Top positive review
754 people found this helpful
Parents with young kids - this is worth it
By Urduja on Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2017
We have always used Samsung tablets and so this took a little while adjusting how to navigate. So, far we have been using this for about a week and it does take some time to set-up. You will need to go through and make sure all the settings are correct for your kid, and this will take some time (I think the effort is worth it) This review is specifically for the Kids Edition tablet: The tablet: The tablet itself, is a good size for my (almost) 3 yr old. It is not heavy and seems to be the right size for him to handle. The protective case has definitely done its job because we have already had a couple of incidents. (update: this has been thrown against a wall and landed on tile, and no cracks or breaks) The viewing quality is decent. Otherwise, it is what you would expect from a tablet. I have not had another Fire before, so I can only compare this to a Samsung Galaxy, and so far, it is what I would expect from a tablet of this class. The features (the real reason for the purchase): is it worth it? YES. DEFINITELY Previously, we had been sharing our tablet and our phones with our little one, but more and more he would get into content he should not be getting into - everything from buying stuff and watching content not appropriate for his age - ie our downloads of Deadpool and Logan because these look like 'superheroes' but they are not the appropriate ones for kids - (side note: I loved how they portrayed Deadpool and Logan - we are big comic fans and they finally got their characters right!). I have even deleted YouTube from our tablets and hidden the app in our phones in files so that he can't get at them... But this tablet has been a game changer. It has GREAT parental controls. I love being able to hand him the tablet and not worry about what he is going to come across. (if you have a little one, you will still need to go through and filter content because there are older kid content that may be too much for the younger ones). Personally, I spent about 2 hours going through the content. I wish they had a better way to filter through the content - like have subject sections - ie math science history... Most of the content is great and educational, but some, like learning about adverbs and adjectives is just not where we are at currently. Filtering the content, I was able to let my little one get to the videos games and books that he would be most interested in faster without having to scroll through too much stuff. There is also a feature that allows you to limit how much content, which content, and for how long they can do stuff. You can have unlimited reading time, and limit the videos and apps(games) to only an hour or so. I have set the tablet to lock down 30 mins before bedtime to until mid afternoon (after nap time) which allows for real play time in the morning and then he has the tablet to occupy late afternoon as I am getting dinner ready and cleaning up around the house. CONS: download speed. much content needs to be downloaded and that takes time. The books apps and videos are not already pre-loaded and if they want to watch read or do something new, it will need to be downloaded. We have a hotspot on our phones for road trips and I do take a lot of plane trips with the little one, so I would suggest pre-downloading favorites for the trip. update: Does not work with Chromecast - I think this this goes for all Fire tablets. Even though they are an android, it looks like you would need a Fire stick. This is not a deal breaker for us, but it is nice to be able to mirror the content to the tv. CONCERN: I would say at this moment, my main concern is I love the "FreeTime" feature, but how much is this going to cost me when my free year is up? I have already been recommending this product to my friends with young kids. There are some cool content for older kids, but depending on your child's interest, a regular tablet would most likely be more appropriate. I paid for my product and there has not been any incentive for me to do this review. I don't work with Amazon nor am I affiliated with them.
Top critical review
7 people found this helpful
Tablet is great. The OS is not.
By R. Whitcher on Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2018
The one praise about this product is that the hardware is good and the bumper protection on it is excellent. After that, starts all the parent challenges with this product. Freetime You get a free 1-year subscription to Freetime. Sounds like a great offer, right? The con here is that you can't easily deselect what you don't want your child to have access to. You can narrow down the content to age appropriate apps and videos. But there isn't a whitelist option to only specify the apps and videos that you want them to have access to. You can blacklist items, one-by-one. It'll take you about an hour to blacklist everything (if you wanted to go that route) and then turn back on the items that you do want them to access. Ah, but there's a catch! Amazon adds new content all the time without your knowing it, so all your efforts to blacklist everything go out the window. Post the 1-year Subscription Once your free year is up, you start paying for Freetime monthly. Or you don't have to and then it's just a child profile that only has access to the apps and videos that the parent account gives them access to. Sounds simple enough, right? Nope. That's when you learn that in-app purchases or in-app subscriptions become a problem. You can't purchase an expansion pack on the adult profile and expect that in-app purchase to transfer to the child's profile. Doesn't work that way! So you try to be clever and purchase it inside the child profile. You might get away with that if you turn on the in-app purchases option. But then you hit a wall with in-app subscriptions (ie ABC Mouse, Hungry Caterpillar Playschool); child profiles are never allowed to purchase in-app subscriptions. So how on earth do you allow your child to use a child-geared app on a child's profile?? You also discover that the hard drive on this device doesn't go far. So you buy the largest SD card that the device allows for and install it. That's when you learn that the adult profiles and child profiles handle content a little different. Not everything can automatically go to the SD card from the child profiles (pictures, in-app downloaded videos from Netflix and Hulu). So your device is constantly running out of HD space even though there are 32 GBs of free space sitting on your SD card. Ditch Freetime You get rid of the child profile! Ditch all the Freetime limitations and set your child up with an adult profile. Now there is a limitation here too. You can only have 2 adult profiles and 2 child profiles on the Kindle Fire. So if you're going to ditch the child profiles, that means you're limited to just 2 adult profiles. Now the concern might be your child purchasing apps, getting on the internet, and getting into additional mischief. Thankfully, there are parental controls that you can turn on to limit a lot of content and purchasing power. What I did was create a folder and stuffed it with all the Amazon apps (that you can't uninstall). Then put it at the bottom of the apps displayed. So all of her kid apps are listed first. And even if she does get into one of the Amazon apps, the parental controls prevent her from doing most things with them. There is even a curfew option that you can enable inside of parental controls. By using the adult profile, you can handle all the in-app purchases and subscriptions without Freetime getting in your way. Amazon App Store Now this may be the make or break of you getting an Amazon tablet. The reality is that you don't have access to every Android app on the planet. You only have access to the Android apps that Amazon allows you to download from the Amazon store. For those who just don't take no for an answer, you can get around this by Googling instructions on how to install the Google Playstore on the adult profile. This will extensively open you up to more apps. But ditch Freetime first! Don't go down the path of getting a Google Playstore app into a child's profile. Talk about a nightmare and a laundry list of regrets. It's not worth all the effort. Summary If I had known all the Googling that would have been involved with this product, then I probably wouldn't have bought it. But now that I *think* I've overcomed most of the challenges, it's not a bad product for a child. It's affordable. Durable. She has access to plenty of mainstream educational and entertainment apps. Will I replace this device with another Amazon Kindle? Eh, it is highly unlikely unless Amazon improves their OS and App Store options.
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