invadertube No, I wouldn't expect it. That'd be a pretty significant new feature/change for Garmin, and I suspect the hardware isn't capable of it.
Can the bounce text thevivo fit jr back and forth
Not the Vivofit jr, no.
Not fit for purpose! Got these for my kids but when in high density or some outer suburbs messaging & tracking is delayed up to 8 hours not great.
Can it make calls?
No, just send voice messages.
works it fine for a kid of 4 years old?
It's going to be a bit young for a four year old. My middle-daughter had just turned 5 when she was first starting with it, and while it was OK, it worked better for the 6 year old. That said, our kids don't get access to our phones/computers/etc, so they have relatively limited "IT experiance", whereas maybe yours has more. The main issue isn't so much usage experiance, but just their ability to not dork with it (play with it). It was tougher for our just-turned-5yo, versus our 6yo was more able to stop fidgeting.
@@Dcrainmaker thanks
I stopped after hearing a battery life of two days...that's a non-starter for me. Get the Vivofit Jr. 3 with a replaceable battery that will easily last a year or more.
so there is no way to see the weekday and day of the month on any of watchfaces? 😮
He briefly shows the default watch face with month/day at 11:19
@@ClayWelch ok but no way to show a weekday? my kids always ask what day is today especially on holidays 😂
@@MihailStacanov that time stamps shows a face that has “Thu 5” above the time. Is that what you’re looking for?
It shows on some watch faces, but not others. It shows on the default watchface (lots more pics in my written review here): www.dcrainmaker.com/2023/01/garmin-bounce-activity-tracker-lte-in-depth-review.html
Even my Fenix 7 doesn't have LTE.....
Swap it out for a pink Bounce! 🤣
Why no ability to make phone calls??? It has the speaker...and the mic...
Voice messages seem to work pretty well and keep it efficient.
Lte service with fixed cost requires limited mobile data traffic. Probably thats why. And no other mobile services too.
@@aka7kak8 that's what I assumed. Verizon and TickTalk, as well as Gabb all offer calling, though. So that likely limits the Garmin market.
I know the software is written for legal reasons it I usually buy my kids the real thing and tell them to lie about their age at account creation
Poor kids these day.
Seems overly complicated for the age group.
I just got for my 10 year old, he figured it all out in about 3 minutes, so I wouldn't say it's overly complicated at all
@@cyclewise6926 that's great! Thanks for the user report.
It's funny how normalized it all seems, but only when it's targeted at children do we realize how dystopian it all is
Depends on how it’s used. Parents can use this to avoid having to give kids a phone. Also, for some special needs kids, this is literally a life safer for their parents to know where they are when they run off.
Big brother for helicopter parents.?
Or, a way to avoid having to give kids a phone. Also, super handy for kids with special needs.
no need coins or reward crap
There are alternatives which are actually better at some of the crucial features and cheaper. Would be nice to add this to the review. Like one2track.
One2Track appears to only be available in the Netherlands.
very bad audio.
It's $10 a month. It's not a bose speaker system
What a time...
Tracking your kids all day, every day...
Not a fan.
Just buy your kid a regular watch? Why would a kid need these features. Step tracking etc. seems a bit crazy. Each to there own I guess.
Tracking I guess is the only key feature that is probably useful. But then again kids aren’t really left alone at young ages? Apart from being at school.
Some parents of special needs kids use them to ensure their safety, primarily when the kid tries to run away from school or home.
I think Garmin is a fitness company so their products come from today angle. My son is into fitness and would LOVE this watch except it doesn't allow calls.
UI 😢🤮
Slow down your delivery, you talk to fast.