How to Choose the Right Tablet for Your Kid

We’d say that if you really want to buy your child a tablet, the ideal age would be about 8 – 15 years. This is mainly because, by then, most children have a basic sense of responsibility and can handle technology better. Of course, this is very subjective, and you would be the best judge of whether or not your child really is ready for a tablet.

Probably the first thing you would notice about a tablet is that it is significantly larger than a regular smartphone. A large screen would mean more room for games and apps to play on. It also means lesser strain on the eyes. You might, however, want to make sure that you don’t go overboard with the screen size. You don’t want a smartphone, but then again, you don’t want a small LED TV on your hands either. 7 – 10 inches is about the perfect size for a tablet, making it just right to hold with ample screen real estate. Weight is another factor that you need to consider, although more than the weight itself, it is how this weight is distributed across the tablet that matters. The center of gravity of the device should be just right, which means, it shouldn’t be too top heavy or too loaded toward the bottom. Considering the fact that your child is the end user, having a tablet with a solid construction and good grip is essential.

Manufacturers tend to promote their many, unique, feature-rich tablets. In reality though, most of these features are rather gimmicky and don’t really make a lot of practical sense. Talks about superfast processors and loads of RAMs are merely publicity stunts and should not hamper the tablet experience by much. In fact, the software on the tablet is customized to run smoothly on its hardware. Almost all the tablets in the market today are really good, and talks about one being ‘n’ times faster than the other are simply marketing strategies employed by manufacturers to boost their sales. When buying a tablet for your child, don’t look too much into the numbers. By today’s standard, a basic tablet (dual-core with about 1 GB of RAM) should be good enough to serve the purpose. It would, however, be a good idea to go in for a tablet that offers a Micro SD card slot, or one that has ample internal storage (16 GB+) for all your kid’s videos and apps. Most tablets also support GSM networks. This could either be for making voice calls or for data connections. You would be well advised to choose a device that supports Wi-Fi, rather than opt for a data plan, as the latter is often very expensive. Also, as tablets aren’t really ideal for making phone calls, you could very well overlook the GSM variants altogether.

One of the major selling points for manufacturers are the cameras on their devices. Once again, remember that the end user of the tablet is a child, and megapixels are just a fancy word to them and for that matter, to most regular users. Kids love to explore their surroundings and are rather fascinated by the thought of capturing images on the go. A tablet with a basic camera (2 – 5 MP) should be able to suffice all your child’s photography needs. Also, remember that the front-facing camera is mainly meant for making video calls and the occasional selfie. So, unless your child is a selfie king/queen, or uses video conferencing to pitch their latest product, the secondary camera should not be something that should affect your decision at all.

Now, really, this is a catch 22 situation. Opting for a branded device almost certainly guarantees a great product. It also ensures better service, in case you run into any problems with the tablet. These, however, are bound to be a lot more expensive that the offerings from lesser-known tablet brands. These poorer siblings of the big guns of the tablet industry, tend to price their products very low and claim to offer similar or at times, better specs than that on branded devices. You might want to tread carefully here though, as these brands are infamous for under delivering on their promises. Also, these often ship without some important software like Google Play Store installed. This could greatly cripple the use of the tablet, as without this, it would be rather difficult to find and install apps for the device. More than the hardware aging fast, tablets are plagued with the problem of the software getting outdated quickly. The major advantage of buying a branded tablet is that you are assured of getting timely software updates at least for about a year. Also, it is a lot easier to get supported accessories and apps customized for these tablets. This should drastically increase the longevity of the device, and in turn, keep your child happier for longer.