Should I buy an Amazon Fire Kids Edition tablet?
If youre looking for the best kids tablets around, its hard to beat Amazons Fire tablets: theyre cheap, theyre cheerful and theyre very capable. In fact theyre so cheap you could buy two for less than youd spend on a single iPad. And the Kids Edition and Kids Pro versions have some important advantages over rival devices, including a free subscription that includes games and ebooks; a kid-friendly case; and peace of mind should the Fire meet an unhappy fate. Like their non-kids siblings, the Fire Kids Edition tablets use a modified version of Android thats exclusive to Amazon. It connects to Amazons own App Store rather than the Google Play Store, and its designed to work closely with Amazons own ecosystem  so the ebooks come from Amazons Kindle library, the educational apps from the Amazon App Store and so on. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, because for the first year your Kids Edition or Kids Pro gives you a free subscription to the Kids+ library of apps, books and games  so you dont need to worry about spending extra on content for your kids to enjoy. The Amazon Fire Kids Edition is a specially adapted version of the standard Fire tablet designed specifically for children. It includes a protective, kid-friendly case, a kid-friendly user interface and a years free subscription to Amazon Kids+ for apps, books and other media. Theres also a no-quibble guarantee: if your little one smashes their tablet within two years, Amazon will replace it for free. There are currently six Fire Kids Edition tablets. They are:  Fire 7 Kids  Fire 7 Kids Pro  Fire HD 8 Kids  Fire HD 8 Kids Pro  Fire HD 10 Kids  Fire HD 10 Kids Pro  The Kids versions are for children aged 3-7 and the Pro versions are for school-aged children. Both versions come with protected cases but the Pro version is more grown-up looking; its interface for older children is less childish too. Until mid-2021 there was sometimes a lag between Amazon updating its mainstream Fire HD tablets and its Kids Editions, so youd often see the Kids versions running older hardware for a while. That seems to have changed, and at the time of writing Amazon has just updated all of its Fire tablets including the Kids Editions. That means the only difference in the hardware is that the Kids Edition comes in a sturdy protective case, the Kids Pro comes in a slightly slimmer case and the normal Fire tablets dont. (Image credit: Amazon)  Yes. The Kids Edition interface only applies to childrens accounts and all Fire tablets support multiple user accounts on the same device. If you log in as the parent or guardian youll get the standard Fire user interface, which is an Amazon-tweaked version of Android. Youll be asked to create a PIN so that other people cant log in as you, in case they wanted to remove parental controls or other restrictions. Amazon expects you to get your apps from the included free year of Kids+, which offers a selection of apps, games, ebooks, audiobooks and video. You can also buy apps on your parent account from the Amazon App Store and then share those apps with specific users, so for example you can buy a game that isnt in the Kids+ selection and then share it with the childrens accounts. Fire tablets dont include the Google Play Store. Amazon groups its Kids+ content into three age groups: 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. It recommends the standard Kids Edition for children aged 3-7 and the more grown-up Kids Pro for school-aged children. (Image credit: Amazon)  Its not as extensive as Google Play or Apples App Store, but its pretty good. The range of content includes key figures such as Harry Potter and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Mr Men and PJ Masks, Spongebob Squarepants and Star Wars animations. As youd expect from Amazon the range of books is particularly strong. Theres a good selection of content from Nick Jr, CBeebies, Lego and Disney, but you might find that older children find the selection of games in particular a bit basic. Theyre very good. For younger children, the Kids Edition operates a walled garden where the only content is pre-screened by Amazon, and if youve vetted other apps you can share them with your family members via your own account. The Amazon Parent Dashboard works across devices and enables you to set limits on screen time, apply age filters (and customize them, for example by letting a child go up an age level) and use a clever feature called Learn First. This puts fun apps off-limits until the educational goals you specify, such as reading for X period of time, have been met. We think so, yes. Provided theyre the same specification as the non-kids versions, what you get for your extra money is worthwhile. The Kids Edition or Kids Pro version of any Fire tablet is typically $50 / 40 / around AU$55 more expensive than the standard Fire its based on. For the extra money you get the protective case and a year of Kids+ plus; a standard Fire with Kids+ and a comparable third party case would cost more. Its worth noting that Amazon constantly discounts its Fire tablets on events such as Prime Day, Black Friday and around other significant calendar events, so its worth keeping an eye on that so you can get your Fire Kids Edition even cheaper.