Gabriel received a
Meep for Christmas this year from my husband and I. He will be four on May 2nd, so he was about 3 and half years old when he first received it. I used to have an iPad
(before I left it in a Wal Mart shopping cart and didn't realize it for 6 hours), and Gabriel loved the thing! Actually, I think he played with it more than I did! A Meep seemed to be a more age (and wallet) appropriate compromise. So, after months of owning the Meep, I'm here to give my personal opinions on it.
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Overview
I know that kid tablets are the new "thing" and I can honestly say I don't know much about any of the others. I had/have not heard good things about the
Nabi, but I can't say for sure how much of this secondhand information is true; especially considering reviews like
this one that hold the Nabi in high regard.
However, I'm still more than happy with my decision to go with the Meep; which I based largely on reviews from Amazon consumers (where I do most of my product research before buying).
MEEP! is an innovative, interactive, rugged Wi-Fi enabled tablet featuring amazing zForce® touch screen technology designed for kids age 6 and above. Access a vast library of pre-loaded games, apps, e-books and more all at the touch of your finger. Plus download hundreds of action packed games, challenging learning activities and more. All that’s needed is your imagination and the desire to have a blast! -Official Meep Descripton
Specs
You can see Meep's official specs here.
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Parental Controls:
The parental controls are my absolute favorite thing about this tablet! They are much more extensive and customizable than anything else I've ever used.
Time Control
For example, you can limit the amount of time your child spends on various activities. My son is only allowed 2 hours of YouTube time per day, because otherwise he would spend entire days on YouTube. However, this bring me to my next point, which is one of my favorite things about the Meep...
Content Control
Even better, though, is he can only watch Meep approved or me (parent) approved YouTube videos. No more clicking from a perfectly kid friendly video through who-knows-how-many-videos until he eventually ends up on something not so appropriate.
App Control
My kid cannot even download a free app without my permission, which I find pretty nifty. Apps are available from the Meep Store or from Google Play. Google Play, however, can only be accessed via a parental account or with its permission first. I advise cross checking prices before purchasing any apps, if you're a penny-pincher like me. I've heard that sometimes there's a slight price difference for the same app between the "kid's" (or Meep) store and the Google Play store. I haven't actually observed this myself, though. We rarely buy apps.
Parent Account
A parental account, setup during configuration of the tablet, controls the activities of the child or children using it. Your parental controls are cloud based, meaning you don't have to physically be holding and using the tablet to monitor your child's activities or approve something for download. From your parental account you can adjust parental controls or settings, whitelist or blacklist websites and words, afford coin allowances for your child to buy apps in the Meep store, and more. It's pretty impressive!
Set-Up & Design
Before giving the Meep to my child, I opened it and configured it so he could get right to playing with it on Christmas morning. It took me somewhere between 30-60 minutes to do so, but I don't really remember because I was multitasking wrapping other presents. Anyway, it was really easy and gave me a chance to mess around with the tablet some.
Battery Life
The battery life, in my experience is
at least 4 hours, though I've been really,
really bad at keeping track so I could share with you. Amazon reviews say it's somewhere in the 6 to 8 hour region, which sound right to me.
My only complaint here is the Meep never seems to go to sleep on it's own. You can flick the power switch and it will go to sleep, but my sons has been on
hours after it's been left sitting. I can only assume that this uses a ton more battery life than necessary.
Power Button
It's actually more of a power switch and I hate it. It's very difficult for small children to use and I don't know if that intentional or not, but I don't like it. Of course, my kid never wants to turn the thing off. He'd much rather just leave it lying around. However, if it is off for some reason, he might want to turn it on and become frustrated. It's not that he can't do it, it's just not as easy as it could be.
General Ease of Use & Durability
My son is pretty easy on his Meep, actually. However, it has survived these past 4 months without incurring any damage and he
is not-quite-four, y'know. I think that means the Meep is durable enough.
I saw on Amazon reviews before buying the Meep that a few parents said it was a waste if your child had already been exposed to much more "advanced" tablets like the iPod because this kid tablet would bore them. This hasn't been true for us, at all. However, reviews were correct when they said it can be slow or laggy at times. It's never full on frozen but you will sometimes get a message asking you if you want to close a program that you're loading because it's taking too long to respond. Other than the power button, that's my biggest peeve.
Just right click and save to use. No restrictions, but I do love hearing about your work or getting a link back. ;)
