Pros
- Comes with phone dialer
- Comes with GPS and rear/front cameras functions
- Easy to use
- Plenty of parental control
Cons
- Battery life can be better
- Watch face can be a bit big for kids
- No easy way to start a video chat from watch
There are plenty of smartwatches around and most of them can connect with your phone to show messages, notifications and receive phone calls. What about a watch that is also a phone and one that can track your kids’ location? The imoo watch phone is one such device and is probably a useful gadget for your kids right now.
imoo watch phone is a smart watch and phone for kids. It provides a way for parents to monitor and communicate with their kids remotely without them owning/carrying a phone.
Design
The imoo Z6 watch phone has a 1.41″ AMOLED touch screen and a 320×360 screen resolution. It comes with a rear (8MP) and front (5MP) camera and weighs 66g. While the watch face might be a little big for a kid’s wrist, the strap has a wide adjustment range for various wrist sizes.
The single button at the side of the watch acts as a power on/off and screen wake-up button. Other than that, it is pretty much useless.
The watchface is mounted on a metal bracket, and its top part comes with a latch. A quick press will release the latch, and you can then flip the watch to an upright position.
This allows you to access the rear camera, access the SIM card slot and also charge the watch.
There are two color variants: purple and green. Our review unit is purple.
Specifications
Water Resistant: | Swimming Water Resistant (>IPX8) |
Battery: | 680 mAh |
Band Material: | Dowcorning TPSIV |
CPU: | Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 |
Storage: | 8GB ROM |
Wireless Connection: | Data, Wi-Fi (2.4G), Bluetooth |
Dimension (without Band): | 2.28*1.76*0.63” (57.8*44.7*15.9mm) |
Dimension (With Band): | 9.47*1.76*0.63” (240.42*44.7*15.9mm) |
Weight (with Band): | 66g |
Connectivity: | 2G GSM 900MHz 1800MHz 3G CDMA2000 BC0 800MHz WCDMA B1 B2 B5 B8 4G FDD-LTE B1 B2 B3 B5 B8 TD-LTE B38 B39 B40 B41(100M) |
Front Camera: | 5 Million Pixels, 84.4° Wide-Angle |
Rear Camera: | 8 Million Pixels, 84° Wide-Angle |
Camera Shot Protector: | Sapphire Crystal |
Aperture: | Double F/2.2 |
Dimension: | 1.41” (35.81mm) |
Touch Panel: | Multiple-Point Capacitive AMOLED Touch Screen |
Display Protector: | Corning Gorilla Glass |
Screen Resolution: | 320*360 |
Locating: | GPS GLONASS BDS Wi-Fi LBS |
Setting it up
After you take it out of the box, long-press on the side button to turn it on. Next you need to put in a SIM card (at the SIM card slot beneath the watch). The watch will not work without a SIM card. The SIM card is also providing the Internet connectivity that is much needed for most of its functions to work.
If you are at home or within a Wi-Fi network, you can also connect the watch to the Wi-Fi. This will prevent the watch from using the SIM card’s data continuously.
One last step before you start using it: connect the watch to the charger and charge it. During charging, the watch will also connect to the server to check for updates. Do note that the update can only be done when the watch is charging, so it is important to do it from the start.
Configuration
To get the most out of it, the imoo Z6 watch phone needs to pair with the imoo app on a phone, preferably the parent’s phone. It is in the imoo app where most of the configuration options lie.
In the app, you can set up a daily schedule to remind your kids of various events, like when it’s time to wake up, to do homework, to take a shower, etc. You can also enable the Class Mode (also known as Do Not Disturb mode) so that all incoming calls and messages are rejected during classtime. And last but not least, you can enable “Block Unknown Call” so no others can call your kids except for the those added in the Contacts list.
What can the imoo watch phone do?
As a smart watch, I do feel that the functionality is a bit limited. There is a mini app store included, but there are limited apps. There is no way to install or sideload third-party apps to the watch.
The default apps in the watch include:
- dialer for making phone calls
- message app for receiving (but not sending) SMS
- chat app to talk to family members
- camera app to take photos, selfies and videos
- stopwatch app
- alarm clock app
- daily schedule app
- theme app
- settings app
Usage and Performance
I let my daughter use the watch for a week, and she liked it a lot. As a communication device, I think the watch has done well. The dialer app allows the kids to make phone calls, and the voice quality is pretty good.
The chat feature allows my daughter to talk to me anytime. There is no way to input text on the watch though, so the only way to communicate is via voice message. Simply press the “Hold to talk” button and start recording your voice. However, from my phone, I am able to send a text message. While the Chat app supports video calls, there is no way to start it from the app. The only way I can find to start a video call is from the Call Log menu. Tap on the entry and select “Video call.”
Obviously, my daughter loves the camera function the most. She took over a hundred images in just half a day. There is nothing to marvel at with the photo quality, but it is still a fun thing to take photos from your wrist.
On the app, there is a Locate option with Google Maps showing the location of my daughter. Even though I have no use for this, I can see how this can be a useful feature for parents who can’t be with their kids.
Conclusion
I guess that once kids are old enough, they won’t want to wear a tracker for you to locate where they are. But for younger kids who can’t always be by your side, this watch is useful to help you monitor where they are and communicate with them in real-time without them carrying a phone (and getting addicted to it).
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