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Kindle Fire Kids Edition review – the perfect tablet for children?

23rd January 2016 By Gidon 4 Comments

 

Kindle Fire with bumper case. Child's account.
Kindle Fire with bumper case. Child’s account.

I don’t think it’s completely clear from Amazon’s description, that the Kindle Fire Kids Edition is no different to a standard Kindle Fire (at half the price). What you actually get is a bundle, which still represents good value, and includes the following (prices correct at the time of the post):

  • Kindle Fire 7″, without Special Offers (which normally costs £10 to remove). Total value: £59.99
  • Blue or Pink kid-proof case, that you fit around the Kindle Fire. Value: £19.99
  • Fire for Kids Unlimited provides a child-friendly user account with free content. Value: up to £7.99 per month (4 children with no Prime membership)
  • 2 years of accidental cover. Not available separately.

If bought separately, this would add up to a hefty £176 if you have no Prime membership, and 4 children. And that doesn’t include the accidental damage also included.

Kindle Fire 7″ (2015 version)

Adult user account
Adult user account

The tablet runs Amazon’s own flavour of Android called Fire OS, with its own Amazon App Store (no Google Play Store). But if you’re familiar with an Android tablet, the interface will feel very familiar.

The screen is not quite HD, with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, but is clear and text looks sharp. Inside, the Kindle Fire uses a quad-core processor, but performance is not its strong point. Before being loaded up with user accounts, apps and games it’s runs fairly smoothly. But with 6 user accounts for our family, and stacked full of books, videos and games, there’s often a significant lag moving between applications, or changing user accounts. And sometimes the device will lock completely, with a reboot the only option.

But it’s not as bad as it sounds. The tablet plays most of the games my children enjoy and even manages Real Racing quite smoothly, which is a demanding game.

The tablet has a microSD lot to expand its storage, which is a good thing since it only comes with 8GB of internal storage. Frustratingly, even if you choose to install everything to external storage (we have a 32GB microSD card installed), it still uses up much of its internal storage. So the tablet needs regular housekeeping to avoid warning messages regarding the internal storage running low.

Child specific features

Child accounts
Child accounts

The tablet comes with a spongy, chunky protective case (see photo at top of post), which does a good job of protecting the tablet from drops. There’s no screen protection, but the only way to break the screen would be to drop it screen first, directly onto the corner of a table for instance, since the case forms a significant protective lip around the front. The case also makes the tablet very grippy, perfect for little hands.

You can easily setup up to 4 child accounts, which all have access to Fire for Kids Unlimited. You can also create two adult accounts, which you can use to setup restrictions for the child accounts. But you can also login to the adult accounts to use the Kindle as a normal tablet.

You can control all aspects of each child account individually: how much time they’re allowed on for; at what time of day and whether to allow (very limited) web browser access. You can even set goals: for example the child can play games after they’ve read for 15 minutes for instance.

Parental controls
Parental controls

Their Kids Unlimited subscription allows them to browse and install whatever they come across, through a child friendly interface. The content is somewhat limited, but some popular books like the Guinness Book of Records and the entire Harry Potter collection are available. There also decent video content, although more CBeebies, than CBBC I’d say. Most of the games are not blockbusters, and most my children hadn’t heard of. But there are some decent games, and there are no in-ad purchases or annoying pop ups.

It's possible to add additional apps from the adult account
It’s possible to add additional apps from the adult account

A nice feature is that you can download and install anything you like from the adult account and enable them on the child accounts. And the Kindle Fire has a line of apps called Amazon Underground which are entirely free (Amazon label them Actually Free), with no in-ad purchases. Games such as Jetpack Joyride, Angry Birds and Goat Simulator can be downloaded and added to the children accounts very easily.

Strangely, you can’t access music from the children accounts. Either free music from a Prime account, or music you’ve transferred to the tablet. Hopefully this is something they’ll include with a future update.

Conclusions

The overall package is hard to beat. I would like a faster tablet, with a higher resolution screen, but my children (aged 6 to 11) really don’t care about this.

If you’ve after a tablet for your children, with easy to configure parental controls, the Fire Kids Edition is worth considering. Especially if you’ll have more than once child using it.

Pros

  • Good value. Nothing comes close from a big name
  • Multiple child user accounts easy to setup and configure
  • Parental controls very straightforward and flexible
  • Kids Unlimited content
  • Amazon Underground, completely free apps
  • Expandable storage via microSD

Cons

  • Limited internal storage. Even with a large microSD card, the internal storage fills up and requires housekeeping
  • Only average performance. With 6 user accounts occasional lock ups which require a restart to clear
  • Additional storage not always recognised after first powering up the tablet
  • Some popular apps and games not available through the Amazon App store (eg Clash of Clans)

If you have found this article useful please consider clicking on the link(s) below.  You pay the exact same price and it’ll enable me to keep these articles coming!

Any questions, please ask away in the comments section below.

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Filed Under: Product Reviews

Comments

  1. Chris says

    16th February 2016 at 10:34 am

    Just found this review when researching ways around the irritating way the child account works (we have normal Kindle Fires rather than the kids edition, but I understand it works exactly the same). To be honest I think I’m going to completely ditch the child account bit – I’ve found a way around the really stupid lack of access to music by installing a 3rd party app, but now my kids want to play games on the CBBC website and I find that the child account won’t even let me add that as an approved website, so I’ve given them access to the main account to let them use that. The child account thing is a nice idea but in practice it’s just too limited and doesn’t work properly – I find myself adding hacks to try and make it work the way it should which just defeats the purpose.

    BTW I’ve installed Clash of Clans, by sideloading Google Playstore (surprisingly straightforward, but still only for the tech savvy), but I can’t get that to work on the child account either!

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    • Chris says

      16th February 2016 at 10:40 am

      …oh I forgot to mention, I also haven’t yet found a way to add books I’ve uploaded to the child account – it seems you can only add books purchased from Amazon. I’ve been reading library books on my Kindle, but it seems Amazon won’t let me do that for my kids, presumably because they want me to spend money.

      I’m not suggesting the device is rubbish – when it works it works well, but the whole child account thing is so poorly thought through it spoils the experience.

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      • Gidon says

        20th February 2016 at 10:24 am

        Thanks for your comment. There are some frustrating issues with child accounts, but overall there isn’t much competition at this price point, and child accounts are so easy to setup and configure compared to other devices. This simplicity does come a few omissions that hopefully will be resolved in future updates.

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  2. SHANE GRAY says

    27th December 2017 at 1:05 am

    Have you found a way to close applications running in the background in kids mode? The square is missing so after a few hours the performance slows down due to the number of applications. All I’ve found is to switch profiles or reboot.

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Gidon’s obsession with technology began at an early age with a BBC B Micro computer. After working for 12 years at British Telecom travelling around the world as a technology researcher he opened a technology retail store in Tavistock in Devon, selling the latest tech and offering IT services to residential and business customers. Read More…

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