The Tagital 7″ T7K is essentially a children’s version of the Tagital 7 tablet. This is a 7″ tablet which has a touchscreen with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. The tablet comes with a soft protective silicone bumper, intended to reduce the chance of the tablet being damaged if it is dropped, and which comes in two colours, pink and blue. The T7K is an Android tablet, running 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box.
The T7K has 8 gigabytes (GB) of internal memory and a micro SD memory card slot which will take memory cards up to 32 GB in size, increasing the available storage for certain files; external storage is most suited for storing user-created and downloaded content on, as the internal storage is required for the OS and at least some of every app. The tablet has two cameras, a 0.3 megapixel (MP) front facing camera and a 2.0 MP rear facing one.
The tablet comes with the essential WiFi but does not come with Bluetooth. It has a micro USB port, used to connect the tablet to other devices, such as laptop and desktop computers, as well as for charging the tablet. The battery has an estimated life of four hours, although this does depend on the usage; battery life can be highly variable. It also has a single speaker, a 3.5mm headphone jack and an integral microphone. The T7K has a quad core processor, which is now becoming the minimum in children’s tablets, although some can still be found with only dual core processors.
The screen resolution of 1024×600 pixels is a bit below average nowadays for a children’s tablet; although not many tablets have lower screen resolutions, many do have higher ones. The internal memory, at only 8 GB, is also now a bit on the low side. Even though it is still quite common to see children’s tablets with 8GB of internal storage, 16 GB is becoming both more common and more necessary. The memory card size of 32 GB is also pretty typical, common to the vast majority of children’s tablets. The camera resolutions are not that impressive; 0.3 MP is pretty poor for a front-facing camera, not really of any use for anything but videochatting, and the 2.0 MP rear facing camera is, at best, at the bottom end of typical. The processors is fairly typical and, although it is becoming more common, Bluetooth is still unusual in a child’s tablet, so its lack may not be significant.
Does the Tagital 7″ T7K Come With Parental Controls?
Being able to control just what their children can and can’t do and see on the internet is a matter of importance to parents, as is being able to control just how much time a child is spending on their tablet. Even if a tablet is purchased to be used as an educational device, there are limits to how much time parents want their children to spend on it.
The Tagital T7K comes with parental controls through the Zoodles app. Zoodles comes with a selection of learning apps, videos and books, which according to them are found and selected by educators. Children are unable to leave the safe area provided by Zoodles for the rest of the internet without parental permission. Parents can customise their child’s experience though the parent’s dashboard and Zoodles will also sync across multiple devices, allowing a child to have the same experience on different devices. It should be noted that although some features of Zoodles are free, some are also premium.
Parents can invite friends and family to connect with their child using Zoodles by adding them through the parent’s dashboard. Parents are the ones who choose who can interact with their children in this way. parents can also add regular Android apps to their child’s account – the games included with Zoodles will not work on every device.
Can Children Play Games on the Tagital T7K?
Even though educational uses may be a prime reason for parents wanting to buy children a tablet, games and other recreational uses will no doubt come up at some point as well. Perhaps as a reward for fulfilling an educational target, or perhaps for doing something offline. Whatever the reason, being able to play games can be useful.
The Zoodles app, which is what the parental controls are through, comes with some educational games. In addition, with the T7K being an Android tablet with access to Google Play, parents can also, through the parental controls, download and install games onto the tablet, and allow their children to use them. This means that children can have games, but the parent still maintains control over what games they can play.
Does the Tagital T7K Have Any Educational Uses?
The previously mentioned Zoodles app, which runs the T7K’s parental controls, has a fair amount of educational content selected by experts included; apps, videos and books. There are Zoodles Storybooks, which allows parents (or others) to record themselves reading a story and then allow the child to watch it back. Storybooks are a premium feature, with one included for free. Through the Parent’s Dashboard on the Zoodles site, parents can see how their child is progressing and customise the educational experience. Some of the Zoodles features are premium ones which may well need paying for though.
As well as the included content on Zoodles, the T7K is an Android tablet with access to Google Play. This means that a parent can download contents and apps from that appstore, which includes educational material. Both free and paid content is available to download and parents can then approve content for their child’s use using the Parent Dashboard. Children, due to the parental controls, cannot download content themselves.
Can Children Videochat on the Tagital T7K?
With the T7K having access to Google Play, apps such as Skype can be installed on it, and approved by parents, allowing children to chat with distant family over the internet, and the front facing camera is really only suitable for such.
Using the Zoodles app, children can also be sent video messages by approved people. Although friends and family can ask to be allowed to send video mails to children, they can only actually do so once the parent has approved this through the parental controls.
Summing Up the Tagital T7K
The Tagital T7K is an inexpensive tablet and it does seem to be that you get what you pay for in its case. This is definitely a budget tablet; the camera resolutions are not so great now, nor is the battery life, which will limit the ability to use the tablet away from sources of power. The Android version installed on the T7K out of the box, even though still widely used, is a bit outdated. At 8 GB, the internal memory is now on the low side; many children’s tablets do still have only this much memory, but larger memories are now becoming more common. The memory card capacity, at 32 GB, is the same as is seen in almost all children’s tablets.
The screen resolution is also now on the low end of typical; again, it is still a common resolution in children’s tablets but higher resolutions are becoming increasingly common. The quad core processor is pretty standard; most children’s tablets now sport a quad core processor with only a handful of older designs only having dual core. Processors with more cores are highly unusual. The listed battery life, even though such is highly variable, is fairly low, decreasing the utility of the tablet away from power sources. Not having Bluetooth is not a huge problem; for children’s tablets Bluetooth is still more of a nice extra than an essential.
The Tagital T7K is certainly not one of the best tablets around, as there are more than a few that have much better technical capabilities. What the T7K is is a budget tablet; it’s quite cheap to purchase, definitely at the lower end of the price range seen in children’s tablets, and is perhaps best suited as an entry level tablet for a younger child.
Find out more about the Tagital 7″ T7K.