Our Review of the nabi DreamTab

The nabi DreamTab from Fuhu is an 8″ children’s tablet with a 1920×1200 pixel resolution touchscreen. The tablet comes with a protective silicone bumper in nabi’s signature red with strengthened corners intended to reduce the chance of damage if the tablet is dropped. The bumper is reinforced at the corners, where tablets are their weakest, and has the appropriate cut-outs for the various ports, controls and cameras. The bumper comes in one colour, nabi’s signature red. The DreamTab is an Android tablet, running 4.4 KitKat.

The DreamTab comes with 16 gigabytes (GB) of internal memory and has a micro SD card slot which will take memory cards up to 32 GB. It has two integral cameras, a 2.0 megapixel (MP) front facing camera and a 5.0 MP rear facing one.

The tablet comes with the essential WiFi, the less necessary but useful Bluetooth, 4.0, and the extremely rare in children’s tablets Near Field Communication (NFC). Bluetooth allows the tablet to wirelessly connect to other Bluetooth-enabled devices, such as speakers and other tablets or phones. NFC is a very short range communication method that is used in contactless payments, and will allow secure communication between two NFC-enabled devices that are a few centimetres apart. It is generally only seen in nabi’s tablets when it comes to children’s tablets.

The DreamTab has stereo speakers, a custom nabi Connector for connecting to other devices, which functions as a micro USB port and HDMI but needs a custom cable, a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a built-in microphone. The tablet comes with a quad-core processor, which is fairly standard for a child’s tablet, although older ones may only have a dual -ore. It comes with 2 GB of RAM, whereas many tablets only come with 1 GB.

The DreamTab’s screen resolution, at 1920×1200 pixels is high, even for an 8″ tablet – larger tablets tend to have higher screen resolutions anyway. The resolution of the cameras is above average; many children’s tablets still have a front-facing camera resolution less than 2.0 MP and the best are typically the same. At 5.0 MP resolution for the rear facing camera, this is higher than the cast majority of children’s tablets. The 16 GB of internal memory is becoming more standard in children’s tablets but the 2 GB of internal RAM is higher than most. Being able to take memory cards up to 32 GB in size is also pretty standard. The nabi Connector is a bit of a pain, as it requires a custom cable, unlike a more typical micro USB port. This means that should there be problems with the cable, a new one will need getting, rather than being able to use a standard cable seen in many devices.

Does the nabi DreamTab have any Parental Controls?

It is important for parents to be able to control just what their children are doing with their tablet, and the DreamTab comes with a number of features that can help with this.

To start with, the tablet has two modes, nabi Mode, which is for children, and the password protected Mommy/Daddy Mode, for parents. In nabi Mode, children have access to anything parent-approved, such as websites, apps, games and content.

In Mommy/Daddy Mode, parents can control just what their children have access to and do. Parents can add apps and content from Google Play and the Amazon Appstore, and then allow children to have access to these in nabi Mode. such content will not be available to children unless the parent allows access.

Parents can also limit and monitor the amount of time that their children spend on the tablet using the time controls. The DreamTab’s time controls allow parents to control the amount of time that children spend on individual apps, app groups and the tablet. Parents can also set mandatory exercise times, when the tablet will not work. Rewards for performing well in educational material can be given, allowing a child to spend more time on other apps.

The controls function in a friendly way as well. Rather than simply switching the tablet off, an animation appears telling the child that they need to do something else.

Can Children Play Games on the nabi DreamTab?

Even if educational use is the primary reason for getting a tablet, entertainment, such as the ability to play games, can also be required. Some games are educational and others could be used as rewards for educational achievements. The DreamTab can install games from a number of different sources. It can use what are probably the two largest Android app stores, Google Play and the Amazon Appstore, although these can only be installed through the parental controls and then approved for use by children in nabi Mode by parents. Games can also be obtained by children from nabi’s curated App Zone and Treasure Chest.

What are the Treasure Box, nabi Coins and the Chore List?

nabi Coins are a digital currency that are purchased by the parent in Mommy/Daddy Mode with real money which the parent can then award to children for achieving educational goals or completing tasks in the Chore List. Children can then redeem these Coins in the Treasure Box, nabi’s curated app store which has a selection of child-friendly apps, games, TV programmes and films. nabi Coins allow children to be rewarded for doing things without them being given real money, and the rewards can only be spent on child-friendly content.

What is the Dream Pen?

The DreamTab comes with a digital stylus called the Dream Pen. This is a pressure sensitive digital stylus that can be used for drawing on the tablet, and is especially intended for use with the Dream Pro Studio suite. The Dream Pen is more advanced than a regular stylus and has something called palm rejection. Palm rejection means that the tablet won’t register the user’s palm resting on the tablet when drawing. This is useful, as it reduces the chance of errors and it also makes it far more comfortable to write and draw with the Dream Pen than it would be with a stylus that required the hand to be kept off the tablet.

What is Dream Pro Studio?

The DreamTab comes with a pre-installed software package called Dream Pro Studio. This is a suite of four related artistic apps, and the Dream Pen is specifically designed for use with them.

Dream Pro Draw is the drawing app, an art program that allows children to create their own designs. Children have access to a wide range of digital writing materials in the app. These include stickers, crayons, colour pencils, markers, roller pens and paintbrushes, each of which functions like its regular counterpart – only without the mess or drawn-on walls.

Dream Pro Animator is software that allows children to create their own animations from their sketches.

Dream Pro Editor is movie editing software. It allows children to edit their own footage, add effects to their movies and then publish the finished product.

Dream Pro Publisher is a tool that allows children to create and illustrate their own storybooks and then publish them.

Does the DreamTab Have Any Educational Uses?

Educational reasons are often given as a primary motive for parents buying their children a tablet. The DreamTab definitely has a range of educational uses. The primary one is through nabi’s own Wings Learning System. This comes with 300,000 questions and 16,000 lessons that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards, this being an educational initiative of the United States. The Wings system consists of four main apps.

Wings Explorer is a reading, maths and writing app, that allows children to practice and learn the basics of these. As children pass key fundamentals and topics they can advance to the next grade.

Wings Creativity Island is intended to nurture a child’s creative skills, through the use of video tutorials and lessons from DreamWorks animators on drawing different DreamWorks characters.

Wings Classroom is also video based, and has various teachers who will teach core concepts and can provide feedback on questions that are answered incorrectly.

Finally, Wings N-Site is for parents. This part of the Wings system provides grade based assessments on how their children are doing with their educational tasks and will also recommend how to improve on any problem areas.

Parents can monitor their child’s educational progress using Wings and reward them for completing educational goals. Rewards can be such as extra time on the games, using the time controls, or giving them nabi Coins.

As well as the Wings Learning System, other educational material can, of course, be utilised by downloading apps from such as the Amazon Appstore and Google Play and by visiting educational sites on the internet.

What are nabi Konnect and nabi Friends?

Social media can be a source of worry for parents and nabi Konnect provides a safe social media experience for children, one which parents can monitor. nabi Friends is a parent-approved list of people that children can correspond with. nabi Konnect itself has three parts.

nabi Chat is an instant messaging app for children, but the only people they can send messages and emoticons to are those on the approved nabi Friends list. Those who lack a nabi tablet can still interact with children using nabi Chat by downloading and installing the free nabigator app that is available for iOS and Android. They will still need to be on the nabi Friends list.

nabi Email is an email app that allows children to draw, paint or send pictures to anyone in their approved contacts.

nabi Photo allows children to take photos using the DreamTab’s cameras and edit and personalise them and send them to anyone in their nabi Friends network. Parents can also monitor this activity in real time.

Summing Up the nabi DreamTab

The DreamTab has, at 16 GB, a decent amount of internal memory, being equal or better than the vast majority of children’s tablets. Very few have more than this, and internal memory is very important, as not everything can be stored on an external memory card. The memory card slot is fairly standard for a child’s tablet, for those tablets that have one, taking cards up to 32 GB. The internal RAM of 2 GB is also more than typical.

The screen resolution of the tablet is on the high end, with few having greater resolution. Admittedly, the tablet is also slightly larger than the more common child’s tablet. The camera resolutions of the tablet are good to excellent; 2.0 MP for a front facing camera is still above average, as few have more than that. At 5.0 MP resolution, the rear facing camera is almost unequalled in a children’s tablet.

Perhaps the biggest drawback of the tablet is the nabi Connector; this being a custom connector is more inconvenient than a standard micro USB port. Most households will probably have at least one spare micro USB cable lying around, as it’s pretty standard across Android devices, and some others. A custom cable is unlikely to be available unless specifically purchased. As long as there aren’t any problems with the cable, this is fine, but a faulty cable will require a replacement ordering, rather than being able to use a space cable from another device. A minor problem might be the tablet being larger than the typical 7″, but this is definitely minor.

The nabi DreamTab has a decent specification in most respects and comes with good parental controls and a decent amount of included software.

Find out more about the nabi DreamTab.