I purchased 3 of these Kindle kids edition tablets for my toddlers (ages 4,3,2 years old) And 1 non kids edition one for our older child for Easter. I was quite nervous that they'd break or the cases wouldn't be durable or that they wouldn't be able to use the apps they'd been using on my Samsung Tab S.
After considering the price to purchase 3 of them and checking out the apps my husband and I were pretty sure we would purchase them. Then I came across the warranty. 2 year worry free guarantee! Are you kidding me? I knew there had to be a catch, I couldn't find one and at that point we were convinced it would be a good investment.
I ordered 3 (at the time pink and blue were our only color choices) So we have 1 pink and 2 blue. Which has caused a host of issues on the toddler level (identifying who's tablet is who's as you can imagine)
They were easy to set up and create their own profiles and add apps to each of their tables . I love the unlimited freetime, they've had their tables for a few months now and can completely work them themselves and download the apps/movies/books that they want. I don't have to do it for them (with the exception of my 2 year old of course). I was able to link our Disney movies anywhere account with our Amazon account and now they can access all of our Disney digital movies on their tables! Which was a huge win for us! I do wish that Amazon could figure out a way for us to be able to link our Ultraviolet movies, it's a huge bummer that Amazon doesn't offer any app to make that possible. I also love that I can login to my Amazon account and send apps/movies etc to their tablets as I see fit, I can locate and page their tables when they are misplaced and remote lock them if I need to . The features on these tablets are astounding, I think there are still some kinks to work out, but overall they are great. My once MAJOR complaint is the charging ports. We've always been very careful about not letting the kids plug in or unplug their tablets themselves. So it's always been myself or my husband and about 2 weeks after having them they became very positional. It is difficult to have to position them JUST RIGHT to get them to charge. Aggravating would be an understatement. I don't however want to send them in for the warranty because you get 3 replacements in 2 years and we didn't do anything to them to cause this, and they DO still charge, it's just a pain. So, we are just dealing with it. My 2 year old did recently shatter his screen on his tablet and the replacement process was fantastic! We had our new tablet in 2 days and was able to easily restore the new on with all of the things he had on his broken tablet. Amazon sent us a return packing slip and we boxed up the broken tablet and dropped it off at UPS to be returned. Super easy! We have 6 kids in our family and it is quite unfortunate that Amazon limits kid's profiles to 4. So our older 2 kids (teens) have to be logged in under myself or my husband which allows them access to our credit card information. I contacted Amazon with this issue and we figured out a work around, but it is still quite frustrating. There really should be a way for us to have more than 4 kids profiles and a way for older kids to have their own profiles and still have access to our family content.With the price and considering everything on a whole, we are still very satisfied with these tablets.
I have 2 kids a 2 to and a 4 yo. My kids love you tube and a tablet anything. I hate you tube (for the kids) they start clicking buttons and end up on some random creepy adult doing weired stuff with toys pretending to be a kid. I hate it. But when you have a 2yo with adjustment issues, that screams for hours when they are out of their norm and a tablet fixes it you give them the tablet. I hate kids having technology it stifles the imagination. I keep saying my kids won't. But gosh darner I clean house for ten minutes without screaming from any of us.
So here's the deal. Papa bought 3 tablets one for each of mine and a nephew. (Don't freak they were on sale $75 compared to the normal $100) I know still a chunk of change but I didn't pay it. Thanks papa. And you know what. I'm typing a review and there's no screaming. Can we sing joy to the world.
As for all the negative reviews they can get over it. Every device every operating system is different, question is what are you too. Kids free time is a no brainier. 2yo has already figured it out. (Again adapts slow to knew situation but he's smart as heck)
After sitting down for a bit and showing him the video button and how to scroll through the already installed apps (yes this took a good bit of time I just spent an hour clicked everything I knew he'd like and let it run till done. Yes it's a little slow on the download but that's fine I don't expect speed from this thing) anything that was just clutter got deleted from the home screen. Hold button select delete easy. Setting up a new device takes time regardless of what it is. So far there is no space problem the kids and I are having a blast and they haven't even discovered the camera yet. And guess what NO crepy adults on you tube .
Sit down don't get your panties in a wad, take your time to set it up. show your kids what to do, play a game or two with them. Set the parental controls and steal it after you read them a bed time story on it.
As a lot of people have said the "kids" mode is not what it appears , but honestly unless you have a super tech savvy kid just put it in normal mode. I will say that for regular everyday use make sure you have it in airplane mode because the battery life was lacking for ours until I did that . Also for kids under 5 I highly recommend you download the PBS kids app it might save your life . If you are taking a long road trip pair this with a 128 gb micro sd SanDisk Ultra 128GB microSDXC UHS-I Card with Adapter, Black, Standard Packaging (SDSQUNC-128G-GN6MA) loaded up with your kids favorite movies and you will be glad you did . If you really want to forget that your child is in the car you can also get a bluetooth speaker to put in their car seat so you don't have to listen to curious George the whole ride . Make sure you download all your apps at home before you hit the road unless you wifi hotspot.
We bought three Kindle Fire Kids editions for our children ages 5, 4 and 3. We are about to move long distance and I was really excited about having the tablets to keep them busy during the 10 hour roadtrip and while we are unpacking. However, when I set up the first tablet and actually tried to use it, I was very disappointed and was sure were going to have to return them. Thankfully I read through lots of reviews and forums and with a couple of small, easy changes the tablets are now very easy to use for our young kids. Here's my experience and what I did to fix the problem with Freetime Unlimited:
1. The Kids edition comes pre-loaded with Amazon Freetime (an app that provides a dedicated, parent-controlled "Homepage" - for lack of a better term - for all of the kids content) as well as a free one-year subscription to Freetime Unlimited (provides a massive amount of free, curated content based on the age of the child). Important to note that these are two distinct things - the Freetime App can be used easily without the Unlimited Subscription.
2. With Freetime Unlimited, a child has thousands of pre-selected, age-appropriate apps, books, videos, etc at their fingertips. Sounds amazing in theory, but in practice it's a nightmare:
- Despite how it's marketed, parents have no control over the content unless they want to manually remove permission to each and every title they find objectionable - did I mention there are thousands??
- To access the free content, a child has to download every single app, book, video, etc that they want to watch. They do that by clicking on the icon and then waiting and waiting for it to download to the device. Not sure about your kids but when my kids don't get an instantaneous response from an app, they begin clicking on anything in sight. That can be a real problem when they have the ability to click-at-will on thousands of fun looking things.
- The kindle only has about 4.5 GB of free space to start with which means it fills up quickly - especially when kids can download as much content as they want.
3. The fix:
- Buy a Micro SD Card to expand storage - we expected to do this anyway when we purchased the tablets.
- Unsubscribe from Amazon Freetime Unlimited (can be done VERY EASILY under Settings)
- Download whatever apps, videos, etc YOU want your kid to use - yes you'll probably end up buying a few apps, but there is a lot of great free content on Amazon as well.
- Add that content to each child's individual profile through your parent profile
- Open the Amazon Freetime app and download each app, book, etc to the device by clicking on it (have to do this for each device individually if you have more than one)
- Once downloaded, most of the apps that we use worked in airplane mode. But thanks to Amazon Freetime, my kids can't make in-app purchases or go to outside websites so it doesn't have to be in airplane mode to keep the experience safe. For info on downloading and then watching videos with no wifi, see below.
4. Other things to consider:
- Videos: If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can give your kids access to Prime content and they can stream it over wifi. You cannot (at least I haven't figured it out!) download Prime content and therefore can't watch it off of wifi. You can download purchased content to the device, through your parent profile, and then give access to the child. Once downloaded, the show can be watched in airplane mode, off wifi, etc. CHECK this before you leave for a trip though! This wasn't a problem for us because we already have a pretty good library of purchased movies, but I can see how it might be a turnoff if you had to purchase lots of shows/movies.
- The parental "time" controls leave a little to be desired. You can specify that your child uses "Educational" content for how ever many minutes before they have access to other content. However, most apps qualify as educational content. I know some truly are, but I was really looking for them to have to read books prior to playing apps and you cannot specify that.
- Some apps are not compatible with Amazon Freetime. Some examples are Skybrary and Audible. You could use them in the Parent profile, but I don't want to have to switch between the profiles for three kids and then worry the whole time that they are going to click on something that they shouldn't. Which brings me to one of my biggest complaints about the Kindle Fire Kids Edition:
5. Limited book content for pre-readers and early readers. I did not get the tablets to sit there and read to my kids for 30 minutes at a time - I have books for that. The tablets, for better or worse, are meant to keep them busy independent of me. I would LOVE to keep them busy with audio or interactive books but it looks like that's not meant to be with Freetime. While I've found a few apps that might work, none are stellar and you CANNOT USE AUDIO BOOKS IN FREETIME. WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS?? I hope I am wrong about this - please let me know if I am!!
All in all, with the fixes mentioned above, I am very happy with the tablets. They really are great, once you have full control over the content. Freetime is very easy to navigate and I'm happy to spend time choosing, installing and managing content for my kids. Yes it takes more time, but I would prefer to choose the content rather than have someone else decide what's appropriate for my children - plus it's fun customizing the tablet to each kids likes, interests, etc. Once you've unsubscribed from Freetime Unlimited, you are able to easily do that with these tablets.
Quality of the cover is excellent, Battery life is good. 5 year old loves playing games and watching shows. The number of available games in the included FreeTime is good.
I only wish there where zero ads on this device as it is a CHILD's tablet. A 5 year old is not going to be making purchases, and she certainly isn't going to care about yard maintenance. And I certain don't want to hire a yard maintenance company that advertised on a kid's app when the kid has to bring me her tablet every 30-45 seconds because she doesn't know how to make the ad go away and it keeps popping back up.
Feature Product
- Up to $109 in savings on Fire, 1 year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited and a Kid-Proof Case, plus a 2-year worry-free guarantee
- Not a toy, a full-featured Fire tablet with a 7" IPS display and front and rear cameras.
- The included 1 year of FreeTime Unlimited gives your kids access to 15,000 popular apps and games, videos, books, and educational content from PBS Kids, Nickelodeon, Disney, and more. Your subscription will then automatically renew every month starting at just $2.99 per month plus applicable tax. You may cancel at any time by visiting the Amazon Parent Dashboard or contacting Customer Service
- 16 GB of internal storage. Add a microSD card for up to 200 GB of additional storage.
- 2-year worry-free guarantee: if they break it, return it and we'll replace it for free. No questions asked.
- Unlimited, free access to 10,000 kid-friendly books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games with 1 year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited included
- Best-in-class parental controls allow you to manage usage limits, content access, and educational goals
Description
Powerful, full-featured Fire tablet—with 1 year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited and a Kid-Proof Case—for a savings of up to $109—plus a 2-year worry-free guarantee.
If they break it, we'll replace it. No questions asked.
We all know accidents happen. The 2-year worry-free guarantee includes coverage for anything that happens to your Fire tablet. Just return the tablet and we'll replace it for free. It also covers your Fire tablet against electrical and mechanical breakdowns.
A case designed for little hands, protects against big drops
The Kid-Proof Case is designed to be the perfect solution for parents who need worry-free protection against drops, bumps, and the typical mayhem caused by kids at play. Designed to be durable and lightweight, the Kid-Proof Case fits perfectly in little hands without adding unnecessary weight to their Fire tablet.
Latest generation Fire Tablet
A full-featured Fire tablet that includes a 1024 x 600 IPS display that's perfect for watching movies like Frozen, plus a fast quad-core processor that ensures quick app launch times and smooth games and video. The Fire Kids Edition tablet comes in black (with a blue, pink, or green Kid-Proof Case), expandable storage capacity up to 128 GB with microSD, and a 7-inch display.
No more worrying about storage space
Keep your child's photos, movies, games and apps with you using a microSD card slot that lets you expand your tablet's storage by up to 128 GB.
Capture life's moments
Fire Kids Edition has a 2 MP rear-facing camera for taking high-resolution photos and 720p HD video, and a front-facing camera that's perfect for video calls between kids and grandparents.
Made Just for Them
Designed with kids in mind
Fire Kids Edition starts in Amazon FreeTime, which is built from the ground up just for kids. The background color and fonts change to a kid-friendly design, they only see the titles that they have access to see, the home screen carousel shows their recently viewed titles, and they can even navigate visually to content based on characters or topics.
Profiles designed for kids...
Parents can create up to four individual child profiles and choose titles from their own collection of content that they want to give each of their kids access to. It's like giving each kid his or her very own, personalized tablet. A child's profile does not have access to in-app purchases, email, or social media features.
...And for parents
Parents can take Fire Kids Edition out of Amazon FreeTime using a password. Fine tune settings, download apps, or share kids' drawings with family on Facebook. You can choose specific books, videos, and apps for your child to see in Amazon FreeTime from your library or when you purchase new content from Amazon.
This is the second Kids Kindle Fire we've bought for our 6-year-old daughter. The first was an earlier edition (without the protective cover), which we still use. We purchased this one because we travel a lot and wanted the added protection of both the padded case as well as the 2-year, no questions asked warranty.
The product itself is fabulous - easy for kids to use and relatively tough (provided they don't smash the screen). What does need to be re-engineered, however, is the USB port. In a kid's device it should be a magnetic connection, not something a kid has to stick a plug into as the port can easily be damaged, which is what happened in our case. This is why I give the Fire Kids Edition 4 stars.
I would give it one star for customer service, and I'm sad to say that as I'm a former Amazon.com employee (part of my tenure was in customer service). Amazon makes the following claim on the product page: "2-year worry-free guarantee: if they break it, return it and we'll replace it for free. No questions asked." After our Kindle would no longer charge (after only 8 months), I looked to have it replaced. I ended up having to speak with two different customer service reps for nearly 40 minutes. I find this unacceptable. Make the replacement process easy for parents, a short "what's wrong with your item?" that you can fill out when requesting your replacement online should suffice.
Will I buy another Kindle? Absolutely. But, parents, just be prepared that your "no questions asked" warranty may not be so.
Perfect for a 3 year old and a 8 year old. Both my daughters have had iPads for a couple years now, but it was impossible to monitor the time they spend watching movies and the age appropriate apps without the younger one asking me how to play it all the time and with out the bad ads. I decided to buy the Fire Kids for each one to test it out and use them during the week, iPads on weekends. My 3 year old loves it and can play all the games that are appropriate for her age (yey, I don't stop making dinner to figure out a game for her anymore). Also comes with a large library of books that are perfect for their age as well.
I'm a big Apple user and fan, and that's why our kids had mini iPads, my 8 year old has owned and iPad since she was 3, and our younger kid got one when she was about 17 months (thanks Grandma) because she will fight with her older sister over hers. I have had experience with iPads + Kids and for anyone trying to decide what to get you child, my recommendation is the Fire Kids. iPads are great for teenagers and adults, but lack control on usage for children.
I rated it like this:
*1 star for easy to use for kids and parents, it is wonderful to monitor the use, I give them 30 minutes of video a day, 30 minutes of play in apps a day and unlimited reading books. (the iPad doesn't offer any of this)
*1 star for all the apps and books (content) Many of the apps that I purchased for my kids on the iPad are free for the Fire, like Toca Boca etc.
*1 star for durability and the 2 year replacement plan.
*1 star for the price, I got them when on sale at $74, thats crazy cheap compared to the iPads. after using them for a month, I came back and ordered two more for Christmas presents for my nieces.
-1* I didn't rated the 5 stars because the battery does not last as long, maybe half the time of the iPad. Although, I have found it to be a good thing for my 3 year old since she will put it down and go play somewhere else or go to bed early (Many tears were spend when taking the iPad away to go to bed before the Fire was purchased) My 3 year old has not asked for her iPad back, and since I have taken over it for my use. My 8 year old still has both, but I notice she uses the Fire more than the iPad. Half the time she doesn't even know where the iPad is.
I hope this helps a desperate parent :P
I bought 2 of these tablets for my daughter and sons birthday and they just love them haven't had any problems with them other then the memory fills up way to fast and they barely have anything on them which is a bummer but other then that best tablet I've ever had definitely recommend this tablet just be sure to buy a memory card for it because I didn't and wish i did and you also have to pay for the free time which I didn't know when I bought it but it's not that expensive which is a good thing
We got this tablet for my daughter for Easter. She is two years old, and absolutely loves it! We got this for her because we are starting to potty train and when she sits on the potty, all she wants to do is play on our phones. So we figured this would be perfect for her. We were totally right! She loves to play with it and it has helped so much with keeping her on the potty for longer.
-Case- it comes with a case that is either pink or blue. We obviously got the pink one for our daughter. The case seems quite sturdy and it makes me feel quite a bit better about letting our two year old handle this tablet. The corners are slightly bubbled out, so that would provide more safety if she does happen to drop it.
-Amazon Free Time- This is probably my favorite thing about this tablet. You get a year subscription to Free Time. Free Time comes with so many apps and books and really anything you could want for your child. And it is all free. After our year subscription is over, we are planning on renewing it for the small cost for sure. I think it is more than worth it.
-Con- The one con that I have come across is that there is no screen protector. You have to buy one separate. I think that for the price of the tablet, one should come with it. I mean, this is a tablet for children. It just makes sense to have a screen protector.
Overall, I am more than happy with this tablet, and am extremely happy that we decided to buy this tablet.
We purchased this for our son's 8th birthday. We have been very hesitant about getting him a tablet but I think this makes a good jumping off point. I really like the parental controls, we've limited apps and videos to an hour but have given him unlimited book time. Also, I love the option that he has to read for a certain amount of time before he can use any of the games and the 'off' time can be set for night, even though we wouldn't be letting him use it at night anyway. Overall we are very pleased, I'm sure that we will need the 2 year worry free guarantee at some point but it's only been 2 days.
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