Every year the top 10 lists come out and we get to see what
Image via Wikipedia
the most wanted toys are for all the little kiddies at large.
This year is no exception.
What’s leading the way this year… tablets for toddlers.
I’m sure the ipad is on the kids lists to
(I barely get to use my own), but with the starting price tag
of an ipad these days, the more affordable choice is the
ipads tablet cousins.
Good News About iPad Cousins
Toy makers have taken note as well, and this year several companies—Fisher-Price, LeapFrog, and Vtech—have come out with tablet-like toys that feature at least some of the capabilities of real tablets, albeit in less sophisticated, less expensive form. They’re each built of hard plastic that feels as though it’ll take a fair amount of abuse. You’ll find such features as touch screens, music players, cameras and video recorders, and photo-editing apps.
The good news about the tablets for kids? Most of them are at a better price point (except one).
The conclusion after testing
In our lab, we tested the display quality, battery life, and ease of use of the touch-screen interface for each device. We also did kid testing: Staff volunteers with children within the age ranges that are recommended by the manufacturers were sent home with a set of tablets to use for three or four days.
The screens (except for the Vinci’s) are not very sensitive, which could frustrate or confound children who are used to touch-screen ease on their parents’ devices.
Also, the length of time it takes for apps to launch and other activities to start could be something kids are not used to.
One parent of a 6-year-old child tester commented, “Kids her age may have a hard time waiting for the slow prompts.” And during our video shoot, we noticed the kids pounding on screens several times; it’s a good thing these devices are tough!
The child tablets have fewer features than standard tablets, but their learning apps and child-friendly content make them ideal for children. Children can have fun with the toy tablets, particularly the Leap Pad. But they may still clamor to play with your responsive, feature-rich tablets and smart phones.
Fisher Price iXL Learning System
Our child-testing results seemed to indicate that the Fisher Price iXL was more popular with children at the younger end of the recommended age spectrum, 3 to 7.
Kids also found using their fingers (instead of a stylus) on the touch screen to be more difficult on the iXL than on the other tablets.
Additionally, it stood out amongst the rest for it’s long battery life.
Cost: around $80 – you can check them out here
Leap Frog Leap Pad (LeapFrog LeapPad)
Image by blogeee.net via Flickr
The kids tablet stood out from the rest rating the “Most fun overall”.
For our child testers, the Leap Pad was the easiest tablet to use and also the most fun. Eighty percent of our young testers said they would like to own it.
Not a lot of content is preloaded on the Leap Pad. You start with Pet Pad (described below), Story Studio, and Art Studio. You can buy additional apps, books, and games. Cartridges run from $20 to $25, and downloadable apps are $5 and up.
As for its learning component, the LeapPad adjusts the learning level (that is, the difficulty) depending on how well your child does when playing. It also remembers the child’s progress from game to game, and lets parents customize math skills and spelling lists in games.
Shopper Alert: The $100 Leap Pad Explorer is selling like hotcakes. Because of this demand there are places that are charging upwards of $200 for this kids tablet.
Cost: around $100 – you can check them out here
Vinci Tab (Vinci Tab VH-2001)
In lab testing, we found that the Vinci TabVH-2001 has the best display and touch screen interface of our child tablets—but it costs more than some standard, non-kid tablets,
vinci tab vh-2001
without offering as many features.
The Vinci Tab is a different animal than the other child tablets in our roundup. It’s the most like an “adult” tablet: It runs on the Android operating system, has 8GB of storage, features a 3-megapixel camera, and has a multitouch capacitative touch screen, which is more responsive than the resistive touch screens of the other kid tablets. It’s also the most expensive, by far.
Cost: around $480 – you can check it out here
Vtech Tablet (vtech inno tab)
Rated as the best kids tablet for games.
The Vtech InnoTab Interactive Learning Tablet fared better overall in lab testing than the Fisher Price iXL 6-in-1 Learning System and the Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet. And our child testers thought its games were the most fun.
Vtech inno tab
It’s the only child tablet with an accelerometer (which lets the screen respond when you tilt the device), which may have something to do with that result. But the InnoTab was edged out by the LeapPad as being the most fun overall by the kids.
The InnoTab comes preloaded with a good variety of activities and content: an e-reader with one book, two games, a music player, a photo viewer (but no camera), an art studio, digital coloring book, and a calculator, notepad, clock, and calendar.
Cost: around $80 – you can check it out here
The Round Up
Overall kids loved these tablets, in some cases even better than an ipad. The real choice you’re going to have to make is do you want your child to have access to your ipad or would you rather have something more age appropriate for them to use?
What do you think? Should toddlers have access to your ipad or should parents go for the more age appropriate models? Let us know in the comments below.