The Fitbit Ace LTE is a smartwatch for kids featuring unique motion-focused games and useful safety features. Designed for children between the ages of 7 and 11, the Ace LTE costs $229.95 and is meant to be used with a $9.99 monthly subscription, which offers access to games and includes GPS location tracking and LTE service for calls and texts. To limit screen time and encourage activity, each game requires you to reach certain step or movement goals every five to ten minutes of play. The Ace LTE can occasionally frustrate with long load times and slow responses to certain buttons, but it’s undeniably fun to use, as confirmed by an appropriately aged child. Given its abundance of smartly designed features to satisfy both kids and their caregivers, the Ace LTE earns our Editors’ Choice award.Design and Features: Colorful and CapableFitbit has released other kid-friendly devices with Ace branding over the years, including the $79.95 Ace 3 fitness tracker, but this is the first smartwatch in the lineup.
The Ace LTE uses the hardware and software base of parent company Google’s flagship Pixel 2 smartwatch. But while the Pixel Watch 2 is exclusive to Android, you can use the Ace LTE whether you have an Android phone or an iPhone. A parent or guardian needs to download the Fitbit Ace app for Android or iOS and use that to set up the watch and subscribe to an Ace Pass data plan. The watch itself costs $229.95, and the Ace Pass subscription costs $9.99 a month (or $120 annually, though Google is currently offering the annual Ace Pass subscription for 50% off at $60). The subscription includes games and LTE service, which enables calling and texting through the watch, as well as location tracking via GPS and Google Maps. Without the subscription, the Ace LTE is limited to basic movement and step tracking, features you can get for much less with the Ace 3, which does not support GPS tracking or LTE connectivity.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
Fitbit offers the Ace LTE in two color options: Mild with a Strange Arcade strap (black and gray) or Spicy with a Moovin strap (green and purple). The package includes a colorful bumper that clips onto the front of the watch for extra protection. Even without the bumper, the watch is relatively durable with a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 screen and a 5ATM water-resistance rating, meaning it can be submerged up to 164 feet deep. The color OLED screen has 333 pixels per inch (ppi) and the housing combines plastic, stainless steel, glass, and recycled material. Under the hood, a Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 provides power and the watch features an accelerometer, an altimeter, an ambient light sensor, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, and an optical heart rate sensor.Made from recycled yarn, the Ace LTE band clicks into place on the bottom of the watch’s housing, then loops through a ring and Velcros into place. Detaching a band is simple without being so easy that it can happen by accident; with the watch off, you simply lift a small lever near where it attaches.Fitbit sells additional bands for $34.99 apiece, but annual Ace Pass subscribers get a new one for free each year. Beyond either of the two you get with the watch, the company offers bands called Camp Nightmare, Courtside, Glitterbomb Skate, and Spooky Plugs. I was sent the Spicy variant with an additional Glitterbomb Skate band for review.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
Despite having the hardware and software chops of a flagship smartwatch, the features have been tailored specifically for children. As such, the Ace LTE doesn’t have an app store. Instead, it’s focused on keeping children entertained and moving while offering peace of mind for parents and caregivers. At launch, the watch offers access to six different games in its arcade, with Google promising to release additional titles every three months. The current selection includes a racing game, a dancing game, a fishing game, and a strategy game, among others. Each one involves some movement during play, which is tracked by sensors in the watch. Every game has its own progression system, and after five to ten minutes of play, instructs the wearer to pause the game and get active in order to unlock the next session.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
Aside from games, the watch has a customizable Eejie, which is a digital character similar to a Sim or a Tamagotchi. Movement makes the Eejie happy, and you can complete daily quests and score movement points to unlock new clothing or decorations for your Eejie’s digital home. The watch limits how many rewards you can unlock in a day to avoid enticing kids to become overtired. It incentivizes daily movement streaks, but gives partial credit and many chances for kids to hop back in if they have a slow or sick day. Even the relatively standard on-screen fitness ring is a customizable animal that grows throughout the day and celebrates reaching a movement goal with a variety of colorful animations. The idea behind all of these features is to help motivate kids to stay active without calling it “exercise.” Kids can also use the watch to set an alarm, a timer, or a stopwatch. They can quickly and easily call or text their parents, who will receive messages via the Fitbit Ace app and can use the app to respond. Parents can assign up to 20 trusted contacts for the child to reach through the watch and can set one as an emergency contact. The watch will automatically call this contact if the parents don’t pick up a call. The watch has GPS, so parents can check their child’s location through the app, which uses Google Maps to show their whereabouts. Google has promised to add an optional tap-to-pay feature to the watch in the near future to help parents teach their children about spending.
First Look: Fitbit Ace LTE
With the app, parents can also set certain hours as School Time, which disables the games on the watch. It still tracks activity in the background and kids can still text trusted contacts, but everything on the watch is more muted with this turned on. The Ace LTE monitors floors climbed, light activity, moderate activity, and steps, but it doesn’t track sleep. With just 16 hours of stated battery life, Ace LTE is meant to reside on its charger each night. In addition to LTE connectivity, the Ace LTE has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and kids can connect headphones to it, but it doesn’t have any onboard music service. It also lacks a camera, so kids can’t use it for video calls or selfies, though some parents might find this omission reassuring from a privacy standpoint.On the topic of privacy, Google has promised never to use data from the watch for ads or serve ads on the watch itself. Location data is kept for 24 hours and only for parents. Fitness data is deleted on a rolling 35-day basis, though in the fine print as you sign up, Google specifies that it may keep some data for “legitimate legal or business purposes.”The Ace LTE’s closest competitor is the Verizon Gizmo 3 ($149, plus activation fees and a required $10 monthly subscription), which also has location tracking, calling, and texting capabilities. The Gizmo 3 outlasts the Ace LTE with up to 3.6 days of battery life on a charge, and it adds a camera for video calls, but its games and interactive features are much simpler, with classics like Tic Tac Toe and basic jumping challenges instead of robust, original titles. Another option is to spend more on the Apple Watch SE ($249) for an experience closer to an adult’s smartwatch with a wide selection of downloadable apps but less in the way of built-in kid-focused features. If you’re simply interested in child-centered fitness tracking, go with the more affordable Ace 3, which monitors both activity and sleep, and promises up to eight days of battery life per charge. Setup and Navigation: Simple for Parents and ChildrenA parent or guardian needs to do the initial setup before a child can play games. Sign in to the app or create a Google account, then add a profile for your child, including their name, gender, and birthday. During this process, Google will automatically create a Family Link account for you and your child if you don’t already use the parental control platform.Next, boot up the watch by holding the green button on its side for a couple of seconds, then use the touch screen to select your language and follow the instructions in the app to pair the watch to your phone. In this process, you can select “I will wear the watch” instead of “my child will wear the watch” if you bought it for yourself. At this point, it will prompt you to select your subscription plan, and then the watch will activate. You’ll then scroll through a bunch of privacy agreements on the phone. Finally, it’ll ask what your child calls you, and will use that name to add your contact info on the watch. The watch will then automatically connect to Wi-Fi using the info on your phone if you let it.Once up and running, you can use the app to call or text the watch, locate the device, track movement, or check and add contacts. Use the settings menu to allow your kid to add friends, set up School Time hours, or play a sound if the watch is lost and you need help finding it. While you tour the app, your child can put on the watch and an animated creature named Scout will walk them through the controls and features. The top button goes to the home screen, or if already home, pulls up calling, texting, alarms, and a button to check activity totals. The bottom button launches the game arcade. The child can also long-press the home screen to customize how the clock looks and which animal will function as the moving ring.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
Swipe up on the screen for notifications, down for quick settings like brightness and ring volume, right for daily quests, and left for Bit Valley, where the Eejie lives. As Scout will note when you first boot up the watch, the child will need to log 500 steps before they can first explore Bit Valley. GPS Tracking and Games: Reliable and FunThe Ace LTE’s GPS tracking functionality works well. In testing, it quickly and accurately showed me at home, at a nearby restaurant, and at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The location dot shows on an intuitive Google Maps interface, so you can quickly tell where the person is and how to get there. Moreover, texts came through quickly on the watch and phone calls sounded clear.I was excited to try the Ace LTE’s entertainment features, but even I, a veteran of many deep role-playing video games, was a bit overwhelmed by their complexity. Completing daily quests earns you stars, which also earns you XP, which is used to level up your Eejie. You also earn tickets, which can you use to shop for clothing or decorations for your home, and at higher levels, you can access more rooms in your home to decorate. Not to mention that each game has multiple systems of rewards you can earn—some of which apply to your Eejie, some are used to track activity to unlock more of the game, and some are just for fun. Then there is a separate stat showing the happiness level of your Eejie, indicated by a circle above its head and numbers that get added and subtracted at odd intervals. It’s a lot. Even the shops in Bit Valley have multiple categories. There is a billboard announcing new items and different items have different rarities to justify charging more tickets. After you buy an item from a shop, you can’t just equip it right there; that’s how I accidentally bought multiple pairs of jeans. You can sell items that you don’t need, but to equip items, you need to go back to your Eejie’s home and either long-press the room to place furniture or tap your Eejie to tinker with outfits and hairstyles. It’s possible that all of these details will serve to keep kids’ attention over time, which is be a good thing if it keeps them active to earn the various rewards. Though none of the Eejie’s accessories can be directly purchased, you can unlock some add-ons through compatible accessory bands. Each band comes with a set of themed digital Eejie accessories, but kids can freely share bands with friends and the accessories are permanently unlocked as soon as the band clicks into place. Kids can also share their Eejies with friends, but they have to be in the same location physically and parents have to specifically enable this feature. Once enabled, kids can swipe through to see their friends’ Eejies and their decorated digital homes. As for the games, all are pretty engaging, but Pollo13 is my favorite. It’s more or less a standard racing game, but you’re a chicken in an inflatable tub, and I enjoyed the color and personality imbued in all of the details.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
Smokey Lake asks you to fish by flinging your arm out to cast and then winding it in when you feel the vibration of a bite. In Kaiju Golf, you help a friendly monster achieve a high score by swinging your arm as though with a golf club to hit the ball toward a hole on a nearby island. Jelly Jam tasks you with doing various moves like Arms Up or Jump Left in time with the beat. Otal’s Secret is a puzzle game in which you use the touch screen to rotate and find clues on various puzzle boxes. Galaxy Rangers is a strategy game where you try to conquer planets through space battles, and you line up certain shots by moving your arm to guide the targeting system.None of the games had enough meat on the bone for me to want to play them in a longer session, but they’re all meant to be played in intervals anyway. After a round or two, you’ll need to log a bunch of steps to help the team inflate your next racing tub, for example. Or, in Smokey Lake, you need to get steps to travel to the next fishing hole and pick up bait along the way. You can only progress one game at a time, which is an odd choice. Games will stay paused where you left them if you switch from one to the next, and the arcade will warn you that you’re pausing progress when you switch, but your steps will only count toward your currently active game. Given that the focus is on movement, I appreciate this approach, though it could make it tricky for your child to find out which game they prefer as you pretty much only get to play a tutorial of each before the first movement waypoint. Some of the tutorials also involve a bit of reading, as the involved creatures have a lot of dialogue to help you get immersed in the world, which might be a turn off for kids trying to jump into the action.The occasionally sluggish controls are a downside. Bit Valley took almost a minute to load the first time I used it. Each screen I swiped through, from the house to the shop, took a couple of seconds to load. Bit Valley got a little more fluid as I used it, so the initial hiccups could have just been caused by an overloaded system on its initial run, but it never felt as smooth as I had hoped.Games can also take a bit to load the first time, and sometimes the controls aren’t as responsive as I would like. The dancing game didn’t recognize all of my jumps and shuffles, so I had to repeat a few moves. The sound would also occasionally drop as my chicken raced down the track collecting eggs. Those moments were somewhat rare. Most loading backlog happens in menus, but it can make them less than intuitive to use as you’re learning a game. A few times, I was not sure if I needed to tap to progress, swipe to progress, or if I was just looking at a loading screen and needed to wait a bit longer. On different screens of different games, the answer seemed evenly distributed among those three options. The slow responsiveness didn’t make any games unplayable, but I wasn’t trying for high scores in that dancing game. I can imagine the problem would be frustrating over time if it hinders progress, though Google might be able to iron out the performance with an update at some point.Kid Tested and ApprovedAfter testing the watch myself for a couple of days, I gave the Fitbit Ace LTE to my seven-year-old pal Sophie, the daughter of some of my best adult gamer friends, who is already very into active play and somewhat into video games.On her first evening with the watch, she got a tremendous kick out of the simple joy of texting poop and heart emoji to her dad, as this was her first connected product. Plus, while that 500-step threshold felt like a lot to me, she immediately hopped up and was excited to have an excuse to show me her soccer skills.She then tried the fishing game. It took her a few tries to get the motion down, and I was worried she’d get frustrated, but then she finally caught one and became ecstatic.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
Sophie spent about 10 days testing the watch, and it kept her attention the whole time. The sometimes sluggish controls didn’t seem to bother her at all. She noticed that sometimes games took a little bit to load, but she liked that as it gave her a chance to stop playing for a second. A few things did bother Sophie. She felt the games were a bit intrusive, buzzing her wrist and reminding her to play too often. She tried both the Moovin’ band and the Glitterbomb Skate band, and didn’t like that the look of the buildings in Bit Valley changed depending on which band she was wearing. She also noted that the Glitterbomb band felt “lumpy,” but thought the Moovin’ band fit comfortably. Mostly, though, Sophie loved her experience with the watch. Her parents added me as a trusted contact, and she repeatedly texted me, “love the watch.” She had boundless enthusiasm at the mere idea of getting to help me test something and was overjoyed just to have a real connected product that she could use to text and call her parents when she wanted. Her enthusiasm for texting also caused her dad to tell me that he wished the School Time feature would disable text messages as “the novelty of [being able to text for the first time] takes a while to wear off for a seven-year-old.”Since she listed texting and calling as her favorite features of the watch alongside getting to set timers and alarms, she would have almost certainly been just as happy with a simpler device. That said, she noted that she played the games a lot when she was bored and called Jelly Jam and Smokey Lake her favorites.She got a kick out of the animal’s different animations when she reached her activity goal. She liked completing daily quests and adding items to her Eejie’s home, and she was clearly less bothered by the abundance of stuff in Bit Valley than I was. While Sophie found some of the simpler stuff to be the main draw, she engaged with all the features. Her parents appreciated the School Time feature. Others will be reassured to know that while I was chatting with Sophie about the watch on a video call, she dropped it, but the protective case did its job. She admitted that she’d dropped the watch a few times over the course of the week and it was always unscathed. She then added the protective covering to her list of likes.Verdict: A Top Smartwatch for KidsEven with its sometimes sluggish performance, the Fitbit Ace LTE stands apart as the most robust and finely tailored wearable for kids on the market. This isn’t an adult tracker stripped for parts to make it affordable; this is an intentionally crafted fitness, gaming, and safety watch with useful tools to encourage active play and limit screen time. Its main competition is the Verizon Gizmo Watch 3, which costs $80 less and has a camera, but doesn’t have as much to do on the watch itself outside of a few token games. With activities and games to keep children engaged, and key features for parental peace of mind, the Fitbit Ace LTE earns our Editors’ Choice for kid-focused smartwatches.
The Bottom Line
The Fitbit Ace LTE smartwatch offers engaging games and friendly digital mascots that encourage kids to get active, along with useful parental controls and GPS tracking to help justify its price.
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