[Closed] Kid's tablets: what would you recommend?

The Amazon fire tablet is the line of least resistance IMHO. Loads of free content, very easy to set up restrictions and if it gets broken for any reason then it'll get replaced by Amazon. There's always a deal for renewing the kids subscription once the original has expired.

Amusingly my daughter hasn't broken her Fire tab (despite having the replacement cover) while my mate's kid has broken two tablets...

I spent hours researching it last year, ended up with an Amazon Fire for kids, they come with an "if you break it, we'll replace it" guarantee. A simple, secure striped down OS for Kids and a year of unlimited apps.

I purposely bought the smaller, cheaper non-HD version. My daughter doesn't care about High Def, but when it's tethered to my phone on long car rides it uses a hell of a lot less data.

just ordered the 8th gen ipad for ours. along with the smart keyboard and apple pen.

fahooking pricey! but its what she wants (bit older tho, 11yrs) we got all the gramps to contribute towards it too.

she already has an iphone, one of my old ones which its on its arse to be fair. this way i get a notification and have to approve any downloads etc.

The Amazon fire tablet is the line of least resistance IMHO. Loads of free content, very easy to set up restrictions and if it gets broken for any reason then it’ll get replaced by Amazon.

I assume you mean the Kid's Edition one then? We decided to just go with standard Fires as they are the same unit but not locked down to such a degree. At 7 yrs old, they will quickly outgrow the content and nannying of a Kid's Edition IMO and they should be capable of looking after a standard one in a case – and they are half the price with no subscription needed.

We originally got Kindle Fire for kids things, with the 1 year subscription. Found the kids didn't really use them much, not 100% sure why but I think it was partly they weren't very intuitive to use (4-5 years ago, prob changed now?) and the content wasn't that great. It was also a huge PITA to put movies on there for them for in the car etc (we didn't have Prime, no idea if that makes things easier).

We are pretty all-in on the Apple stuff so two years ago got them second hand iPad mini each for Xmas. Night and day - they are on them all the time, easy to use/manage (screen time from my iPhone).

If you have Apple kit yourselves then I'd spring for a second hand iPad.

We got a fire kids tab for the boy when he was 2 for car journeys etc. Was ok but when he started to use it we quickly found it limits. We adopted my dads ipad when he left us earlier in the year and that has one of the big foam cases. It lives on the kitchen table and comes in the car. Needs fingerprint to add apps or pay for anything so happy for him to crack on. Planning on removing the unlock code as he regularly locks himself out by just jabbing the numbers randomly (he's 3 now).

MrsG has an ipad that she doesn't use (raffle prize) so that will probably get handed to the girl (6 months old currently) when she is ready. Not an apple house generally but the ipad is hands down the best tablet for kids or adults.

Out eldest has a fire kids edition at the moment but I'm getting seriously ****ed off with it. The app seems flakey as anything. When I can be bothered to do the research she will be getting something else.

BTW, I would echo the above about iPads - our girls now have iPads (they were a requirement for school now they are 11 and at secondary school) - they are much more intuitive and slick to use. I have no idea where their Fires are now.

My daughter had the Amazon Fire for kids and has graduated to the standard Fire with a case when she turned 9 last year. Does everything she wants it to.... games, Netflix, Disney+ etc. She also has a Chromebook for homework and has Spotify on both for her music

Yeh I would be with the iPad - ours is through Sky so all mobile data on Sky Apps is free so on long car journeys (haven't been many of them this year) he can watch what he wants on Sky Go Kids.

The fire tablet was very flakey - games wouldn't work away from the home and tv programmes so he just became frustrated on car journeys which was then frustrating for us (our familes are 2 and 3 hours away by car in opposite directions so pre-covid one weekend a month we would be on the road).

iPad just works!

Our youngest had a Fire Kids. Was great for her (6 at the time) but her older sisters had iPads they’d saved up for and as we were also Apple biased we ended up giving her an old iPad of mine. Ended up being easier as the whole house was then part of the ‘Family’ under my Apple account and easier to control everything plus purchase sharing enabled everyone to share films/books/games/music that we may individually purchase.

Every ‘purchase’ she makes we have to authorise first and it’s easy to control access using ‘screen time’. Not sure how easy however if the only Apple device is the tablet although I’m sure it’s still possible so long as you keep the passwords/pins to yourself.

Obvious difference in prices however especially when you consider the free year of content on the Fire Kids tab, but they are certainly not as slick as the iPad (this was a couple of years ago mind) but I’d still recommend especially as a first tablet of price is a concern.

We’re thinking of giving our 7 year old a tablet for Christmas

Try Valium, it'll be a nice quiet Christmas!

Pro Tip - if you do get the child a tablet for Christmas, get it all set up and ready to go straight out of the box so you don't spend half the day trying to install and successfully log-in to any apps you put on there. If you have Netflix (or other streaming service), install it and create an age appropriate profile for them whilst you are at it.

Obvious difference in prices however especially when you consider the free year of content on the Fire Kids tab, but they are certainly not as slick as the iPad (this was a couple of years ago mind) but I’d still recommend especially as a first tablet of price is a concern.

Nope, tbh Fire Tablets are utter toss, I bought one for my late FIL which now sits on my desk. It's a slow, laggy, glitchy, bloat-filled billboard for Amazon masquerading as a tablet device. The OS is an utter mess of a thing that was designed mostly to sell you stuff from amazon they threw some functionality at it later, but it was only £80 I suppose.

The striped down Kids version is better suited to it's modest performance, unlimited add-free apps is a nice idea, but it's not the same as a free AppStore, they're limited.

Used iPad Mini + suitable case + Apple Family sharing.

Reasonable cost without the whole issue of it being a completely compromised tablet because it is not an iPad. Even the Apple haters (usually) agree tablet = iPad.

Try Valium, it’ll be a nice quiet Christmas!

Or this kind, if you need a more active child.

Ritalin?

Standard hayfever tablets make my lot sleepy as hell so they might be getting one of them on xmas night...

Pro Tip – if you do get the child a tablet for Christmas, get it all set up and ready to go straight out of the box so you don’t spend half the day trying to install and successfully log-in to any apps you put on there. If you have Netflix (or other streaming service), install it and create an age appropriate profile for them whilst you are at it.

Good tip!

If you have Apple kit yourselves then I’d spring for a second hand iPad.

We are, or rather, I am – work and personal iPhones, work and personal Macs.

Like many others, we got 7yr old jnr a 7" Fire and added Google Play etc. This was 3 yrs ago and it was a faff but it did the job for a year. Upgraded him to a Fire HD 10 when he was 8, again with Play blah blah. That lasted nearly 2 years before failing to charge anymore. For his 10th birthday I thought long and hard about getting him an iPad because they're a 'better' device yadda yadda. But couldn't justify the cost and didn't want a second hand one. Opted for the latest Fire HD 10, once again with Play which has been simplified a heck of a lot.

I'd like to think it'll do the trick for a couple of years, after which an iPad may well be the next step.

Just want to clarify on the iPad - the iPad wasn't brought specifically for him and to use whenever he wants. Everyone in the family uses it - mostly for different things but it isn't his specifically.

My kids got iPad mini's at around 7. My dad bought them for Christmas and I wasn't keen initially as I thought they wouldn't last long before getting broken, but the kids looked after them no issues. Of course we got decent thick rubberised cases to protect them from the inevitable drops, bumps and scrapes but they survived fine.

As a parent you get total control over what they can do on them...controlling the screen time either in terms of hours of use or times of the day they can access, what apps they can download, age restrictions etc. so no issues there. My eldest had an amazon pad before but it wasn't that good...slow and laggy, not great content available and of course not what her mates had and it didn't last that long. I'm sure they're probably much better now but the iPads have lasted 5 years and were a godsend during lockdown this year as they worked a treat for the online lessons and all the homework portals they used. Not to mention FaceTiming her mates all the time.

Try Valium, it’ll be a nice quiet Christmas!

Took a bit longer than usual, but not dissapointed (thought perchy would be straight in there)

Amazon Fire's are rubbish, I'd get an android of whatever budget you have and set it up with you as the main user and a child profile so that you can decide what apps etc are accessible.

I have my own Ipad..love it (despite being an android fanboi..)

Didn't want to stump up iPad costs for the kids, so got a hudl. rubbish. then a fire thing. again, not that good at all.
Eventually got the basic new 10" ipad, and a big foam case thing with a handle. It's brill. Daughter loves it, I can use it if i can't find my ipad.

I'd echo the comments above - get an ipad!

DrP

Amazon Fire’s are rubbish

I don't think that is a very fair thing to say – especially when they are sold at discount prices (ie, Black Friday) then they are fantastic value for money. So they might not be as snappy as the latest iPad Pro, but as a first introduction to using a tablet device (on a budget) then I think they take some beating.

Has to be able to play Roblox and Minecraft. If they're not playing it yet, they will.

Amazon Fire’s are rubbish, I’d get an android of whatever budget you have

Not true.

The latest gen Fire HD 10 running apps/games off the Play store is perfectly suited for kids. Better performance than some of the Android tablets costing twice the price and better VFM than those costing £300+!

Buy cheap, buy twice. They'll have an iPad eventually, so buy a used iPad Air2 with a bouncy case.

After our kids destroyed our original ipad we decided to get them their own cheap tablets. Considered the children's Amazon thing but when we delved further we found you couldn't download some of their favourites like you tube kids so plumped for a coupe of Lenovo jobs for about £90 each. They were okay but a bit numb.

When the first of those got bashed we replaced it with a refurb ipad from one of the many ebay shops. Used one of those 20% offers so paid about £80. Really impressed tbf, it was like new when it arrived. It was too old to support the latest ios but is fine for everything they want to use it for and is much slicker than the Lenovo. They managed to crack the screen but a replacement was £11 and easy to fit. When the Lenovo screen went I couldn't find a replacement.

Ipad FTW!

Ipad 4 mini. Both of our kids have had them since they were 3 years old. The oldest is now 9 and the youngest is 3.5.

Very intuitive to use, lots of protections you can put in place. Huge amounts of free, educational games. Work perfectly with all TV apps. Plenty of cases and, they just last. Our oldest iPad is now almost 7 years old and it’s perfectly fine.

They’re small enough for the kids to hold themselves and with headphones, can mean that my wife and I can watch the news in silence for 30mins in the morning while the kids watch cartoons or play games.

I thought my daughter was a fussy bugger at times, turns out she isn't. 😀

Has to be able to play Roblox and Minecraft. If they’re not playing it yet, they will.

Heh! Yeah, I suspect you're right...

So we looked at exactly the same scenario and ended up NOT buying a fire. Bought a 60 quid quad core android tablet.

It didnt need a subscription and is easy to load content.

Main use -youtube

We bought Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 7 inch tablets a couple of years ago for our two kids.

I think they were pretty short on internal storage so got SD cards for both.

They have worked perfectly, Roblox, Minecraft - check, Google Family Link installed on their devices and my phone to track what they are installing on their devices (they have to make a request via there device to mine for me to approve.)

Works well for all of us.

No Love for Huawei, cause they will Destry the western world:)!
We got this for our 8 year old for home learning:
Huawei Mediapad M5 Lite 10 Inch 32GB Tablet
All good, and not silly apple prices.