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I have researched all I can, and am now coming to you guys and gals to tell me, from your experiences, what kids tablet do you like, and why? I won’t go into what I want out of a tablet, I just want to know your opinions.

13 Spice ups
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define kids? like toddler? elementary school? middle school+?

4 Spice ups
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Between 3 and 33. :slight_smile:

3 Spice ups
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I will be skipping the kids tablets for my son, you can pick up a cheap android tablet for around £30 these days, they may as-well get the full package rather than some pitiful attempt at a kid-friendly tablet.

1 Spice up
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I haven’t bothered with a “kids” tablet for my 4 year old. He plays with our old 1st Gen iPads

1 Spice up
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Yeah- we did a LeapPad a few years ago- it was ok, but our kid is pretty sharp and got bored with the limited titles pretty quickly. Now he has a Galaxy Tab 3 7", but he also plays a lot on our iPad 4 and iPad Mini 1st Gen. I personally think the game titles are better in iOS, by the way.

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My daughter received a Leappad 2 last year and loved it for a while. Then we got an ipad mini and then she loved that. She doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but she isn’t really asking to use either now. It really depends on the kid.

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I bought my youngest son a “Nabi 2” android tablet - 7". Comes with a nice chunky and bouncy surround and has a “mum/dad mode” for installing software and configuring the “kid mode” that he uses.

He’s been really happy with it - hardware specs were great a couple of years ago when we bought it and he was just over 3 years old - still good now, haven’t found any games that are slow on it - yet.

Has a Micro SD card slot too - loaded up with movies for long car journeys.

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My daughter got a LeapPad 2 for Christmas when she was 3. It has some games she likes, but they are $15-$20 a piece. The tablet was only $100, I think, and is more durable than a typical iPad or Nexus would be when it comes to drops and things. However, the price of software, I think, is a bit high. Also, it can play music, but only music from the LeapPad store, which you must pay for even if you have it from ITunes on your PC.

When my wife got a new iPhone last year, I took her old iPhone 4, wiped it, and put restrictions on it. My daughter mostly plays with that now. It is able to hold lots more games than the LeapPad 2, the games are cheaper, and depending on what you get, can be just as educational as the LeapPad software. Also, you can side load any music or video without paying for it again.

TL;DR - Skip the “kid friendly” tablets and repurpose your old gear or buy an inexpensive tablet, like the Amazon ones, and put the appropriate kid stuff on it.

3 Spice ups
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For kids I think a Galaxy Tab could be a good start and something they can grow with. The LeapPad is great but my niece out grew hers really quickly.

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I looked at the Nabi before Christmas and wasn’t all that impressed. My youngest son has been using my Kindle Fire for a couple of years now and has gotten good use out of it with all the available games. For Christmas, instead of a tablet, he wound up with a PS Vita and enjoys that more. For now.

But his birthday is coming up, so I might have to look again.

@vanessa-for-samsung does the Galaxy Tab have a ‘Kid’s Mode’ like the Galaxy S5 has?

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I honestly think that Amazon has really nailed parental controls on a tablet. You can really customize the controls for your child and as the mature you can change them. It is still a full tablet and has a great marketplace but still gives me the control I want.

2 Spice ups
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I thought iPad’s were for kids? I haven’t found a real use for them in business, haha… But yeah my neighbor kid is 3 and he grabs my ipad all the time. He knows how to download apps, play apps, which sometimes can suck because Thomas the train apps are worthless unless you are a millionaire. He always hands it to me and wants me to buy a level. Kids are way too smart with technology these days and I wish I could hire some of them at my work!

3 Spice ups
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jayson1775

That is EXACTLY the reason why kids that age shouldn’t have a tablet, unless it is really really locked down. My boy has an older nook, and all he does is play angry birds. i won’t purchase packs or anything. The trick though, i think is to prevent the kids from becoming “Gameheads”, i know a 10 year old like this, all he does is play games on his ps3, and man is he packing on the pounds…

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How about no tablet?

4 Spice ups
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My children both have the RCA Android 7" tablets. This is just for casual internet use though. They’re a little older and more advanced to use the leap pad and other Kid versions.

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I think the Amazon Kids tablet would be one good choice. I would caution to remember that it will not have access to Google’s Play store.

Other option is to get a Nexus 7 (2013) and then a good rubber Neoprene case. Like this Poetic bumper case from Amazon

My boys (7 and 10 years) have the older Nexus 7 with 8GB. They are to small of storage (no microSD card), so they are having to decide which apps to remove all the time. So 16GB would be the smallest I’d recommend. Also the older Nexus 7’s slow way down with Android 5.x.

Really sad Google dropped the 7 and only pushing the new 9 inch now. You can still find the 7 (2013) on Amazon and Groupon had a deal awhile back that brought the 16GB version down to like $150.00 Ah still running the groupon deal I’m thinking about getting one of these before they are gone. Other options would be the LG G Pad 8.3 or a Samsung unit.

I have an app called AppLock on my boys tablets. This lets you lock anything, including the Play store. So if they want something unlocked, they have to bring it to me for a 4 digit pin code. I leave all their apps unlocked. So for sure check that app out if you go with a standard Android tablet.

1 Spice up
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We got our kids the Samsung Tab3 Kids Edition from BB during black friday. I must say its a basic Galaxy Tab 3 but for a kid, 5-7 here, but even up to teenage years it should be fine. Mostly learning apps, games, occasional movies and web browsing is what they’ll be doing on them.

It has a Kids Mode and Standard Mode w/ pw so they can surf the web, etc. and came with a rubber bumper which is nice…we got them for $129 which was only $20 more than your basic Samsung Tablet for the same specs. It came with the case, games and Google Play money. Seemed like a no-brainer and the kids love them.

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I went the galaxy Tab route. I can reasonably lock it down for kids, and we use for streaming content for the whole family. They are used to the Android format, and they are reasonably priced for what they are capable of. The biggest feature I had to have was an SD slot. I love iPads but being stuck with a set amount of storage was not an option. I can load it up with their favorite movies, and not have to worry about WiFi on long trips.