Tablet Recommendation

Xaquin

I'm looking to buy an inexpensive tablet for my son to play minecraft on. I've been trying to read through amazon reviews, but many of them are a tad misleading. All it needs to do is play minecraft, connect to wifi, and have parental controls (and preferably play youtube videos)

recommend on please!

wunderbar

If you're in the US, the Amazon Fire Tablets are generally the go to for that. the new 8" Fire tablet is $80, the 10" one is $150. Heck if you go *really* small, the 7" one is only $50. I think those come with lock screen ads that you can get rid of for an additional $15 if you want.

a quick search says the amazon appstore has Minecraft so you're set there. and the fire tablets do come with parental control support. It doesn't have a native youtube app though. The two solutions are using the browser, or doing a bit of work to get the play store installed on it, which you can then load the youtube app.

Synthesis

Seconding Amazon Fire. For a really cheap price point, not only are you saying money compared to other non-terrible Android tablets, you get a much more intuitive, better-thought-out UI than most other Android tablets.

Performance won't be great, but your son probably won't even notice. And you could get 4 of them for the price of a non-terrible iPad which would handle Minecraft more smoothly.

Xaquin

I was leaning towards the 80 dollar amazon, so I'm glad to hear it works well

Thanks!

Hopefully he'll like minecraft pocket or whatever version it is

Alistair Hutton

Amazon fire doesn't have a YouTube app. The only way to get YouTube is via the browser.

Greenish

Technically a Fire doesn't have a Youtube app but its still an Android device and you can install the Google Play Store manually without any kind of "hacking". It simply involves installing a few Google application packages in a specific order. From there you can install Youtube or any of the other Google Play apps without any problem. I just did this to get Youtube Kids on my son's Fire HD 8 Kid's Edition tablet.

Xaquin

Man, you can't even set this piece of crap up without wifi!

Also, apparently you can't access downloaded apps without wifi either

Wish I'd read the fine print.

So as a caution to everyone else, don't bother getting this thing unless you have good wifi and never want to take it on vacation because it's nothing but a shitty paperweight without a constant wifi signal

a5ehren

I mean, yeah? It's a tablet. I can't think of any that work well without an internet connection.

wunderbar

This is surprising? disconnect any computer/device from the internet for a day, and see how useful they are. Except for like, Microsoft office at work, I cannot think of a single thing I do on any computer/device that isn't at least partially dependent on an internet connection.

Capt Howdy

You can use apps without wifi, but you obviously need connectivity to get the first. I have a video player installed on my youngest's Fire. We just ripped a bunch of his favorite DVD's and tossed them on the memory card.

Xaquin

wunderbar wrote: »

This is surprising? disconnect any computer/device from the internet for a day, and see how useful they are. Except for like, Microsoft office at work, I cannot think of a single thing I do on any computer/device that isn't at least partially dependent on an internet connection.

It is!

I can play games on my laptop, phone, PC, and every console and handheld I own without wifi. Except on steam I guess though I've never tried without.

Capt Howdy wrote: »

You can use apps without wifi, but you obviously need connectivity to get the first. I have a video player installed on my youngest's Fire. We just ripped a bunch of his favorite DVD's and tossed them on the memory card.

I downloaded and installed a couple, but can not start them up without wifi.

Capt Howdy

Xaquin wrote: »

wunderbar wrote: »

This is surprising? disconnect any computer/device from the internet for a day, and see how useful they are. Except for like, Microsoft office at work, I cannot think of a single thing I do on any computer/device that isn't at least partially dependent on an internet connection.

It is!

I can play games on my laptop, phone, PC, and every console and handheld I own without wifi. Except on steam I guess though I've never tried without.

Capt Howdy wrote: »

You can use apps without wifi, but you obviously need connectivity to get the first. I have a video player installed on my youngest's Fire. We just ripped a bunch of his favorite DVD's and tossed them on the memory card.

I downloaded and installed a couple, but can not start them up without wifi.

Certain apps might require Wi-Fi, but rest assured not all of them. Pretty sure Angry Birds Star Wars is safe.

Edit - If I had seen this post earlier, I'd have recommended the Nvidia Shield tablet. Got one for my oldest last year or the year before and it is still awesome. The youngest keeps snagging it, so it's sturdy to boot.

Xaquin

We have wifi, it's just not great. I'm more disappointed that I can't even create a profile without being on wifi. That seems extreme and unnecessary.

Capt Howdy

Its annoying as hell, but it does make it easier when your kid breaks it and Amazon sends you a new one. (The warranty support has been top notch)

wunderbar

Yea, it very much depends on the app. There are of course examples of things that work offline, but not everything does. a lot of apps, even if they'll run, probably won't have full functionality without wifi.

Connectivity is just assumed these days.

Xaquin

I'm an old =(

this is the first time I've really really been unable to fathom a piece of technology and immediately thought 'BACK IN MY DAY'

I guess I can take some solace in being right though