The nabi Elev-8 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab E Lite Kids are both Android tablets designed for children, so how do the two compare? The nabi tablet has an 8″ touchscreen whilst the Samsung comes in the more typical 7″. The resolution of the Elev-8 is 1280×800 pixels, a higher resolution than the 1024×600 pixels of the Samsung. Each tablet comes with a removable protective bumper intended to reduce the chances of damage if the tablet is dropped. Each bumper only comes in one colour, pale green for the Samsung and nabi’s standard red for the Elev-8.
They are both Android tablets, with the Samsung running 4.4 KitKat and the Elev-8 running the more recent 5.1 Lollipop. Each has access to Google Play and the entire Android content ecosystem. The Samsung tablet comes with a fairly typical 8 gigabytes (GB) of internal memory which the nabi comes with four times this, with 32 GB. Each also has a memory card slot which will take microSD cards up to 32 GB in size. The Samsung also has a fairly standard quad core processor, whilst the nabi comes with an octo core.
The Samsung has a single, rear facing 2.0 megapixel (MP) camera whilst the nabi comes with two cameras; a front facing 2.0 MP and a rear facing 5.0 MP. The Samsung has a single speaker whilst the Elev-8 has dual speakers. Each has a headphone jack and a microphone, and both come with WiFi and Bluetooth, but the Elev-8 also comes with Near Field Communication (NFC), a fairly uncommon item on children’s tablets. The Samsung comes with a standard micro USB port whilst the nabi comes with the more inconvenient custom nabi Connector.
Each comes with parental controls by the manufacturer, with those on the Samsung being linked to the subscription-based Samsung Kids. Both tablets can be used as regular Android tablets outside of the children’s mode by adults.
Each tablet does have educational uses, but those on the nabi are probably greater, linked to the Blue Morpho OS overlay.
Technically, the tablets are quite dissimilar, with the Elev-8 beating the Samsung in almost every way. The processor is more powerful, the internal memory is much higher, it has the additional communication option of NFC, there are two cameras rather than one and the primary camera has a much higher resolution and the screen, as well as being bigger, also has a higher resolution. The nabi Connector is a disadvantage, as it requires the purchase of custom cables should an existing one break; tablets using a standard micro USB cable can simply scavenge one from another device. Overall, the nabi Elev-8 is a far superior tablet although it may be larger than is preferred for a children’s tablet.