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I was thrilled to let my 8- and 10-year-old sons try out the Ematic FunTab Pro 7" tablet. The easy-to-grip design and preloaded apps make this a great first-tablet experience for your youngest geeklings.
Preloaded with the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and numerous popular games, this tablet takes advantage of the Zoodles children's computer interface so parents can tailor the tablet to what they want their kids to experience. Because this tablet is WiFi capable, it would behoove you to take advantage of the parental controls.
I will warn you, if your children are already tablet-experienced, such as with an iPad or Kindle, they might be frustrated with the limited utility and slower speed of this tablet. This is perfect for preschoolers and kids with no other tablet experience.
Technical Data
- 8GB flash memory
- 1.2 GHz processor
- 1GB RAM
- Front and back cameras
- HDMI port
- MicroSD card slot for expandable storage
- USB port (great for transferring photos and MP3s)
What Comes in the Box
- Ematic FunTab Pro
- HDMI cable (for watching videos)
- Neoprene case
- USB cable
- AC wall charging cable
- Bud earphones
- Three faceplates: red, blue and pink (ours wears the blue faceplate)
- Quick start guide
- Parent's guide
Features That We Liked
Good ergonomic design. The FunTab has an easy-to-grip shape, with special moldings on the backside that make it easy for little hands to hold on. Also, the back surface has a soft matte slip-resistant texture. The kids and I were very happy with this.
Easy Interface for Kids. The FunTab will turn on and present an icon for each child to tap to enter his/her customized tablet homepage. There will be large tabs across the top, letting the child select games, art, books and video mail. Within each tab (except Art, which is nothing but a
Parental Controls Galore. The FunTab will include basic parental controls, but to get more detailed and more customizable features, a subscription to Zoodle.com's Premuim Service will be required. This costs $4.95 per month, or $39.95 for the year. I was happy with the parental controls on the device without the upgrade. The parent has a choice of establishing a PIN, swiping a letter "Z" (best for parents of really young users), or entering your birth year (again, best for parents of really young kids). The only option I could use to truly lock this device is establishing a PIN. But for younger kids, the simpler choices are good to have.
Other Family Members Can Engage. Through Zoodles.com, you can invite other friends and family members to engage with your child through the tablet. This includes giving gold stars to art projects, recording video mail and recording storybook readings.
Popular Preloaded Games. Who doesn't love Angry Birds? Where's My Water? Fruit Ninja? Those games, and many more, are preloaded on the device, so kids can jump right into their favorite games.
Educational Preloaded Videos. There were numerous educational skits, such as those seen on Sesame Street. These simply link to YouTube videos. We also found a series of Bill Nye, The Science Guy video shorts, which my sons absolutely loved! Since they also discovered Animaniacs recently, the boys were happy to see "The Planet Song" featured. There are also videos featuring Warner Bros. characters and the popular PBS TV show Arthur.
Video Mail. The kids can send video mail files to any adults registered through their Zoodles account. The adults can send videos to the kids too. That's a cute feature.
Kid-Safe Web Browser. Maxthon's Kid-Safe Browser is preloaded, which includes preloaded favorites, from Bill Nye to NASA's Kids' Club. From those sites, there's a whole new world of games for your children to explore. I particularly enjoyed the Buzz Lightyear game on the NASA Kids' Club website. There's very little else the child can do besides what's preloaded. Perfect for preschoolers and younger elementary school-aged kids.
For the Parents. If your child isn't using the tablet, you can unlock the Parent's Mode and it's a fully functioning Android 4.0 tablet. Use the 1MobileMarket that's preloaded to shop for more grown-up-friendly apps.
Features That We Didn't Like
Slow Speed. This tablet is just plain slow. If your younger child isn't picky about internet or processor speeds, this won't be a big deal. My kids are used to the processor speeds on their Kindles or my iPad, and the FunTab Pro doesn't run as quickly. Once they're in the app, things seem to run adequately. But if you're in parent mode attempting to rearrange and set controls on the apps, it'll take a while.
Educational Videos aren't found easily. They're scattered throughout the Games tab, interspersed among the games themselves.
Storybooks. The storybooks were clearly for younger children. There is a nifty feature to record yourself reading the book while in Parent Mode, and the child can hear the book read to him/her through the device (military families, are you listening?) But the choices we had were stories such as the Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare, and The Princess and the Pea. The free mode includes one book (The Three Little Pigs), you can purchase others for $2.99 each or upgrade to Premium service to experience all the books. I would like to see an eReader tool on this tablet.
Icons, but no text. Kids are presented with the game's icons and if you don't know what it is, you simply have to select the icon to see what it is. Another reason this tablet is geared towards younger children.
Random order of icons. You cannot rearrange the game and video icons. The best you could do is see if your favorite apps make it into the "Favorites" tab, which I believe is an automatic process; the most-used apps show up in Favorites. I didn't see a way to add them otherwise.
Setup is Tedious. Combine the slow speed with the tasks required to allow/disallow apps and games, expect to spend a long time on setup to perfect your kids' experiences.
To conclude, my sons really enjoyed playing the games and exploring the art and video mail apps on the Ematic FunTab Pro. I wish there were some more advanced apps and games, and with the 1MobileMarket preloaded, they can be download over time. In terms of the preloaded games and activities, it's definitely good for children ages 2-8. This tablet is great for travel too, thanks to the convenient carrying case and headphones.
The Ematic FunTab Pro has an MSRP of $149.99 and is available at major electronics retailers, and online at retailers such as Amazon.
A complimentary sample of the Ematic FunTab Pro was provided for purposes of this review.
