Price: £40
Rating: 0
VTech Kidizoom Smart Watch vs Leapfrog leapBand. It's on (the wrist).
Last year the big kids’ gadget Christmas battle was between the children’s tablets – a straight fight between Leapfrog’s LeapPad and VTech’s Innotab. This year everyone is excited about smartwatches and wearable tech, and Leapfrog and VTech are battling it out again.
So which is best or right for your kids, the VTech Kidizoom Smart Watch or Leapfrog LeapBand?
These two children’s wristbands are actually quite different and offer different functions.
The VTech Kidizoom Smart Watch (£40) is a watch that offers a bunch of fun multimedia functions, such as the camera (still and video) and a hilarious voice recorder. It’s aimed at keeping children entertained. Read our Kidizoom Smart Watch review for more details.
The Kidizoom's three games aren't very engaging but playing with the camera and voice recorder are fun and should keep children entertained. There are about 50 different watch faces (analogie and digital), many of which are hideous to adults but fun for kids. It's a shame VTech didn't build a time-telling game as this would have been perfect.
The Leapfrog LeapBand (£30) is aimed at keeping kids fit by encouraging active play plus healthy eating habits. Read our LeapBand review for more details.
The LeapBand sets a series of fun physical challenges – walking, running, jumping and dancing – that the wearer tries to complete to earn credits to spend on their virtual pet: feeding, cleaning, grooming and clothing the pet as they earn more points. Activity is measured with the built-in accelerometer, just like you'd find in the iPhone or activity trackers.
Pictured above: the VTech Kidizoon Smart Watch.
Both are well-made and comfortable wristbands with a watch function combined with other features, and around the same size – chunky! The LeapBand is slightly larger, and we prefer the looks of the Smart Watch, which is slightly less ungainly.
While LeapBand rewards kids for jumping around and keeping fit the VTech Smart Watch sends kids off taking photos and videos and then manipulating them with special effects.
Both feature a stopwatch (which kids love), although the Smart Watch goes further with an Alarm and countdown Timer.
Pictured above: Leapfrog's Leapband.
Each is fun but quite different in their features, so a kid could even have one for fitness fun and the other for more entertainment. Neither band’s games are particularly great. The Smart Watch has three, but the camera and voice recorder offer more fun; the LeapBand has more games plus the fun fitness challenges.
Neither is waterproof, so keep them away from bath time!
The LeapBand is available in more colours (Green, Blue, Orange and Pink) compared to the three versions of the Kidizoom (White, Blue and Pink). It’s also £10 cheaper, and we’ve seen it on sale for as little as £22. We couldn’t find the Smart Watch for much under the £40 RRP, although the pink model was around £32 at a few online stores. Strangely the white version was often more expensive than the blue or pink.
See below for the best prices on both kids’ wristbands.
We liked both the Kidizoom and the LeapBand so it's really up to parents to decide which features work best for them. The Leapband is great for encouraging healthy activity while the Kidizoom is best for entertaining kids with its camera and microphone.
Read the full reviews for more details: Kidizoom Smart Watch review and LeapBand review.
Buying Advice
So which is best: Kidizoon or LeapBand? The VTech Kidizoom Smart Watch and Leapfrog LeapBand are both quality wearable wristbands for kids, but there the similarities end. They are quite different in features. The VTech is aimed at multimedia entertainment, while the worthier LeapBand goes for child fitness and activity. As such its difficult to say which is best for you. Both are a lot of fun. The healthier LeapBand is cheaper but lacks the camera and microphone of the cooler Smart Watch which is entertaining but not much more, and is let down a little by the overly simple games.
