When it comes to travelling with kids, one of the most important tools in your arsenal will be a tablet.
We know all the arguments for and against screen time, and we think it’s a great idea to set strict limits on this when you’re at home. But when you’re on holiday or a long trip, a little flexibility on this issue goes a long way.
The main benefit of the best kids’ tablets is that they keep them occupied for a while and can even distract them from boredom or minor discomfort. So, if you’re on a long car journey, hanging around the airport or even just fancy going out for dinner with your other half and you don’t have a babysitter, a tablet comes in really handy.
Sure, you may have the Peppa Pig soundtrack going round your head for days on end, but you can expect a dramatic decrease in whining and crying from boredom while your little one is watching!
And remember, tablets don’t only offer downloaded shows and movies to watch, many of them also have a huge trove of educational games and apps to interest your child too.
Below is our updated list of the best tablets for toddlers on the market right now.
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7 Best Tablets for Kids and Toddlers
Fire HD 10 Kids Tablet
The Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids is the best kids tablet in our opinion and has come in handy on many a long trip for us in the past! (See above…)
It’s not too expensive, comes with plenty of storage, has great battery life and comes with its own kid-proof case so you don’t need to worry about unruly toddlers throwing it around and breaking it. This is helped even more by the fact that it comes with a 2-year guarantee! The screen is a good size too so it works well if you’ve got kids sharing it.
One thing to bear in mind is that it’s not an iPad or another premium tablet so things like efficiency and search function aren’t the best. Plus, it does feel a little heavy and clunky for little hands.
What We Love:
- It has the most to offer out of all the kids’ Amazon Fire tablets
- Recommended for ages 3-7 (the ideal kids edition)
- Big 10.1″ screen with excellent picture quality
- 32GB of storage — plenty of room to store lots of media for longer holidays
- Comes with a kid-proof case in a choice of three different colours
- 2 year guarantee
- Comes with a 1 year subscription to Amazon Kids+
- Easy to use parental controls
- Comes with more apps than other Amazon Fire tablets including Netflix, BBC iPlayer Kids, Disney+ and more — all controllable via the parent dashboard
- Has dual cameras – great for selfies on the plane 🤪
- 2 built-in microphones
- Up to 12 hours of battery life on a single charge
- Runs quickly and efficiently
What Could Be Improved:
- The Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids can be a bit fiddly and long-winded swapping between your child’s profile and the parent dashboard to add/remove shows and apps
- Search function isn’t particularly intuitive
- A little heavier than most of the other tablets on this list so may be more difficult for small hands to hold
A full-featured 10" HD tablet with age appropriate apps, a Kid-Proof Case with kickstand, parental controls, 2-year worry-free guarantee and 1 year of Amazon Kids+.
Samsung Galaxy Tab A8
If you’re looking for something a bit more sophisticated than what the Amazon Fire tablets offer and something that can double up as a tablet for adults as well, then the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 is a great option.
It’s small and lightweight so great in terms of portability, while not compromising too much on screen size — it’s a generous 10.5 inches. It’s well priced with a good amount of storage and a long battery life of up to 14 hours. Although it can definitely be used by the whole family, there’s a separate Kids Home section where you can set parental controls for your little one. It will certainly keep the kids entertained watching videos while you’re on the move (or getting dinner ready!).
We’d definitely recommend buying a kid-proof case for the Tab A8 if you’re planning on using it with your toddler as it doesn’t come with any protection. Despite its Android OS, it’s still a little slow and clunky occasionally.
What We Love:
- Very lightweight at just 347 grams
- Good size 10.5″ screen with bright display
- Kids Home allows you to set parental controls over what and how much they watch/play
- 64GB of storage so lots of space to download shows and apps
- Excellent price
- Android tablet operating system
- Long battery life of up to 14 hours
- Multi-user mode is available so it can be used by the whole family, not just kids
- More sophisticated and more extensive use than most of the Fire tablets offer
- Dual cameras and built-in speaker
- Suitable for toddlers, older kids and adults too
What Could Be Improved:
- Processing power is a little slow
- Doesn’t come with a case
This android tablet is a great option for kids, but you'll want to invest in a protective cover to ensure it survives the multiple throwing "accidents"!
Amazon Fire 7 Kids Tablet
Our favourite cheap tablet for kids is the Amazon Fire 7 Kids Tablet. This is marketed as a “kids edition“, essentially an affordable tablet for kids that will satisfy the demands of most toddlers.
It’s a budget version of the Fire HD 10, with a smaller screen, lower amount of storage and shorter battery life. It still comes with a 2-year guarantee, kid-proof case, and a year’s subscription to Amazon Kids+ so you’re not compromising too much on quality or durability, despite the lower price.
Like the other Fire tablets, the processing power is a little slow and the search function isn’t great either. But this shouldn’t be too much of an issue for your kids.
What We Love:
- Low price
- 7″ display is small but ideal for younger users
- Mainly a tablet for young kids aged between 3 and 7
- Comes with a respectable 16 GB of storage
- 2 year guarantee
- Includes a 1 year subscription to Amazon Kids+
- Full of toddler-friendly educational apps
- Parental controls and access can be set using the Amazon Parent Dashboard
- Comes with a kid-proof case, available in three different colours
- Dual cameras and integrated speaker
- Reasonably lightweight
What Could Be Improved:
- Quite slow processing power
- Battery life is only up to 7 hours
- Search function a little limited
- It can be a bit fiddly and long-winded swapping between your child’s profile and the parent dashboard to add/remove shows and apps
A full-featured 7" kids edition tablet, including a kid-proof case with kick-stand, parental controls, 2-year worry-free guarantee and 1 year of Amazon Kids+
Apple iPad Mini
The Apple iPad Mini is the best option in the iPad range for kids.
It’s natural to ask… does my child really need an iPad? And the answer, of course, is no. Certainly when so many of the best kids tablets are considerably cheaper.
But if mummy or daddy want to use an Apple tablet, too? Then it starts to make more sense as an investment.
While it’s on the more expensive side, you can expect an Apple standard of quality that you just don’t see in cheaper levels — a quick and efficient OS, long battery life, plenty of storage, great sound and image quality, and the sophistication of a normal iPad just in a smaller package.
As it’s not a kid-specific product, you’ll need to set up all the parental controls and locks yourself manually. This isn’t hard but is obviously a bit more of a fiddle than with the Fire tablets where these settings come as standard. You’ll also need to buy a kid-proof case.
What We Love:
- Excellent picture and sound quality
- Can be used by whole family
- Comes with a whopping 64GB of storage (or 256GB!)
- iPadOS operating system is quick and efficient
- 10 hours of battery life
- Small and lightweight – just 300 grams!
- Very high quality dual cameras and video recording
- Excellent longevity
- Very sophisticated and extensive use — it’s just a mini version of the iPad
- You can set up a child-friendly profile including screen time limits and app/website blocking
- Compatible with the Apple Pencil – great for kids who love drawing!
- The choice of buying only WiFi connection or WiFi and cellular — the latter is great if you’re going somewhere without WiFi
What Could Be Improved:
- Expensive
- You’ll need to buy a case
- Parental controls and locks do not come as standard — you’ll have to set this up yourself within the settings
- Does a toddler really need an iPad?!
8.3-inch Liquid Retina display with True Tone and wide color. Apple makes some of the best tablets, and this Mini is suitable for all of the family.
Fire 8 HD Kids Tablet
For a tablet that’s somewhere in between the small, budget Fire 7 and the more expensive and higher quality Fire HD 10, the Fire 8 HD Kids Tablet is the one to go for.
It’s still very well priced but comes with a bigger screen, more storage, better battery life and a faster processor than the Fire 7. It doesn’t quite match the Fire 10’s specs in these areas but it’s quite a bit cheaper so it’s an easy compromise.
Our negatives are the same as with all the Fire tablets — it’s not the most efficient or intuitive operating system compared to the Apple or Android tablet experiences. But for watching videos or using basic educational apps, it’s still one of the best tablets for toddlers.
What We Love:
- Great middle-of-the-road choice between the more expensive Fire 10 and the slower, cheaper Fire 7
- Good size, 8″ display
- Designed for kids aged between 3 and 7
- 32 GB of storage
- Comes with a kid-proof case with a choice of 3 different colours
- Parental controls can be supervised from the Parent Dashboard
- 2 year guarantee
- Includes 1 year subscription to Amazon Kids+
- Good battery life of up to 12 hours off a single charge
- Faster processor than the Fire 7 (although not quite as good as the Fire 10)
- Dual cameras and integrated speaker
- Good quality screen and audio
What Could Be Improved:
- It can be a bit fiddly and long-winded swapping between your child’s profile and the parent dashboard to add/remove shows and apps
- Search function is a little limited
Includes a full-featured tablet for children aged 3–7, 1 year of Amazon Kids+ and a Kid-Proof Case with built-in stand.
LeapFrog Leap Pad Ultimate
If you want a kids’ tablet that’s geared more towards learning and can’t be used to spend hours watching YouTube, for instance, then it’s worth considering the Leap Pad Ultimate.
It’s very well geared up for young users with a small screen, wrap-around bumper case and a good amount of pre-loaded and age appropriate content. Even the browser, LeapSearch, is entirely kid-friendly!
Considering the limitations of the tablet, it’s definitely on the more expensive side. It doesn’t have a huge amount of storage space and the battery life is quite short at just 6 hours so it may not be the best choice for very long flights, for example.
What We Love:
- Designed for kids aged 3-9 years (but younger toddlers will soon get the hang of it!)
- Full of pre-loaded, age-appropriate and educational content
- Equipped with a kid friendly web browser, LeapSearch
- Comes with a wrap-around bumper case and shatter safe screen
- 7″ screen is on the smaller side but fine for younger users
- Dual cameras and video recorders
- 8GB of memory storage, which is on the lower side but still useful for long journeys
What Could Be Improved:
- Much more limited content than the tablets above
- Battery life is only up to 6 hours
- Comparatively expensive bearing in mind limitations
This dynamic tablet for kids has a cool 7-inch high-resolution touch screen and Wi-Fi and offers the next generation of children's interactive and technological play
Pritom 7 Inch Kids Tablet
The Pritom tablet is a great budget choice if you’re looking for something comparable to the Fire 7 but even cheaper.
It comes already loaded with plenty of age appropriate content and you also have the option of downloading more from the Google Play store — much more freedom than the Leap Pad above offers. It’s still safe for kids to use, however, as you can set and operate parental controls. It comes with a kid-proof case and a reasonable amount of storage considering the low price.
Where it falls down is the very limited 4 hours of battery life, which is very short compared with most other tablets on our list. It’s also on the heavier side.
What We Love:
- Very low price (cheapest toddler tablet we could find!)
- Comes with pre-installed, kid-suitable apps and programs
- You’re also able to download different apps and programs from the Google Play store, giving you a little more freedom
- You can operate controls and limitations from within the tablet
- Designed for kids aged between 2 and 12
- Reasonable 16GB of memory storage
- Good quality display and audio given low price
- Comes with a kid-proof case
- 7″ screen on the smaller side but fine for younger kids
- Android operating system
- Dual cameras
What Could Be Improved:
- On the heavier side despite small size so could be hard for younger children to hold
- Camera is lower quality than most tablets on this list
- Battery life is only up to 4 hours
PRITOM tablet for kids ages 2-12 comes with pre-installed safe & funny iWawa apps, to engage kids in learning while playing.
How to Choose the Best Kids’ Tablet
You’re probably wondering: what specs should I consider when buying a tablet for a toddler?
Choosing the best tablet for a child can feel a little overwhelming as there is a lot of choice — and a huge range of prices.
The best one for your little one may not be the same as the best for another child as there are a number of factors to take into account before you buy.
Here are the things worth thinking about beforehand:
- Price
- Capabilities and performance
- How much parental control is offered
- Battery life (for a long car journey!) and storage
Price
The price of a kids’ tablet will be the number one factor for many people as they can get really pricey at the top end.
There are generally three brackets:
- Lower market, under £100 – Aeezo Tronpad, Pritom, and Fire 7 Kids
- Mid-Market, £100 to £200 – Fire 8 and 10, Samsung Galaxy Tab A, and LeapFrog
- Premium, £200 + – Apple iPad
As with most things in this life, particularly electronics, you generally get what you pay for when it comes to tablets.
The differences between the iPad Mini and the Pritom tablet, for example, is incredible in terms of capabilities and performance. But it’s also hundreds of pounds more expensive.
Generally, the best deals are to be found in the mid-market.
Sure, you might not be getting incredible performance here — but you’re generally getting a great experience for your kids that isn’t hampered by slow processing or major content limitations like some of the cheaper tablets.
The Fire Kids tablets — both 8 and 10 — are both excellent choices here. Some people also think the Samsung Galaxy Tab A is a good buy too.
If you’re very price sensitive, we were really impressed by the Aeezo Tronpad and the Pritom considering their lower prices.
Capabilities and Performance
When we talk about capabilities and performance, we’re generally talking about how well a tablet works and what it can offer us as the user.
Here’s some of the features that come under this header:
- How fast and responsive is it?
- What quality sound and display is on offer?
- How many programs and apps are available to use?
- Are there more options of programs and apps or are you limited by what comes pre-installed?
- Is the screen big enough?
- Does it come with a guarantee? We know kids can get a bit boisterous with their possessions sometimes!
- Is it lightweight enough to be comfortably held by your kid?
- Does it come with a kid-proof case?
The iPad Mini is inevitably the run-away winner here as it offers so much more. Unlike the other tablets on this list, it hasn’t been made specifically for children — this is a tablet that will grow with your child, or even can be used by the whole family.
But if you balk at the iPad’s price, or even if you want a tablet that has been specifically made for children, the Fire Kids 8 and 10 are your next best bets. The 10, especially, is quick and responsive and obviously of great quality.
We also love that all the Fire Kids tablets come with a free year’s subscription to Amazon Kids+ which has a huge number of apps, games and videos right at your fingertips.
Parental Control
Parental control over a tablet is a huge selling point of many of the kids’ tablets on the market today, and with good reason.
While tablets are generally fantastic tools, especially when you’re travelling, none of us want our kids turning into zombies that spend the whole day staring at the screen. And, of course, we don’t want them accessing any inappropriate content.
All of the tablets we’ve chosen offer parental controls, with most of them coming with in-built controls where you can put caps on screen time, set age filters and block various websites and content.
The Fire tablets all do this really well.
Within the Parent Dashboard, you can set a bedtime where the tablet will turn off for the day, limit screen time, create educational goals, and block access to games and videos until your child has completed x number of minutes of educational time a day.
There are still options with the Fire tablet to add in videos, games and apps to your child’s library from outside of the Amazon curated content, although this is all at your discretion.
If you really want a hands-off approach to parental control but still want to make sure that your child is protected, the LeapFrog LeapPad is a good option. This only comes with pre-installed content and is all age-appropriate, much of it educational.
Of course, that means you can’t add in content as you see fit.
The iPad Mini, on the other hand, offers a huge amount of freedom and flexibility. Parental control is definitely possible, but it is up to you to create those limits yourself from within the settings menu. This is easy to do, but doesn’t come as standard as it does with the other tablets.
Battery Life and Storage
There are dozens of metrics you can compare and contrast when it comes to buying the best tablet, but we think the two worth paying the most attention to are battery life and storage.
As in, how long will the tablet last after being fully charged, and how much downloaded content can it store.
These two features are of utmost importance when it comes to travelling with kids — what good is a tablet that can only hold it’s charge for an hour? Or only download a couple of episodes of Paw Patrol?!
There’s nothing like the panic of being half an hour into a long-haul flight and the tablet dies…
Generally speaking, the more storage and battery life the better — although you will pay more for it.
As you’d expect, the more expensive tablets are generally the best for this — the iPad Mini and the Fire 10 Kids especially so.
All of the tablets we’ve chosen offer a reasonable amount of storage, with the LeapFrog LeapPad being the lowest at 8GB. Its battery life is also on the shorter end at a maximum of 6 hours.
The worse battery life comes courtesy of the Pritom tablet, which is also the cheapest one on our list, at only up to 4 hours.
It’s worth bearing in mind that battery life tends to deplete with age as well, especially at the cheaper end.
Toddler Tablet FAQs
Will my kids be exposed to inappropriate content on a tablet?
First and foremost, it’s important to choose a tablet that has good parental controls.
Some tablets are specifically designed for kids and have built-in parental controls that block unwanted content or even allow you to limit the types of apps your child can download. This is one of the reasons we love the Amazon Fire Kids Tablet series.
Depending on the tablet, there are several third-party apps that let you maintain a greater level of control over what your child sees on their tablet.
If you’re using a standard tablet that doesn’t have parental controls, you’ll need to be more vigilant about what your child is seeing on the screen.
Are kid-friendly tablets safe?
Yes, kid-friendly tablets are safe for children.
However, as we’ve said previously, there is a big difference between ‘kids edition’ tablets like the Fire Kids series… compared to iPad or Android tablets that are using third party parental controls.
If you are worried about the type of content your child may accidentally consume, we’d recommend sticking to the Fire Kids tablets, which are known for their superior parent controls — or one of the other specialised tablets for toddlers, like the Leapfrog.
Are tablets good or bad for kids?
If you’ve reached this page, we’re guessing that you’ve already weighed up the pros and cons of buying a tablet for your toddler.
As with all things for our children… moderation is key.
We see nothing wrong with giving a tablet to a toddler to fill an hour here or there. It’s not going to harm their development. It might even spike their curiosity.
But should you leave your toddler with a tablet for hours and hours of undistracted screen time?
Probably not.
Our Verdict on the Best Tablet For Kids
There’s no one size fits all solution to the conundrum of the best kids’ tablet, but there are a few stand-out options — one of which should be best for you and your family.
If you’re willing to spend a bit more money, the iPad Mini is undoubtedly the most impressive tablet for kids in terms of performance, capability and storage.
At the other end of the price spectrum, the Aeezo Tronpad is probably the better of the cheaper options, with a good amount of storage, and it does give some freedom in allowing full access (under parental control) to Google services.
But our money for the best kids’ tablet and the best all round option is the Fire 10 Kids. It scores excellent on performance, capability, storage and battery life, comes with built-in parental controls, and isn’t exorbitantly expensive either.
What’s your recommendation for the best tablet for kids?
Head over to our advice section for more tips on travelling with a baby or toddler! You may also want to check out our toddler packing list if you are heading on an extended trip.
