Hey everybody! I know I’m not on here very often as my Sam Bear keeps me on my toes and busy busy busy everyday! I recently had the opportunity to review a new phone made for kids and just had to give it a go. For those of you who are not familiar with the brand, Teracube is a social and environmentally conscious electronics producer. Basically they make budget phones that last longer and have environmentally friendly components. They have had great success with the Teracube 2e ($299) that boasts a 4 year warranty, a replaceable battery, and a biodegradable case. They also plant a tree for every phone sold to help offset their carbon footprint. Among a growing list of other things, cell phones are not built to last. They get outdated quickly and get slow which leads them to be disposable. We get frustrated and replace them with something new. Teracube phones have replaceable batteries making them perform their best longer as the battery can be easily replaced. The other thing I love about the brand is that their website has spare parts and accessories you can buy direct. So if your phone needs a battery or a screen and it is not under warrantee you can still find parts to fix it easily and stretching out the life of the phone. Most of my friends and family get new phones whenever they are available to upgrade through their carrier, which is about every year or two. It is easy to see how much waste the industry contributes every year and how much could be avoided if the industry as a whole would adopt greener practices.
The environment has always been an important topic to me, but even more so now that I am a mom. I worry about the issues he will be dealing with when he is my age. Some of the places I’ve loved in my life have changed because of our warming planet. Sometimes problems can seem so big, but every little thing we can do to help really does add up and make a difference.
So even though the green aspect of the phone intrigued me, I was most excited to try it out for the kid safe features. Sam just turned six years old this week, and is already obsessed with phones and pads, and actually has been that way for years now. Screen time is definitely one of our biggest struggles in our house. We need a break or have to cook dinner or do something and he’s reaching for my pad or my phone. I am technically a millennial, but my brain is not tech savvy. I got my very first cell phone in college and even though I do like all that I can do with the phone I have now, a motorola note, part of me still misses the old razor flip phone. I’ll just say Sam knows more about my phone than I do. I cannot even begin to tell you how much time I have spent disabling apps and games and trying to configure parental controls on our devices. Once I had thought we had parental controls on our pad but we didn’t on the google play store and he bought an $80 lawn mower simulator along with a few others. As much as it makes me a tiny bit uncomfortable the simple truth is our society has changed and our digital world has become so integrated with our every day life. Phones and pads are going to be a part of our kids lives at least in some capacity. For parents we worry about what they will be exposed to online, yet at the same time having the ability to have a line to your kid when they aren’t with you is comforting. Kids want phones, parents want them to be safe!
The new Teracube Thrive is specifically designed to let kids have a phone they can enjoy while giving parents an easy interface to keep unwanted content at bay without complicated and expensive subscriptions. The Thrive model has built in parental control that you can set through the parent app. In the parent app you can add approve any app you want your child to be able to have access to, as well as block access to apps you don’t want. You can set time limits and hours for daily usage, as well as time limits for specific apps. For example I set a twenty minute time limit on youtube kids app, but no restriction on his learning games so he would be able to play those as long as he likes within the daily overall time limit. He has the play store enabled so he can go on and download games. However he cannot play them until I approve them in my app. It also has a safe internet search app and browser as well. I believe you can go in and block specific websites as well. This is great for us because we can decide which things he is developmentally ready for. There are a lot of games and sites that may be rated e for everyone, but they definitely shouldn’t be and being able to individually approve games and apps is so much better than just a blanket age guide filter.
As far as the specifications, the Teracube Thrive has a 6.1 HD display, a 13megapixel camera and 8megapixel selfie camera. It comes with a protective case and a pre installed screen protector. Another cool feature of this phone is their forever warrantee with their new Teracube wireless plans. Teracube wireless plans start at $14.99/mo. and piggyback off of TMobile service. We use Mint Mobile so we did not get the wireless plan since we already have a carrier we love and want to keep it all together and so we have the basic warrantee. The Teracube wireless forever warrantee is for life with accidental claims at $50. Kids are rough, being able to replace their phone inexpensively brings peace of mind!
We have had a few days to play with the Thrive, and generally love it! At $199 full price it is a great budget phone for kids and is easy to use! It’s not going to compare to the latest higher end phones out there like the new iphone 14, but it is in my opinion safer, just as sturdy, and a heck of a lot cheaper! At just six, Sam isn’t quite old enough for free reign and I could probably give a more accurate review with a child who is a few years older. But I can tell you my 8yo old self would have seriously loved it! Maybe I’m just nostalgic but I feel like the internet should be more like it used to be, a place to shop and watch funny cat videos. Here are the the pros and cons we found:
Things we like:
- It is a great size even for little hands
- The screen is bright and clear
- It has great safety features
- Easy to use and set up
- Sam loves the fingerprint sensor
- Durable ( already been dropped several times by all of us and no problems)
- Charges quickly
- Teracube Wireless Plans affordable
- Decent Camera
Things we did not like:
- The case isn’t super grippy
- Not many color options
- Forever warrantee only with Teracube Wireless plan
- Not compatible with ATT or Verizon
So overall this is a great easy to use phone! It has kept us from our daily arguments about screen time and I feel comfortable knowing that I truly know everything he has access to on his device. This phone is perfect for the 7-16yr old age range. You can restrict social media or allow it for a certain time limit. Honestly we all could use some time restrictions on our phone and social media usage these days! So if you have a kiddo that desperately wants a phone or has a phone but needs some limits, I highly recommend you go check out the Teracube Thrive! My lovely readers also can get a special discount of two months free on a new Teracube Wireless plan using code CHRISTMAS Here’s to a safer and greener digital world! I’ll be back in the next few days with some holiday round ups and my xmas decor this year. Until then…
Happy everything!
Ashlee
*This is a sponsored post. I received a phone in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own! This is an awesome company and when my phone poops out on me, I will be looking at getting a Teracube!
