Our Review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab E Lite Kids

The Samsung Galaxy Tab E Lite Kids is a 7″ tablet designed for children from Samsung, a variant of their Galaxy Tab E Lite which itself is a variant on the Galaxy Tab E. The 7″ touchscreen has a 1024×600 pixel resolution and the tablet comes with a protective bumper which is intended to reduce the likelihood of damage if, and perhaps when, the tablet is dropped. The bumper only comes in one colour, a pale green, with various cut-outs in it for the various ports and camera. This is an Android tablet which runs 4.4 KitKat out of the box.

The Samsung comes with 8 gigabytes (GB) of internal memory and has a microSD memory card slot which will take memory cards up to 32GB in size. There is a single rear facing 2.0 megapixel camera, but no front facing one. The tablet comes with WiFi for connecting to the internet, and it also comes with Bluetooth, something which is more uncommon in children’s tablets. It has a micro USB port for charging and connecting to other devices, including desktop and laptop computers. The Samsung also has a microphone, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a single speaker.

In terms of processor power, it has a 1.3GHz quad core processor. Quad core processors are becoming more common as the power of tablets, including those designed for children, increases. The RAM of the tablet is 1GB, which is fairly standard for a decent tablet.

The tablet comes with a free three months subscription to Samsung Kids, which includes a number of apps and educational content from companies such as Dreamworks Animation, National Geographic and Sesame Street. As well as the content available on subscription, the Samsung can also access apps and other content through Google Play, giving it access to hundreds of thousands of apps and content.

The screen resolution, at 1024×600, is at the low end of typical in current children’s tablets. Many tablets have a higher screen resolution but not many have one that is lower. However, this is still adequate for the majority of uses to which the tablet will be put, and a minor increase in resolution is harder to notice on a small screen. The internal memory is also fairly typical, at 8GB, although this is also on the low end of typical, with many tablets, especially those intended for adults but also some intended for children, having more memory. A memory card, if one is purchased, allows this memory to be expanded, but this external memory is most suited for such as photographs and videos. Using a memory card for such does increase the available storage on the tablet’s internal memory.

The camera, at a 2.0MP resolution, is fairly typical, with most children’s tablets having a primary camera resolution at that or slightly higher. However, it lacks a second camera, or one that is front facing, which is a bit more limiting. The micro USB charging port is found on the vast majority of tablets that don’t use a custom port. The battery life looks to be above average although, as with all devices of this type, how long the battery lasts does depend on what use it is put to; some activities use up the battery faster than others. Only having one colour available for the bumper may be limiting, but this isn’t the only tablet where this is the case.

Does the Samsung Galaxy Tab E Lite Kids Have Any Parental Controls?

Parents often don’t want to give their children unrestricted access to everything the internet has to offer, and rightly so. Parental controls help restrict this, as well as restrict the amount of time children spend on their tablets – even if a tablet is primarily bought for educational reasons, a child shouldn’t be on it the entire time – and on which types of apps. The subscription based Samsung Kids service helps parents monitor what their children are doing online, restricts the time they spend on the tablet and certain app types, and also allows their educational progress to be measured. Parents can also restrict micro transactions, to stop unexpected bills caused by a child purchasing items within apps.

Does the Samsung Galaxy Tab E Lite Kids Have Any Educational Uses?

Through the subscription based Samsung Kids service, which comes with three months included, there are hundreds of educational apps from such as National Geographic, Dreamworks Animation and Sesame Street. These apps adapt and grow with children, and parents can also keep track of just how their children are progressing in their tablet-based education.

Apart from the Samsung Kids apps, other Android apps are intended for educational use. These can be downloaded from Google’s Play Store. Some of these will be available for free whilst others will need purchasing. Although these are not integrated to the same extent, there is still a lot of decent content available for free and for minor amounts of money.

Can You Play Games on the Samsung Galaxy Tab E Lite Kids?

Although educational uses may be a primary purchasing point for a tablet, at some point games are more than likely going to be wanted as well. Through the subscription-based Samsung Kids, there is educational and entertainment content included with the tablet. For apps that are primarily for entertainment rather than any educational use, there is of course Google’s Play Store, from which hundreds of thousands of apps – not all of them suitable for children of course – can be downloaded, many for free.

Summing Up the Samsung Galaxy Tab E Lite Kids

The screen resolution of the tablet is on the lower end of typical; many tablets do still use this resolution, but many do have higher resolutions whilst not that many still use lower ones. Similarly, the camera resolution is also on the low end of typical, although not many tablets have resolutions for their primary camera that are either significantly better or significantly worse than this. A bigger concern with the camera is that it lacks a front facing camera. Single cameras are not that unusual in children’s tablets, but it’s more common to have a front facing one and only having a rear facing camera pretty much rules out being able to video chat on the tablet – at least, if you want to be able to both see the person being chatted to and for them to see you as well; it’s an either/or case.

The guarantee included with the tablet would appear to be the standard Samsung guarantee, rather than one that is primarily aimed at children, such as Amazon’s “worry-free” guarantee that they ship with the Kindle Fire Kids. The battery life – an area that is a regular concern with modern mobile technology – would appear to be above average. This was of course under laboratory conditions and what the tablet is being used for will make a substantial difference. Still, the stated life is higher than most other tablets which would have been tested in similar conditions.

The tablet is generally pretty typical for a middle of the range children’s tablet, although the price does tend to be quite a bit higher than many of its competitor tablets. Perhaps the primary benefit of the Samsung Galaxy Tab E Lite Kids is that it is manufactured by the company that is probably the biggest player in the Android marketplace with many different Android-capable devices.

Find more details on the Samsung Galaxy Tab E Lite Kids here.