Kindle Fire HD

© 2012 Disney Story Realms
$140, Android
Teaches: A modified Android tablet
CTR Rating: 94%
Editor's Choice

CTR Review

Update Nov. 2014. See Fire HD Kids Edition. Update 2013. This year's Kindle Fire HD now has a big brother, the retinal display Kindle Fire HDX ($230). This year's HD model has a slightly faster processor and a slightly lower price. Details here: amzn.to/197JmGK. From 2012 with some spec updates: Powerful, affordable and able to run tens of thousands of apps, Amazon's Kindle Fire HD is a viable children's tablet, especially considering it falls into the same price range. Features include parental controls, a front facing camera, a clear, responsive 1280x800 HD display, quality stereo sound, Wi-Fi, a 1.5 Ghz processor and integrated support for services like Skype, Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail. Amazon has also just announced Kindle FreeTime - a "personalized tablet experience" designed to provide ad-free, in-app-sales free access to better quality content." The subscription-based version of this service, called “Kindle FreeTime Unlimited,” is available on the all-new Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9. It bundles books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows into one simple, unlimited, easy-to-use service for kids ages 3-8. The cost is $5/month per child or $10/month per family (subtract about $2/month if you're already an Amazon Prime subscriber). The service will give children a large, safe, pool of quality pre-screened apps, books and videos to browse. With individual profiles, everything in their library is theirs—no sharing a home screen with siblings or parents and no losing their place in a movie or TV show when someone else picks up the Kindle Fire. Amazon promises that all apps have in-app payments, advertisements and social media removed. The service uses an "all you can eat" model. Kindle FreeTime Unlimited is an optional extension to Kindle FreeTime, a free feature on the new Kindle Fire family. So the Kindle Fire already gives you parental controls with tools like Time Limits. FreeTime Unlimited gives you more, and means you need to sign up for a subscription. The service will be delivered in the coming weeks as part of a system update. Details at www.amazon.com/freetimeunlimited.