Amazon.com: Kindle for Kids Bundle with Previous Generation Kindle (7th), 2-Year Accident Protection, Kid-Friendly Blue Cover : Electronics

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5 star		28%
4 star		17%
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1 star		21%

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R. Houghton

much more thought needed before marketing this as a "kindle for kids"

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 28, 2015

Verified Purchase

To be fair: the kindle itself works fine. This review is for those of you thinking about purchasing it specifically for a KID.
In one word, DON'T! If you have an older kid, who is reading well of their own (at least 4th grade level) then this could work for you.
Here's why:
1. Freetime unlimited is great idea in theory only. There seems to be no tutorial for it so you have to figure it out on your own (I called customer support, but they don't know how to use it either). The books are sorted out by type, which no true search feature (the words you search have to be in the title or text) such as 'barnyard', 'dinosaur', or 'disney'. Even as the parent you can not rearrange them and you can not see anything about them (except the picture of the cover) without downloading it. You MUST pick the freetime unlimited books from the child's kindle - that's right, there is no way to reorganize, search, or do anything with kindle freetime on a regular computer (even from the amazon website). You can NOT sort books by reading level. I have a 6yr old with a 1st grade reading level when I called customer service for help finding books for his level I was assured all the books available to him were age-appropriate (note: not all parents agree on what is appropriate content, but the parent gets no say in this!). I explained that age-appropriate and reading level were two different things (for example: for my 6 yr old, Amazon has deemed everything from board books to chapter books appropriate for him).
2. My son has been dreaming about which early readers he wanted on his very own kindle- unfortunately the "world of reading" books and the "DK reader" books aren't even available for this type of kindle (they can make board books available in grey scale, but not reading level books????).
3. Some of the few books available to him that I found in freetime that he would actually enjoy should never have been made available in this format - they are completely illegible! For example: "what's so great about the states?" - after downloading it, we started looking through it and the font is so small that we got out a magnifying glass, but even then it was too grainy to make out the words.
4. Some books with small print offer a feature that allows you to double click on the text box and it will enlarge it to make it readable. Unfortunately, my son has a zero success rate with this feature, and my success rate is about 30% - the rest of the time it advances you 2 pages. I'm sure you can imagine how frustrating this is. The touch screen features (besides turning pages in a book, and using the toolbar) are actually very hard for a kid (for example: when flipping to the next page of books available you have to swipe your finger on the small blank space near the top of the page without activating the toolbar, or touching a book cover shown). Because of both of these issues (and more, I'm sure), it would've been better if the basic kindle (the non-touch screen one) would have been offered.
5. Cover and warranty. As many of the other reviewers stated, the cover is a ridiculous excuse for kid-friendly. The bright color appeals to kids, so it could be called kid-appealing cover, not kid-friendly. It might off minimal protection when dropped, but it offers no protection from dirty fingers, spills, or drops on the screen. Once my son is using this regularly we will replace the cover for sure because based on the reviews I do not want to rely on the warranty.
I did not want a kindle fire for my son, and I was fully aware the basic functionality of this kindle (I myself have a non-touch screen kindle). I knew just like a regular kindle, there is no back light and just like with a regular book, you need a supplemental light in order to read in the dark. I am left supremely disappointed by the lack of functionality of the kindle free time. I have spent a lot of time with customer service via phone and e-mail and have been assured these are all things they are working on (but nothing they can currently help me with), so until that time comes I firmly believe that until a "kid" is reading regular chapter books then this is not actually a good option for them and is instead a complete waste of money.

39 people found this helpful

Helpful

Anna Christie

Bundle is worth it, but adding the warranty afterwards is a pain.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

This is a good deal for anyone who plans to purchase the basic kindle reader and remove the special offers. Currently for the same price of the “Without Special Offers” basic kindle you also get the case and the 2 year warranty. As the newer kindles seem to be less rugged (just had our fist of this generation fail after 15 months), that protection will hopefully pay off. I only gave 4 stars for a few reasons:

• You have to separately purchase the squaretrade warranty. After purchasing the Kindle package, you are sent an E-mail with inadequate instructions and no link to easily complete the purchase. To save others the trouble, instructions are below.

• They will not let you upgrade the warranty to the 3 year option. I was willing to pay the difference, but the code sent could not be applied to the 3 year option. I tried reaching out to Amazon to find a way to do this and was told that as part of the bundle there was no way to upgrade it. For $5 more that extra year would be well worth it, would be nice if you could upgrade the warranty.

• The case sent only protects that back of the reader. Of the 4 kindles the family has had fail, 3 have been screen issues. It would make a lot more sense to include a case that protects the screen and/or an anti-scratch screen protector.

To redeem the warranty code. Follow the link below. If it does not work search for “2-Year Kindle protection” and select the plan that costs 19.99 for 2 years. A number of plans for other devices will be also be displayed, make sure the price matches up and you should have the correct plan.

2-Year Protection Plan plus Accident Protection for Kindle

Add the two year warranty to your cart.
Go to checkout.
Enter the code from your E-mail into the spot labeled “Add a gift card or promotion code”
Hit Apply and verify the order total it updated with the credit before finishing the purchase.

Enjoy your kindle.