Fire HD 10 kids tablet and Amazon Kids+ review

23Jun

Fire HD 10 kids tablet and Amazon Kids+ review

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If we like it or not, technology is a huge part of life. We use the internet for nearly everything. We buy food, order takeaways, share our lives on social media, do our work and our kids…they use tablets as early as primary school. This is why, after Munchkin was doing so well at potty training, we bought him a Kindle Fire HD 10 Kids tablet, and here is my review.

Table of Contents

Initial ‘out of the box’ feelings

As soon as you remove the Fire 10 kids from the box you can see its safe for kids. The standard tablet design is enclosed in thick rubber case with integrated kickstand/carry handle which comes in three colours. It looks unbreakable and may be hard to damage. But for peace of mind, as we know what children are like, purchase also includes a 2 year guarantee for any breaks or screen smashes caused by an angry raging toddler/small human.

It has oodles of space for all those many apps they download each day at 32 gb and comes with 1 year of Amazon Kids + supplying many many books, games, videos, songs and apps. It has a bright display, long battery life, reasonable sound quality, albeit slow charging time.

Set up and Safety

The Amazon Fire 10 HD Kids links directly to a parents account which you use to set up the device. This means as a parent, you have full control. You can access the device remotely from the Amazon Parent Dashboard to see statistics and control the device.

At 3 years old, we only use the tablet with Munchkin, so are able to see and control what he sees but in the future when he plays alone, we will easily be able to remotely see what he accesses and how how long.

Furthermore, the dashboard has controls. You can see daily time limits in terms of shutoff time and total duration of use. You can control content, the web browser, turn music on and off, Prime video access and the age filter and theme. You can even set educational goals and even set ‘learn first’ where your child has to meet educational goals before using any games or entertainment.

Age filter and theme

The age filter and theme allows the tablet to restrict all content. It allows you to set a minimum age to maximum age range which Amazon then changes all the books, apps, games etc to fit within. This allows us, as parents, to slowly nudge the range up, as they grow up, to limit things that are too simple, and push things to challenge their little minds.

The theme simply changes the tablet either to a version aimed at older children who can read to one for younger kids who can’t yet read. That uses images rather than text.

What can they learn on a Fire HD 10 Kids?

From my own experience, I have always let Munchkin chose what to download and play with from the Kids+ library. Though so far, though the various games he’s chosen I have seen evidence of shape sorting, colour sorting, letter and number formation, counting, the alphabet, care for animals and where they live, how crops are grown and more. It’s a great learning tool.

When the Kids are asleep…

The Fire HD 10 Kids is essentially just a regular fire tablet with the kids software bits added on. So when the kids are in bed and you need to play Spotify or browse the internet in the evening and can’t find your phone? Swipe down, hit the account icon, enter your password and boom its just a normal Fire. Just make sure you charge it ready for your little one the next day, oh and prepare for long load times on websites.

Fire 10 vs Fire 8 or 7? It comes down to size, speed and storage.

The Fire HD 10 Kids retails at £199, the 8 at at £139.99 and the 7 at £99 so why opt for the 10?

Firstly, the number stands for the screen size. For the 7 its 7″ and standard definition, 8 takes you to 8″ and HD and 10 takes you to 1080p on a 10.1″ screen. The storage, RAM and CPU jump up too with size, from 16 GB storage with 2 GB RAM and quad core processor on the 7, up to 32 GB storage, 3GB RAM and Octo-core processor for the 10. Put simply, its size, speed and storage.

What Munchkin thinks…

I asked my three year old little poppet Munchkin what thinks of it…(with some help)

It’s fun, good and I like it 😁
Munchkin age 3

Looking to entertain a child away from a screen? Check out our Mutable multi-activity table review ➡️

Amazon Kids +

Amazon Kids+ is the subscription you get a year included, which then continues from £1.99 per month. It gives kids access to tons of age appropriate books, films, educational apps, audio books, and games. It seems to have everything. I found one of our favourite books and tons of great educational and fun games and apps. Its got Thomas, Numberblocks and Alphablocks, Ceebeebies and many many more. Munchkin has everything he wants.

It’s preinstalled on the Fire HD 10 Kids but compatible with Android, iOS, Kindle and Fire tablets. Everything is controlled by the parent dashboard, so you can limit every aspect.

You can get a free trial here and take it for a spin.

Environmental considerations.

For the environment conscious parent like me its good to know this:

The technical gubbins

CPU: 2.0GHz octa-core CPU
RAM: 3GB
Display: 10.1-inch, 1,920 x 1,200 pixels
Storage: 32GB
Ports: 1x USB-C, headphone jack, microSD
Battery life: 14:32
Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.5 x 0.4 inches
Weight: 1.02 pounds without case; 2 pounds with case