Uniden KVWT01 Adventure Series Video Walkie Talkie Review: All fun, no extra setup required

Growing up, playing around with some walkie talkies was a great amount of fun. In the 21st century though, talking is just the basics – and now Uniden have the Adventure Series Video Walkie Talkies offering video chat on the go, without Wifi, or phone plan.

Priced at just $69 for a 2-pack, the video walkie talkies can transmit two-way video and audio up to 400 metres using no Wi-Fi, mobile network, app or complicated setup giving you a novel way to keep in contact both audibly and visually.

The lightweight units include an IPS display, with a camera and have adjustable volume, working as simply as “Push to Talk” with a built-in rechargeable battery charged via a standard USB-C port.

Uniden have sent some over to check out, and I took them up to the Block to try them out. 

What’s in the box?

The box includes both units, with a yellow and blue unit included in the box – there’s only Blue and Yellow, but maybe one day we’ll see other options given Uniden has a colourful selection of devices available. Also in the box is a pair of USB-C cables as well as a pair of lanyards to let you easily secure them to your wrist or over your head. 

Lastly a user manual is included, though you can also find an online PDF version which is often more preferable than storing a physical paper version. 

Design

The video walkie talkies are extremely lightweight, slightly larger than Uniden’s popular 3-pack handhelds – but much smaller than their XTEK50 handhelds. 

The Yellow and Blue colourways are essentially highlight plates to the black chassis, but are bright and colourful enough to easily see from a distance, making it easier to see against the green grass if one happens to get lost. 

There’s not a lot of weight to them, and the plastic feels a little budget – though for $69 it feels plenty sturdy enough. 

On the front it’s hard to miss the 2-inch IPS display, it has great viewing angles, and works well on a cloudy day, in the shade or inside – but gets washed out in the full glare of a bright sunny day. 

The display shows a host of information including signal strength, volume, voice mode, volume and battery level with the camera view taking up most of the display.

The 960 x 720 resolution camera sits above the display, with a small hole for a microphone next to it, and with the speaker box below. 

The audio quality through the speaker is decent for talking, though it’s a single speaker so there’s no big expectations. 

There are seven volume levels available – as well as the ability to mute the audio completely. A 3.5mm out would be nice for an earpiece – or Bluetooth on board would be nice, but that price point really dictates the features. 

The onboard camera quality looks good, though I’d love to see a way to save the video or images from the camera – if only there was a microSD card slot (Hint, hint Uniden!). 

On the left hand side of the walkie talkies you get your volume adjust rocker, with the power-on button below, while on the right you get your Push-to-Talk button with the USB-C port for charging below.

The ‘Mode’ button is on the top, which controls the input or output of the camera offering four options:

The mode button also controls the ‘Voice Effects’ – accessible by holding the mode button for two seconds, giving you the ability to switch on Alien or Robot mode for a bit of fun to the kids playtime. 

The stubby antenna on top transmits at 1.1Watts of power on the 2.4GHz band, with a theoretical range of 400m in open spaces. 

The range is actually pretty decent. I took it out to the oval and the Boy went out 396m across two and a half ovals and we had full video and audio. We tried with a building between at 200m and was unable to connect, but re-established connection once he moved into clear line of sight.  

We’ll be throwing these in the sports bag for the Boy for his next sports carnival or soccer gala day, and as well as at range it works well around the house too. It also worked well between two tents or cabins as long as they weren’t too far away. 

Lastly, the lanyard loop on the top is a handy feature to help kids keep track of the walkie talkie while playing, though an adjustable option for around the wrist would be better to secure it for smaller hands – though would get in the way of playing. 

Battery and Charging

The 750mAh battery inside lasts a couple of hours of use and you can see the  battery indicator on the display which shows how much power is left. A “Low Battery” message also flashes across the display when it’s really low. 

Charging is easy with the two included USB-A to USB-C cables,, though they are quite short. Plug them into any spare charger or computer port and leave them to charge – which takes a little over an hour from flat to full. 

Each radio has a Red LED which turns off once fully charged. There’s no other way to track charging beyond this indicator light, so it was a little frustrating that the blue one’s indicator light never worked. 

If you turn the walkie talkies on while charging you see a Blue ‘Charging’ symbol on the screen when plugged in with a message saying that charging is faster when turned off. 

Final Thoughts

This is a really good buy if you need to keep in quick contact, or to give the kids something to play around with. 

At .95, the Uniden KVWT01 Adventure Series Video Walkie Talkies are a load of fun. There’s plenty of use cases for them, even as just a fun toy for the kids to play with around the house or down at the oval in the school holidays. 

They seem rugged enough to play around with even with the lighter, cheaper plastic – but I do like the fun yellow and blue colours which make them stand out and easy to spot if put down. 

No app, no Wifi. Just .95 and there’s a couple of hours of fun. Definitely worth a thought with Christmas coming up.