Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro (2023) review

Amazon’s largest pill aimed toward children is available in a chunky plastic case, however this exterior armour isn’t the one safety it presents. The pill’s software program is locked into Amazon Youngsters and has parental controls baked in, which means you may go away it within the arms of beloved little ones within the data that they gained’t be capable of set up 5 Nights at Freddy’s and provides themselves nightmares.

At £50 greater than the usual Fireplace HD 10, you may marvel what you’re getting to your cash. The reply is a bumper case with a pleasant built-in stand, a two-year assure, and a 12 months’s subscription to Amazon Youngsters, which might be £38 for those who’re already a Prime member, and £68 for those who’re not.

This transforms right into a month-to-month subscription as soon as the preliminary 12 months is up, so be warned.

Design & Construct

• Chunky case
• Stand turns into a deal with
• Controls alongside one edge

There’s one challenge I all the time have with Amazon tablets, and that’s the place of the buttons. In concept, every part ought to be very straightforward: all of the interactive bits – quantity rocker, lock swap, headphone socket, charging port – are on one finish of the pill, neatly grouped.

In observe, the muscle reminiscence accrued from years of utilizing different Android and Apple units takes over, and I discover myself reaching for buttons in locations they aren’t.

It’s a wise resolution to put them like this: the pill is designed for use horizontally, so the entrance digicam is on the lengthy edge, the case’s built-in stand holds it on this place, and so having the controls on the finish makes numerous sense, and the mint-green case on the Youngsters Professional model even colors them orange for straightforward discovering. Is it Amazon’s engineers and legions of customers who’re improper, or is it me?

Past this, it’s a reasonably bland design though extra jazzy instances can be found within the type of Nebula and Pleased Day, every with a big mural on the again. Extra selections wouldn’t go amiss although.

The case covers the perimeters of the display screen, however the bezels are fairly thick regardless of this. The stand is properly built-in and clicks strongly into place to carry the pill up in an excellent viewing place. As a pill made with media consumption in thoughts, that is precisely what you want, and the case makes it simpler to carry too – Amazon’s tablets are fairly slender and light-weight, so it’s good to see smaller fingers given one thing to seize onto.

The stand clicks out farther from its upright place to transform right into a helpful carrying deal with, making it right into a suitcase of cinema or trunk of tomfoolery that may be taken on automobile journeys or journeys to the grocery store.

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Display screen & Audio system

• 10in display screen
• Vibrant LCD
• Cheap sound high quality

The touchscreen is the foremost level of interplay with any pill, and there are not any complaints in regards to the Fireplace HD 10 Youngsters Professional on this respect. It’s a vivid and responsive display screen that’s very best for streaming video or taking a look at vibrant pages in an image ebook. There’s auto-brightness too, to chop down on twiddling with the slider or repeatedly being handed the pill to type it out to your youngster.

It’s an excellent display screen for watching video on, so far as tablets go. The scale and side ratio means you’ll maintain it at a distance as a substitute of squinting at it like a cellphone, and regardless of being nothing particular by way of know-how (no OLED or fancy refresh price right here) it’s sharp and vibrant sufficient to fulfill the younger consumer, placing out stage of brightness which means it’s doable to make use of in a lit room with no need to shade it.

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There’s even an inexpensive pair of audio system hooked up to the Fireplace HD 10 Youngsters Professional. With one of the best headphones or Bluetooth audio system in all probability out of attain and even undesirable for kids, that is one space by which I’d count on the built-in audio system to truly be used relatively than ignored in favour of one thing exterior. So that you get an honest quantity of quantity, can hear dialogue over the background noise, and there’s even just a little little bit of bass presence including thickness to the sound.

When you don’t need the Bluey theme blasting out for the ten,00th time then get a pair of one of the best children headphones. 

Specs & Efficiency

• Fundamental specs regardless of being ‘Professional’
• Acceptable efficiency
• Doesn’t must be extra highly effective

Mediatek’s MT8183 is described as an entry-level pill chipset, and its presence right here underlines that this can be a pill for media consumption relatively than top-end gaming or work-related actions.

It’s power-efficient and comes with eight cores, cut up between 4 Cortex A73 ‘Massive’ cores and 4 Cortex A53 ‘Little’ cores all working at 2GHz. There’s a Mali GPU working at 800Mhz, and 3GB of RAM. It’s a spec that pales in opposition to the Snapdragon chips present in current flagship telephones, nevertheless it’s additionally a less expensive system that’s primarily aimed toward displaying static pages and streaming video.

For what will probably be used for, this spec is totally appropriate however with a lot much like the common Fireplace HD Youngsters, the pill isn’t actually worthy of its ‘Professional’ moniker within the conventional tech sense. The important thing distinction is the slimmer design right here aimed toward older kids (6-12) who’re much less accident-prone.

Because of the pill being restricted to the Amazon app retailer, solely the Geekbench 5 benchmark was out there. Its results of 1515 within the multi-core take a look at and 520 within the single core take a look at places it above the 2021 Fireplace HD 10, and within the realms of telephones such because the Google Pixel 3 (2018) and OnePlus 5T (2017). It’s not a very performant pill, however then it doesn’t must be, particularly on the worth.

Within the arms of an precise youngster, as soon as the complaints about it not being an iPad had been out of the way in which, it was quickly put to make use of enjoying video and video games, the slender vary out there apparently not an issue.

There’s no lock display screen PIN code for a kid account, and nor have they got entry to the Settings app, so utilizing the pill is only a faucet of the lock button away, and whereas I want it had tap- or raise-to-wake like different Android telephones and tablets, this may really not be very best for a kid’s system that’s going to get tapped and waved round quite a bit. 

Foundry / Ian Evenden

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Cameras

• 5Mp rear, 2Mp entrance
• Restricted video calling
• Enjoyable for selfies

Being a pill, it’s not normally anticipated {that a} system like this will likely be any good for taking images. However children love something with a digicam in it, so the snapper is more likely to get extra use than it might if this had been a ‘regular’ Fireplace HD system.

The 5Mp sensor behind the lens on the again of the pill is okay, sufficient to document one thing cool and fascinating to point out others later, nevertheless it’s not going to rival any fashionable cellphone digicam. Likewise, the 2Mp entrance digicam, which is ok for a video name or a enjoyable selfie and comes with a fundamental modifying app, however exhibits washed-out colors. 

Foundry / Ian Evenden

Youngsters utilizing the Youngsters mode can entry Skype or Zoom with parental permission, however can’t obtain it with out, limiting the makes use of the cameras will likely be put to except you set it up first. A Name app lets you make voice or video calls to different accounts in your Amazon household group, and there’s an Announce app that permits you to make voice bulletins by any linked Echo audio system.

Battery Life & Charging

• 10-hour battery
• 15W charging
• 9W charger in field

There’s round 10 hours of life within the pill as soon as it’s totally charged, which is about common for a pill on this sector, although Amazon quotes 13 hours. In fact, it’s going to rely on issues like display screen brightness.

Amazon features a 9W charger within the field, together with a USB-A to C cable, which is able to juice it up from empty in about 4 hours. When you join the pill to a extra highly effective adapter, it’s going to cost at 15W, knocking about an hour off the time.

Quicker charging can be good thought, particularly if you realise your youngster goes to want it for an outing and the battery is low.

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Software program & Apps

• FireOS
• Parental controls and cut-off dates
• Amazon App Retailer solely

The setup of the Amazon Fireplace HD 10 Youngsters Professional is straightforward. You flip it on, connect with Wi-Fi, log into your Amazon account (or create a brand new one), after which obtain any system updates. Then it slams the door on you. You may’t use the pill with out activating the free 12 months’s subscription to Amazon Youngsters it comes with, which then turns right into a month-to-month subscription as soon as the preliminary interval is up.

This isn’t a pill you may choose up and use as a general-purpose machine, it’s tied into Amazon’s ecosystem and has all types of controls to cease children with hacker tendencies from breaking out of it.

When you’ve arrange your children’ profile, it’s doable to change out of it utilizing a PIN you set through the setup course of to a profile hooked up to an grownup Amazon account. On this manner, the pill can do double responsibility between relations with out trapping adults in a world of leisure aimed toward underneath tens, however for those who’re searching for a pill with out restrictions it’s nonetheless not very best, and cheaper alternate options can be found.

As an Amazon pill, there are not any Google providers and also you’re restricted to the apps out there on the Amazon App Retailer. It is a restricted choice, however for a children’ pill maybe that’s factor. You may set up Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and different streaming apps to go alongside Prime Video, and the Kindle library has a variety of appropriate eBooks.

Mother and father can arrange youngster accounts on their important Amazon account, then set the age vary for apps and media their kids can entry, each on the pill and utilizing an internet browser interface. When a toddler requests an app not marked as 100% protected, comparable to a streaming service, an electronic mail is distributed to the mother or father’s account so it may be authorised earlier than obtain.

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As a substitute of apps known as Prime Video or Amazon App Retailer, there are apps with easier names, comparable to Retailer, Movies, Instructional and Internet Browser. They bring about up curated subsets of the complete variations, with Video displaying a number of kid-friendly motion pictures and sequence from Prime Video.

The exceptions to this are Amazon Music and Audible, which get their very own apps. The Sound Field app, which makes noises relying on which illustration you faucet (the canine makes a barking noise) will likely be cherished by children and hated by adults.

The pill rapidly picked up on the gender and age we’d picked out, recommending Barbie and Sesame Avenue content material in addition to Disney, Lego and Harry Potter. Instructional apps can be found, although a great distance down the record, and Photo voltaic System Explorer was provided together with maths, spelling, and a digital tour of Yosemite Nationwide Park.

The age settings appeared to do their job, as I didn’t spot something objectionable, and the YouTube movies that had been accessible didn’t mean you can entry the YouTube homepage or search the location. The online browser provided entry to YouTube Youngsters, however rapidly popped up a web page asking a mother or father to set it up, permitting that avenue to be closed off if wished.

The browser’s default search engine is Bing with strict SafeSearch enabled, and an internet seek for ‘bums’ confirmed a listing of outcomes, however picture websites (Flickr, iStock, Getty Photographs) had been blocked by Amazon parental controls whereas information tales had been accessible. A picture search utilizing this time period confirmed no nudity.

Value & Availability

The Amazon Fireplace HD 10 Youngsters Professional 2023 is definitely out there from Amazon. At £199/$189, it’s dearer than the usual Fire HD 10, but in addition comes with some extras: the case, the assure, and the 12 months’s subscription to Amazon Youngsters.

In order for you a less expensive children’ pill, the Amazon Fireplace HD 8 Youngsters pill is offered for £149/$100, although it’s not solely smaller however has even decrease specs.

To see what different choices can be found, try our greatest tablets chart. 

Do you have to purchase the Amazon Fireplace HD 10 Youngsters Professional (2023)?

The Amazon Fireplace HD 10 Youngsters Professional (2023 version) is a handy and cost-effective option to ship video and gaming to your children.

There are strong parental controls, so long as you retain the PIN code to your self, and makes introduction to on-line providers for youths. The actual fact it is available in a sturdy case with a kickstand/deal with together with a no quibbles two-year assure provides to the attraction.

It’s not the pill to purchase for those who intend to make use of it for anything however children’ stuff, nonetheless, as you will get the identical {hardware} for much less cash by shopping for a normal Fireplace HD 10.

As such, it’s a tough advice for anybody apart from the demographic it’s focused at: mother and father with children between the ages of six and 12. For them, it’s a straightforward purchase, so long as they’re proud of shopping for into the Amazon ecosystem and perceive that the parental controls must be arrange and commonly reviewed to get one of the best out of the pill.

Specs

• Chipset: MediaTek MT8183
• RAM: 3GB
• Storage: 32GB + Micro SD
• Display screen: 10.1in, 1920 x 1200px, 16:10 ratio, 60Hz, five-point multi-touch
• Rear digicam: 5Mp
• Entrance digicam: 2Mp
• Connectivity: USB-C (2.0), headphone socket, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, 
• OS: FireOS 8 (Android 11)
• Dimensions: 190 x 256 x 17mm
• Weight: 718g