Finding the Best Tablets for Kids

Welcome to our pro buying guide to the best tablets for kids, based on extensive product research, market feedback and critical reviews.

Technology is advancing at a breath-taking rate and kids all over the world are choosing to not get left behind. It should come as no surprise when your kids tell you to your face that they would rather have a smartphone or a tablet than toys or treats. As kids approach the age of 3, they become more and more curious of their environment and the new things in it. It is, therefore, the right age to encourage an interest in computer technology.

In this guide, we have sifted through dozens of tablets in the market today and found some very good kid-friendly tablets. In both hardware and software, these products are specifically engineered to be used by children. Because of the inevitable drops and spills, we have selected tablets that are durable and pocket friendly, yet have enough features to help ease the learning experience for your child. If you are thinking of buying a tablet for a kid in your life and you are wondering what’s out there, you have come to the right place.

Top Picks >> Runners Up >> Honorable Mentions >>

Best Tablets for Kids – Top Pick

Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Edition – 32 GB

The Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Edition, much like the The Amazon Fire HD 7 Kids Edition, has been a popular choice for parents looking for maximum control over their children’s movements. Parents are able to set bedtime curfews and are able to control what, when and how long kids watch or play on the tablet. FreeTime Unlimited (which is free for the first year) allows kids to browse through kid’s safe content, and even provides a safer overall internet browsing experience by using Common Sense Media’s curated websites, videos and YouTube videos. Amazon’s Fire Kids tablets really do seem to attempt to make a child friendly experience. The tablet itself is said to be durable, coming with a child protective casing to protect against drops. The screen resolution of 1280 x 800 (189 ppi) received some mixed reviews – some thought that it was slightly too pixelated, while others were happy with it. Most did find that the IPS display did offer some nice viewing angles. Running a Quad-core 1.3GHz, the tablet is not exactly lightning quick, but allows for basic multitasking. The 32GB memory is plenty for children, but it is expandable up to 256GB. The cameras are both rather poor according to users. The rear camera is a 2MP camera, while the front a VGA. Some users directed disappointment towards the fact that videos cannot downloaded and watched on their children’s accounts when off of WiFi, meaning long distance trips are a nightmare without this much needed distraction. Amazon do however give instructions here on how to download movies on the tablet. The battery life of around 12 hours is solid for kids, and the dual speakers received no criticism. The tablet itself is black, while the kid-proof case comes in 3 different colors: blue, pink or yellow. The Fire HD 8 Kids Edition is a super child friendly tablet that offers parents great control over the children’s tablet time.

Best Tablets for Kids – Runners-Up

Amazon Fire 7 Kids Edition Tablet – 16 GB (2017)

Amazon’s 2017 Fire 7 Kids Edition tablet is well suited to kids and for the price, it’s a steal. The 7-inch IPS screen is plenty for its target market, and built kid-proof with its foam shell that surrounds the tablet. While the resolution of 1024 x 600 is fairly low, it shouldn’t distract kids. The interface is designed for kids, who will easily be able to navigate around the tablets various features and apps. Furthermore, it comes with a one year access to FreeTime Unlimited, which gives kids access to 13,000 books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games. The tablet also allows for parental controls to be setup, allowing you to monitor and restrict your child’s activities. This is done through a multiple profile setup, allowing you to create separate profiles for you and your kids. With its 1.3GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, the performance is ideal for kids. The battery life is said to be around 8 hours and it comes with a two year guarantee, so if it breaks, you can easily get it replaced. The camera quality is rather poor however, with a 2MP back camera and a VGA front camera. The speaker quality is also not the best, but a pair of headphones can always be plugged in to improve on the listening experience. With younger kids sometimes downloading anything and everything they see, the 16GB as well as the 32GB is fairly limited, and it may be necessary to get an additional SD card.

Samsung Galaxy Tab E Lite Kids 7-Inch

The Samsung Galaxy Tab E Lite Kids is a kids’ version of the Galaxy Tablet of the same name. It comes in an attractive lime-green bumper case that protects the tablet from bumps, drops or when your three year old decides to use it as a fly swatter. Samsung pre-loaded a starter pack with popular kids apps valued at $75 and a complimentary three-month trial subscription to Samsung Kids allows unlimited app downloads with no in-app purchases. Parental controls enable you to monitor app usage and set time limits for apps, Samsung Kids also requires a password to return to normal tablet mode once set, hence protecting your child from harmful content. Some users complained of the lack of a child-friendly browser; parents must download one themselves from Google Play Store. Battery life comes in at around 8 hours which is good as it encourages prolonged child-distraction, time in which they are not disturbing you or taking over your own devices.

Dragon Touch Y88X Plus (2018) 7-inch

The Dragon Touch Y88X plus has been designed to keep your kids entertained for hours. It comes with a bright blue or pink (this version is pink) silicone case that has an adjustable stand, and it makes the already durable tablet that much more kid-friendly. The 7-inch IPS display is stunning and it won’t strain children’s eyes thanks to the wide, 178-degree viewing angles. The display may not be Full-HD, but the 1024×600 HD resolution is more than enough for kids, and it will still deliver sharp and clear images. It comes with 20 Disney story books and 4 audio books that will keep your children occupied on those long car trips, and when at home on Wi-Fi, you can easily connect to the Kidoz Browser, which is a child-friendly browser for kids that offers suitable content. It is said to maintain a good Wi-Fi connection, and it should be noted that most of its applications only work on Wi-Fi. The excellent parent control offered by Kidoz will relieve parents of the need to be ever present when kids are browsing, as it has content and sites tailored specifically to kids. Many customers have pointed out that it has an incredibly user friendly interface and it is plenty fast for kids, but at the same time pointed out that it is noticeably slower than other consumer tablets not designed specifically for kids. The 1GB of RAM should be more than enough for your children, and it will allow them navigate the tablet with relative ease, but the 8GB of storage is fairly limiting. Fortunately, you can expand it to 32GB with a microSD card, which may be useful for when you wanting to download games or additional apps off of Google Play store. It comes with cameras that many noted are of poor quality, but they should keep your kids entertained nonetheless.

nabi Dream Tab HD8

One look at the Fuhu nabi DreamTab and you immediately know it was designed for kids. From its shiny white bezels to its fun red bumper case, it looks like something that would draw out big googly eyes from any 3-year old. The back of the case has an opening, where tiles, called Kinabis, can be attached for personalization. The display is quite impressive, at 8 inches and packing 1920 x 1200 pixels; its sharpness beats out quite a lot of regular tablets, let alone kids’ tablets. With front-facing stereo speakers, the tablet pumps out a lot of decibels that will keep junior grooving, and you with a headache. The tablet runs on Android Kit Kat, with an easy-to-use interface and large icons. There are a lot of pre-installed educational apps and games, and parents have access to Play Store to download even more. However, you will quickly realize that most of the apps do the same thing. For example, there are three different browsers, perhaps to cater for preferences. The tablet allows up to 10 different users, with home screens for up to 11 different children. Parental Control Mode is password-protected and allows parents to download new content, choose which content is available on the child-side of the tablet, and how long the child can spend on specific apps or the tablet itself.

Kurio Xtreme 2 C15150 7-inch

Instead of buying your child one of those premium, delicate devices that will slip off clumsy hands and shutter the display just a week after they’ve left a painful hole in your wallet, just go out and get a Kurio Xtreme 2; a solidly-constructed tablet with lots of software features made specifically for your kid. The tablet’s durability features are enhanced by a tough silicone ‘bumper’ case and a screen protector, and each end of the case is reinforced with more rubber, making it easy to grip. Powered up, the Kurio runs Android 5.0 which includes a well-rounded suite of kids’ software and parental control options. A particularly impressive control feature here is with web surfing, where the Kurio has a list of accessible sites that grows along with your child, so young kids can use the browser to access only specifically approved websites. Moving on, the interface is very child-friendly and with full support for Google Play store as well as a generous 16GB of internal storage, apps and games can be installed in plenty. That said, most games and clips will not look as good on the Xtreme 2’s modest 1024 x 600-pixel resolution screen. Color accuracy and picture sharpness are both far from impressive, and the limited viewing angles mean your children will likely struggle with sharing the tablet side-by-side. As with many kids’ tablets in this price-range, performance is generally slow and camera quality is dismal. Additionally,, you get a rather average 6 hours of continuous usage on a single charge, with Wi-Fi connectivity off.

LeapFrog Epic 7 kids tablet

As the demand for tablet devices meant for children continues to grow, there is a growing number of options that make choosing quite difficult. The Android-based LeapFrog Epic however has plenty to please. The case is made of hard and smooth plastic and is clothed with a grippy rubber bumper for extra protection. At 1.4 pounds, this is a fairly light tablet and your child will not find it any challenging to carry around. With only a 1024×600 pixel resolution, the 7-inch screen produces average picture quality. The viewing angles are also poor, making the tablet less than ideal when kids are playing together. Expect images taken by your kids from both the front and back cameras to be of poor quality with a lot of motion blur, especially in low light situations. Software-wise, the LeapFrog Epic runs a specially-designed Android 4.4 KitKat. It features an age-specific system, where you enter your kid’s age and a profile is generated with the age-appropriate apps and activities. Unfortunately, some preinstalled apps like the exciting Captain Plasma’s Adventure are just demos, and you will need in the excess of $20 to get full versions from the LeapFrog store. This means putting together an app package for your child can get very expensive. Parental controls are great and offer versatile time-limits and fine-grained monitoring. Performance is fair, offered by an NVIDIA Tegra 1.3GHz quad-core processor and 1GB RAM. The storage options are good being at 16GB onboard and up to 32GB microSD expansion. At 7 hours on moderate usage, the battery endurance is reasonable.

Tablets For Kids – Honorable Mentions

LeapFrog LeapPad Platinum Kids Tablet

When it comes to kids’ tablets, LeapFrog remains a household name. The LeapFrog LeapPad Platinum Kids, as the name suggests, is one of their best products in the market today. With a tough plastic case, a wrap-around bumper and a “shatter-safe” screen, the device is as durable as they come. The 7-inch screen has a rather average 1024×600 pixel resolution which offers average color accuracy and poor picture quality. A stylus is present for touchscreen navigation which is a pleasant addition considering the disappointing screen. Software-wise, The LeapFrog LeapPad Platinum runs an OS that is generally designed for children. There is a fun but limited selection of apps and games. In the app store, there are 800+ apps and you can filter the content by age or skillset. Unfortunately, nothing is free, and setting up a good app collection for your child can get expensive very fast. Parental controls are adequate. As a parent, you can set time limits and app-locks as you please. The LeapPad is speedy enough as a result of its dual-core 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM, although a bit of delay is experienced when launching apps and returning to the home screen. The 8GB internal storage is more than sufficient, and a microSD card slot is included for further expansion. At 5 hours, battery endurance is not in any way fascinating. However, the tablet turns off completely when left idle for too long, meaning power is not wasted.

Fuhu Nabi 2

The world of kids’ tablets is plagued by crippling hardware and questionable software ecosystems, but with the Nabi 2, Fuhu promises something different. Starting off with the design, the device is cleverly built with your child in mind. Even without the thick, protective bumper, the Nabi 2’s plastic body feels solid and able to withstand considerable abuse. Featuring rounded edges and grippy panels, the device is fairly comfortable for a child to hold. Like the Fuhu nabi DreamTab HD8, the Nabi 2 also features a customizable back-plate with three rows of square pegs to which you can attach little charms called Kinabis for personalization. However, this feature comes at a price, which is a heavy 1.31-pound weight and a 1.14-inch thickness. The 7-inch 1024×600-pixel display looks bright and sharp enough for general kids use, although colors are mostly undersaturated and viewing angles are far from impressive. Above the screen is a 2MP selfie camera that performs fairly well in good lighting conditions, but the same can’t be said about the weak 3MP sensor at the back. Fuhu’s child-safe ecosystem runs on top of Android 4.0.4 Ice-cream Sandwich, and it features an interface that is very kids-friendly. The Nabi also has adequate parental controls and supports multiple profiles so you can add as many home-screens as you want for your kids, while keeping the stock Android UI hidden for yourself. Apps and games are in plenty on Google Play store and on the additional Fuhu App Zone app store, and thanks to a capable quad-core 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and 1GB RAM, everything runs smoothly and swiftly. To further the good, the battery lasts a good 8 hours of multimedia use with maximum brightness and Wi-Fi on.

LeapFrog LeapPad3

As far as toy tablets go, the LeapPad2 Power is one of the best you will find in the market. It is well designed and solidly-built, and thanks to a small 5-inch display, even the smallest of hands will find it fairly compact to use and carry around. And going a little further into the display, you get a TFT panel with a 480 x 272-pixel resolution, which might not seem like much, but is ultimately acceptable given the screen’s small size. The interface, which is the LeapPad 2’s main selling point is very impressive. It features a colorful kids-friendly environment that emphasises on fun and play. The external cartridge slot on the back is compatible with previous LeapPad devices and more games can be downloaded from the now improved Leaplet Appstore. And talking of Leaplet Appstore improvements, the educator-approved library has more reading and learning inventory. Key among these is what LeapFrog is calling Ultra ebooks, a souped up version of the already existing ebooks, where they now have sound effects, a read aloud feature and added games in the middle. The software also provides a variety of monitoring features including a timer, which a parent can set to lock the tablet when it is time for the child to so something else. If you are thinking that LeapFrog called this delightful device the LeapPad Power because of its performance, you will be wrong. The actual reason for this is the 4 NiMH rechargeable batteries that power the device to give a good 10 hours of battery life. 4GB internal memory is just about what to expect at this price range, but a microSD card slot would have been warmly welcomed for further expansion.

Conclusion

You have reached the end of our guide and it is our hope that now, your child is much closer to getting the tablet that will please the heart. One thing worth mentioning here is; as you go out shopping, keep in mind the age of your kid. Why? Because kids are growing and are developing new interests every day. To avoid dumping it in a box in the garage in just a few months, the tablet you get should not just be a toy but should be able to grow with your child. For more research on small cheap tablets, check out our other tabletninja guides, such as Finding the best tablets under $100 and Finding the best 7-inch tablets. Any questions? Please hit us up. We will be happy to help.