Customer Reviews

LeapFrog Crammer

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I bought this for my 7 year old (2nd grade) to help him get faster at math - mainly multiplication and division. He found the included games and quizzes and seems to really enjoy it so far.

Pros: Mainly educational. Great for drills. Fun (albeit simple) games. Downloadable, FREE content. Ability to create custom flash cards.

Cons: As another reviewer pointed out, the lack of a backlight is a real drawback. The amount of flash cards available for download is a little thin (which I'm sure will improve) compared to the much larger number of quizzes. You can only create very basic flash cards - e.g. I couldn't find a way to create a division symbol and used a '/' instead. No option to create custom quizzes (a future software enhancement?).

Overall a great concept and a good first incarnation (with hopefully more to come).

12/20/2009 UPDATE: It's been over a year since my son has gotten the crammer. He still picks it up once in a while to play games and quizzes. There's a tetris type domino game and a strategy game in which you have to earn money that he likes. He also enjoys listening to music with headphones while he's playing and I think it's a plus that you can't turn the volume up too loud.

I am very disappointed that there hasn't been any noticeable changes in the content since a year ago. No new downloadable flash cards, quizzes or games that I can see. If I could, I would take a star off my original rating as it doesn't seem to be getting the attention it needs from Leapfrog. Was it worth the 60 I paid for it last year? In retrospect, I'd say no. Is it worth the 10-20 I now see locally and online? For what you do get, yes.

A final tip, if you ever have problems with the Leapfrog Connect program on your PC wanting to update itself once in a while and getting stuck, go to the Leapfrog website, download the latest Leapfrog Connect software for your device, and reinstall.

I bought this product originally for my nephew, but ended up selfishly keeping it for myself. As a college student I find the flash card software a wonderful alternative to the bundles of index paper I've spent hours making and even more time picking up. The software is very efficient in that I am able to quickly make French flashcards. Though the software does not have an accent option I am however able to paste in letters that contain them.
I do understand others' complaint about the small dark screen, but as an adult reader I have no need for jumbo print and have had no trouble using this on the subway. I do notice that these small letters are a bit difficult to distinguish at times between U and V etc.

The downloaded quizzes are fun, but I can't see how these would be the best way to study for unique elementary exams (of course the math ones may be more universal than science or social studies)
It is interesting that it comes with a Spanish translator and I would like for other languages to be later available for download. The games are a weak distraction from something very boring, and the device seems to be able to hold a child size amount of songs. I am planning to add language audio files, but will most likely have to delete them regularly due to size limitations.

I find the volume tolerably loud enough, but I am unfortunately unable to blast the music. The headphones do not seem the best and a set of better quality may make this feature more noteworthy.

So as a twenty something Leapster Crammer owner I would say that I am happy with this product and highly recommend it as an electronic flashcards, but nothing else. I was able to buy mine for a fraction of the retail value yet would have paid more for the convenience. I see this toy as an "on the go" study tool for children, but with the small screen and limited quiz aplicability I do not see how this could be more helpful than the text book and a helping parent.

the main complaints are:
1. Tiny fonts for the flash cards. Ridiculously small fonts with no way to enlarge them.
2. The volume for the OGG/MP3 player is way too low even on the loudest setting.
3. No back light. You must be in broad daylight or under a lamp to see the screen (especially with the tiny fonts).

The concept is great but the lack of customization for the screen display and the fact that the volume is so low sort of makes this a mediocre effort. Leapfrog should just stick with the leapster. Obviously their R&D department took a vacation.

It was this item or the Leapfrog Didj and this one won. It is suggested for grades 3 thru 8. I bought this for the flash cards and quizzes. My 9 year old has had this item for 24 hours and it has been in her hands for most of it (except to sleep of course). The start up is very simple and quick. Leapfrog's website is easy to navigate and has free downloads of the flashcards and quizzes. Songs are very simple to load. I would like to explore more of what it does but my DD won't give it up! My only complaint so far (and hers) are the earbuds that are provided with it are very uncomfortable hard plastic so you may want to pick up a pair of soft more comfy ones. I am satisfied with my purchase.

I purchased this for my daughters, 6 and 10 for Christmas this year. They both looked at them with a skeptical eye at first, but now, it's hard to pry those things out of their hands. My 10 year old has already started creating flash cards to match her studies in school, and my 6 year old is starting to master 3rd grade math and science facts (even though she's only in 1st grade).

The MP3 player is actually the icing on the cake with this item. The girls get to listen to their music (which I had to load for them - so I know I approve), while they learn new and exciting things. The best part is that the quizzes and flash cards are customizable via Leap-Frog's website and interface (built in), so the girls don't grow tired of the built in ones.

There are a few draw backs - it took 1.5 hours to load the music onto the handheld. Not becuase it was difficult, but because it was a seemingly slow connection. There are only two built in games, and there didn't seem to be any more that could be downloaded from the internet. Also, it runs on 3 AAA batteries, and is not rechargeable. There is also not an option to run on DC power instead of batteries. However

We've been Leapfrog supporters from the beginning, purchasing many of their previous products for our girls. They are a smart company creating family-oriented products that we have loved. We thought this one would be a no-brainer, and wanted to support educational electronic devices.

But this device is a pile of (insert bad thing here). It's so poorly designed and implemented. All of the complaints about the bad screen, font size, and volume level are valid. My daughter really wanted an MP3 player and we had hoped to combine that with an educational device, so the concept is great. But the audio is almost inaudible, even at full volume. And it's a royal pain to copy songs and educational materials to the device.

First, you have to use their custom interface, you can't just plug it into your computer, have a windows folder pop up, and copy mp3's over. NOOOO, you have to go through their silly interface, wait for it to convert the songs to the Crammer format (not MP3), and upload through what has to be a USB .0001 Interface.

Second, did you catch that the link is slow? Now, imagine a turtle crawling through molasses... it's WAY slower than that. It takes several minutes just to copy some flash cards (100k), imagine trying to copy 300mb worth of albums over... yep, it takes hours. It has the slowest transfer rate of any device I've ever seen. What were they thinking? Why not make it USB2 and let me fill up the very limited 1gb worth of memory in a few minutes?

We gave up and went and bought a tiny little MP3 player for $[...] and the girls love it. This Crammer is way too big to be an MP3 player anyway... it wouldn't fit in MY pocket, let alone the pockets of my 8 year old.

Use it indoors as an educational device... maybe. Or better yet, make some flash cards on 3x5 paper cards and have done with it. Or even better yet, spend time with your kids reviewing their studies in person!

Boo Leapfrog, booo!

I was very excited about the Crammer, and put off buying the Didg for my 8-year-old son in order to get this instead. He wanted an MP3 player he could listen to music and play game on, so I thought "Great--this is it!" I was wrong.

Like other reviewers, the lack of a back-lit screen really takes away from this device. The print is so small. It was easy to load personalized flash cards on it, but I question how much my son will use those. I never was able to, though, add any music to it. --Kind of defeats the purpose of my buying it, doesn't it?

In short, my son got a iPod instead. I really, really wanted to love this, but it just wasn't living up to our hopes. I love LeapFrog products, but this one just doesn't seem to be the best. Maybe if they come out with a second version with more animation, a better, back-lit screen, and easier downloads, then we'll give it a second shot.

I bought a Crammer and it worked well for 2 weeks. It then refused to sync or even be recognized by the computer. Leapfrog's "manual" and internet help was useless. I finally reached a "live" rep. @ Leapfrog who was completely ignorant and despite 2 phone calls to them and promises to get back to me, they never did. I returned it, and received a 2nd unit which would not sync at all. I returned the second unit. I will never buy a Leapfrog product again. The Crammer is a nice idea that is poorly executed and Leapfrog customer service is nonexistent. Buy a true MP3 player and some flash cards, you'll be better off.

I was very hopeful in this product when I bought it for my daughter for Christmas. For 4-5 graders there is only a limited amount of quizzes to download. I browsed the other ages and they are worse.

If you are buying this to customize learning for you child don't buy it. All you will be able to do is make customized flash cards. It's not worth that much to pay the money for this. My child enjoys learning but bores easily. This could have been a great product if you could customize quizzes and flash cards. I found now way to do that with this device.

The screen resolution is not very good. If kids already play Nintendo DS like games, they will think they are stepping back in time to use this.

We really like this item.. but can't figure out how to get songs from cd's we own on it... they go on computer in files that crammer can't read. Any suggestions?