The Best Tablets for Kids
We analyzed 124,929 reviews from 45 websites to find the best tablets for kids. Sources included:
+40 More
Top Tablets for Kids
Why Consider This:
From the outside, the new iPad mini is virtually a carbon copy of the iPad mini 4, but it’s sporting some serious upgrades under the hood. As you’ve probably heard, the 5th-generation iPad mini is basically an iPad Air 3, just in a much more compact form-factor. Indeed, the iPad mini 5 is a powerful tablet that can almost fit in your pocket, but the size, or lack thereof, can be both a gift and a curse depending on your needs.
People Like:
- Perfect size to tote around
- Works with the Apple Pencil
- Surprisingly powerful specs
People Dislike:
- Unchanged, bezel-heavy design
- Uses the older Apple Pencil
- Costs more than the iPad 9.7
97
Owner Score
3,157 Reviews from 16 Sites
83
Media & Critic Score
2 Media Reviews
Why Consider This:
Apple’s 7th-generation iPad is the best kids tablet for many of the same reasons that it’s the best tablet for most people: It has a huge library of educational, video, gaming, and reading apps; it’s fast and responsive, so kids won’t get frustrated with it; it’s easy to use; and it’s Apple’s most affordable tablet, even if it is toward the upper end of what our surveyed parents said they would want to pay. The biggest downsides are that you can’t create multiple accounts for multiple kids—if they need to share the tablet with anyone, they end up sharing everything—and iPadOS’s parental controls, although powerful, can be difficult to use.
People Like:
- Solid battery life
- iPadOS greatly improves productivity
- Good performance
People Dislike:
- Mediocre cameras.
- Large bezels.
- Smart Keyboard is expensive.
96
Owner Score
16,332 Reviews from 16 Sites
85
Media & Critic Score
2 Media Reviews
Why Consider This:
The new iPad Pro 12.9 might have a few weak features, but overall it’s an incredible device – between its massive screen, fantastic audio quality, slim design, useful peripherals, and iOS, you can’t get a better tablet. But those aren’t features that kids would notice or care about. The iPad Pro models are also at least twice as expensive as the 6th-generation iPad, significantly more money than any of the parents we surveyed would want to pay for a child’s tablet
People Like:
- Massive display
- Unrivalled music quality (for a tablet)
- Snappy iOS 12
People Dislike:
- Limited battery life
- Face ID has short range
- No headphone port or connector
95
Owner Score
17,226 Reviews from 14 Sites
95
Media & Critic Score
2 Media Reviews
How Critic.ly Saves You Time
When it comes to reviewing the best tablets for kid, critic.ly is different than other sites. How?
Unbiased & Unsponsored: Critic.ly aggregates and analyzes reviews from real owners and industry critics. We remove spam, sponsored reviews, and other forms of bias to make sure you get the best possible sense of what people actually think about products.
Our reviews of the best tablets for kids were based on 124,929 reviews from 45 websites.
Get the Best Deal: Critic.ly aggregates sales from around the web, so you can get the best deal from a seller you actually trust.
Find the Right Product: Critic.ly lets you search and compare products from thousands of sites in one place.
How to Find the Right Tablets for Kid
Before you buy a tablet for your kid, ask yourself whether you already own one you don’t use much. If you do, chances are, it will work well enough for your kid. At the other extreme, if you use your tablet regularly, consider buying a new one for yourself and handing down your old one. Win-win!
Also, tablets aren’t just small screens for putting cartoons in front of your kid. They can also be educational tools, toys, and gaming devices. They can help keep your child entertained—and even learning—on long car or plane trips, let your kid use educational apps provided by their school, help improve math and verbal skills, inspire musical and artistic creativity, and much more.
Not everyone wants to give their kid a screen, but many experts agree that above a certain age, screen time isn’t inherently negative as long as you carefully control and supervise it. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against screen time for kids younger than 18 months except for video chatting, and advises that all screen time for kids age 18 to 24 months happen together with a parent; the organization recommends limiting screen time to an hour per day for kids 2 to 5. But for kids age 6 and up, the AAP thinks longer screen time is okay if you set and stick to time limits, restrict use to “high-quality” programming and apps, and “make sure media does not take the place of adequate sleep, physical activity and other behaviors essential to health.”
Tablets for Kids We Eliminated
We research and analyzed 7 tablets for kids. Here's what we concluded about the ones that didn't make the cut.
53-$210
Eliminated - Not Enough Reviews
Owner score of 95 but hard to properly evaluate with only 14324 owner reviews.
Runner Up
Highly rated (90 owner score, 82 expert score), but a slight notch below the best.
36-$44
Runner Up
Highly rated (85 owner score, 76 expert score), but a slight notch below the best.
30-$310
Eliminated - Not Enough Reviews
Owner score of 92 but hard to properly evaluate with only 3958 owner reviews.
Sources & Methodology
Critic.ly uses a combination of machine learning and human editors to help you find the best products.
We start by aggregating and analyzing reviews from real owners and industry critics. We remove spam, sponsored reviews, and other forms of bias to make sure you get the best possible sense of what people actually think about products.
We convert every review to a weight average score from 0 to 100.
For this article, we analyzed 124,929 reviews from 45 sites to find the best tablets for kid.