With so many of us grown-ups now wearing a fitness tracker to monitor daily activity levels, it’s no surprise that our children want to get involved, too.
Of course, kids don’t need a piece of tech to get them active. But activity trackers can be a brilliant way to encourage them to develop healthy habits and turn fitness into a family activity.
While there are lots of brands on the market, Fitbit is widely considered the original. That’s why we’ve focused purely on its branded trackers for this review.
Fitbit has designed several models specifically for children, as well as those that we’ve found work particularly well for older children and teens who want extra features like GPS, or a more grown-up look and feel. We’ve also considered factors like durability and water resistance when selecting our best buy.
To use any Fitbit you’ll first need to download the Fitbit app and then you can set up a family account that you can add kids to. That way you can manage and view their account as their guardian, and they get a more simplified app interface.
Fitbit ace 3
It’s no surprise that Fitbit’s newest offering for kids takes the crown here. The ace 3 brings with it a few improved features. Firstly, the look and feel of the ace 3 is pleasingly curvy, with a very light and slim silicone strap that’s designed to fit small wrists. Our eight-year-old tester found it comfy to wear every day.
The ace 3 comes in blue with green details, black with red details, and a special-edition Minions version in yellow. The Fitbit component itself pops out of the strap easily, and you can buy straps separately if your kids fancy a change. The clock face is easy to read, and kids can choose an animation that comes to life as they hit their goals – which you set in the Fitbit app on your phone. Our tester watched as a rocket, which began grounded, went further into space the more steps he walked.
Features-wise the ace 3 can track sleep, set bedtime reminders and morning alarms, and has timer and stopwatch features for races. None of Fitbit’s child-friendly models track heart rate, so you’ll need to move up to an adult model if that’s a must-have. The all-day steps tracker was easily the most popular feature with our tester, and we definitely noticed an increased desire to be active from the first day he wore it – if only to beat his sister’s daily step goal.
The ace 3 promises up to eight-day battery life – although ours tended to need recharging after around five days, which is no surprise given the number of times our tester touched the screen to check the number of steps he’d done. It’s also water resistant to 50m which is great for swimming lessons, but equally reassuring for everyday spills.
Fitbit ace 2
The ace 2 is pretty similar to the ace 3 (£69.99, Currys.co.uk), so it’s a good option if you want to shave a bit off the cost. The two biggest differences are the look – the ace 2 is slightly squarer – and the battery life, which is up to five days for the ace 2. We found ours tended to last three or four days before it needed recharging, but you can get more battery life if you don’t use the animated clock faces.
Our only gripe is that the Fitbit chargers aren’t universal, which would make life a whole lot easier. It also took a half an hour to sync with our app, where the ace 3 was ready to go in minutes. Other than that, the other differences are more subtle – the ace 2 has a button at the side of the screen for example, and the ace 2’s touchscreen display is ever so slightly darker than the ace 3, although it doesn’t impact use. Our six-year-old tester preferred the colour options available with the ace 2, and chose the watermelon red option.
Pretty much everything else is on a par with the ace 3, and this is another excellent activity tracker from Fitbit that our tester rarely takes off. She figured out how to swipe up and down to display the various menu items quickly – no instructions needed – and particularly liked the animated clock faces, especially the plant that grows as your step count increases. You can set family challenges in the Fitbit app on your phone, but our testers were just as happy to compare wrists and see who’d hit the highest number of steps before bed.
Fitbit inspire 2
The inspire 2 is basically a sophisticated version of the ace 3, so it’s great for older children and teens who’ve outgrown the child-like design of the ace models. It has a grown-up look, with a sleek, slim band that fitted our pre-teen tester’s wrist and was comfortable and light enough to leave on at night. It comes in a choice of black, white and dusky pink colour options and certainly wins points for appearance. The 10-day battery life is another big bonus and it’s only slightly more expensive than the ace 3, so it’s still a budget-friendly option.
As a grown-up Fitbit, the inspire 2 includes extra features like female health, heart rate and calories burned, so think carefully about the age and stage of the wearer before you buy. We really liked the in-depth sleep features, with a breakdown of sleep stages to show how much light, deep and REM sleep you’re getting. Our inspire 2 also came with a 12-month free trial of Premium, which unlocks extras like sleep sounds and guided breathing.
Overall this is a nice step up from the children’s models that replaces features like the child-like goals and animations with a focus on mindfulness and a more delicate look and feel.
Fitbit charge 4
If having a GPS feature is essential, the charge 4 is a good option for sporty youngsters and teens – particularly if they have a phone. We noticed that using the GPS drains the Charge 4’s battery a lot faster than the seven days you can get without it, although you can enable Dynamic GPS to preserve battery life and it will automatically use your phone’s GPS instead when it’s close by.
Style-wise this model has a chunkier strap and a more masculine look than the inspire 2 (£74.99, Smythstoys.com), and our tester chose the black option. As with all the Fitbits it’s easy to snap on a new band if you fancy a change, and there’s everything from stitched leather to a glamorous rose gold steel option available to buy separately.
Like all the Fitbits we tested, you can wake the Charge 4 up by pressing the side of the screen, turning your wrist or tapping the screen, but our tester found it didn’t always respond the first time. Once it did, it was fairly easy to scroll between features and track all sorts of sports – from swimming to tennis. You can change the default shortcuts in the app, and with the GPS on you can track pace, speed, distance, time and heart rate – then see your run on a map in the app.
Although not a smartwatch, the charge 4 also has some smart features including Fitbit Pay for mobile payments. It’s a great budget option for teens who want a fitness tracker with GPS but don’t want to shell out a small fortune for it.
Fitbit versa 3
If you’re looking for a smartwatch for an older child, put the versa 3 on your list. This one is a good all-rounder at a decent price, and means kids can leave their phone at home and still track their exercise with GPS, and get text and WhatsApp notifications on their wrist.
Our tester really liked the design of the versa 3, which looks more like a watch than a fitness tracker. The display is bright, crisp and colourful, and definitely trumps the other Fitbits that made it onto our list. The only downside is the sensor on the side of the screen, which is more like an indent and can make waking the Fitbit up quite tricky until you’ve got the hang of it.
Aside from that the versa 3 is very easy to use straight out of the box, and beyond the standard activity tracking features there are things like local weather and a find my phone function (although truth be told, our tester had to be pretty close to their phone for this to actually work). Phone notifications are pretty unobtrusive on the vibration setting, but you can switch them off entirely or tweak which notifications you receive in the app.
All the Fitbits in our list track something called “active zone minutes” (active minutes for the two ace models), which is basically any activity that raises your heart rate. The default goal for the adult models is set to 150 active zone minutes each week, which is based on recommendations from The American Heart Association and World Health Organization. As with most of the features, this is customisable and you can change your target or switch off notifications completely in the Fitbit app.
The verdict: Fitbits for kids and teenagers
For younger children looking for a fun way to track their activity and challenge family members and friends, our vote goes to the ace 3. The animated clock faces and long battery life made this a sure-fire winner with our young testers.
For something a little more sophisticated, the inspire 2 is a good solution – it looks good and still ticks all the essential boxes, but doesn’t cost so much that you’ll constantly worry they’ll lose it.
