UKH

Hi,

So, my eldest daughter, age 9, is desperate to get her own tablet, so she can keep up with a few of her friends who have them.

At the moment, she's been given use of an old iPad Mini, but it's low on memory, has a load of my wife's personal stuff on it and doesn't seem keen to work with some of the latest online stuff, despite having been updated as far as we can.

Any recommendations for something suitable - she's mainly using it for Roblox and her music play list at the moment, but that will obviously develop as she goes.

Our current advice is that she's a bit old for something like the basic Amazon Fire tablets and my wife's seen a Samsung Tab A8 on offer that might do.

Really don't want another iPad, as we don't have any other Apple things in the house, among other reasons.

Any thoughts, please?

My advice would be to  set a good example by not picking up your phone or tablet while she's in the room. I think you'll find that your 9 yrs old will appreciate that far more than any tablet. My eldest is absent much of the time - swiping for hours through vaguely amusing tiktok clips. having made a concious effort to avoid this with my youngest I make an effort to never use a personal device in the house, he has an old phone but just making myself available to him means that we spend hours together climbing, making music, making art and occasionally playing on the xbox. Good luck. 

The cheap Fire tablets are horribly clunky and slow.  I had one for a bit and hated it. 

I think of the Android tablets the best ones are the Samsungs.  I'd probably go 10in rather than 8in, the smaller ones offer very little over just getting a large screen Android phone second hand.

My advice is don't get the Fire tablet, unless you want it to be limited to Amazon Kids (extra subscription) profile/content, which is for younger kids. Beyond that it makes a pretty lame and limited tablet and Amazon will restrict things like which apps they permit due to some commercial disagreements between Amazon/Google/Apple

my 5 year old received one from a grandparent. It's a piece of junk. 

I'd recommend a switch instead - its limited to games but she can play with her friends

Not strictly true, you can install what you like and give kids access to individual apps.

The fires are somewhat clunky however.

We've just upgraded my niece from a Fire to a Samsung. She just turned 9, and received the Samsung tablet for her birthday. The Fire did her good service from when she was 5 or so, but it was beginning to get a bit limiting for her, especially as she is beginning to need to look things up online for homework and her parents don't have a laptop or computer in the house. She's happy and feels very grown up. Her parents seem happy with the parental controls that are available.

Thanks, all - looks like we'll go with the Samsung one.