Tablet Comparison: Which is Better, the Fire 7 Kids Edition or the Samsung Galaxy Tab E Lite Kids?

The Fire 7 Kids Edition is the latest tablet designed for children from Amazon, based on their popular Fire tablet, and the Galaxy Tab E Lite Kids is a Samsung tablet designed for children based on their Galaxy Tab E, so how do the two tablets compare? The Fire 8 Kids Edition has many similarities to the Fire 7, so for the purposes of this comparison only the differences between those two will be noted. The Fire 7 and the Tab E Lite Kids are both 7″ tablets (the Fire 8 is an 8″). The Fire 7 has a screen resolution of 1024×600 pixels, as does the Samsung tablet (the Fire 8 has a resolution of 1280×800 pixels). Each comes with a protective case intended to reduce the chance of the tablet being damaged if it is dropped; the Fire 7’s case comes in blue, pink or yellow whilst the Samsung’s case only comes in pale green.

Both tablets are Android tablets with the Tab E Lite Kids running 4.4 KitKat out of the box. However, the Fire 7 Kids does not run the ordinary Android OS, instead running on Amazon’s own offshoot of it, Fire OS. The Samsung tablet has access to Google Play; the Fire 7 cannot, without extensive tweaking, instead getting content from the Amazon Appstore.

The Fire 7 comes with 16 gigabytes (GB) of memory, double the 8GB of the Samsung (the Fire 8 has 32 GB, quadruple the memory of the Tab E Lite Kids). Each has a memory card slot, with that of the Samsung taking cards up to 32 GB in size whilst that of the Fire 7 will take memory cards up to 256 GB, substantially more. Both tablets have quad core processors, WiFi and Bluetooth. Each has a standard micro USB port for charging and connecting physically to other devices.

The Fire 7 has two cameras, a front facing 0.3 megapixel (MP) camera and a rear facing 2.0 MP one. The Samsung has only a single camera, a 2.0 MP rear facing one. Both tablets have a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a single speaker (the Fire 8 has dual speakers with Dolby ATMOS stereo).

Both tablets have parental controls provided by the respective companies. Those on the Fire 7 are through the subscription based Amazon FreeTime Unlimited (one year’s subscription included), which provides access to over 13,000 television shows, films, games, ebooks and educational apps. Those on the Samsung are through the also subscription-based Samsung Kids, which also provides access to apps, educational content, games and other material.

The Amazon tablet comes with Amazon’s “worry-free” guarantee, a two year guarantee under which Amazon say they will replace or repair a damaged, including accidental damage, or faulty tablet. This is good for parents. Samsung do not have a similar guarantee.

Technically, the Fire 7 is either equal to or better than the Samsung, with more internal memory, more memory card capacity and another camera. Screen resolution is the same (but that on the Fire 8 Kids is better, and the internal memory is even greater). The parental controls and subscription based content are in many respects very similar. The Samsung Tab E Lite Kids tends to be a similar price to the Fire 7 (but cheaper than the Fire 8), but it’s around the same price for a tablet that is perhaps slightly inferior, making the Fire 7 Kids Edition look like a better purchase.