Today Amazon has unveiled two tablets aimed at kids, and they’re unsurprisingly called the Amazon Kids Tablets. They are available in 8.7″ and 11″ sizes, with two distinct models, one made for ages 3+, the other for ages 6+. The 8.7-inch tablet has 64GB of storage and its battery lasts for up to 14 hours of video playback, while the 11″ model has “a beautiful 2.5K display” and 8GB of RAM.
Every version runs Android and ships with a kid-proof case and a year of the Kids+ subscription, which features curated content from Disney, Nickelodeon, Lego, and Sesame Street, plus “parent-managed access to Google Play”, according to the official press release. After that free year, Kids+ costs $7.99 per month if you’re a Prime member, or $8.99 per month if you’re not.
The tablets come pre-installed with the Amazon Kids Parent Dashboard, which gives parents control over screen time, content filters, and activity monitoring, both on the tablet itself and also from your other devices since it’s available as an app you can download for iOS and Android.
The tablet intended for younger kids gets a soft bumper while the one for older kids has a slim hard case. The cases have “designs and characters kids love, from Paw Patrol and Barbie to SpongeBob SquarePants”. The content and experiences are tailored to the age of the child, and “as a child’s interests shift – from Bluey to Harry Potter, from coloring apps to homework tools – the experience evolves with them”.
There’s also an AI-powered “creative experience” called Storybuilder on board, which lets kids “use their voice to dream up characters, plot twists, and entire worlds – then watch their ideas turn into actual picture books and comic books they can share with their parents”. This feature is purpose-built for kids, with “guardrails that keep the experience age-appropriate and give parents confidence that their children are exploring safely”, Amazon says.
The Amazon Kids Tablets are available for pre-order now and will ship on October 14 in the US, Mexico, Canada, and Japan. They will land in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain on October 19. The 8-inch model starts at $229.99 and the 11-inch model starts at $329.99.