Kids Cell Phones, Verizon Wireless Gets Its First

There’s no arguing the need for kids to be able to get in touch with their parents and vice versa when they’re not together.  While you know they’re in school, it can give peace of mind to parents when they can be sure about it and get assured they’re on their way home after school.  But what cellphones would you want our kids to have?  If they are just starting school, there are a number of kids cellphones. Verizon wireless has just started to carry one, the LG Migo which goes down its history as the carrier’s first ever cellphone for kids.

LG is marketing the Migo for kids in the 8-12 age bracket but we have to seriously doubt its bare features would attract the sophisticated kids of the 21st century. Most kids in that age group won’t mind hand-me-downs and it’s not surprising to see them using an older Nokia 6600 smartphone or an N-Gage under a Pay As You Go deal with any of the networks to better control and manage their use. While most of the girls have been seen with Motorola ROKRs and RAZRs.   But for sure, younger kids might find them a better toy to lug around then their Little Tykes.

Feature Set

From a distance, the Migo looks like a Japanese cartoon character complete with two ears jutting out which are the cell phone’s stylized antenna. It only has five buttons good enough to make and receive a call fast.  Apart from the usual call and endcall buttons, it has four speed dials labeled 1 – 4 and a solitary “emergency” button right smack in the middle which gets a default 911 assignment. And that’s all the calls the unsophisticated kid can make out of this phone.  In a normal family, you can expect the two speed dial buttons get assigned to mom and dad so the kid is left with two more speed dial numbers to program.

There’s a 2-liner display that is a throwback to the early days of the LED displays in handsets. But you know it’s modern because of it’s a light 2.4 oz body that fits perfectly in a kid’s small hands. Don’t expect any fun and games from it. This is fairly common among kids cellphones. Verizon Wireless and LG hope to convince schools that have banned cellphones as a frivolous toy and a distraction to kid’s learning to change their mind with this one. It’s just a basic communications tool with none of the “distracting” features found in adult cellphones.

Posted in Kids Cell Phones  on May 3, 2010 - 1:35 am by admin  |