Archos Arnova Child Pad

by Archos

Product Description

Amazon.com

Offering hours of entertainment for users of all ages, the ARNOVA ChildPad AV from Archos features a kid-friendly user interface with colored icons, a 7-inch touchscreen display, and the latest version of the Android operating system--Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0).

The kid-friendly ChildPad with 7-inch widescreen touchscreen display (see larger image).

With its compact size, light weight and ideal form factor, the ChildPad offers a great tablet experience that features home screen folders with direct access to games, entertainment, learning and puzzles, and the top 28 kids' apps pre-loaded on the ChildPad--including Angry Birds, Pig Rush and Flight Frenzy. It also includes exclusive Alvin & The Chipmunks 3 content.

The ChildPad is designed to comply with both CIPA and COPPA regulations, ensuring a safe tablet environment for kids and peace of mind for parents. The parental controls and safe Web browsing is powered by Editions Profil, whose Mobile Parental Filter is ranked as the most efficient parental control software in worldwide benchmarks.

Android 4.0 Power, Child-Friendly Interface

Running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), the mobile operating system designed by Google, the ChildPad also has a specially re-designed child-friendly interface--perfect for Internet browsing. So that your kids are immediately at home using the ChildPad, the icons and interface have been redesigned to be more child friendly. Pre-loaded apps have been grouped together into easy folders like games, entertainment. and learning. And you can download more from the kids' customized version of the AppsLib application market.

A powerful gaming tablet with access to thousands of Android apps (see larger image).

Because it's an Android Tablet, its fully customizable and can grow up with your children to help them with school-work and assignments down the road. And with support for Adobe Flash 11, you'll have access to tons of great online games.

Thousands of Apps Available to Download

You can download more from the kids' customized version of the AppsLib application market. AppsLib maintain a filtered service so only apps appropriate for kids are shown. And thanks to the AppsLib approved stamp, you can know which apps will work great on your ChildPad.

A Drawing and Coloring Pad

The ChildPad includes drawing and coloring applications preinstalled so that your kids can let out their creative side. Perfect for when using a stylus or just the tip of a finger.

Protecting Your Child Online

The ChildPad comes with 6 months of the internationally acclaimed parental control application Mobile Parental Filter by Editions Profil. Its unique Intelligent Content Evaluation system verifies Web sites as your children browse, blocking inappropriate content and leaving the Web safe for your kids. The ChildPad is the first and only kids tablet to include such advanced parental control.

Protected by the Mobile Parental Filter parental control application (see larger image).

 

Exclusive content from Alvin & The Chipmunks 3 (see larger image).

A Full Internet Experience

The ChildPad is the perfectly product for fast Web browsing via the integrated 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi. Thanks to the widescreen 800-pixel display, there's no need to zoom in and out as Web pages will be displayed at their full width. With Flash 11 support, you can experience the full Web with flash games and videos. Through the range social networking and chat applications, your kids can stay in touch with the family and their friends--even video chat using the integrated webcam.

Powerful Games Console

Thanks to its 1 GHz ARM A8 processor, the ChildPad is able to bring you great games, and you can even play immersive 3D games thanks to its open GL 2.0 technology. With dozens of games preinstalled and the hundreds of games available to download from the AppsLib applications store, you'll be able to transform your ChildPad into an Android games console.

Great Video, Music and Photos

The tablet comes with 4 GB of internal memory, enough room to store 5 movies, 40,000 of photos, or 2,000 music tracks. It also has the ability to play the largest range of music and video formats you could ever find on a same price range tablet. No need to convert your files--they can be played right after you transfer them from your computer. The ChildPad will recognize the new files within seconds and put them in your media library.

Thanks to the integrated speakers the ChildPad is a perfect portable media player for kids. You can also plug in any standard headphones into the 3.5mm jack for long car rides.

Exclusive Alvin & the Chipmunks 3 Content

The ChildPad provides access to exclusive Alvin & The Chipmunks 3 content, including a behind-the-scenes clip, pictures taken from the movie, wallpaper, and an Alvin & The Chipmunks 3 online game.

Specifications

• Operating system: Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
• Display: 7-inch resistive touchscreen with 800 x 480-pixel resolution
• Storage capacity:
• Memory expansion: Secure Digital card slot (SD/SDHC compatible) for cards up to 32 GB in size
• Processor: 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8
• RAM: 1 GB
• Video playback: H.264 up to 1080p resolution at 30 fps; MPEG-4 at 30 fps (.avi .mp4 ,mkv, .mov, and .flv)
• Audio compatibility: MP3, WAV, APE, OGG, FLAC
• Photo compatibility: JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG
• Communications: Wireless-N Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)
• Connectivity: USB 2.0 (slave, mass storage)
• Dimensions and weight: 8.77 x 5.6 x 0.48 inches; 13.4 ounces

What's in the Box

ChildPad, USB cable, USB Power adapter, Quick Start Guide (QSG)

Product Description

This easy to use tablet provides hassle-free Internet navigation with a 7-inch Resistance Touch Screen display. The ARCHOS 501943 Child Pad Internet Tablet harnesses the combined forces of a 1.2GHz Processor and a 1GB RAM memory to deliver outstanding performance with its pre-loaded Kids apps. All your multimedia files can be kept by the tablet's 4GB Flash Memory for quick retrieval. Connecting to networks is easy thanks to the ARCHOS 501943 Child Pad Internet Tablet Wi-Fi capabilities.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice Tablet For The Little Ones...With Room To Grow July 14, 2012

By Rosalie

Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this Child Pad for a special little guy in my life who is almost 6 years old. It comes with nearly 30 child specific apps, and has some Alvin & the Chipmunks content on it, but other than that, it's a real grownup Android tablet! This means that while he will mostly be using it for games and educational apps at the moment, as he starts learning how to use the internet and do more complex things, he won't outgrow this tablet like he would some of the other child-specific devices.
The tablet has a resistive touch screen, rather that a capacitive touch screen, but I was actually surprised at just how responsive the screen was to moderate finger pressure...much better than older resistive screen devices of the past. A firm rubber tipped stylus also worked great... and even better with the plastic styli with rounded hard plastic tip. He has game systems with this type of screen, so it won't be any problem for him. There is supposed to be a Child Pad coming out with a capacitive screen soon, if it isn't out already.

The Child Pad runs Android 4.0, called IceCream Sandwich, and is fast and smooth in operation. I put it through it's paces for 3 days and nights straight, watching videos, reading books, playing games and surfing the internet, to make sure the Child Pad would work as expected with no problems. I was very happy with it's performance.

The Child Pad comes with a 6 month trial of a parental filter app from Profil Technology. It gives you some peace of mind if your child is old enough to begin venturing onto the internet, allowing you to block a long list of content types. There are the usual blocks for sexual and violent content, et cetera, and additional choices to block search engines, email, video sites, merchant sites, social sites and much more, so you can make your little one's online experience much safer. If the child clicks on or tries to surf to content or sites that are blocked, they are redirected to the Wikipedia website. The parental filter app will show an on-screen message that gives the child the option to request you to unblock that site. You can then either go through the app, or on the Profil website and review the list of unblock requests your child has made, and choose to allow those sites if you want. It will also show you a list of every site that the child was blocked from viewing, whether an unblock request was made or not.
There were a few glitches in the parental filter app. Occasionally, when I would click on an option, either in the app, or on the website, I would get a navigation error. I found that if I clicked more slowly it would go through. Also, I had all languages blocked except for English, but one time when I went to the Profil site, it had changed to all languages blocked except French. I changed it back, and never had the problem again. I tested the app extensively by attempting to view blocked content, and the filter worked every time.

One thing I found lacking was a way to keep a young child from getting into the settings and system file areas of the tablet. So I went in search of an app-locking app. I tried a few, but for some reason they would not work on the Child Pad. Then I found an app called "Android4Kidz" on Amazon. This is an amazing app that has really really good child safe content like games, educational apps, videos and websites. You can additionally choose which apps on the tablet that you want your child to have access to, and put those into the "app library." At that point, the child would not be able to get into any other areas of the tablet, so settings and system files would be safe.
You can set it up so that the child stays within the "walled garden" of the Android4Kidz app, or you can set it to allow free access into and out of it as the child chooses. The only thing is, all the amazing content of the Android4Kidz app is only available when the tablet is connected to the internet. So I set it up so that he could go into and out of the Android4Kidz app whenever he wanted, and enjoy the content there whenever he has an internet connection, and went in search of another app lock to secure the settings and system files. I found Smart AppLock by ThinkYeah Studios in the Amazon Appstore. It works perfectly on the ChildPad. I was able to password protect the tablet's Settings and File Manager, as well as block the installing or uninstalling of apps,access to the app stores,and so on. I thoroughly tested, and it works great!

Next I installed Dr. Web free mobile antivirus app for protection from malware. I have used Dr. Web on my own tablet, because it scans the entire system, and anything you download and install, and protects the system in real time without hogging up tablet resources.

At this point, with the Child Pad set up for child safe surfing, access to critical system resources password protected, and an antivirus app installed and on the job, I turned my attention to reviewing the nearly 30 preinstalled children's apps that come with the Child Pad. The educational apps were actually pretty good, and I left them. I ended up uninstalling almost all of the others. They were either just so-so, or had obtrusive ads (one had a large ad for a "dating" site, which I thought was inappropriate for a children's app) and others were just generally poor IMHO. So, after uninstalling those, I went in search of good apps to replace them. The AppsLib app store that comes preinstalled is okay, but just okay. There were some nice apps, but I'm spoiled by the android market (Google PlayStore),and Amazon AppStore, and AppsLib just didn't come close. Unfortunately the Google PlayStore is not available for the ChildPad, but I was able to download and install the Amazon AppStore directly from the Amazon website, and get some amazing apps there. Additionally, they have a paid app for free every day.
I especially liked the "Touchy Books" apps...interactive books that your child can read/interact with. The child can also choose to have the book read the story to him/her, while the little one follows along.

So, with the Child Pad fully set up, I went in search of accessories. Not much to choose from, I found, and even the things that say they fit the ChildPad really didn't for the most part.I wanted a screen protector, a silicone type cover for the back and sides, and a safe case to store/carry the Child Pad. The official light blue case for the Child Pad was soft neoprene, and I didn't think that would be protective enough. Here's what I ended up with:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00887JDEG/ref=cm_cr_mts_prod_img This case, which I reviewed, is velvety soft on the outside, and has protective padded bubbles on the inside. I have them for my 10 inch tablet and my 15.6 inch laptop, and love them. However, although this is supposed to fit the Child Pad, it is actually a bit too big. There are four elastic bands in the corners meant to slip the corners of the tablet into, but the Child Pad is too small to fit into them. So with the tablet sitting in the center of the case, not strapped down, it slides around a bit inside the case. I don't think that would really hurt anything, but I was a little disappointed that it didn't fit as it was supposed to. Still, a very protective case, so I kept it. Too bad there are no handles on the case for carrying it, so I additionally got one of these EVA firm cases with a handlehttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AR6258/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00. With the Child Pad inside the bubble case, then strapped down inside this firm-sided case with carry handle, I feel the tablet is VERY well protected. The little case looks like a mini briefcase...sooo cute.
Then I got a screen protector and silicone bumper case from the official Arnova Archos website http://store.archos.com/child-accessories-ci-5029.html The screen protector fit perfectly. Cuts glare nicely, while still allowing good clarity. The bumper case has nice ridges on the back to make it easy for a child to hold onto the tablet. It also protects the sides and back of the tablet from scratches and bumps.

All in all, I am very happy with this purchase, and would do it again. In fact, if I was looking for an inexpensive but well made 7 inch tablet for myself as a second tablet, I would consider buying one of these and removing the child-specific content and using it for myself. I might get a cover that hides the "Child Pad" name, lol, but this would make a nice tablet even for an adult.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars alright, but could have been better. June 15, 2012

By Doogiedoo

Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this device for my sons birthday. While the processor and memory are more than adequate for their purpose, there are a few glaring problems. This device does not include market. I don't really take marks off for this one, because I didn't expect that it would because of the applib market. You can easily install Amazon app store as I did and that does give you access to most apps. The two major issues I have with this device are that Netflix does not work on it and the resistive touch screen is frustrating. Netflix loads from amazon and starts fine getting as far as showing your queue and movies, but fails to actually play videos. Netflix was one of the main reasons we bought my son a tablet. It's a full android experience they advertise in their description, but no netflix? My old trusty gtablet plays netflix fine with an ICS rom. The other thing was I didn't realize this had a resistive touch screen when I ordered it, that much is my fault, I should have read more. I have been spoiled by capacitive touch screens for years, and it is MADDENING to use a resistive touch screen. You can expect accidental clicks, poor scrolling, but most problematic is the lack of multitouch. This means no ability to zoom in and out in most apps.

It's not a bad tablet FOR THE MONEY, but make no mistakes, in its present form it is no fully functional tablet. I hope that it will be addressed in firmware updates. This could fix the netflix and a few quirky UI issues, but I seriously doubt it will improve the screen. If your little ones can live with the screen, this could be a decent fit for your little ones.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Technical Disaster! June 22, 2012

By Jello_Master

Well I purchased this actually from Archos website directly. I began to use it to set it up before giving it to my kid and noticed the screen is made up of a exceptionally durable material which is good for the little one but made it very difficult for me to operate. A large majority of the time it did not react when I clicked on an app or typed on the keyboard. I had to end up buying a stylus because my finger where already sore. Well to add insult to injury, I had charged the battery over night and the next day while using it I was getting maybe 90 minutes tops from the battery when it is advertised to last about 6 hours (or more). While the battery quickly died I also felt was getting very hot underneath and a strong smell of burning plastic and rubber was coming from it. I had another friend of mine locally purchase it and she told me she had the exact same issues with hers.
Other issues are that the childpad has zero access to the Google Play store which is both good and bad. The good: not having to worry about your child downloading apps that may not be suitable, The bad: limited app market restricting the availability to many useful apps. The parental control app is awful and very difficult to work with and I had to shut it down many times because it would not want to retain any of the settings I applied to it. No physical home button, even though the Android OS 4.0 has a home button it usually displays on the corner of the screen, it is nice to have because many apps override this and you cannot get to the home screen when you get stuck in one of these apps.
The childpad will not stay off! If I power down and plug it into the charger it automatically turns on. Every time it turns on also you must calibrate the screen. I also went looking for a universal protective cover for 7 inch tablets and could not find one because apparently they made the screen 7 inches but the tablet just about another inch longer so it did not fit well at all in anything we found. If you want a sleeve you must buy the proprietary childpad ones.
Pretty much after 3 days I called Archos and requested a refund. I would seriously not recommend this to anyone! I purchases about a day later another tablet that is brand new by Double Power (DOPO) called the T-708! It is a 7-inch tablet cost less than the child pad (about $99), still has Android 4.0, and full access to the Google play.