[nordberg]

What’s the best option these days for kid’s tablets? My two have had Kindle Fire Kid’s edition (or whatever it’s called) for the past 3 years and they’re now on their last legs. Whilst the devices themselves have been pretty troublesome - bordering on not for purpose - I love the fact I can keep a close eye on what they can and can’t do.

Apart from the latest Kindle, what other options are there? As far as I know, there’s no way of kidifying an iOS device so I’m probably stuck with the Android devices?

Any input appreciated..

[teaston]

You can set an ipad for kids settings/restrictions:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201304

Definitely the best choice of tablet, by far the most reliable and largest amount of kids apps & games available. Refurbished iPad Air’s are around £200 on Amazon.

[Bryans69]

Surprised about your comments on the kindles. We've got two for our girls and they have been brilliant. What do you want to do with them? Our eldest (8) now has an old laptop for school work, so kindle just for games / videos is fine, and the laptop very easy to lock down with the right software

[nordberg]

Originally Posted by Bryans69

Surprised about your comments on the kindles. We've got two for our girls and they have been brilliant. What do you want to do with them? Our eldest (8) now has an old laptop for school work, so kindle just for games / videos is fine, and the laptop very easy to lock down with the right software

They're awful. I already had them both replaced under warranty due to the USB ports failing (common problem). The USB ports are on their way out again but, aside from that, they are so slow it's ridiculous. Minecraft literally takes around 3 mins to launch. To make matters worse, every once in a while they just refuse to read from the memory card meaning all saved game data is lost. All these problems are common place from what I can see on the Amazon forums, so it's not like we're doing anything wrong with them.

On the plus side, I think the way they can be locked down for young kids is, for the most part, brilliant. I have a few reservations about the inconsistencies around different type of content you can share, but overall I think they've done a reasonable job.

Originally Posted by teaston

You can set an ipad for kids settings/restrictions:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201304

Definitely the best choice of tablet, by far the most reliable and largest amount of kids apps & games available. Refurbished iPad Air’s are around £200 on Amazon.

Thanks Teaston - I didn't know Apple had finally provided a workable solution on this. Looks good... I'm wary of third party recons though. Sadly, the official Apple recons are all a bit out of my price range at the moment. I'll keep my eye out though and see what comes up.

[Bibbles]

I've given the kids the old ipads I had and they still seem to run most of the apps that they want to run. I'm using some apple restrictions but also have Ourpact running on both of them so there are time of day schedules, app restrictions and total screen time restrictions. It seems to take any arguments out of when they can use them and when they need to stop. Works on android as well I believe.

[Rbrown]

My wife got a Huawei Media Pad T1 8.0 Pro free. I had been gathering dust in the drawer as we thought it would be pretty rubbish. Similar to this one...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-Medi.../dp/B019RGPLW4

4 year old had an old iPad which died when she dropped it and the screen cracked. She was gutted...brought the Huawei thinking it wouldn’t console her. It did - and for watching Netflix / BBC iPlayer and playing some kiddy games it has been brilliant so far. Screen is sharp / battery lasts well (better than iPad) and switches on a lot faster.

Obviously, it isnt an iPad - but doing her fine so far.

Maybe worth a look?

[doncarlyon]

We have an old Hudl2 which is used on holidays abroad for the 2yr old. The screen quality is pretty good... battery life is pretty bad.

Been considering a new one but to be honest for a 2yr old its more than enough.

I wouldnt have any apple ipad or iphone, hate the things. Would have to be android based.

[Dr Forinor]

I too am considering a tablet for my eldest but I will be sticking with Android, thinking of a Samsung, £300 limit really, whatever I can get.

I will not even be considering an Apple tablet, too restrictive as far as I am concerned.

[nordberg]

I'm an Apple man. My experience of anything Andrex has been far from positive.

Having said that, I'm fine with the kids having Android if that's what works best. If Amazon did a beefier version of their kids tablet, I'd probably go for that...