Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsNightmare managing content for kids
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2019
We purchase two Kid Fire 10 tablets for our children to share, ages 4, 7 and 9. It hasn't been the experience I was hoping for. My experience with the tablet is limited to only a few weeks but here is what I have discovered. I am fairly tech savvy so setting up the devices with multiple profiles was a breeze, however setting up the parental controls was riddled with problems.
This review is less about kids Fire 10 tablets from a hardware perspective but from the perspective of the profile platform that allows me to manage the content my kids engage with. As a parent, I want to help my kids navigate this digital age, with so much needless content, it is challenge to sift through it all. The ability to manage content was a compelling reason we purchased the Fire tablet for kids as opposed to other formats. However, the operating platform has a lot of broken features "supposedly in the process of being fixed" but amazon literature still claims as a features, however beware they don't work as advertised! I spent six hours with technical support until they finally conceded that they were aware of the problem and were working to fix it.
First failure:
Learn first: Block entertainment content until all daily educational goals are met, a feature that allows parents to set daily goals that must be met before accessing other activities, such a videos and game apps. Does not work! Even if it did work, the premise is wrong. My children need to access certain websites to complete homework. There no feature to set goals for specific apps or websites, that would allow you effectively manage goals. Currently, you can set education goals by allowing access to content in four categories, Apps, Books, Audible, Videos. However, each of these categories may provide little in terms of education. Even if the feature did work, its premise is wrong!
Second failure:
Shared content, a feature that allows you to share purchased books and apps across family accounts, in particular kid accounts. Does not work!
Third failure:
The interface for browsing content promotes aimless browsing and forces you to rely on amazon to dictate what your interest are. Instead of having a category like "Educational Apps: Math Skills", you get categories like "Movies & TV You Might Like", "Popular Books" and "New Apps & Games". The content is organized like a circuitous shopping experience. You cannot even organize the download content.
The biggest problem I have is that Amazon advertises features that simply don't work. It annoying when companies use their customers to beta test products. I wasted hours... hours of my life trying to get these features setup properly and then... hours on the phone until I wanted to pull all my hair out, only to be told these features currently don't work. What a shame!
Update: 8/2/2019 I am not aware of any software updates.. so all the items above have not been resolved. I would like to add a few design failures to my list.
Fire 10 tablet screen will power on randomly. I have searched for any power settings but nothing, if your don't want to drain the battery you need to turn the kindle off completely. Of course, my kids never power off their tablets so they are continuously experiencing power drain.
Power cords are a major flaw in the design. Both tablets (same model) came with different USB power cords. One cord will only work with one but not the other, so strange.. so if they accidentally charge with the wrong cord it will not charge. I didn't believe it when my kids told me but I tested it and they are right. The cords are required to be properly oriented in order to plug-in, this is always trial and error.. it is the tablets Achilles heal. We have already broken one cord and power USB cable port requires surgical hands in order not to become detached.
