Customer Reviews

Fisher-Price® Fun 2 Learn™ Laughtop™

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My 3 y.o. son got this as a gift three days ago and he LOVES it. He likes that he can choose the games himself and I notice that he's even begun to really recognize letters already. My only complaint is that the "mouse" is difficult to operate and it can be frustrating for him while playing the games that require him to use the mouse (fortunately, not all the games do need the mouse). I'm hoping that with use it will loosen up.

We received this as a 2-year birthday gift. When my son gets something new that he likes, he doesn't put it down for days. His interest in this lasted about 10 minutes. We are returning it, and will try a different computer-like toy.

The mouse is difficult to use, and personally I think having the upper- and lowercase letters on the same button is distracting. The screen is really small, and the top/cover snaps to a 90-degree angle and about a 45-degree angle, so he could never quite see it properly when sitting on his lap. Once, he lay on the floor to see the screen. That alone was enough for me to reject it--I hope to find one with an infinitely adjustable cover, like my own laptop.

He has a similar toy without a screen, the Alphabet Apple by V-Tech, which amuses him for a good 30 minutes in the car. If the "Laughtop" had cost $11.99, I'd be more forgiving, but for the price I expect more.

My almost 3 year old has autism and she really enjoys this toy even though some of the features are advanced for her right now. For example the two games that you can play with the mouse, a "pong" style and the maze game are beyond her now but she'll have that new discovery in the future.
With the two screen positions she can see fine and I can see the screen even when she's in the floor a distance away. It's not too small and it is intense enough to be acceptable for play. She really enjoys the "raining letters" game where they fall from the clouds and you must push the corresponding letter on the keyboard so the onscreen one drops in the water bucket. All the games have several levels of difficulty.
The feature she enjoys the best is the composer setting where you can play it like a keyboard and there are visuals to match onscreen.
She does not become bored easily with this toy and it was worth the price and is durable and portable.

My daughter is 3, and has been diagnosed as autistic (although we are not really sure at this point) and has narrow interests in toys. We bought this because she spotted it at a toy store and immediately said "I want to push it! I want to push the ABC letters! I want that computer!". It was one of the longest speeches she has made ever, so of course I had to buy it. I think it appealed to her because it really does look a lot like a laptop computer, exactly the kind of thing she isn't allowed to touch much at home as she has a natural gift for erasing files and changing major settings!

I can't say as I think she will really get long use out of it, however. It is a pretty limited toy---you push the letters and it says them, and their sound, and shows a picture, another mode plays a short bit of music for different keys, and lets the top keys be like a piano, another mode plays games which are beyond her at this point, but I really doubt many self-respecting 7 year olds would have any interest in---I think they are reaching a bit to say the top age for this toy is 7! However, she has played with it a fair amount so far.

It's pretty durable, it has to be to last around here. She has dropped it quite a few times and it hasn't skipped a beat.

One annoying thing---when you are playing with it and stop, the voice asking you to keep playing has the most sarcastic tone! I would like toys to model NICE manners!

Overall, fun as a computer substitute.

I purchased this toy for my 2 1/2 year old son before a long plane trip to visit his grandma. He absolutely loves it and has played with it every day since we bought it. He is now three and he knows all of his letters and sounds. He also plays the mouse games very well -- I am amazed at how this "computer" has improved his eye-hand coordination. My only complaint (a minor issue) is that for the letter "x" the word is "fox" instead of something that actually starts with "x." Being a precocious three year old, my son refuses to believe that "fox" starts with "f." He always insists it starts with "x"! Other than that, this is a great toy that has provided us with hours of entertainment and is very educational.

Great concept....and at first my 3 year old used it a lot. She was able to work on her laptop while I worked on mine. But, we quickly realized that the mouse was not working properly (after the box had been thrown away). The LCD screen is a little on the small side too. If it were me, I would wait and purchase another brand or wait until this one was perfected a little better.

My 18 m.o. son got this for Christmas after we told everyone how much he loves to bang on my laptop. This toy is not only one of his favorite toys, it is also the most realistic and educational "computer" for young kids. It has a working keyboard and screen, and has four levels of learning - letters, phonics, music and games. It also has 2 levels of sound as well as an off lever right on the keyboard. The mouse is attached and when you move it side to side it plays the alphabet song or when you click it, it will repeat the last selection. After about 2 minutes of inactivity, the laptop says, "laptop logging off!" and shuts off. It even looks like a real laptop - the screen folds down to close!
My son is still a little young for educational content on this laptop, but he loves to push the buttons and listen to the sounds. I highly recommend this toy for any 2-3 y.o. interested in computers or adult tech "toys"!

Update 1/2011: This sturdy little laptop is still going strong 3 years later! now our youngest enjoys playing with it (2 yo) whenever I am on my laptop! Our 4 yo also still plays with it! This toy was well worth the small price we paid!

My son is only 18 months old when we got this toy because he loves the "grown-up" computer and laptop so much. We were hoping that typing on this keyboard would distract him from constantly trying to touch the real things. We thought he would play with the music feature and that he could grow into the more advanced letter and mouse games. While the toy hasn't worked for our original purpose (he still loves the real things better) it has taught him all of the letters and their sounds incredibly quickly! Within 3 days time he mastered the "raining letters" phonics game. He loves to play this game and is so proud when he finds the letters. He now knows his letters when I ask him to find one from his refrigerator magnet letters or when looking at a book with large print! He has been slow to talk so I love that he now tries to make all of his letter sounds too. He has no problem seeing the screen from any position. I love that it has both upper and lower case letters on the keys (this feature doesn't seem to confuse him). As a former teacher and a now stay-at-home mom I can't rave enough about this toy...

I bought this toy for my 3 year old son to boost his letter recognition. He already knew the alphabet (or at least the song), but I had not tried teaching him letter recognition yet. My nephew had this laughtop, so my son has been asking for it for months. I finally bought it for him. Within a couple of days of using it, he recognized several letters (with absolutely no help from me). Within a week or two (which is how long I've had it), he knows pretty much all the letters (most upper and lower case, but struggles w/ some lower case), can tell you what word starts with each letter (or most letters) and can spell his name (which is only 4 letters). He loves the toy and takes it with us wherever we go. If he never touches it again, for him to have learned as much as he has now (with no help from me). I just gave him the "computer" and left him alone. My husband and I are amazed!

We bought this for my son's 2nd b-day even though the age reccomendation was 3+. He was mildly interested, but not ready for educational value the toy provides. At 2 an 1/2, this is one of his favorite toys and he is able to play all the games and knows almost all of his letters!! He blew me away the first time I watched him pick out each letter from his keyboard. Surely, he was matching up the picture of the letter at first, but I am confident that this toy helped him learn several of his letters by sight.
He also loves the mouse maze game. We did have some trouble with the mouse working, but my husband was able to fix it with minimal "surgery" and it's good as new.
The only trouble now is that he's mastered the tasks and we've had to move on to the VTech laptop because it has more variety and more challenging games. He still loves the Laughtop, though and we take it in the car in the evening because of the bonus of the lighted screen.
This is a good choice, although the price is a little high for the variety of activities.