Fitbit Ace LTE, a great smartwatch for kids, is down to $170

The Fitbit Ace LTE is a great smartwatch for kids who aren’t ready for their first smartphone. It has great games, a fun little activity tracker, location tracking, and lets kids call or text pre-selected contacts. There is no app store, no internet access, no smartphone connection, and no way for them to receive spam calls or texts. It’s down to $170.95 from $229.99 at Amazon for both the spicy (green and gray, with purple and green band) and the soft (grey, gray and black) during the current clearance sale event. My daughter has been using one since this summer, and we both recommend it.

Ace LTE is a standalone cross-platform watch; parents or guardians set it up using the Fitbit Ace app on Android or iOS. That app is also where you choose who your child can call or text (those people also need the Ace app), set school hours (no games or incoming calls), and check location (although location sharing also comes from Google. Maps app, nice). Calling, texting, and location sharing require an Ace Pass, which costs $9.99 a month and enables LTE access. No carrier integration is required.

The watch also has interchangeable bands, at $40 a pop, that unlock new games and functions when connected. It’s a shameless attempt to include a gotta-catch-em-all mode – or at least encourage a band swap during the break – and it will probably work.

The Verge’Vee Song launched the Ace LTE earlier this year, and my family has been testing one since June. My favorite thing about it is that it allows my nine-year-old to text me, which I loved during the summer when he was at camp. He was able to tell me that his brother needed dry shoes, for example, or that the toys in the toy museum they visited looked terrible and that the place smelled strange. It opened up a new way of communicating compared to the preset text responses and 20-second audio clips he had to work with on the Garmin Bounce.

The Ace LTE is best suited for children between the ages of 7 and 11 years old, where they will start to resent being limited compared to an Apple Watch or a real phone. But for now, I appreciate those limitations. Look for my full review soon.