Amazon fire 7 children version (2017) review – CNET

Spoiler alert: if you can manage to pay for it, skip the Amazon fireplace 7 children edition, and get the Amazon fireplace HD 8 kids edition as an alternative. or not it’s bigger, sooner and more advantageous all around, and neatly worth the added $ 30 or £30. For what it’s value, the identical tips applies to the “grownup” versions of the hearth 7 ($ 49.99 at Amazon.com) and fire HD 8, too — the hardware and value differentials are identical.

want a greater special appraisal? ok, let’s returned up just a little. 

The Amazon fireplace 7, in both its common edition or the kids version reviewed right here, is certain to be tempting in response to cost by myself. For between $ 50 to $ a hundred (and as low as $ 35 when on sale, which it frequently is) or £50 to £100 within the UK (you can not get it in Australia), you get a fundamental slate-fashion pill that can play videos from distinct features (together with Amazon major), study Kindle ebooks, tackle your websurfing and social media projects and even play some video games.

The fire 7 does a decent job at most of these projects. however when you add within the top class required for the kids edition, which contains a padded case, two-year assurance and a one-year subscription to FreeTime unlimited (a Netflix-like subscription provider with child-applicable ebooks, video clips and video games), the improved eight-inch hearth HD 8 starts to appear to be a better choice. evaluating both, the modifications include reveal measurement and backbone, audio satisfactory, onboard storage and RAM, with the fireplace 7 inferior in every case.

Navigation and menus on the fire 7 suppose slow compared to the fireplace HD eight, and apps load much less instantly. Some apps stutter, despite the fact video playback and even most video games labored neatly after they’d a chance to delivery up. but children might also get annoyed waiting even just a few added seconds (i know I did). With extra RAM, a higher reveal and different advancements, spending about $ 30 extra on the superior eight-inch version seems like a wise guess. sure, the hearth 7 is decent for a mud-low-cost pill, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a mud-low priced pill. 

much of our evaluation of the very similar fireplace HD 8 children edition is applicable right here, chiefly when it comes to the fire children edition application and parental manage features. For a deeper dive into the non-kid models, read the our previous reviews of the fireplace HD eight’s hardware and performance, as well as the more constrained fireplace 7.

A numbers video game

The present Amazon fire line, ultimate updated in 2017, comes in 7-inch, 8-inch and 10-inch types, with on-sale expenditures losing as little as $ 35 for the (very) simple fire 7. or not it’s the pill as impulse buy, backed through the hope that you’ll be able to buy content — books, movies and apps — from Amazon and create a routine earnings circulation for the e-commerce giant.

anyway the regular fashions, there are additionally particular youngsters edition models of the hearth 7 and hearth HD eight. These youngster-friendly fashions are physically similar to the commonplace types, and the difference comes from covered add-ons, software and support. in the beginning glance, it looks loopy to pay an extra $ 50 for a pill that always costs $ 50/$ 80 (for the hearth 7/fireplace HD 8), but the math in reality makes extra feel than you could think.

With the kids edition ($ a hundred for the 7-inch, $ a hundred thirty for the eight-inch), you get a rubberized bumper case (I’ve had an identical one on my son’s hand-me-down iPad 2 for years), which Amazon sells one after the other for $ 30, a two-yr “no questions asked” substitute guarantee, double the storage of the base model (8GB to 16GB within the 7-inch, 16GB to 32GB in the 8-inch), and a one-12 months subscription to FreeTime unlimited. After 12 months, the carrier costs $ 2.99 a month for Amazon top contributors ($ four.99 for non-members), which is about $ 35 per yr. that all provides up to well more than the $ 50 top rate for the kids edition over the common tablet.

keep in mind additionally that Amazon constantly puts these contraptions on sale. The fireplace 7/fireplace 7 kids version can from time to time be as low as $ 35/$ seventy five and the fire HD 8/hearth HD 8 children edition may also be discovered for $ 55/$ 95 all through Amazon earnings. This chart lays out the primary price transformations between the fashions.

Amazon fireplace costs

	hearth 7 (8GB)	fire 7 children version (16GB)	fireplace HD eight (16GB)	fire HD 8 kids version (32GB)	fireplace HD 10 (32GB)
US	$ 50	$ one hundred	$ 80	$ 130	$ a hundred and fifty
US sale rate (offered periodically)	$ 35	$ seventy five	$ 55	$ 95	$ one hundred ten
UK	£50	£100	£eighty	£one hundred thirty	£one hundred fifty

The hidden charms of FreeTime

Of the extras protected in the children version of the fireplace pills, the subscription to FreeTime unlimited may also seem the least useful, specially when compared to the padded case, additional storage and no-trouble replacement plan. or not it’s actually Amazon’s secret weapon, and having used the provider significantly over the past couple of weeks, it’s essentially criminally low-profile for the cost and flexibility it offers.

i might previous heard concerning the provider, which combines the in fact free FreeTime points, together with exact scheduling and utilization tools for fogeys to restrict how and when youngsters use their pill, with the subscription limitless half, which acts as an all-you-can-eat buffet of ebooks, apps and videos.

a toddler (or infants, as that you may installation distinctive profiles at an additional cost) receives a custom interface, a whole lot different from the regular Android-like fireplace interface. FreeTime has a blue heritage and a handful of large category icons. it be additionally panorama-best, however some apps and ebooks work in portrait mode whereas they’re being used.

As is often the case with content material browsing, precise discovery can also be hit and miss. there isn’t a clear master listing of what specific content material is blanketed, or a real knowing of what highlights the app chooses to floor. That talked about, the offers are so vast and a good deal of it’s of high pleasant, that youngsters will have fun with simply making an attempt random new issues.

My 6-yr-historical son has been the usage of FreeTime unlimited on his lately bought hearth HD eight for a few weeks now, and is a huge fan, notably of the idea that he can opt for and download his personal games without getting me or his mother to sign off on every individual one.

When establishing FreeTime, you select the age latitude of media you want displayed, and that alterations the stage of books, videos and apps. I set dash’s latitude at as much as eight years historical, just to make sure he changed into challenged by way of new issues.

The video looks to be from Amazon best, so that you’re now not getting anything else new there, but the ebooks and apps add great price. Books are pretty smartly-formatted for the screen. Some work on both landscape or portrait mode, however others are limited to at least one view or the different. there’s no pinch-to-zoom to examine textual content, which may get small, but double-tapping on text pops it up in a bigger bubble. examine one blurb, then swipe left with one finger to instantly improve the textual content. I can not say it’s going to inspire self-directed reading for every child, nonetheless it worked on the one i know, mostly as a result of he might choose what to download by way of himself.

The apps are in the main video games. Many are of the free or freemium variety (and no, youngsters can’t make further purchases on their own), however a good quantity are basically extraordinarily premium. i was pleasantly shocked to locate a huge library of apps from Toca Boca, publisher of Toca existence, Toca Lab and other youngster-friendly apps. dash is a large fan of these, and that i’ve up to now purchased a number of for round $ 3 each and every. One down load like this per month covers the charge of the whole FreeTime limitless provider once the included one-year subscription expires.

stepping into personality

One interesting method to seek content material is thru a appropriate menu icon labeled “characters.” There, children can scroll through icons that run from universal, like Dinosaurs, to very certain manufacturers, like Lego, Sesame highway, wonder and big name Wars. Clicking on any of these brings up a listing of all obtainable ebooks, movies and apps from that category, and tapping on every particular person item downloads or streams it.

it be a superb way to find content, besides the fact that children some brands have handiest apps and video clips, however no books, or most effective books and videos, but no apps, etc. Many, despite the fact, have all three, and dash now has an instant Phineas and Ferb publication assortment.

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