Do Kids Even Need Tablets?
Kids want tablets. My daughter has had one since she was pretty small. First, it was just a music player helping to lull her to sleep at night. Then it was the indispensable movie theater for long plane and train rides. Now it's primarily a vehicle for Marvel Unlimited, the infinite comics app.
But tablets are fragile, expensive gadgets with potentially unlimited access to the internet, both issues that I've tried to stay away from in my parenting. A good kid tablet is different from a good adult tablet: While you want a grown-up tablet to be slim, light, and fast, you want a tablet for kids to be cheap, rugged, and protected.
Our picks here some of our favorite tablets for children, chosen for a balance of affordability, durability, and kid-friendly features. Here's a quick walkthrough of how to decide which is best for you and your child. And whatever tablet you get, buy a case. With kids, it'll pay for itself.
The Best Tablets For School
The best tablet for school is probably a base model iPad. The iPad's dominant role in the tablet landscape means it's supported by most schools, many teachers will have them, and it will be easy to get tech support. Other tablets may not be able to run the third-party apps that schools demand, or even fill out the right web forms. The worst offenders here are Amazon's Fire tablets, which are inexpensive and popular, but aren't designed for productivity.
If an iPad won't do for your school, you're probably going to have to go to a Chromebook, not a tablet.
Specs Still Matter
Just because you're giving this tablet to a kid, doesn't mean you should give them a piece of junk. Hardware specs are important. Let's start with screen size and resolution. An 8-inch, 1,280-by-800 display is good for reading comics and watching videos, so use that as your baseline.
Also pay close attention to storage specs. We recommend 16GB of storage rather than 8GB. This will let you install more apps and take more pictures and video. A microSD card slot can't hurt either, especially if you want to download movies to watch on long trips.
Look for 1.5GB of RAM or more. This will help apps launch and run more smoothly, particularly if there's anything else running in the background. Battery life is another factor to keep in mind—you don't want the tablet to die in the middle of a long car ride. Carrying a backup battery can help.
iPads for Kids
The most recent iPads have really come down in price and are a tremendous value for what you pay. An iPad will always have the best tablet apps, will grow with your kid, and can double as a pseudo-laptop for schoolwork. Apple's operating system has tools to let you monitor your kids' tablet use and keep an eye on what applications they're using and for how long. Apple also has parental controls that can filter content and prevent purchases, and you should use them to prevent your kids from spending money without your permission.
The iPad has by far the best ecosystem of accessories for productive and creative kids of any individual tablet model: cases, keyboards, and the Apple Pencil stylus. It's versatile and extensible.
So if you have about $350 available—$309 for the tablet at Apple's Education Store, plus a nice big, rubbery case—an iPad is the most sensible buy right now by far. The rest of this roundup is, primarily, for people either with very small children, people who are entirely in the Android ecosystem, or people who don't want to spend $300 or more on an iPad.
Set Your Kids on Fire
Amazon's inexpensive Fire lineup is our top low-cost choice. The tablets are inexpensive and have a Kids Edition that comes with a rubber case and a no-questions-asked two-year guarantee. The 8-inch Kids model (based on the standard Fire HD 8 above) costs $139.99 right now, which is worth the increase in price over the regular model if you think there's a possibility for breakage.
Amazon's tablets have a simplified interface, strong parental controls, and FreeTime Unlimited, which is basically a giant bucket of content for kids. A "parent dashboard" lets you keep track of what your children are doing and restrict their screen time. You can put multiple user profiles on the tablets as well.
Falling Back on Android
My family doesn't have an iPad or a Fire at home, we have an Android tablet. Here's why.
Our family is all-in with Google services; we communicate through Hangouts and my daughter has a G Suite email account that I supervise. If you primarily use Google cloud services and Android apps, an Android tablet can get you what you need for a little less money than an iPad, and it's not locked down to Amazon services the way a Fire tablet is.
In terms of parental controls, Android has restricted user profiles that can also prevent accidental purchases and filter Google Play apps. But if you intend to let your kids use one of these tablets out of your sight, you should really consider installing some parental control software.
Toy Tablets
Companies like Fuhu, Kurio, and Leapfrog have made their names with highly restricted tablets that come preloaded with kid-friendly software and, by default, don't offer access to the open internet. By and large, though, these tablets haven't been updated for years and are running old, insecure versions of Android that we no longer recommend, so do your research before buying.