Garmin's new kid smartwatch doubles the price, but not the value
The Bounce 2 gets a fancy screen and a few new features, but its new $300 price tag is a head-scratcher.
Garmin's new kids' smartwatch gets a fancy screen and a couple of new tricks. But the company also doubled the price, making it a much tougher sell for parents.
So, Garmin's new kids' watch costs how much?
Garmin just rolled out the Bounce 2, the successor to its 2022 kids' smartwatch, and it's a bit of a head-scratcher. The original was a solid little device with LTE for tracking and messaging, all for a reasonable $150. This new model bumps the price up to a whopping $299.99, and for that, the upgrades feel pretty light.
The biggest changes are a new round design with a much nicer 1.2-inch AMOLED display and the addition of two-way voice calling, an upgrade from the previous voice-message-only system. It also adds a neat trick where it can transcribe voice messages.
Other features, like real-time location tracking via the Garmin Jr. app, geofencing alerts, and the two-day battery life, are carried over from the original. There's also new support for Amazon Music, but that will likely take a bite out of the battery life. While the watch's price doubled, the required LTE subscription thankfully stays the same at $9.99 a month.
Why this price hike is a big deal
The new Bounce 2 watches in Light Purple, Slate Gray, and Turquoise. | Image credit — Garmin
Honestly, the original Bounce's main appeal was its price. At $150, it was an affordable way for parents in the Garmin ecosystem to keep tabs on their kids. By jacking the price up to $300, Garmin has pushed the Bounce 2 out of the budget-friendly category and into direct competition with more capable devices, which is a bit of a mess.
For instance, you can often find a cellular Apple Watch SE for not much more than this. While the Apple Watch requires an iPhone for setup, it offers a full-fledged operating system, a massive app store, and far more utility that a child can grow into. The Bounce 2, by comparison, is still a very basic tracker and communicator. It's a great-looking one now, with its new AMOLED screen, but it's hard to see how that screen and two-way calling justify a 100% price increase. It feels like Garmin is now charging a premium price for what is still, fundamentally, an entry-level device.
Look, the price is just too high
I'm not going to beat around the bush: I wouldn't personally buy this. The upgrades on the Bounce 2 are nice, but they absolutely do not warrant doubling the price. The original device made perfect sense as a simple, affordable tracker. This new one loses that key advantage.
For $300, my money would go elsewhere. I'd either look for a deal on an Apple Watch SE for an older kid or seek out other dedicated kids' smartwatches that haven't forgotten that affordability is a key feature for parents. The new design is sleek, and the screen is a welcome improvement, but the value proposition that made the first Bounce compelling is completely gone. It's a shame because Garmin was on the right track, but this pricing feels like a serious misstep.
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