Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 stars12th Generation (2022) Version is almost perfect
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2023
So I only just got this and thought I'd share my initial review and hopefully answer questions that others might have that has been difficult to find answers for.
Size differences
As most have already seen, this version is different from the previous in shape and size, yes it is slightly smaller. For most users who had the previous version, the kicker is that your covers and cases etc. are no longer compatible.
Also the Charger uses USB-C plug also which is different from the previous versions.
In terms of performance
This is night and day in comparison to the older versions. The older version was slick when it first came out but like most people know, the FireOS is basically Android and as more and more updates have been applied, the older version is now running really slow. So basically this new version hardware was tailored for the today's version of android thus it runs very fast and very slick, this is a very crucial issue.
NO YOUTUBE KIDS APP
The biggest issue anyone will encounter and is well known about is that this does not have the Google Play Store or accompanying services. That means that IT DOES NOT HAVE THE NATIVE YOUTUBE KIDS APP.
There are many people on here that simply either don't understand what a native app is or simply confuse it with the main Youtube. I myself had multiple answers that failed to answer this basic question with multiple contradictory answers or reviews that failed to understand the question.
Amazon FIRE tablets DO NOT HAVE YOUTUBE KIDS Apps. Amazon has their own Youtube.com app which it seems they created as the developer email address for that app is an amazon.com email address. When you click YOUTUBE KIDS link in that app it jumps to the browser and opens in the browser which is a terrible experience. It is strange given that on the fire TV, the YouTube app allows you to switch to kids profiles, if only Amazon would do that for their tablet youtube app. But until then What you have are 3rd party apps built by you know who on the AppStore that plays youtube. They are not native apps, nor do they support most of the functionality as is. They are not written by Youtube, Google or Amazon either, so if you want to give those apps your google login which is used for Youtube Kids then you do so at your own risk.
YES YOU CAN INSTALL YOUTUBE KIDS NATIVE APP, BUT YOU HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF.
I don't know why nor will I try to even get into this very very old topic of not having youtube kids, but the GOOD news is that it is very simple and easy to get Youtube kids native apps on this 12th gen version. You don't need to be a modder or anything intense. But a simple web search will tell you how to do this. Just know that you will have to install 4 different google apps/services first to get the Play Store. This is even easier as you simply open the browser, download each of them from the website and Click to install. DONE AND DUSTED. Once you have the Play Store you can easily install any of the native youtube Kids apps or even the original Youtube app from google and even login to your tablet with your gmail account. I was able to do this in 30 minutes.
With YouTube Kids installed. I am now able to give this 10 Stars.
This is basically very decent hardware and latest OS for $60.
You cannot go wrong with this as a kids tablet especially with the ability from Amazon to quickly lock this down.
Touch Screen is extremely responsive
I have struggled to find a decent priced kids tablet that is responsive enough to use the ANTON app without lag. This is the fastest tablet I have seen at this price point. For those that haven't used ANTON, it is by far the best app for teaching your kids. It has school derived lessons, I would recommend every parent should download ANTON. But it's writing lessons, needs a screen that is responsive and a fairly decent tablet. This tablet passes the ANTON test with a gold star.
Sound is clear with some bass. It doesn't sound like a tin can.
Sound quality is very loud and clear. Trust me, if you've been through the dozen kids tablets I have, you will be surprised how much of a let down it would be when you have poor sound. Kids need to hear clearly and this does it without issues.
The Amazon AppStore itself is actually pretty good. All the apps we had on our old android tablet were available except for Youtube Kids. I'd imagine there are many more that are not available but most of the decent kids ones are on there including ANTON, ABC Kids etc
I would think that since the FireTV Youtube app allows kids profiles, that Amazon would at some point do the same with their own tablet Youtube app.
As it is right now this table is almost perfect especially once I was able to manually install play store and youtube kids easily. I'm ordering a second one.
