Steve

Kids have a need now more than ever. They need to get busy so their parents can relax. But when the question of what the best tablet could be out there for a kid, many brand names come up into the mind. From Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 to Amazon Fire 7, there are several options to choose from.

Basically, what are the major points to look out for when you want to purchase a tablet for your kid? Have you thought about what could appeal to them? What about features or specs? How do you know what’s best for a child in this regard?

These and some other questions will be answered in this write-up. Suggestions are included regarding actual brands you should look out for, and reasons for why the tablets are recommended.

At what age should my kid start using a tablet?

In today’s world, some children have access to tablets as early as the age of eight. Sometimes, the gadget is not really theirs. But when parents are not looking, a child of eight or younger could pick up a tab and start playing games.

That is different from the period in which parents decide that ‘junior’ can now have a tablet dedicated to him, something he sees as his and his alone. Some experts recommend that it is not good for a child to own a tablet until the age of 11 years in an unsupervised environment. Apart from age, much supervision is still recommended as regards screen time and content. Children should be supervised at all times if possible as this is one way to keep them out of trouble.

A new dimension of learning

A tablet can offer school-age children an additional learning layer that goes even beyond the old-fashioned classroom or book. They get to have multiple opportunities to access content and engage with the curriculum, and a child may get connected beyond the walls of his classroom. He can have access to many real-world experts solving real-world problems in real-time.

Why buy Kids’ tablets?

It used to be a debate just how much beneficial it is for our children to possess electronic gadgets. But with the COVID-19 experience, kids’ tablets fast became the healthy balance between giving children the right access to education and tech refusing a child of 13 a tablet today would make a parent appear to be from the dark ages.

How to choose the right tablet for your kid

Kids’ tablets come equipped with facilities that parents can use to supervise their children. These facilities include parent accounts, timers, pre-selected websites or apps that fall under the right scope for the child so that they won’t be exposed to dangerous content. However, there is a different dimension to this, like an iPad, for example is seen as one of the best tablets for kids even though it is meant to be suitable for everyone.

The good thing about the kid-centric tablets is that they give a mom or a dad more control and supervision than a general iPad would. Apple App Store and Google Play Store have settings to filter content or prevent purchases. For iPads or other general Android devices, play-by-play supervision can be better achieved through a legit parental control app.

Take note of the things to keep in mind when purchasing a tablet for your kid:

Screen resolution: you would love to decide whether to buy a tablet with HD or FHD display. That may also depend on the number of movies they will watch or games they will play on the device. Experts discourage 4K viewing no matter what.
Parental controls: don’t stress yourself over what they can stumble into as they use their new device. Put all the parental controls as possible, so you don’t have to be bothered by what they’re watching when you’re not with them. From time to time, you could review the control and see if they actually reflect want you to prefer according to their ages.
Storage: make sure the device you pick for them has enough room to accommodate what they will need to play and work on educational projects. In some cases, these kids need more apps than adults do, which means they need more space for downloads. All of these will have to be considered before buying the right tablet for a kid.
It must be rugged: yes, it is one thing that’s more important than any of the above points. You don’t want to consider all the ideas above only to find that the device is no longer usable after just a week after it was bought.

What are the best tablets for kids in 2021?

This is the one million dollar question. But because needs and family traditions are different, we will not actually pick one device over another. Let’s take a look at the five kids’ tablets below, and see how you can make the right decision as to which one you should buy for your kid.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet

This one is popular as the best 2-in-1 Chromebook. Its display resolution is 1920 x 1200, while the battery life is up to 13 hours. The storage is 128 GB. If you buy from Amazon, it sells for $269.

However, it is good for you to note that this is a thin and light design, so the kid won’t find it heavy at all. There’s so much for your kid to enjoy from Google Play Store. What about durability? Maybe it is not so rugged as many will prefer it; it sure holds some prestige in this case.

Fire HD 10 Kids Pro

Intel will reportedly pay VIA $125 million for some unspecified assets related to Centaur Technology. It’s been implied that the payment may be for the right to recruit Centaur Technology engineers to join Intel. Details are murky at best right now.

Intel and AMD dominate the headlines today and have for many years, but there was a third x86 player, once upon a time. While VIA and its subsidiary, Centaur, never held more than a single-digit share of the overall CPU market, there was a time when the company’s small, power-efficient cores commanded market share in the ultra-efficient, ultra-silent PC market.

The company’s closest recent brush with consumer relevance came in the late aughts, when its Via Nano platform briefly looked like it might be an Atom competitor. Ultimately, the Nano didn’t win the market share it needed to be successful in the long term, and Via generally faded out of the consumer market. The company has continued to make x86 chips and to iterate on its designs, but it pivoted to serving a mostly industrial and commercial client base.

The odd thing about this announcement is its lack of specificity. As Anandtech notes, there are no particular details on what Intel has bought. The implication of the announcement is that Intel paid for the right to recruit the Centaur engineering team. That seems an odd thing to purchase, but Intel has no official comment on the topic and neither does Via.

One report from THG suggests that Intel has paid for the Austin engineering team but not its intellectual property or brands.

“Intel will recruit some of Centaur’s employees to join Intel with certain covenants from the Company for Intel’s recruitment,” a statement by Via Technologies with TWSE reads, according to Tom’s Hardware. “As consideration, Intel will pay Centaur $125 million. […] Closing of the transaction is contingent on certain conditions in the agreement to be satisfied. Payment will be made in full upon closing.”

Intel has been aggressively recruiting from around the industry and building up its teams as it tackles its own rejuvenation and plans to bring new facilities online. Recent launches like Alder Lake we’re already well in the pipeline before Pat Gelsinger came aboard earlier this year, but Intel’s aggressive capacity expansion plans are very much his work.

VIA will reportedly retain the right to build and manufacture future x86 CPUs, but the Centaur website is down as of this writing. If Via is still in the x86 business it evidently doesn’t feel it needs a consumer-facing portal any longer. It is not clear if this deal will have any impact on the company’s Zhaoxin joint development venture.

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