Xplora - Kids' X6Play (GPS + Cellular) Smart Watch 42mm Calls, Messages, SOS, GPS Tracker, Camera, Step Counter, SIM Card - Black - (2025)

This is the best GPS/Phone Watch for kids under 12. We purposely sought this watch because it does NOT have games or other apps/bells/whistles for kids to dork around with. Instead, for parents who want to provide their kids an opportunity to call/text them and select friends and want GPS monitoring, this is just what you want. We initially purchased one watch for one kid two years ago (right when X6Play was released). The connectivity was a little spotty then. However, after several firmware updates over the past several years, it is now working really well. We were so pleased that we recently bought a second watch for our second-oldest kid. This second watch has worked great. So, I think that all of the kinks are worked out.

We've had X6Play watches for our two kids for over a year, and here is my (hopefully unbiased) review. On the product side, we are pleased overall. The kids love their watches, when they work. We all enjoy being able to call one another, even though sometimes the calls don't go through. I like the GPS tracking functionality and the kids enjoy the built-in camera and step tracking which turns steps into X Coins. The watches are pretty rugged, though the original wrist bands came apart (I had to replace the wrist bands with standard ones sold on Amazon, not a huge deal.) There are a few technical glitches, most of which can be solved by refreshing watch information via the app, updating the firmware or rebooting the watches. On a few occasions though, we had serious problems that forced us to contact customer service. This is where Xplora is lacking. While the customer support reps are extremely friendly, getting issues solved takes a long time. There is no phone number to call if you're based in the United States, so when you have a problem you have to go through their website, send your question via a form, and wait until customer service gets back to you. There is some back-and-forth as they always seem to need technical information that's on the watches, and these exchanges can take days, probably due to the fact that the company is based in Norway. Once they finally have all your information, it can take several more days for the problems to be solved (perhaps because they have to go through hoops with T-mobile U.S.?) so you need to actively follow up with them. Also, Xplora's customer support appears to be closed on the weekend, which makes things worse. Last year, my kids' watches were without phone service for 10 days, which by U.S. standards is not acceptable. (Think about it, if your AT&T/Verizon/T-Mobile/whatever phone loses reception, you can call someone 24/7 and get it solved within a few hours.) To be fair, the company was gracious enough to give us a partial refund to make up for the days service was unavailable (I had to ask). I'm now going through the same problem with SIM cards suddenly not being recognized, even though they had been working for a year... frustrating. One last word on pricing. Wireless service is affordable but not necessarily cheap. In May of this year, without prior notice, the monthly charges went up from $13.19 to $15.07 per phone watch - a hefty 14% increase. Sure, you can get a discount by enrolling for 12 months, but do you want to do so without knowing if the watches will hold that long? So my bottom line is this: the X6Play watch is nice product despite the glitches, but Xplora customer service NEEDS to be more available and responsive. Creating a phone line for U.S. customer service would go a long way (ironic, for a company which sells phones). To be honest, I am getting a little bit tired of this and am starting to look for alternatives (the COSMO JrTrack 3 seems promising, and I see than Verizon and T-Mobile now offer similar watches which they didn't a year ago). I have recommended this product to people around me, but now I'm thinking of keeping these watches for another year and transitioning to a different brand once a more solid alternative is available. Note: I actually bought not two but three watches overall; one of them got damaged as our daughter used it in a swimming pool and it stopped functioning afterwards. To my knowledge, the manufacturer did not clearly indicate whether the watches were not water-proof (even though they did later via the app) - they only stated "splash-resistant", so we should have been more careful. Hope this helps.

This watch is VERY easy to set up and use. My daughter understood how to use it the first day. We can text, call and check her location from the app. I recommend it!