Fitbit Ace 3 is a fitness tracker for kids aged 6 and up. This is what is written on the product box, so the target audience is clearly defined there.
In a way, it’s a Xiaomi bracelet for your son, daughter, stepson, etc. The idea is not only to monitor physical activity, but also to encourage children to exercise. In other words, avoid a sedentary lifestyle, which helps ensure better health.
After all, children need to move and explore the world to understand everything. Now, what does the product actually monitor and how does it work? What parental controls does it offer? What is the difference between it and the real Xiaomi Mi Band? That’s what I’ll explain next.
Design and Construction
The easiest way to describe the Fitbit Ace 3 is to say that it looks like a Xiaomi Mi Band. Simply put, it’s a silicone bracelet that wraps around a rectangular case with a screen on top and some sensors on the bottom.
But this only helps to understand what the product is. Visually, the similarities with the Mi Band end there. Developed for children, this Fitbit smartband has a special design that guarantees greater durability for the most fragile parts.
The bracelet is quite large as it protects the entire case from bumps and scratches. It’s more or less like a solid phone, with rubber pieces wrapping around the entire edge of the screen.
There’s an opening on both the screen and the side, where there are two tactile sensors that need to be tapped at the same time to trigger the button’s function. The case can be easily removed from the band for cleaning and the band can even be replaced.
The single most serious issue with the Fitbit Ace 3 in terms of design and finish is its closure. It is made of a plastic that looks like a toy and is very fragile. If you or your child opens and closes it too often, it can break quickly. Glad this piece was taken care of.
The smartband is waterproof and can be used for swimming, as well as supporting a depth of 50 meters in fresh water. The bracelet is available in a blue option with a green clasp or a black option with a red clasp. There are also special edition Minions, yellow and blue.
Screen
The smartband for kids has a monochrome screen, reminiscent of the first generation Xiaomi Mi Bands (of course I’m talking about the second and third generation). The screen is touch sensitive and allows interaction with gestures and taps to activate functions and more.
But make no mistake. Not because it is a product for children, it is of poor quality. The screen is very responsive and accurate, as you would expect from a good current smartband.
Children can choose from a huge number of watch faces. In a way, it’s a digital gourmet watch. All common functions are present, such as stopwatches, timers, and alarms, but selections are made by interacting with the screen rather than buttons.
There are no details about the screen size in inches. The company just says it’s a touchscreen with a PMOLED panel and it’s backlit. There is no resolution information, even with monochrome monitors, but some items are too big to fit in the viewing space.
Configuration and Performance
Fitbit’t hasn’t shared technical information about the Ace 3. But considering it’s a smartband for kids, you can imagine the processor being more powerful than it needs to be.
Children’s products are often less potent. Even for kids, she’s not that difficult to act (disagree). But that’s not the case here, the Fitbit Ace performs all its functions efficiently.
And there aren’t many features. The Fitbit Ace 3 does a great job of tracking your child’s fitness, counting steps and encouraging them to stay active. It supports the company’s app store and more features can be added if desired.
At least the device does not need to be in constant communication with the paired device. The idea is to set it up on your phone to track your child’s progress throughout the day. When you meet, communication takes place to update the data.
Usability
The wristband lights up when you lift your wrist, but it also triggers the screen if the wearer taps the two tactile sensors on the side with their fingers. By the way, these sensors only work when activated together, they are useless individually.
In addition to lighting up the screen, they also have a kind of back. By activating them, you can return to previous menu screens, etc. For the rest, all interactions are done through the father’s cell phone or through the smartband screen.
There’s a strange problem here. Fitbit Ace 3 is a kids wristband, and you can even create a user for your kid to do some controls and settings on the phone. But ideally, the administrator should be the responsible adult profile, as there are specific roles.
For example, you can send a notification or make a schedule to encourage your child to get moving. Or invite him to lunch or dinner.
On the wristband, kids can access almost all the most important information, including the day’s activity history.
Physical Monitoring
I know it will repeat itself, but I need to strengthen it as much as possible: the Fitbit Ace 3 is a children’s bracelet. Therefore, it is impossible to make too many demands on the body to keep up. It doesn’t have a heart rate sensor or stopwatch to know how long you’ve been training.
The wristband counts steps and activity time, taking into account every step and jump of the child. That said, every second she’s in any sport goes into the stats. This encouraged her to avoid sitting still for long periods of time and to avoid a sedentary lifestyle.
In addition to sending notifications to get your child ready for bedtime, the Fitbit Ace 3 can monitor sleep. It even has a gentle alarm to wake you up in time without waking you up suddenly. That way, you can guarantee a good night’s sleep and get data on whether she’s really getting enough rest.
connectivity
You can pair your Fitbit Ace 3 with any iPhone running iOS 14 or later and most Android devices running iOS 10 or later. Additionally, you can extract band information on macOS X 12.2 and later, as well as iPhone 5S and Android 7 or later.
To sync data, Bluetooth LE and an Internet connection are required. And the device doesn’t need to be more than 10 meters away from the wristband.
The initial connection is quick and easy, and you may need to create a subprofile in the Fitbit app to do this. However, an update after our testing released this requirement, and you can still configure the bandwidth for personal use.
That said, it is now possible to configure the Fitbit Ace 3 for adults without adding an additional children’s profile to the app. I can’t imagine why anyone would do that, but everyone uses their devices as they see fit.
Battery and Charging
The battery life is up to 8 days and according to my tests you can reach that time without any problems. In addition to the fact that you are not notified of every email or message you receive, the monochrome display helps a lot in this good time of use.
The Fitbit Ace 3 is very simple to use and doesn’t require a lot of processor. And it also consumes relatively low power. As I have pointed out many times in this article, the idea is to encourage children to avoid a sedentary lifestyle.
Depending on usage, a smartband can be less than eight days away from an outlet, but hardly less than five days. You can charge a small amount per day to ensure the bracelet never turns off.
Speaking of which, it’s not that fast to load. But you are guaranteed to go from 0% to 100% within two hours. Due to the long battery life, about 20 minutes on an outlet should be enough for at least a day of use.
Direct Competitors
It is not difficult to find smart bracelets that are supposed to monitor children’s activities on Google. However, it is rare to find a product like the Fitbit Ace 3 that is of such good quality and offers a very good experience.
Multilaser has a KidWatch with 4G connectivity and is less mobile dependent. At least in theory, it’s a more complete option, with a larger, more colorful display. And it costs less, being sold for around R$ 700.
But the operation is not so smooth and a 4G chip is needed to take advantage of this connection. This is a slightly different proposition, where children can connect more freely with friends and control their own activities.
Otherwise, they’re very cheap options that don’t even offer a third of what the Fitbit Ace 3 does. If you just want to count your child’s steps and give them the option to check the time, having a stopwatch and clock feature can save you a lot.
Fitbit Ace 3: is it worth it?
The Fitbit Ace 3 is a gourmet kids’ smartband. It is a smart bracelet with great construction and technical specifications even better than necessary. But it is a bit expensive product for the purpose of monitoring sleep and how much a child moves during the day.
You could spend less on a Mi Band, which even has more functions. But then it loses some parental controls, and gives the child something with much more than he needs. And it doesn’t have as much protection as the Fitbit wristband, which can bump and scrape wherever it goes and hardly ever breaks.
On the other hand, the Mi Band would allow contacting the child by means other than the Fitbit app. Facebook’s Messenger has very interesting controls for minors, such as limiting conversations to only family and close friends.
But the Fitbit Ace 3’s proposition is clear, and despite its limitations, it’s a very good product. If you can afford to spend around 800 reais and already own a branded device, it might be a good idea to add an exclusive device to keep your kids active.
