Which is Better, the Fire 7 Kids Edition or the nabi Elev-8?

The Fire 7 Kids Edition is Amazon’s latest tablet designed for children and the nabi Elev-8 is one of Fuhu’s, so how do they match up? First is the size; the Elev-8 is an 8″ tablet whilst the Fire 7 is only a 7″ (there is also the Fire 8 Kids Edition, which is similar enough that only its differences from the Fire 7 will be pointed out in this comparison; it, too has an 8″ screen). The resolution of the Fire 7’s screen is 1024×600 pixels (the Fire 8’s is 1280×800) compared to the 1280×800 of the Elev-8. Each tablet comes with a protective case intended to reduce the chances of damage if the tablet is dropped; that on the Fire 7 comes in blue, pink or yellow whilst that on the Elev-8 comes in nabi’s signature red.

Both tablets are Android tablets, although neither run a standard version of the operating system. The Fire 7 runs on Amazon’s offshoot of the Android OS, Fire OS, whilst the Elev-8, although running 5.1 Lollipop, also has nabi’s Blue Morpho Overlay to this, which contains over 400 tweaks intended to make the tablet more suitable for children. The Elev-8 has access to Google Play, but the Fire tablet does not (without extensive tweaking), with content being available through the Amazon Appstore instead.

The Fire 7 has a decent 16 gigabytes (GB) of internal memory but the Elev-8 has a more impressive 32 GB (as does the Fire 8). Both tablets come with memory card slots, with that on the Elev-8 taking cards up to 32 GB in size, pretty standard, but the Fire 7 taking cards up to a really substantial 256 GB. The Fire 7 has only a quad core processor whilst the Elev-9 has an octo core. Both tablets have WiFi and Bluetooth but the Elev-8 also has Near Field Communication. The Fire tablet has a standard micro USB port, but the Elev-8 comes with the non-standard custom nabi Connector instead, which does the same job but requires a custom cable.

Each tablet has a front and a rear facing camera. The front facing camera on the Fire 7 is a poor 0.3 megapixel (MP) resolution and the rear facing camera is an average 2.0 MP. Those on the Elev-8 are substantially better – 2.0 MP for the front facing camera and a whopping 5.0 MP for the rear. Each tablet has a 3.5mm headphone jack; the Fire 7 has a single speaker (the Fire 8 has Dolby ATMOS stereo) whilst the Elev-8 has stereo speakers.

Both tablets have parental controls provided by the company in question. Those on the Amazon tablet are through Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, a year’s subscription to which comes with the tablet. FreeTime Unlimited comes with a range of 13,000 television shows, films, games, ebooks and educational apps with unlimited use, aimed at children and divided into suitable age bands. FreeTime Unlimited also prevents general access to the internet for children.

The Fire 7 also comes with a two year “worry-free” guarantee, in which Amazon say that they will repair or replace a damaged tablet, even if the damage is accidental and not because the tablet is itself faulty. This is a big plus for parents.

The Fire 7 in most respects lags behind the Elev-8 from a technical standpoint; it has less memory, a quad core processor compared to a octo core, a single speaker as opposed to stereo and much poorer cameras. It does have much greater memory card capacity. The Fire 8 negates the memory and screen resolution advantages of the Elev-8,as well as having stereo speakers. The worry-free guarantee is a big plus in the Fire’s favour, and the year’s subscription to FreeTime Unlimited is a bonus – although after the subscription runs out, it will need paying for if the user wants to keep it. Both the Fire 7 Kids Edition and the Fire 8 Kids Edition are cheaper than the Elev-8. The nabi Elev-8 is a technically better tablet generally that the Fire 7, but it is also bigger (excluding the Fire 8), rather more expensive, does not have the same guarantee and lacks the included content.