Tablet for kids ? x-mas gift

[Shanna-like-Banana]

We're wanting to get our two boys each a tablet for Christmas.

They are 8&9 years old.

I've been trying to compare the tablets in the sales these last few days and the released upcoming Cyber Monday sales and I'm ever more confused.

It would be primarily for games, some education apps, taking "kid" pictures, etc.

The budget is approx $75-90 per tablet.

I don't want to go super cheap and get a table that will only last 3 or 4 months and then starts having problems, but nor am I going to be getting them IPad mini's. IPad Mini's would be nice since they use them at school for some really great math and reading apps, but I can't justify giving my child something so expensive. And no, putting the money together, and buying one from them to share it not an option.

Since we're cutting back this year, we decided the tablet was going to be their main gift from mom and dad, and only a few other items. So, it needs to be worth the amount paid and durable for a child's use.

Our town has most major retailers, and of course we can always order online.

 

[havaneselover]

We're wanting to get our two boys each a tablet for Christmas.

They are 8&9 years old.

I've been trying to compare the tablets in the sales these last few days and the released upcoming Cyber Monday sales and I'm ever more confused.

It would be primarily for games, some education apps, taking "kid" pictures, etc.

The budget is approx $75-90 per tablet.

I don't want to go super cheap and get a table that will only last 3 or 4 months and then starts having problems, but nor am I going to be getting them IPad mini's. IPad Mini's would be nice since they use them at school for some really great math and reading apps, but I can't justify giving my child something so expensive. And no, putting the money together, and buying one from them to share it not an option.

Since we're cutting back this year, we decided the tablet was going to be their main gift from mom and dad, and only a few other items. So, it needs to be worth the amount paid and durable for a child's use.

Our town has most major retailers, and of course we can always order online.

The kids version of Amazon's Fire tablet is in your price range. Best Buy and Toys R Us sell these.

 

[Lvsdisney]

I second the Amazon Kindle Fire. You can get the "kids version" for $85 right now, or get the regular one for $35 and buy your own case. We had an original fire for over 2 years before my son dropped it for the millionth time and finally broke the screen. We bought another one because I love the Free Time app. You can load just the apps you want your kids to have access to and set time limits. You can set a general limit, or limits on games but have unlimited reading. Plus in the Free time app, they can't just download apps willy nilly or make purchases (thank goodness!!).

ETA: The fire has both a front facing and rear facing camera. My son loves taking pics and videos with it

 

[michelleh1]

The nice thing about the Amazon kid's Fire is that it has a 2 year warranty included in the price.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

Thank you for the suggestions

Anybody else have a good one they can recommend ?

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Thank you for the suggestions

Anybody else have a good one they can recommend ?

The only tablet I could recommend in that price range is the same as everyone else, the Amazon Fire for Kids.

 

[Baklava]

The nice thing about the Amazon kid's Fire is that it has a 2 year warranty included in the price.

This. A regular one is on sale for $35, plus $25 for a basic case and you're already at $60. I'm handing this to a 5 year old. The upcharge for the warranty and the heavy duty case is well worth it.

The teen is getting a grown up one. The 5 year old is getting the kid version.

 

[Carolina Beth]

Can 2 Kindle Fires be attached to 1 Amazon account?

 

[wilkeliza]

Amazon fire for kids. It already has the built in parent features you will want. You can be signed into more than one device from a single Amazon account. I believe they also have family library so it would be linked to your Amazon so that you buy the books and it shares to their devices. You can also set up a kids account on the device that is sort of linked to your adult account which would make it where they can't download anything but they feel like the tablet is theres. You would just switch to yours to download things and change parental controls. The best part of the Fire for Kids is you can set hours like 1 hour a day for game apps 2 for web browsing and unlimited reading or whatever rules you decide. Then the tablet won't allow them to launch certain things once they use their time. With their new feature free time you can set that your child has to read for X minutes until the tablet with "unlock" so basically it is an ereader until they do their daily reading time.

 

[ajwolfe]

Can 2 Kindle Fires be attached to 1 Amazon account?

Yes. Both my boys have Kindles and they are linked to my Amazon account.

 

[piglet1979]

Last year we got a Kids Kindle Fire for my 7 year old after she broke 2 other tablets. The tablet worked really well but she was not able to to as many of the apps my son was able to. We ended up getting her an android tablet with a really nice durable case and it has worked great. My husband and I now use the Kindle for reading.

 

[JaxDad]

I was looking at the Fire for my kids and came across the Dragon Touch Y88x Plus tablet. Does anyone have experience with those? They are inexpensive but get high marks in performance...

 

[wilkeliza]

I was looking at the Fire for my kids and came across the Dragon Touch Y88x Plus tablet. Does anyone have experience with those? They are inexpensive but get high marks in performance...

Based on the Amazon reviews and the fact it is an unknown company in the vast realm of electronics I would not trust those 5 star reviews. Look at the 1 and 2 stars and you see the same complaints, it is slow, the processor lags, and their kids gave up on it after a few days because it kept freezing. When I see a ton of 1 and 2 stars that make up a third of all reviews I am hesitant to trust the product. A few bad apples is no biggie but 33% of your reviews being bad is not a good product.

 

[HM]

We have an original Fire Tablet. It works just fine and we've had it for years.
Lots of apps to buy/use, web browsing, book reading, game playing. I'd suggest it.
I don't know the difference between the Kid and the regular version, so do a bit of research there. At age 9, a "kid" thing may not be a great choice.

 

[hsmamato2]

I looked at the kindle fire for ds..... but decided a better bargain tablet for him would be the galaxy tab lite 3- seemed to be 79.99 across the board for deals this week- and I know he loves playing certain games on my ipad that you can't get on the Amazon platform,and that would mean he would be messing with my ipad still. If your kids are looking to play certain games,be wary of the kindle. Otherwise it looked like a great tablet, except for the lack of certain apps that are available on android/ipad. I like the galaxy tab,it seems to be a great little model for the price,and I also got a micro sd card to expand the memory for his games,etc. The ipad mini is pretty perfect, but too pricey for what I wanted.

 

[nd5056]

Take a look at this post in Community Board:

Tablet Help Needed!

 

[puffkin]

If they are used to iPads at school, I don't think they will like the Kindle Fire. We got one for my son 2 years ago (when he was 7) and it was a huge waste of money. We also had a "family" iPad and he always wanted that over the Fire because he couldn't get the same apps and games on it. I found it extremely clunky and glitchy to navigate after having an iphone/ipad. We ended up selling it after 6 months because we all hated the thing and it was just gathering dust. I do love my Kindle reader though.

Maybe you could find some refurbished iPad minis? I have seen them in the $125 range...not that much more than your budget.