Garmin Vivofit Junior 2 – Our Pick for Best Kids Fitness Tracker 2020

 

 

Fun and Motivational Fitness Tracker for Kids

The Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 is the company’s second generation fitness tracker.  Designed to keep kids active it covers the basics like counting steps and monitoring sleep.  Garmin turns the experience into a fun game-like experience to keep kids entertained and motivated.  Kids can earn virtual coins for real rewards or progress in an app based game by hitting daily activity goals.  Parents will love the Vivofit Junior too.  They’ll have the ability to set reminders for their children to brush their teeth before bed or remember to do daily chores.

 

 

To make Garmin’s fitness tracker even more appealing, it’s teamed up with Disney to offer Marvel, Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Star Wars themed bands.  Other patterns are available as well.  These bands are available in two styles. The stretchy silicone kind for wrists up to 147mm or ages 4-7. The other adjustable bands fit wrist sizes of 130-175mm for ages 6+.  The band doesn’t sit too tightly around the wrist and is comfortable and non-irritating to delicate skin.  Bands are interchangeable with other bands so you can change them up as interests and tastes change.

The band holds in place the fitness tracker module, which sits snugly inside a polymer casing that houses a superb, 11mm x 11mm, 88 x 88 pixel customizable, color display with a backlight.  There’s a big physical button to switch between data screens and when held down reveals additional features like timers, medals and the stopwatch mode.  The interface is easy for kids to use independently.

This tracker is powered by a standard coin cell battery.  There’s no charging cradle or dock to misplace.  The battery should last at least a year before needing to be replaced.

The Garmin Vivofit has a 5ATM waterproof rating.  It can be worn in a pool or outside in the rain.

Each version of the tracker offers its own unique step count icons and games. For example in the case of the Star Wars Vivofit, you’ll see a stormtrooper alongside your day’s steps but you can unlock additional icons depending on fitness tracking progress. Completing daily 60 minute activity goals unlocks moves in the BB-8 adventure: A Star Wars story game.  The Vivofit has a surprising number of features although it should be noted that some younger children may need assistance to fully utilize all of them.

Highlights:

• Waterproof
• Cell battery – no charging needed
• Motion sensor tracks steps
• Sleep monitoring
• Move Bar displays periods of inactivity
• Stores data for 4 weeks
• Screens dedicated to: time, calendar, step count total, tasks/chores to complete, how many moves you’ve unlocked in your compatible game
• Pairing option
• Timer
• Stopwatch
• Toe-to-Toe challenges – timed step challenge that lets users challenge friends or themselves to keep moving

 

The Vivofit App

There’s a lot more to the Vivofit jr 2 both for kids and for parents once you delve into the free companion Vivofit jr. smartphone app (iOS and Android).

Parents can add multiple profiles, sync and review data. This can be opened up for access to the kids as well. That’s through a Kid Mode that gives limited access once they tap in a passcode to get inside. This will allow them to complete their game adventures and tick off chores.

Once the device has been paired the profile can be set up, which includes selecting an avatar, taking a photo or picking something from your camera roll. The main screen shows a visual snapshot of activity minutes, rewards, chores and settings. There’s also a Leaderboard tab where you can see step counts for all users assigned to the account (including adult step count scores).

The activity section profiles active minutes, steps, hourly activity and total sleep.  The rewards section allows parents to create a physical reward (e.g. bike ride, buy a new game) based on virtual coins earned by their child.  Chore reminders can be created as well.  The Vivofit will buzz the device with an alarm, flashing up an icon to nudge the wearer that they still need to complete their assigned chore.

The Adventure mode is the themed adventure that you can only progress through by completing the daily 60 minute activity goals. For the Star Wars version, you must tackle adventures on the planet Jakku alongside BB-8.

Priced between $50-$70, depending on the design it’s an inexpensive price to pay to keep your kids outside, active and off the screens.

Garmin Vivofit Jr 2: