Overall Rating 

• Overall whichwearable rating 

Garmin Promises

• Encourage 60 minute daily play goal 
• 1 year battery
• Complete chores & earn rewards
• Value 

Available from this link Garmin Vivofit Jr. Motivator and Activity Tracker – Real Flower/White on Amazon at around £79

Why buy it?

• Your kids need more exercise or you are wanting to create awareness of exercise.
• You have a child who is technically “obese”.

What could be improved?

• Communication about the size of the strap.
• If your child is older than 9 then the motivational games may not be appealing. Consider a different device.

Review by Holly (Age 13)

I used the band for more than 2 weeks over Christmas. Initially the band that came with it didn’t fit (Blue,white and pink one above) as I am too old for the product (Age 4 -9) but we got another band from Garmin (Pink one below) . That’s the first thing to check the size of your kid’s wrist. If it is more that 14.5 cm then you need the larger band.

Summary:

The band is an accurate counter, which is suitable to use for any sport, as it is water-resistant and lightweight. It is a nice looking band but I would like to see the other designs and colours of band.

Positives:

• Accurate with steps
• Water resistant
• Attractive
• Easy to use (app)
• Multipurpose
• Fun app
• Don’t need wifi for app, uses Bluetooth I think.

Negatives:

• If you weren’t that size band then you have may to buy another one.
• No games on the App.

App Review

The Vivofit jr. App is good as you can see your information in a fun layout. I like the chores part of the app because you can make your own list and it is an easy way for your parents to keep track and give you a reward.

However the rewards given are quite dramatic such as a family holiday!

One new idea is to unlock games for your child to use. For example, after a certain amount of coins earned they unlock hangman. However overall it is an enjoyable app, which is easy to use and connect to.

Review by Brian (Dad , Age >13! )

This could be a high volume device (> 250,000 units) as it tackles the growing trend of child inactivity. This segment of the market is growing as kids are doing less and becoming obese. The Government are saying “Today nearly a third of children aged 2 to 15 are overweight or obese”. Making them move is a good thing and anything to stop them developing into “Screenagers” locked to screens permanently is also a good thing.

The challenge here is that Dad and Mum have the Smartphone with the App on it as kids are legally not allowed to have a smartphone until the age of 16. There is nothing stopping the App being on an iPad and the children using it instead of Dad and Mum. This is an opportunity for Garmin to look at. The App doesn’t have to be on a Smartphone nor driven by Mum and Dad.

A black and white LED screen is a great way to ensure that the battery life lasts as long as a year ( I don’t have a year to test the product but I’m sure its battery life is months rather than days).

Setting up the chores and rewards is a great way to motivate kids under 9 and I’m sure that   as they earns coins they will enjoy the challenges. The proof of the success of the product will be is if it stays on for more than one month and that the kids don’t get bored of the same challenges to do as my kids did when we did this with ours without a fitness monitor.