Slothcloud Kids Smart Watch Review: a cheap fitness tracker that keeps kids moving

I picked up this Slothcloud kids smart watch for my daughter (7) because she kept stealing my Fitbit and asking how many steps she had. I didn’t want to drop big money on a brand-name kids watch, so this one caught my eye: low price, bright purple, and a bunch of fitness features. No GPS, no calling, so it felt like a safer starter gadget.

We’ve had it for a bit now, and I’d say it does what it says, more or less. It’s basically a simple fitness tracker with a cute shell and a kid-friendly app. If you’re expecting an Apple Watch for kids, you’ll be disappointed. If you just want steps, heart rate, some reminders and a colourful screen, it’s pretty solid.

My daughter mainly uses it to check her steps, see her heart rate because it looks “science-y”, and change the little watch faces. I handled the setup and phone app part, and she uses the watch on her own after that. There is a small learning curve, but honestly, after a day she was swiping around like she’d had it for months.

Overall first impression: not perfect, feels like a budget product, but for the price and for a kid who just wants a fun watch that tracks movement, it gets the job done. The key is going in with realistic expectations and not confusing it with a full-blown smartwatch with GPS and calling.

In terms of value, this watch makes sense if you see it as a starter fitness tracker for kids, not as a full replacement for something like a Garmin or Apple Watch. You’re paying a budget price for step tracking, heart rate, basic sleep tracking, and a colourful screen with custom faces. For most kids under 10, that’s already plenty. They mainly care that it looks cool and shows numbers and animations.

What I liked is that you don’t need a subscription, there’s no GPS data plan, and the app is free. So once you buy it, that’s it. If your kid loses interest after a few weeks (which happens), you haven’t wasted a huge amount of money. One of the reviews even mentioned that their kid used it for a bit and then it ended up in a drawer – that’s honestly quite common with kids gadgets, and at this price it hurts less.

On the downside, you do feel the low cost in the materials, slightly clunky app, and limited long-term appeal. Older kids or tech-savvy ones might get bored and start asking for something with GPS, calling, or more advanced features. Also, if you’re really into health data accuracy, this won’t satisfy you. It’s more about motivation and fun than serious tracking.

For parents who just want to see if a smartwatch motivates their child to move more, or as a birthday/Christmas gift that’s practical but not too expensive, I’d say the value is good. There are better products out there, but they also cost a lot more. This one sits in that sweet spot of “cheap enough to risk, good enough to be useful.”

Design-wise, it looks like a small, colourful smartwatch. The purple version we got is bright but not tacky, and my daughter liked it right away. The screen is a 1.5-inch colour touchscreen with a 240x240 resolution. It’s not ultra sharp like a high-end smartwatch, but for kids’ use it’s totally fine. The icons are big, colours are clear, and the touch response is decent. She figured out swiping and tapping in minutes.

The watch face is rectangular, which is pretty standard, and there’s no big physical crown or rotating bezel. It’s a simple, plastic body with one touch button area to wake or go back. The DIY watch face thing is actually what she plays with the most: through the app, you can upload a photo (for example, a pet or a cartoon picture) and set it as the watch face. It’s a bit slow to sync, but once done, it works and makes the watch feel more personal for a kid.

In terms of size, it sits well on a small wrist without looking huge. Some kids watches are super chunky; this one is more like a slightly bigger fitness band with a watch-style screen. The screen brightness can be adjusted, and the raise-to-wake feature works most of the time. It sometimes doesn’t light up if the wrist movement is too soft, but my daughter quickly learned to flick her wrist a bit stronger.

Overall, the design is practical and clearly aimed at kids, but you can feel it’s a budget plastic watch when you hold it. For a child, that’s not a big problem: it’s light, colourful, and looks enough like a “real smartwatch” to make them happy. Just don’t expect premium finishes or metal parts.

Battery is always a big question with kids gadgets, because if they die mid-day, the kid loses interest fast. The listed battery capacity is tiny on paper (2.22 mAh is clearly a typo, but anyway), yet in real use it holds up okay. With normal usage for my daughter – screen on quite a bit, raise-to-wake active, heart rate monitoring on, and some notifications – we got around 3 to 4 days on a single charge.

If you turn down the brightness a bit and cut notifications, you can probably stretch it closer to 4 days consistently. If your kid plays with the screen non-stop on day one, you’ll see it drop faster, maybe needing a charge every 2 days. Charging itself is simple: the magnetic charger snaps onto the back and a full charge takes about 1.5–2 hours from low battery to 100% in my experience.

For a kid, charging every few days is manageable, especially if you just plug it in overnight when it hits around 20%. What I liked is that it doesn’t randomly drain in a few hours like some super cheap no-name trackers I’ve tried. It’s predictable: you see the battery icon go down gradually, not suddenly disappear.

Is the battery life mind-blowing? No. But for a colourful touchscreen watch with heart rate and constant step tracking, 3–4 days is decent. If you were hoping for two weeks on a charge, that’s not this product. For school kids who take it off at night for charging every few days, it’s fine and doesn’t become a daily chore.

On comfort, it does pretty well. The watch weighs only about 34 grams, which is very light. My daughter wore it all day at school and during playtime without complaining. That’s usually the biggest test: if a kid forgets they’re wearing it, the comfort is good enough. She only takes it off for charging or when we remind her for showering, even though it’s rated IP68 waterproof.

The silicone strap is soft and flexible. It uses a standard buckle (tang buckle), so it stays in place and doesn’t pop open during play. There are enough holes on the strap to fit smaller wrists; my daughter has quite thin wrists and we still had no issue getting a snug fit. The strap doesn’t feel rough, and she didn’t get any redness or irritation, even after wearing it through warm days when kids sweat more.

Sleeping with it was also fine. She wore it overnight a few times so we could test the sleep tracking. She didn’t wake up complaining that it was bothering her, and it didn’t leave any strong marks on the skin. I’d still suggest loosening the strap a bit at night so it’s not digging into the wrist, especially for younger kids.

In short, comfort is one of the strong points: it’s light, the strap is soft, and it doesn’t feel bulky like some chunky kids GPS watches. If your child is sensitive to heavy or rigid watches, this one is a decent option. Just remember it’s still plastic and silicone, so after heavy sweating it’s good to wipe it down to avoid any itchiness.

Durability is usually where cheap electronics fall apart, but this one has held up okay so far. The case is plastic, the strap is silicone, and nothing feels premium, but it doesn’t feel like it’s going to shatter at the first drop either. My daughter has already knocked it against tables, door frames, and playground equipment. No cracks, just a couple of tiny scuffs on the plastic edge if you look very closely.

The IP68 waterproof rating was one of the reasons I picked it. She’s washed her hands with it on, played in the rain, and used it in a shallow pool for about 30–40 minutes. No issues: screen still works, no fog under the glass, and the charging contacts didn’t corrode. I still told her not to press buttons underwater or wear it for hours in the pool, just as a basic precaution with cheap waterproof gear.

The strap holes and buckle are holding up well so far. No tearing or stretching yet, even though she yanks it off quickly sometimes. I’ve seen some kids watches where the loop that holds the excess strap breaks in days; here it’s still intact. Time will tell over months, but first impressions are positive for the price bracket.

Overall, I’d say durability is decent but not bulletproof. It’s good enough for normal kid use: school, playground, occasional pool, random bumps. If your kid is extremely rough on things or tends to throw gadgets, you might see damage sooner. But for an inexpensive smartwatch, it seems to handle everyday abuse surprisingly well.

Let’s be honest: this isn’t a precision sports instrument. But for a kid, the performance is decent. Step tracking seems roughly in line with my own Fitbit. We compared a day where my daughter and I walked together a lot: her watch showed slightly more steps than mine, but nothing crazy. For a child who just wants to see a number go up and stay active, it’s perfectly fine.

The heart rate monitor works, but treat it as a rough indicator, not medical data. The brand even says that in the description. When my daughter was sitting, it showed numbers in a normal child range. After running around, the numbers went up as you’d expect. If you put it on too loose, readings jump around more, so you do need a snug fit to get anything semi-reliable. For sleep, it records total sleep time and breaks it into light/deep/wake. It’s not super accurate to the minute, but it matched roughly when she went to bed and got up.

The sport modes are there, but kids rarely remember to start and stop them. When we tried the “walking” and “running” modes, it just added a bit more structured data in the app (duration, steps, estimated calories). For swimming, the IP68 rating means it can handle pool play and splashes, and we had no water issues after short swims. I wouldn’t push it with deep diving or very long soaks, but normal kid pool time was fine.

Notifications worked as expected: when my phone got a call or text, the watch buzzed and showed a basic alert. My daughter doesn’t actually need this, but it’s there if you want it. Sync with the HBAND app is mostly stable; sometimes I had to reopen the app or toggle Bluetooth to get it to sync, but nothing dramatic. For a low-cost kids device, the overall performance is good enough, as long as you’re not expecting smartwatch-level speed or top-tier sensor accuracy.

Out of the box, it’s pretty barebones: you get the watch, a small magnetic charger, and a thin manual. Don’t expect fancy packaging or extra straps. The manual is basic but usable. I had to reread some bits around the app pairing, but nothing too painful. You need the HBAND app on an Android or iPhone, and you connect via Bluetooth. It synced to my Android phone in a couple of minutes after a bit of fiddling with permissions.

Feature-wise, it’s basically a kids fitness tracker with a watch interface. It tracks:

• Steps, distance and calories (the usual activity stuff)
• Heart rate and basic sleep (light/deep/wake)
• 19 sport modes like walking, running, swimming, cycling, football, basketball, yoga, etc.
• Reminders (move, drink water, alarms)
• Call/SMS notifications from the phone (just alerts, no calling from the watch)

There’s no GPS and no two-way calling, so don’t buy this thinking you’ll track your kid’s location. That’s not what this is. It’s more like a simple adult fitness band repackaged for kids with a colourful screen and a DIY watch face option. It supports multiple languages and follows the phone’s language and 12/24-hour clock setting, which is nice if you’re not using English.

In daily use, my daughter mostly ignores the sport modes and just leaves it on the default step tracking. The extra modes are there, but kids that age usually don’t bother going into menus to pick “football” before they run outside. So those 19 modes are more of a bonus than a must-have in practice.