The new Kids Fire 7 inch tablet has a few minor upgrades from the previous 6-inch version, released earlier in the year. The kid-proof case has been improved further and is even more comfortable for smaller hands to hold in our opinion. It really is a superb case and handles anything a kid will throw at it. The tablet can be dropped and thrown around without so much as a scratch—truly amazing design backed by a 2-year warranty. It now also has a microSD slot to upgrade the 8GB storage to up to 128GB, that’s plenty to hold your movies, books, audio, music.
The tablet itself is the 7″ Fire HD with additional parental controls allowing you to safely set-up what content your child sees and when your child can access the tablet. The parental controls are set this apart, you can set your child’s preferences (and yours) so that they can only access certain things on the web. And this child version Fire comes with a year worth of Fire for kids to access TV shows, thousands of books, games and educational apps at no additional cost. Smaller children will benefit from its great tutelage and learn many words, pictures, sounds that they previously did not understand. And a benefit for you is it will also steer them away from the big TV, so you can regain access.
The small 7″ screen is perfect, very clear and the resolution is great at 720, as much as your child needs for the material they are viewing. It features a quad-core processor and cameras in the front and rear. One of the best features, of course, is the kid-proof case. You absolutely cannot give a kid a computer unless it is reinforced and indestructible. I’ve found that this tablet has become a very important learning tool for my son and I’m so glad I found one that he can knock about and still use. I think that one of the reasons it’s so tough is that it’s very light as well.
This Fire tablet is really no toy. It has all the basic features as my big Fire tablets except that it has a 720 display (but really that’s more than enough for stuff your kids will be looking at). The display at that level is still really good. It has the quad core processor so the app launches are very quick and the games and videos are super smooth. With the 128GB SD card we have more storage than the little one will need—within the next few years that is. And cloud storage is free (like the big Fires) for photos and videos he takes. He’s already collected a lot of photos and videos with this thing. The composition isn’t amazing but hey, he’s 7!
It’s only a 2 MP camera, but I’m really surprised at the quality. There’s easy to use software that you can use to add stickers and drawings on the pictures. Plus they can be printed out on posted on the fridge with great pride. The photos go to cloud also, but he’s blocked (by Amazon) from posting on social media (thankfully). It’s also got a front camera so he can Skype with the Grandparents—he really gets excited about that.There’s stuff to entertain them forever and a day. Disney, Nickelodeon are included on the list. We got the Fire for Kids Unlimited which is an all-in-one subscription for kids 3 to 10 years and includes movies, books, tv shows, games and educational apps. If you buy the kids edition you get the Fire For Kids Unlimited at no extra cost. Angry Birds (gotta have Angry Birds!), Fruit Ninja and a bunch more are available too. You can go on the tablet in parental mode and select which games, movies, etc. that your kids can access.
When your child accesses their tablet, they see only what you want them to see and all the fonts and colours are kid friendly. The screen “carousel” shows their recently viewed stuff and they can navigate to images of characters and images of topics: Puppies, Dinosaurs, etc. I can set up a profile for him or his little sister and personalise it with what they like and want to access. There’s no access to email or social media in the kids’ profiles. With a password, you can take it out of Fire for Kids and then download apps, share their photos on social media like Facebook, select books and videos for them, etc. With the parental controls, you can also set limits on how much movie time versus learning time your kids can have—that function is absolutely priceless.
I like to limit his video and games time but made his reading time unlimited, he really doesn’t complain that much because anything he does on his tablet is “cool”. You can also set it up to block access to cartoons and games and the like until they have done their educational work and it can also be set to be used only certain times of the day. I initially set up this particular function after I went into his room at 10pm and found him under the covers watching Frozen.
There’s going to be a new kids web browser available free of charge for the Fire for Kids later this year. This will allow kids to access selected YouTube content and age-appropriate websites, should be very cool stuff. Your kids will be crazy over the new Fire Kids and so will you. From using the tablet you’ll quickly notice a change in their attitude. Sometimes it seems kids just need some mental stimulation in order to see a distinct improvement in their attitude towards learning and this Fire tablet was just what we needed. It’s got everything he needs and I can add thousands of games, books, learning apps are amazing, he’s got his camera which he just loves (makes his own movies), it’s got plenty of external storage (as much as the big Fires) and it is very tough. It is absolutely worth the cost for this great little tablet. I could not find anything for him that came even close to the price and features. Do your child a favour and get him/her the Fire Kids Edition, you may just see a remarkable change as I have.
