Nabi Jr – Finally a Tablet for Young Minds

Christmas is over.  The rush to buy presents is over and it’s time to relax, right?  Well….if your family is like ours, your kids probably received a few gift cards this Christmas that are burning a whole in their pocket.  That’s what it’s like at our house, our kids can’t wait to go out and use their Walmart, Target, Toys R Us, even Subway gift cards!

Earlier in the month, we reviewed the PlayMG, a perfect non-phone smartphone for tweens.  But what about the younger kids? If you have a toddler/preschooler/Kindergartner and received some extra spending money for Christmas for them, we found a great tablet at a reasonable price that you may want to consider.  It’s called the Nabi Jr, it’s a 5 inch Android tablet that comes with a thick rubber bumper to help protect it from drops and bounces.

Just like the PlayMG, what we really like about the Nabi Jr. is that it has built-in games already on the system that don’t require WiFi.  This is so incredibly helpful when you’re at a doctor’s office, running errands, or even on a plane.  But even more than games, the Nabi Jr. has a good number of books including 25 popular fairy tale books and 6 Nick Jr. books.  The Nabi Jr. even comes with 50 songs, all sung  by Laurie Berkner, an American children’s’ musical artist.  My son found her music right away and began playing it.  He noticed that you could play the music while you read a book or play games.

Nabi Jr

The Nabi Jr. Home screen is nice and simple.  Kids can play the Wings Challenge series of educational games (especially geared toward Preschoolers and Kindergarteners), Music, see their Chore list (we like this one!), take pictures on the camera, see the pictures taken with their Nabi Jr. camera, or read books in MeeGenius.  The Wings Challenge and Chore List need Mom’s assistance first with set up so she can assign profiles for each child and which grade level they are in…preschool, Kindergarten, etc as well as give chores to each child.  After this is done, both the Wings Challenge educational games and Chore List will be more personalized to your child.

There is also a small rectangular MENU button in the top middle to switch into Mommy Mode for parental controls and monitoring, to switch kid profiles – so each kid can have their own view on the Nabi Jr, to adjust settings, or for parents to add items to the chore list.  This menu is for the parents.

To the right are six small squares in a rectangle, pressing on this brings up all the games/apps loaded on the tablet.  All of the games/apps that pull up are included with the Nabi system and do not require WiFi.  There are many great toddler/preschool apps like number games, puzzles, games for learning Spanish, Zoo animals, telling time, drawing, first words, even Hangman.

This is a simple game with pictures of animals that make the noises according to the animal.  Great for babies and toddlers.

This is similar to the Animals game, only it highlights different vehicles and their sounds.

A fun color by the dots game.  The Nabi Jr has a good number of drawing and coloring games that are fun and engaging.  Kids can even learn how to draw things, like this game….

Kids of all ages would enjoy this learning to draw game.

This is a fun Jukebox, similar to the See and Say toys.  Touching one of the characters, brings up a dialog from a narrator and then a song that goes a long with the symbol.  Most of them recognizable.  There three different Toddler Jukeboxes available, including one that uses classical music and one that has songs in Spanish.

Hangman is always a favorite.  Kids can choose from categories such as Western, Clothes and Human Body, Fruits and Vegetables, Animals, or Misc.

Here is a selection of some of the 50 books already included on the Nabi Jr.  Some great books to read with your child or the book will read itself aloud.  You can also buy more if you’d like.

If your child is a fan of Team Umizoomi, Count It Up, or Dora, there are a number games to play with already on the Nabi Jr.  You can also watch some show clips or read some stories including Dora, Kai-Lan, Wonder Pets, and more.

But of course, one of the favorite items we like about the Nabi Jr. is the parental controls it offers.  Although Nabi Jr. is built on the Android platform and has similar menuing controls on some screens, it is really locked down.  Parents are able to sign in on the device and add apps, but the pay-for and free apps come from the Nabi App Zone, which have prescreened apps, adding any necessary warning signs (like advertising included, may suggest syncing with social websites, etc.).  Nabi has also categorized these apps by appropriate age level…all the way up to 15 years +.

The full Google Play Store is not available, though I have read that on the Nabi 2 tablet it is possible to download.  It may be possible on the Nabi Jr. too, but we weren’t’ able to verify that at press time.  Nonetheless, I downloaded about 15 new apps…all free….and they downloaded on the Nabi Jr. just fine.  You can even allow access to your child’s email account if you choose to do so.

Features:

• Built-in WiFi
• Bluetooth 3.0
• Includes a removable bumper case for accidental falls
• Dual core 1 GHz processor
• 4 GB storage – expandable up to 32 GB through micro SD
• 5 inch 800 x 400 multi-touch screen
• Built-in speakers and microphone
• 2 mega-pixel 180-degree rotatable camera for pics and 720p video
• Includes parental controls, web filtering and app management
• Pre-loaded with over 30 apps dedicated to reading, puzzles, counting, matching and first words

Pros:

• Nice price point
• Comes with over 30 apps pre-loaded on the tablet – that don’t need WiFi
• The Dropsafe bumper is very effective
• Expandable memory is always good
• Rotating camera lens is fun for kids
• Full Android tablet – allowing you to download any Android Play apps
• Built-in parental controls

Cons:

• Pictures taken on its 2 MP camera is not good for bigger screens like TV’s and PC’s, but is fine on the Nabi Jr.
• It is a bit heavy, nearly a pound, which is fine for a child, tougher on a mom’s shoulder when in her purse
• The writing in the books is very small, and you cannot enlarge the text
• We had trouble signing in to the parent controls account on the Nabi

The Nabi Jr sells is available in-store or online at Walmart for $99.

A Mom’s Perspective

At WellConnectedMom.com, we are often asked, which tablet is the best to buy for children.   Many people just want to buy a Kindle or a iPad mini or whatever is popular and be done with that.  Both of those are good options, however,  there are the downsides.  First of all, there is no built-in parental monitoring on either of these devices.  You don’t know how long they are spending on their tablet each week, what they are downloading, and all 1 million + apps are available for them to download, including Instagram, Facebook, Oovoo, etc.  These tablets do not provide your child with a protected environment.

Second, the Kindle, iPad mini, etc. do not have built-in games, which might not seem so bad since they can download apps…until you don’t have WiFi.  Without WiFi, your kids will not be able to watch movies, play games, send email, etc.  Other than change their tablet’s settings and look at their pictures, they will be limited if WiFi is not available.  Most likely, they’ll eye your phone with cellular service and try to nab it.  The Nabi Jr. has plenty of content to keep your younger child busy and with it’s Dropsafe bumper case, you can feel more secure in taking it on the road with you throughout your day.

As you scroll through its available apps, you will not see Facebook, Instagram, Skype, or even the Google Play store anywhere.  As your child begins to get bigger and you want to add some apps to their Nabi Jr. device, the Nabi Jr. has some short videos to show parents how to do this through their Mommy profile interface.

I called into Nabi Jr. support using the enclosed toll-free number they included in the box and found the Nabi customer service team to be most receptive.  I kept receiving an error that there was an error connecting to the server.  I found out this error message is a result of the sale of 300,000 new units being sold leading up to Christmas and the servers were bursting.  They have been working around the clock to add more servers to handle the load and it appears that they are making progress.  Pretty impressive sales for a great kids’ tablet.

Have you tried a Nabi Jr. or other kids tablet?  What do you like about them versus a regular tablet?