Fuhu Nabi Kids Tablet

With tablets?finding their way into more and more households, there is a sensible need for a child-friendly solution. For most, giving your child free rein over an expensive device like the iPad 2?($499-$829, 4.5 stars) may not be the best idea. Not only are parents afraid of damage to their precious pads, but they should also be concerned about exposure to inappropriate content. That's where Fuhu's Nabi Kids Tablet ($199.99, sold exclusively at Toys R Us) steps in. The 7-inch? tablet features two distinct Android environments; one sheltered interface catering to kids and one nearly full featured, traditional Android interface. The Nabi is not a toy, but it is also not quite a tablet either. It packs a collection of pre-loaded apps and content, and a customizable child-safe interface, in a tablet that comes with a thick rubber bumper. But some problems with functionality and responsiveness hold the Nabi tablet back.??

Design and Display
The first thing you will notice about the Nabi is its striking red, oversized rubber bumper. This thing is really solid and looks like it could withstand most anything a child might throw at it (or throw it at). But the bumper isn't integrated into the tablet; it's just a peel-off gel case. It's too easily removable and doesn't make the tablet waterproof. It does offer solid drop protection, but it also makes the Power and Volume buttons difficult to press.

Under the rubber bumper is an unassuming white plastic slab. Together with the bumper, the Nabi measures 10.6 by 7.7 by 3.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.2 pounds; bigger and heavier than the Kindle Fire?($199, 4 stars) at 7.5 by 4.7 by .45 inches (HWD) and 14.6 ounces, but far better equipped for the rigors of playtime. The Nabi sports a 7-inch, 800-by-480-pixel TFT display, a low resolution you're more likely to find on a phone than a tablet. It's an upgrade over child-oriented tablets like the LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer's ($99, 4.5 stars) 480-by-272-pixel display, but not as nice as the 1,024-by-600 screens on high-quality 7-inch tablets like the the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet?($249, 4 stars). The screen is bright, and viewing angles are pretty narrow. The biggest problem with the Nabi's display is unresponsiveness. In my tests, it often took multiple touches to get the desired response. This was while navigating through the tablet's interface, and playing games like Cut the Rope.

The tablet is equipped with a mini HDMI port, so you can connect it to an HDTV for playback, and a front-facing camera. For connectivity, there's 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

OS, Apps, Performance
The real draw of the Nabi Kids Tablet is the kids-only interface it lays on top of the now-obsolete Android 2.2. Kidz Mode is a child-safe, stripped-down environment that basically consists of oversized app icons, as well as shortcuts to Nabi's child-friendly Web and multimedia content. Any parent worried about what kind of trouble their kids can get into will appreciate the walled-off nature of Kidz Mode.

Parents can customize what apps appear in Kidz Mode, deciding for themselves what is or is not appropriate for their child. The tablet comes preloaded with games, educational apps, and childrens' books and videos. You get Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, 30 preloaded childrens' books with audio tracks for reading along, and Fooz Kids University, which is math training software for elementary schoolers. Kidz Mode also features a section of kid-safe Web shortcuts to third-party sites like Cartoon Network.

Though the browser supports Flash, which is used heavily in the third-party websites, the games and content didn't work very well on the Nabi in my tests. The sites were clearly meant to be enjoyed on a real computer, with little mobile, let alone tablet, optimization. For instance, one Cartoon Network link leads to a Flash-based game, which loads properly, but requires keyboard and mouse controls to work, which the Nabi lacks.

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