Photo by Anton Olsen of Kurio Tablet with a Kindle Fire.
If you’re in the market for a capable kid-friendly tablet, the Kurio might fit the bill, and the pocket book. Selling now at a very competitive $149, the little 7″ tablet has enough power to satisfy any casual user and an easy to use parental system. Sans bumper it is about the same size and weight as the Kindle Fire, and includes two cameras and a micro SD card slot.
I’ve been using one now for a couple weeks and I’ve been very happy with both features and performance. The controls are responsive and the custom user interface, while not as slick as stock Ice Cream Sandwich, is quite usable, and kid friendly. When the tablet is locked, the interface presents an icon for each child. Accounts can be time limited and password protected. It is also possible to bypass the Kurio interface and go straight to a stock ICS interface, though without the Google apps like GMail.
The content filter is useful, though a bit conservative in my opinion. Settings are adjustable and while I was able to find search terms to bypass the filter with some creative use of synonyms, it wasn’t easy. Sites can easily be white-listed if you run into too may blocked pages, and the filter can be lifted entirely if you’re willing to give your children free access to the internet.
Specifications for the tablet are respectable with a 1Ghz processor, 800×480 capacitive touch LCD, two cameras, microphone, HDMI out, and a micro SD slot. Internal memory is limited to 4GB, but SD cards are cheap so I don’t think it would affect how I use the device. The kids enjoyed hooking it up to the TV and sharing some YouTube videos with the family. The Kurio ships with full versions of some popular tablet games including Angry Birds, World of Goo, Doodle Jump, Where’s My Water, Cut the Rope, and more.
The soft silicon rubber bumper skin gives the tablet some drop protection while not looking too childlike. I didn’t feel silly using it in public with the case on. The Kurio ships with the bumper, but replacements and a few other accessories are available for purchase.
I only have one significant complaint about the tablet. When navigating through the settings, it is often necessary to hit OK to close the keyboard popup, then hit a different OK to actually save the settings. Ditto for the cancel button.
Wired: Durable little tablet with a kid-friendly interface. Comes pre-loaded with some great games. Parental controls are easy to set up.
Tired: The user interface has a few annoying quirks.
You can find out more at Kurio World, or pick one up at Toys R Us for $150.
