As children grow, their interest in electronics grows with them. When you feel they’re ready, you might give them a tablet (if nothing else to keep their grubby hands off yours). Here are some of the best tablets for kids.
What Makes a Good Kid’s Tablet?
You could just grab any old tablet and hand it to your kid, but that doesn’t make it a good tablet for them. Some of what you want in a tablet will depend on their age. You can trust a twelve-year-old not to drop an expensive device more than you can your six-year-old, for instance. But even that varies to degrees; you might buy the six-year-old a giant case with a large handle while giving the twelve-year-old a more moderate case.
Either way, you’re still putting a case on the device because let’s be honest, you probably put a case on your tablet, too.
With that in mind, here are a few things to look for when picking a tablet for your child:
- Durability: Expect your child’s tablet to get dropped, probably more than once. So it’s best if the tablet is durable and able to survive a fall. Failing that, double-check that you have plenty of case options to protect the tablet. Of course, both the ability to survive a drop and in a case is better.
- Well-stocked app stores: A tablet doesn’t do much without apps, but unfortunately, some Android tablets don’t come with the Play Store. Sometimes they’ll have a third-party store instead filled with questionable apps and terrible ads.
- Parental controls: Of course, with apps and browsers comes the access to content you might not want your children to have. Not to mention paid games, in-app purchases, and the temptation to stay up until 3 a.m. trying to beat one more level. Parental controls go a long way to keeping your children safe and curtailing overuse.
All our picks meet those requirements, though you may need to get a case for the device to meet particular durability standards.
Best Overall: Apple iPad (Probably Yours!)
Without a doubt, Apple makes some of the best tablets you can buy. And more recent versions have dropped from fairly inexpensive to downright affordable.
And no matter what age your children are, they can learn to use iPadOS without much effort. If they’ve mastered pushing a button, they’re probably ready for the iPad’s software.
With an iPad, you get access to plenty of tablet apps, parental controls, and more cases than you can count. That sheer amount of choice in device protection covers everything from small children to older teenagers.
And iPads include a feature no other tablet can match, a giant swath of third-party education accessories and apps. That includes toys that teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) concepts, iPad-compatible coding kits, or free education courses. While you’ll find them on other platforms now, excellent learning apps like Endless Alphabet and Skybrary (formerly Reading Rainbow) often come to the iPad first and Android later (if at all).
