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Journalism of Courage
As your children grow and step out into the world, parents are always trying to find ways to keep them secure. The new Sekyo Turbo smartwatch is intended to do just this and ensure you know where your children are and give you a communication channel with them when needed, even without handing them a smartphone.
The Sekyo Turbo is a pretty bold-looking smartwatch which will immediately capture the attention of children. But it is also a bit bulky and comes with a soft plastic strap. There is a home button on the right that helps you navigate and a sim slot on the left. The watch face itself can be opened towards you like a flap to reveal the charging port where the magnetic charger can be yoked.
Sekyo is a company that is planning to make trackers for everything from pets to vehicle fleets. And a lot of that learning shows in how they want to keep an eye on children too. So the watch has a 4G SIM slot which means it does not need to be connected to a smartphone at all times. This also means it is always transmitting a location and you have the ability to call your child whenever they are. In fact, you can call them via video too. And they can use the watch like a phone and call any saved number.
The Sekyo app is where parents manage the watch and the features there are quite exhaustive. What really caught my attention was the section that lets you see or hear what your child is doing, without them realising they are being ‘spied’ upon. Interestingly, for school hours you can time the watch to have fewer features so that the child is not distracted.
My 11-year-old was initially quite excited about the new watch — he’s someone used to wearing smart bands. Opening the flap-like watch face was something that came quite naturally to him, not to me. In a few minutes I could make out he had scanned through the apps on the watch and seemed to be impressed by the dual camera most — yes, the flap means there is a camera on both sides of the watch face. But he was also quite irritated by the UI sound on the watch and wanted me to disable it somehow.
When my son was out playing, I could see exactly where he was and even pinged him a couple of times to see how good the connectivity was. I tried video calling too. And though it worked, he was quite hassled by the frequent interruptions after the initial excitement. While my son’s school does not permit such gadgets, this can be a good investment for those parents who are worried about their children, especially because of long commutes.
When he tried to call back from the watch, I did not get an alert on iOS. In fact, I think the app for iOS needs some fine-tuning.
The UI of the smartwatch is a bit tacky for my taste, though my son was quite amused by it. The layout and navigation are easy to manage. Children can use the camera on the smartwatch to capture moments, which is an interesting aspect. However, my son was not very happy with the size of the watch after wearing it for a day. He found it uncomfortable because of its size and weight.
The Sekyo Turbo uses a magnetic port at the back of the watch face for charging. This means the flap-like part has to be opened every time to charge the watch, which is a bit awkward and could result in some damage over time. The good thing is that you don’t have to do this too often as the charge lasts close to three days each time. The watch works with both iOS and Android but seems to be better off paired with the latter.
The Sekyo Turbo is a good option for those who want to keep an eye on their kids. But the device lacks a bit of finesse that the demanding children of 2023 want to see in their gadgets. But at a price point of Rs 7,999 for a watch with 4G connectivity, video and voice calling and real-time tracking, a bit of discomfort can be okay.
