Uniden Kids Video Walkie Talkie reviewed: an upgraded classic

Kids may not need a phone, but they still might want to keep in touch. And that’s where the return of the walkie talkie might become useful, as Uniden shows.

Remember the classic walkie talkie, that old gadget dating back to the 30s that somehow everyone remembers from the 80s and 90s as a way to stay in contact with your friends across the road?

They’re back, and remarkably they’re not a phone.

While a phone is clearly the most obvious way to recreate the walkie talkie experience, ideally with WiFi or mobile and just about any communication app that has ever existed, it does seem a little complicated.

Between all the possible distractions a phone offers not to mention some of the more adult features parents might try to block or prevent access to, it may not be the way you want to keep everyone connected. Family members in the same household, or maybe friends across the road.

But gone are the days when you could just arm your kids with a walkie-talkie, give one to their friend, and say “go nuts”. Or so you might think.

What is it?

Uniden is bringing it back with the KVWT01, a model number for a device that quite literally translates to “Kids Video Walkie Talkie 01”. We’re so glad we cleared that one easily.

And the name (and model number) really do state what this gadget is: a walkie talkie made for kids that comes with video. That is to say it uses a small screen like any other walkie talkie, but that screen connects to a built-in camera and always relays the video feed.

You won’t necessarily hear anything, at least until the owner presses the talk button on the right side of the walkie talkie, but you’ll always see what’s going on. And that makes it rather like every other walkie talkie, requiring you to push-to-talk, and using a digital radio network to relay the audio and video all too easily.

What does it do?

It’s a walkie talkie updated for today, giving your kids a way to look at each other, smile, talk, and show off where they are, and then deciding to push-to-talk.

There are four modes to show the on-screen visuals, and they are rather like every other video chat system, offering a full picture and picture-in-picture, but you cycling through the various versions of who has priority: the walkie talkie being used or the one being connected to.

You can also hold down the button at the top to turn on an alien voice, and basically change vocal presets. It’s all a bit of fun, charging on USB-C (like everything else) and arriving with lanyards so they don’t get lost easily.

They’ll cover a good 400 metres of space, but you may just want to leave that to “your neighbourhood” or “a walk around the neighbourhood” between friends.

Does it do the job?

The basics are definitely there, though: a 2 inch screen on each walkie talkie shows the video, the low-grade speaker plays the sound. This isn’t in the same ballpark as what your phone can do, but it also can’t take photos or videos.

Uniden’s video walkie talkie does what you’d expect: encourages kids to communicate using video, and that is really it.

The range is acceptable for short distances and you get colour video, plus to talk, you only need to hold one button down and it works.

What does it need?

There’s not much the Uniden Kids Walkie Talkie really needs per se; it does exactly what it says it will, and is easy to get your head around. This isn’t complex tech in the slightest. In fact, we suspect it might be a repurposed baby monitor, because the tech seems very similar.

Uniden normally makes walkie talkies, but they’re the sort that focus entirely on audio and communication, and yet this is different. There are no apps, no microSD cards, no captures and no memory and storage. It’s just live video and audio at the time, and keeps two people in contact.

Our kids didn’t end up using the battery to their extent, but we wouldn’t expect more than an hour or two of life based on what we observed, so more battery life would be one thing Uniden could improve.

As could the quality, which feels cheap and lacks any sense of ruggedisation you’d expect on a device literally marketed for kids. Young people drop things. They run with them. Those things fall in mud and water and dirt and so on, so the fact that these walkie talkies lack an IP rating is just a little concerning.

Even the recharge light can feel a little flimsy, and doesn’t always switch on. In our review unit, one light always worked and the other never did. If the walkie talkies didn’t feel plastic enough, the flimsy recharge light would have given the product quality and durability beforehand, as well.

You can’t even appear to connect more than two devices, so if you have more people who want in, they’ll need their own walkie talkie system. That’s just how this is, it seems.

Is it worth your money?

The good news is that even without those aspects, the price could end up being one of the best aspects, and seems like an easy win.

In an era where everything seemingly costs more, the $69.95 price tag of the Uniden Kids Video Walkie Talkie actually feels like a win. Finally, a new gadget that doesn’t cost more than a hundred bucks. We’d call that a win of sorts.

Yay or nay?

It’s all a bit of fun, but it’s the sort of fun you might want for your kids. The simple phone-less, app-less, and complexity-less equivalent of fun that you might have had when you yourself were younger, as well.

That sort of fun isn’t easy to come by these days, and yet Uniden has brought it back in a way. It’s an upgraded classic, and for many, that’s A-OK.