Handing a smartphone to a kid is a recipe for obsession and countless wasted hours glued to games and videos. But going off the grid isn’t an option for modern parents who need to keep tabs on their children’s activities and whereabouts. The imoo Watch Phone Z7 bridges this divide perfectly – giving kids just enough tech for calling, messaging, and location sharing without opening the Pandora’s box of digital distractions.
For the uninitiated, imoo is an over-a-decade-old brand specialising in wearables designed specifically for children, packing in communications tools, activity tracking, and more.
The Z7 maintains imoo’s signature durable yet (kind of) stylish design aesthetic, with a 1.3-inch touchscreen display. It’s not AMOLED though, so sunlight legibility isn’t the best. Sized to fit most wrists, the smartwatch feels impressively solid in the hand thanks to its aluminum alloy body and the high-quality strap. There’s a single button on the side of the Watch Phone Z7 that acts as a power button for waking the display or turning it off.
Underneath is a SIM card slot to power those nifty connectivity and calling features. However, getting the tray out was no easy task. It’s abnormally tight and took me several minutes of prying with my fingernail before it popped.
The watch is certainly a bit on the heavier side at 65 grams for kids, but then again, the whole package is more of a phone for your wrist (it’s got cameras!) rather than your run-of-the-mill smartwatch – so it’s understandable.
On the top is my favourite bit about the Phone Z7 – a button that lifts the watch from its frame, allowing for a more natural video calling experience from the 2MP front camera. It also lets the kid show stuff on the other side using the 5MP rear camera.
The two units allow the child to switch between front and back views during video calls, done over a proprietary app. So no, there’s no fancy WhatsApp support here.
Under the hood is a Spreadtrum W317 processor and 4GB of storage, with which the Z7 breezes through imoo’s rather straightforward ‘CaremeOS Lite’ without any hiccups. Seriously, it’s a lot smoother than most other fitness trackers I have tried. The 740mAh battery lasted for about three days if the camera wasn’t used extensively.
Of course, as with previous imoo watches, communication is the Z7’s bread and butter. Parents can manage contacts, set call restrictions, and even initiate remote audio monitoring right from the companion app.
The Z7 packs an ‘air pressure sensor’ and a PPG heart rate monitor. These sensors continuously monitor the child’s body temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen, and even mood – and the data can be synced seamlessly on the app for the parent to see. Plus, with an IPX8 waterproof rating, this smartwatch can survive all the inevitable spills, drops, and splashes of childhood.
While the hardware impresses, the software experience is still a bit of a mixed bag. imoo’s proprietary app gets the core jobs done smoothly enough – voice/video calls, text/audio chats, location tracking, and so on. But while I didn’t try the companion app on iOS, it feels a bit unpolished on Android, with clunky menus and some iffy English translations. Hopefully, imoo gives it a revamp soon.
My other minor gripe is the lack of Wi-Fi flexibility. The Z7 can only latch onto 2.4GHz networks, which could be an issue for some modern dual-band routers.
Nitpicks aside, the imoo Watch Phone Z7 just works as a brilliant all-in-one communication and activity device for kids. From the sturdy hardware to the straightforward software fundamentals, it checks every box a concerned parent could want.
And at Rs 14,990, it may seem a little pricey, but for parents looking to keep their children safe and connected without succumbing to the dreaded iPad kid syndrome, imoo is an excellent first ‘phone’ to gift your kid.
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First uploaded on: 19-04-2024 at 13:10 IST
