Best tablets for kids

So your child wants a tablet this Christmas. What’s the best deal out there in the marketplace?

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Here’s a look at the best tablets for kids and ones to avoid too!

Tablets used to be the hot item of the holiday season a few years ago. But now they go largely unloved thanks to a plurality of other gadgets like fitness trackers, smartphones and more. So that lack of attention means you can find a real steal of a deal on tablets this year.

Just in time for the holidays, Consumer Reports has surveyed the market and come up with a list of the best tablets for kids.

Here are the six criteria the magazine looked at to determine their rankings:

• Portability
• Ease of use
• Display
• Versatility
• Durability
• Responsiveness

Oh, one more thing before we get into the highlights of this Consumer Reports list: The prices listed below for the tablets are approximate retail prices. But we all know no one ever pays retail during the holidays for any electronics. So keep your eyes open for these particular models, but don’t be surprised when you see them at substantially lower price points than listed below!  

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Two tablets in particular get ‘best buy’ marks from the magazine. They are the Amazon Fire Kids Edition ($100) and the Amazon Fire ($50). The Fire Kids Edition in particular gets the highest marks on durability, responsiveness and portability.

Other recommended buys include the KD Interactive Kurio Smart ($200), the Fuhu nabi DreamTab HDs ($200), the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite Kids Edition SM-T110 ($150), the Leapfrog Epic ($140) and the KD Interactive Kurio Xtreme 2 ($130).

The KD Interactive Kurio Smart, in particular, scored highest on the tally with an overall score of 72 out of 100. The only average mark is gets is on versatility. Everything thing else was deemed above average or got the highest mark possible!

If you want to know about models to avoid, the magazine recommends you steer clear of the School Zone Little Scholar Learning Tablet ($130), the Leapfrog LeapPad Ultra XDi ($100) and the Isabella Products Fable ($130). Those three models got the lowest possible scores on the tally, plus a bevy of below average marks on almost each of the six criteria!

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