13.7.2020

Although the ‘Fire and Rescue’ packaging and product description clearly indicate that the intended market for this pair of Cobra HM230™ ‘Hero Series’ Kids Compact Walkie Talkies is for children they have use beyond that play market. I perform timekeeping for local cycling time trials which are just getting underway again after being stopped in March 2020 due to the Coronavirus crisis. Those events however are back with strict temporary social distancing regulations, and so the purpose for ordering these Walkie Talkies offered for review under the Amazon Vine programme was to use for radioing back rider times to HQ from within the confines of a car with an assistant to record and text them off the agenda for now.The Walkie Talkies state that they have a range of “Up to 3 kilometres”, about 1.9 miles which is more than adequate for the courses I intend to use these on. Each operates off three AAA batteries located in a compartment at the rear.I’ll get the negative comments out of the way first because my initial impressions were not favourable but rapidly improved, and I want to explain the issues. The Walkie Talkies are supplied in a mixed cardboard and ‘blister pack’ style plastic package. It isn’t easy to remove the Walkie Talkies from this package, and I had to carefully cut them from the plastic using a Stanley™ knife – not ideal if you are from the intended child market for this product. It certainly wouldn’t have been easy to separate what became evident are two thicknesses of cardboard sealed so tightly that ripping is very hard indeed. Finally getting into the package there is a black envelope containing the product instructions – it’s not evident that they are there from the packaging and one of the reasons I was being careful with limited product information contained on the rear of the package and I was trying to save that back, which turned out to be unnecessary.The next issue was accessing the battery compartment. Reading the instructions it states “Remove the belt clip by pressing on the release tab”, with the accompanying diagram not indicating where the release tab was. Maybe I was just having a bad day but it took me fully 10 minutes to establish that a very tiny piece of plastic which in no way resembles a ‘release tab’ at the top of the belt clip was what I should be pushing, in fact I struggled to get my finger into the available space. Simply indicating the location on the diagram would have helped significantly.Once I’d accessed the battery compartments and installed the AAA batteries things got rapidly better. The Walkie Talkies are turned on or off with a four second press of the ‘menu’ button, with the small LCD screen displaying a default to Channel 1 – one of eight potential channels available, toggling up with a short press of the menu button. It’s important to note that both Walkie Talkies must be set to the same channel to work, but if you’ve forgotten what channel you agreed there’s a helpful scanning feature. That LCD screen also shows whether the user is in transmit or receive mode – useful if both users are incorrectly trying to speak at the same time. The other buttons on the front display are up and down volume buttons and a call button which makes a mobile phone style ring to make the receiver know they are being called. That volume can be impressively loud, ideal for using beside a road with passing traffic potentially drowning out the call. A large button on the side allows the sender to speak and send their message by simply pressing and holding whilst they speak. There’s also a built in microphone in the centre of the buttons. The product leaflet recommends a distance of 2” from your mouth to the microphone, pretty much intuitively the same as for a mobile phone. I was extremely impressed with the clarity of the calls, with a speaker taking up the bottom half of the front display working very well indeed.The straight line distance between the finish and HQ on the course I tried these out on is 1.5 miles, getting towards the top end of their range, but they coped well with fresh batteries with a clear connection thanks to the use of stable UHF/FM frequencies. It’s too early to say if weaker batteries affect that range, but with the two other courses I wish to use these Walkie Talkies on both needing a range of just 0.3 miles that shouldn’t be much of an issue. One feature I liked was that when the Walkie Talkies aren’t in transmit or receive mode the product switches to a power saving function. You might have an issue if you haven’t got ‘line of sight’ between the Walkie Talkies, but even on initial testing indoors they worked fine through walls with no problems at all, as well as from the living room to the bottom of the garden – great for when I’m lurking in my man cave and am needed.Other features I liked were the battery cover seals very well, meaning that if you are using in the wet that shouldn’t cause issues; and after my initial misgivings the belt clip works well to keep the Walkie Talkie close to hand whilst you are occupied doing other things – although being a very bright red they should be easily located if put down. I also liked that they are lightweight – the pair fully packaged weighs around 200 grams. They are quite small, evidently designed for child’s hands at around 8cm long without the antenna, 11cm with; around 3cm thick with the belt clip; and around 5.5cm wide at it’s widest point. Whilst small it’s only that release tab that is fiddly in the extreme, all the buttons are adequate for adult fingers.There are plenty of potential other uses for these Walkie Talkies asides from child’s play: hiking, control at public events such as fetes or at temporary road works, one partner calling the other from their busy tinkering in a shed or garage, or even locating each other in a shopping mall. At just £14.92 these give a lot of potential flexibility with fairly intuitive operation and will certainly be useful beyond the current crisis, allowing replacement of potentially expensive mobile phone calls and texts to users with the wrong type of phone contract.

18.6.2020

I'm a big fan of PMR radios and have always liked walkie talkies; from when we had dreadful quality ones as a kid in the 80's. I grew up using a CB radio in my teens, which continued until my early 20's. PMR radios then became available more recently. Over the years, I've had some of the basic early ones and have owned more professional ones in the last 5 years.I currently have a pair of professional Cobra business PMRs, along with other PMRs and a professional amateur radio walkie talkie. In comparison, the sound is good, however these really are aimed at an entry level / child's radio. The range is quite low, but for kids to use or adults over a short distance,

16.6.2020

I rated this from the perspective of these being high end toy walkie-talkies, even the cardboard packaging looks rather like that of a toy.. I know that they're not exactly advertised as that but I wouldn't expect necessarily to get a proper pair of walkie-talkies for £20.We have a 4 story house, my husband was in the living room on the ground floor and I went up to the second floor and the attic. We could hear each other quite clearly and this is not something that could have been done when my daughter was a child and she had toy walkie-talkies, they could only manage communication up to one floor above.l.We tested changing channels,volume control and ringing each other. All worked fine.

23.6.2020

Cobra HM230 ‘Hero Series’ Kids Compact Walkie Talkie, 8 Channels, Roger Beep tone and Power Saving Function (2 Pack) - RedIn the pack.You get two walkie talkies. You will need to provide your own batteries 3 x AAA batteries for each one. You can use rechargeable batteries in them and these can be charged in the units via a USB source.Features.These are very compact, have a range of up to 3KM, 8 channels so you can get the best reception. Will work with other walkie talkies and have a belt clip. They also have an auto off to save batteries.Using.They are simple to use, just put the batteries in, switch them on, set a channel and they are ready to go. Reception is clear and they have a ‘Roger beep’ button.

26.6.2020

I notice that the description of this product has now changed to more inline with the actual product received. Although photos of children using these walkie talkies is used, i was under the impression they were more for adult usage but it was obvious from the packing that these are a toy-albeit a higher quality one than most children are used to. The 9 year old loved these. They were able to go around the house and communicate with the other person perfectly. We tried to use them when out with the dog to test the range and it’s nowhere near the 3km (or miles as it says above!!) so no good for keeping in touch with their friends. It went to about 0.5km before descending into crackles or nothing at all.

18.6.2020

This is a nice pair of walkie talkies which on opening appear well made and sturdy. personally I would say that they are not for adults, as even the packaging seems to be aimed at children. Anyway, my neighbours son and I had fun testing these out and on the whole we were impressed. I liked the idea that if there are no transmissions within 10 seconds, the until will automatically switch to battery saver mode. This is really useful as children often forget and then come looking for new batteries in no time. We got the set up and going straight away and honestly had no issues at all. I did try using this to talk to my neighbour from my mothers house which should have been within range,

16.7.2020

After reading some of the reviews I wasn’t expecting much from this pair of walkie talkies but I actually find them very good, they work well, easy to set up and use, clear sound and the range was pretty good too, not sure they will go up to the suggested 3 mile range but tried all over the house and garden and had no issue with these at all. The build quality is decent, the handsets are compact but have a nice little weight to them and fitted with belt clips for hands free portability.The only thing I am not keen on is the usage of 6xAAA batteries which are not provided. When I looked at this listing originally I am certain they were originally quoted as rechargeable but that is no longer the case.

23.6.2020

These are really cheap for walkie-talkies… but quite expensive for toy walkie-talkies. So I’m not really sure what the market is that the manufacturers are aiming at.I’m going to review them as a toy as that’s what I originally wanted them for. So as a toy they were great. Certainly better than some of the other rubbish the ones we’ve had before. They do use a stack of batteries, which is a bit annoying as it pushes the cost up quite a bit given how expensive batteries are!I let the kids play with these as this isn’t really a set that I would use myself. Before mobile phones, I remember using walkie-talkies when we went skiing. These aren’t as good as those and that was many many years ago!

26.6.2020

I found these kids walkie talkies to be a a fair bit better than your average kids toys. Certainly better range but not as far as the 3km advertised. That would be under perfect line of site condition. But these would be good if you have a massive garden.There well made and robust. However the settings and usage using the buttons is fairly complicated. Too complicated for a child under ten. But as they are there my kids just love to unnecessarily press them. And therefore changing the settings. Also, I'm a bit disappointed it doesn't have a backlight on the little screen.The PTT is easy to use for little fingers. The audio quality through the speakers and microphone is quality too.

17.6.2020

I like the useful range these offer - even in built up urban areas. In open fields with line of sight i did get easily the 3km claimed, built up range was about a third. But i was impressed, these PMR devices are well engineered. HM230 uses 8 channels and offers quality sound with easy alerts and call handling. I was pleased by how useful these where. I found the battery save function easy to get used to and it is noticeable that it does comfortably extend the battery life many fold. The display whilst small works well and is clear in both low light as well as bright light. I found it easy to test and use. Great product i'm happy to recommend. Andrew

19.6.2020

This proved to be a very satisfying acquisition.The sound quality is very clear and an impressive range considering the respectively low price. Walkie Talkies have 8 channels and I can confirm that they all worked. A big plus in my opinion was that they automatically switch to battery save mode if there are no transmissions within 10 seconds. When my grandchildren use this sort of thing they are very prone to leaving things switched on which obviously uses up the battery life.I thought that the product looked like a toy aimed at children but in honesty I felt the sound quality was far better than that and could be used for adults as well.

17.6.2020

Cobra HM230 Medium Unisex Adult PMR Walkie talkies are really good for kids to play with, whether it be action figures or rescue scenes these come in really handy, the walkie talkies are a 2 way radio, their is 8 channels On the walkie talkies, the distance between the two walkie a are about 3 kilometres, a clip at the back of the walkie talkie for you to clip in onto you, 4 bottom on the face of the walkie talkie ( channel up & down, music & menu bottom) & one at the side to press while your talking, these need 6 AAA batteries, these are really good to keep the young kids occupied, encourage their imagination & role play

5.7.2020

This is a set of walkie-talkies aimed at kids. In terms of design these are certainly a lot more child-friendly than a lot of the walkie-talkies on the market. They are colourful, small and very light. In terms of performance they are rather average. The range is not that great nor is the battery life especially as they take normal batteries rather than being rechargeable. I think these are best for kids who want to use them when playing in the house or garden. I think if your kids are wanting to use them further afield or are interested in the technology you would be better off getting them an inexpensive adult set.

18.6.2020

My daughter LOVES the color first off! When we opened the box, which is very well packaged, it obviously comes with two walkie-talkies and also A good set of directions.I’m not the kind of mom that likes to refer to directions and less I absolutely have to. We easily took the clip off on the back and removed the battery cover. It takes AAA batteries. These are super simple to operate. Easy to turn on, change the volume, and change radio channel. All in all we love em. They have a good range so far. I’m having tons of fun with them too with my little lol.

27.6.2020

Aimed at the kiddy market this is a great little duo set, consisting of two walkie Talkies in bright colours...They are compact and lightweight making it great for kids to use, as well as adults, Ideal for your littles one’s role play. Also during group activities such as Hiking, Camping, Jogging, or work-related projects. It has up to 3 km range with 8 channels, call alert, Roger Beep and a unique power saving function.A great toy and a useful bit of kit.

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