Educational Toys for Little boy little girl, Fire 7 inch, save 20% >>now £79.99

FIRE FOR KIDS UNLIMITED – SUBSCRIPTION COST AFTER THE FIRST YEAR, AND HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE *

Included with this tablet is one year's subscription to "Fire for Kids Unlimited". Amazon does not clearly display the cost that you pay after your "free" year is up. The cost depends on two things: if you have it set up for one child to use it (i.e. one child profile) or more (up to four children), and if you have Amazon Prime or not.

The cost is, at the time of writing (correct as of 1/2/17 - it has not changed since 2015):
- Not on prime, one child profile: £3.99 per month
- Not on prime, two to four child profiles: £7.99 per month
- On Prime, one child profile: £1.99 per month
- On prime, two to four child profiles: £4.99 per month

If you have more than one child but only set up one child profile, then you pay the one child price.

You can of course give notice to end your subscription so you could give notice within your free year so that you do not pay after the year is up. You could use your first year to discover which apps etc. your child likes and buy them outright if you want to retain access to them. But it does mean that you are left with an ordinary tablet once the year is up.

To unsubscribe from "Fire for Kids Unlimited":
1. Swipe down from the top of the screen. Tap "Settings" and then tap "Profiles & Family Library".
2. Tap your child's profile. Then tap "Unsubscribe from Fire for Kids Unlimited".
... or phone Amazon Customer Services.

Amazon says that once you unsubscribe, you will receive a pro rata refund regarding the last monthly subscription fee that you have paid.

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This used to be available in a 6 inch version but has been upgraded (with one qualification - see below). One of the changes is the larger screen. But there is another, far more important, change - this 7 inch version has a micro-SD card slot that will take a card up to 128 Gb. This is so much better - the 6 inch version comes in just two sizes, 8Gb & 16Gb, and you are stuck with that as there is no card slot. That change alone makes a massive difference.

There is a further difference. Some people dislike that the firmware in the 6 inch version has no internet access in a Child Profile (I will explain Child and Parent Profiles below) - so your child is barred from accessing, for example, YouTube or anything on the net. Amazon did this to prevent children accessing anything inappropriate - but it prevented access to appropriate content too. The good news is that Amazon is going to introduce a child-friendly web browser with "controlled access to thousands of age-appropriate websites and selected YouTube videos". It isn't ready yet but it is coming.

There is one significant disadvantage - the new 7" version is SD (Standard Definition), not HD like the 6". The 6" is 1280x800 resolution at 252 ppi compared with 1024 x 600 resolution at 171 ppi on the 7". I imagine Amazon has sought to make it more appealing by cutting the price, and that has meant a switch to SD. The 7" SD is significantly cheaper than the 6" HD.

I made an in-depth 9-minute video review of the 6 inch version - it works in the same way as the 7 inch version so I have uploaded it as I believe you will find it useful. Just be aware that the crispness of the screen on the 7" is not as good as on the 6" as the 7" isn't HD.

The video covers, in this order:

1. (Starting at a time display of 0:15): The quality of the case.

2. (At 1:14): Screen quality & the 4 wallpapers.

3. (At 1:52): The Carousel & the Home Screen.

4. Accessing the “Fire For Kids Unlimited” library – samples of books (2:05), videos (3:32) and apps (4:30) including an Aardman Animations app (as in Wallace & Gromit – the app is with Timmy the sheep) (4:43) and a Gruffalo app (5:28).

5. (At 6:09): How to use the Parent Profile to set daily goals & time limits, including different time limits for weekdays & weekends.

6. (At 7:11) What happens to the Kids Fire when your child hits that parental time limit, and the ease of extending it if you wish to.

7. (At 7:35) Exiting the child’s profile and entering an adult’s profile so you can use the Fire yourself e.g. to access your own books, surf the net etc.

8. (At 8:09) Sample clips from a very good Frozen app (also from the “Fire For Kids Unlimited” library).

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This is a normal Kindle Fire SD (i.e. Standard Definition, as opposed to High Definition) tablet with a lot of additional features designed for children. I am impressed with it.

Regarding my video, if you do not enlarge it to full screen, it sometimes plays with sound but no video (a blank, black screen) - this seems to be an Amazon glitch. To cure it, press the 'full screen' icon. If you are reading this on a mobile phone, you may be unable to view the video - you will be able to watch it on a computer or tablet.

First and foremost, one of the best features of this tablet is a no-questions-asked 2-year warranty. So if your child decides that a great place to leave it is on the stairs and the first you realise is when you tread on it and hear the sound of breaking glass, you can get a free replacement. That's invaluable.

Secondly, you receive one year of `Fire for Kids Unlimited' at no additional cost. It gives access to a library of thousands of books, movies, TV shows and educational apps. Everything has been selected as suitable for children by Amazon and it is all free (well, included in the price you paid) - so I encounter "daddy, can you buy me this pleeeeeeease" less often, and I don't have to worry about what our daughter is watching. A word of warning, though: if you want specific apps, you will almost certainly have to buy them. The good news is that there is so much choice within `Fire for Kids Unlimited' that children can always find new things without having to ask you to buy them.

I will give you a few examples of what can be found on `Fire for Kids Unlimited'. There is a very good interactive `Sofia the First Storybook' (where the Sofia reads the story to you); and a terribly good `Frozen' storybook (which also reads to you. The book has a record button so that children can record their own voices over the story i.e. narrate it themselves). There are similar books/videos/apps for Thomas The Tank Engine, Fireman Sam, Postman Pat, Shaun the Sheep, Chuggington, In The Night Garden, Pingu, Dora The Explorer, Elmo, Barney and Lego for example.

One very good feature is that you can search by ‘Character’. So tap on the ‘Character’ icon (above the Carousel) and thumbnails for all the characters come up (e.g. Thomas The Tank Engine, Fireman Sam, Postman Pat, In The Night Garden, Pingu etc.). If I then tap on the ‘Dora The Explorer’ thumbnail, up comes every book, video and app on Dora. I have just done that and there are 18 books, 1 video and 2 apps. These are all within `Fire for Kids Unlimited'. Just tap them to download them

A word of warning: all videos within 'Kindle For Kids Unlimited' require wifi to work. So you can't download them to watch on a car journey, for example. However if you buy or rent a film, it is downloaded to memory so you can watch it in the car, on a flight etc.

Where the Kindle Fire for Kids excels is in its unusually good parental controls. The software allows you to set up a Parental Profile and up to four Child Profiles. In Parent Profile (accessed via a password) you can set time limits, such as one hour's games per day but never after 6 p.m., while still allowing the reading of e-books until say 9 p.m. I don't get that breadth or depth of parental controls on my iPad. I have demonstrated this in my video.

I can select any app, film/video or e-book from my Parent's Profile and add it to my daughter's Profile - so I decide what she can watch, and even when she can watch it.

You can also set `Educational Goals'. You can prevent your children accessing, for example, apps until educational goals have been met.

Until now I have given my daughter my iPad to use and I always do so wondering what might happen. Yet with this Kids' Kindle Fire, a Child's Profile can't access in-app purchases (phew!), the web browser (double phew!), social media or email. The Child Profile simply does not allow the uploading of a photo to social media.

As for speed, it seems faster than our Android tablets. It's got a Quad-Core, running at 1.3 GHz. As for memory, it has 1 Gb of RAM.

I have in effect saved money by not having to buy a case - it is built-in. While it is chunky, it is great – it feels good in the hands, and it makes it easier for our 5-year old daughter to hold securely. It's terribly thick, as demonstrated in my video. It is so thick that it makes it more likely that it will survive a fall - and if it doesn't within 2 years of purchase, I don't really care (I can't believe I am saying that) as I'll send it back to Amazon for a free replacement.

The photo software is well worth having as our daughter likes editing photos (such as adding drawings), and I am pleased that she gets to develop her creative side. You receive unlimited free storage of photos to the Cloud - so there's no worries about your computer's hard drive failing and taking all your child's photos with it.

It comes with two cameras, one front-facing and one rear-facing. You use the latter to take photos the normal way, and the former to take photos of yourself or more frequently to make video calls - granny & granddad will be happy.

I really like this. Select Pink or blue >> £79.99 + FREE UK delivery (Fire Kids Edition Tablet, 7" Display, Wi-Fi) Amazon