Now there comes a time in a parent’s life, when their kid/s wants a phone or a tablet, this can come at a very early age, thanks to us. Why us? It is because we are glued to our devices and anything we use our kids also want to use. Now you can buy an android tablet or and iOS tablet and set up a kid’s mode for them. These can on times cost a pretty penny and are not 100% safe for your kids.
Some parents go out and buy what their kids want, Samsung being the No1 choice of tablet. There has been plenty of occasions where I have heard this phrase or similar “My bloody child, has yet again broken their screen on their tablet/phone”
Some parents for some reason purchase top of the range tablets and phones, and the same thing happens, screen breaks. I hear parents complaining they are in debt because of their kids, but it is not their kids that are causing the debt it is them buying what they can not afford. Or some parents just have too much bloody money and can afford to fix and buy top tear products all the time.
I do hear from teachers, that having a rubbish phone can come with a form of bullying in schools, so teenagers, do push for these tier phones, and maybe some parents crumble and purchase. I know when I was in school, I was picked on because I never wore branded trainers like Adidas or Nike. My parents never purchased them either, I had to, what they called back then, grow a backbone. As I got older, the only way for me to purchase these types of products was to get a job, the paper round was it, and I learnt the value of money, respect and privilege. Because it was my money, I looked after everything I even cleaned my trainers if they got dirty, something I did not do when my parents purchased products for me.
So it’s come to a time when I see my little boy wanting to use my tablet, phone, pc, games console, you name it anything I play on. So instead of purchasing a standard tablet, I got myself a Pebble Gear 7″ kids tablet. I wanted a tablet that would be 100% ad-free, 100% free apps and 100% safe for kids and comes at a good price, £99.99 is a good price.
So when I got this tablet, on the front of the box it was all Disney’s Frozen 2, now my son does not know of Frozen, watch Frozen or care about Frozen yet. It was not Frozen that attracted me to the tablet, it was, what it offered, a way to protect my child and most of all nothing else to pay once I have it in my hands.
When looking at the back you find the details which give you peace of mind,
- Kid Safe
- No in-game adverts
- Offline Gaming
- Tough protective case
- No in-app purchases
- Full Parental Control
- 500+ Games
Before we move forward, you might be thinking this looks like a girl’s tablet, but it is not, it is a tablet for kids and for fans of Frozen, be it, Boy or Girl. There is a Toy Story version as well, again suitable for Boys and Girls. Yet my mate said it looks like a girl’s tablet, each to their own opinion right or wrong.
Once opened you are greeted to the tablet, well-protected just in case of any delivery issues, as we all know what some delivery drivers are like when it comes to handling our goods. The 7Inch tablet comes with a light blue hard foam case with the frozen logo on the back. I have done my best to put this case through its paces, just by giving it to my Son to play with. He has thrown it at the floor, at us and down the stairs and it seems not to have had and effect on the tablet still works, no cracks, impressive.
Turning it on you are treated to a Frozen 2 wallpaper, along with Olaf, Elsa and Anna, but this is just the start you will need to set up a parental account, which requires an online connection and an email account. This is so you can control and create the kids account while having access to the shopfront. It does say on the box that you get 1 year of free content, yet it never asks for payment anywhere, so No idea what happens after the 12months.
The parental account allows you to views the stats, like playtime, read time, watch time and learn time, which is fantastic as you can view exactly what your child has done. You can control the time of day they have access to their account based on a weekday or weekend and the amount of time they can use it for. You can also check what Apps they have downloaded and which ones they have used the most or less, which is fantastic. A child can not access the parental account unless they have or know the 4-digit code you set up for it, so it’s safe in your hands.
The kid’s account is accessed by tapping your child’s name on the home screen, and they are treated to a Frozen background which can be changed. Once in the child account, there is a number of icons on the top row, games, books, camera, education and shop.
The books are great as some of them you can read yourself to your little one, or you can have the book’s narrator to do it all for you along with some music. Not all books will have a narrator, but that is a good thing, as this gives you time to get close to your child and spend some quality time with them. When it comes to educational games, they are more fun and do not feel like a classroom exercise. I gave this tablet for a little while to a young girl living close by, after a good clean, got to consider CORVID. She loved the educational games, did not even think they were educational, yet she learnt some valuable skills, numbers, letters, sound, colours etc. She then asked her mom, “please can I have a tablet-like that” one sale, just by me lending the Pebble Gear Tablet out.
Now my little one is only 20months old or as I say just under 2, and a lot of the games are not suitable, as he just likes to tap the screen, as it moves, so finding games for his age was pretty hard, but not impossible. The educational games as long as you played along with him, he enjoyed, like placing pictures with names. The books were the best thing, as spending quality time with my son is always on my mind and I really enjoy it.
OK, some tech specs, the screen resolution is 1024 x 600 very low resolution to what we expect of late 1080P but this is for kids and resolution is not something they care about. The Pebble Gear runs off android, with a 1.3GHz processor, storage of only 16GB, this can be expanded with a MicroSD card. Even has a front and rear camera, not the greatest, but does the job nether the less.
I really like this Tablet, and I think it was a good choice over a mainstream android tablet, my only concern is what happens after 12months? As my son grows older the apps on this device will be used more and more and more and more apps will be downloaded. I feel this tablet, will be used up to and beyond 7 years of age, the only change I foresee is when he hits teenage years.
Now there are some issues, for one, if you forget the code to access your parental account, and no longer have access to the email assigned to the device, there is no way at all to reset the system, no hard reset, which should be available. 16Gb might be a little on the low side, so you will be spending a little on an SDCard around 128 GB, I recommend this one, which is normally lower than £15.00. The resolution might be a little on the low side and the camera is not the greatest.
As your little one gets older, they might want to watch programs they enjoy on TV, which is not possible on the tablet, so it does have its flaws. It is a shame the android program is not a little more open for you to install video on an SDCard and allow them to watch, but I understand why this is not an option.
You can grab the Frozen 2 Pebble Gear Kids Tablet here for £99.99 (Link none affiliated)
Enjoy the review? want to read more of our reviews? then click right here to be whisked away to the realm of our opinions.
You must be logged in to post a comment.