We purchased 2 of these tablets for our children (3 & 6) after having Nabi Dreamtabs and not being very pleased with them. We had been told by numerous friends that the Fire HD kids tablets were a very good buy for them, so we decided to give them a try.
BATTERY: The battery seems to last quite a while. My kids tend to watch shows on their tablet and leave them on and wonder off. Even having something playing non-stop like that, their battery tends to last until the evening, whereas the Dreamtab used to be dead by lunch. It's nice having a charging cord that is considered common as well. Again, I'm only comparing this to the Nabi Dreamtab because that's the only other kid tablet we've owned. The Nabi had a unique cord that I had to special order every time it broke. And believe me, it did often. The placement for the charging port was in the worst location. The kids would set their tablet down on the cord, bending the crap out of it. It would short out/break after a couple months.
O/S: The O/S, referred to as FreeTime, isn't bad. I don't like it as much as I did the Nabi because I had more control with the Nabi, but it's ok. You can sign on to the parent profile and it's just like a normal tablet. There is NO Google Play Store, is this is a Kindle, so they operate on the Amazon Store. However, if you really like the Google Play Store, you are able to put it on the tablet by simply Googling it. You just need to install 4 apk files using an SD card and a file manager program. And you are able to install apps on the child profile using the Google Play Store as well. You just need to buy a cheap program called GoToApp which will allow you to add apps. You install the 4 apk files on the child profile and then you can add the Google Play Store to the child profile. Then it's as simple as installing the apps there and adding them through the GoToApp app. However, the Kindle App Store has about 90% of most applications that the Google Play Store has. However, there are some apps that I was unable to find for my child on the Kindle. Plus, I did notice that certain apps are outdated on the Kindle App Store as compared to the Google Play Store. For instance, Angry Birds Go was a much newer version on the Google Play Store then what it was when I looked for it on the Kindle App Store.
Amazon FreeTime: This is the software designed to monitor what your kids can/can't do on their tablet. It's not bad. Seems to be a little "buggy". So you are able to install apps from the adult profile and then you can add content to the child's profile. This allows you to control what they can access. However, I have installed apps on the adult profile but can't get them to show up in the add content area to add it to my child's profile. If I restarted the tablet, most of the time it would show up, but not 100% of the time. Seems to be a little buggy in that area. The child's profile doesn't have any kind of browser or anything so that's good to really control what your child can/can't do or access. If you want them to have one, you'll have to install an app from the Amazon App Store and add the content to the child's profile. I feel that there is a gray area in this software though. There are 4 tabs in the child profile. Home, Video, Books, & Apps. Your child can access any of those tabs and it will show them a bunch of those specific items that are age appropriate based on the age range you select when you set up your child's profile. All they have to do from that point is simply tap on that app and it will automatically start to download and install it on your child's profile, to which they can play that app on the Home tab. While this isn't necessarily a concern as all the items that I've seen in those tabs were certainly age appropriate, however I feel it gives them a little more free reign on the tablet. With limited space, I'd rather my child not be able to install a bunch of apps and completely fill up the free space on the tablet. That's just my preference though.
All in all, I'd recommend this table to anyone.
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Fire Kids Edition
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All new, but still room for improvement
The Fire HD 8 kids tablet is essentially an HD 8 with the kids cover, FreeTime, and a 2 year warranty. There are a lot of improvements over the previous kids edition tablet such as dual band wifi, higher quality 720p screen, Dolby stereo speakers, double the storage, and increased battery life. FreeTime has a wealth of content, and it includes a kid-safe web browser that will only load sites that are whitelisted by you or Amazon. If you don't want your child using the browser or camera then both can be turned off. You can also restrict access to certain categories, set time limits, and view what your children are watching and reading with the Parent Dashboard. After the first year there is a nominal fee to continue using the service.As far as cons I would like to see all content be available for download and viewed offline since accessible content is limited if you do not have wifi. I also think the interface could use a little polishing as the navigation can be clunky at times. Finally, once you move outdoors the screen could wash out in the sun due to limited brightness. I also think there should be a volume limiter without having to find a functional app. With all of that in mind I'm taking off one star.Tips:- Hold your finger down on an item to see if Download is an option. If so then it can be accessed without wifi for at least 48 hrs before you need to reconnect.- You can view purchased Amazon videos offline when not connected to wifi. Switch to your adult profile and download the video(s). Now go into settings, profiles and family library, select your child profile, add content, videos, and select your videos.- You can sideload Google Play on the adult profile and gain access to even more apps such as YouTube Kids.- You can set FreeTime to only allow entertainment content after daily educational goals have been met.
