Pinwheel Phone Review

The Pinwheel phone allows your kid to contact you but keeps them safe from things they’re not ready for, like web browsing and social media apps. Plus, kids don’t have access to an app store, so your curious tot won’t download something they shouldn’t.

Is it the perfect kid phone? Well, no. It has drawbacks when we compare it to other top kid phones. It doesn’t have its own mobile service, and not all of its phones are compatible with major carriers. But, the Pinwheel phone is a solid choice for parents who need a phone that can grow with their child.

Pinwheel has a $15 per month subscription plan. The subscription includes access to the Caregiver Portal and the software for the child's device. This only covers one line, though. Additional lines can be added for $5 per month for each line on top of the $15 per month.

Pinwheel launched a recycling program to make it easier for parents to give kids a new phone designed for safety instead of handing down their old phone. This program gives you $50 toward a new Pinwheel phone when you "recycle" your old phone.

Here's how to get the savings:

• Do a factory reset on your old phone. This wipes out your data and makes it safer to trade in your phone.
• Ship the old phone to Pinwheel. 
• Take a picture of the shipping label, including the tracking number.
• Fill out Pinwheel's online form. Submit your photo in the form or send photos to support@pinwheel.com. 
• Pinwheel will send you a $50 coupon that's good for any new Pinwheel phone. 

• Pinwheel phone
• Charger
• Mint Mobile sim card (optional)
• Cell phone case (optional)
• Screen protector (optional)
• Bark services (optional)

Pinwheel comes with optional goodies you can add on at checkout. You can add a Mint sim card for $1, a cell phone case for $9.99, a screen protector for $9.99, and Bark services for $5 per month. Learn more in our Bark app review.

We found the parental controls easy to use while setting up the Pinwheel app. To get started, you just choose your child’s contacts, whether you want to restrict your child’s phone at night, and some fun child-friendly apps. Done!

Once you’ve got the basic setup, the real customization begins. You can choose to allow your child to add contacts on their own, or whether you want to pre-approve all contacts.

You can also add some fun to the phone with Pinwheel’s list of over 400 child-safe apps. Some apps include drawing apps, music apps, stress relieving apps, and weather apps. We had a little trouble finding the apps we wanted, but after a little tinkering, we figured it out.

Want to check in? You can easily see who your child has been talking to or texting on the web parent portal dashboard or on the Pinwheel caregiver portal app.

One of our favorite things about Pinwheel is you have full control. You can choose when your child can use certain approved apps, their amount of screentime, and how they text and call certain contacts.

For example, during school hours, you can turn off access to all the apps, or you can leave on certain apps that can help during school, like PowerPoint or Google Classroom. Plus, you can make it so they can only call you when they are at school.

Not every day is the same, and Pinwheel seems to have considered that when designing their phones. You can set up schedules for different days. For example, if your child only goes to school four days a week, you can make a different schedule for school, another for their day off, and then another schedule for weekends.

Pinwheel’s parental controls are much more customizable than other top brands like the Gabb Z2 or Gabb Phone Plus.

Unlike Gabb phones, Pinwheel smartphones don’t come with unlimited talk and text messages. You’ll need to set the phone up with a mobile carrier. Your first instinct is to just set it up with your phone's carrier, but not so fast.

Pinwheel advertises that it’s compatible with all major carriers, but there are some exceptions. Pinwheel's least expensive phone, the Pinwheel Slim 5,  is only compatible with Mint Mobile. Its more rough-and-tumble design, the Pinwheel Rugged 3, is only compatible with T-Mobile. Only the Pinwheel Plus 2 is compatible with all major carriers like Verizon and AT&T.

The Pinwheel phone is perfect for parents that want their kids to have a “real” phone but want to fully customize their child’s experience. The only major drawback we found is these phones don’t come with mobile service, and only one of the phone options is compatible with all major brands.

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