Best Tablet for 8 Year Old – Top Picks for 6 to 10 Year Old (Updated 2023)

One of the most widely discussed topics in parenting is how and when to introduce technology. It is increasingly hard to avoid an excess of screen time, particularly now when so much learning happens virtually.

While every family and child is different, we have made it easier to pick the best tablets suited to younger children and provided you with all of the information you need to make the best choice for your child.

The tablets listed below are generally geared specifically at children between the ages of seven and ten years old.

That being said, the majority of parents choose to wait until the age of 8 before introducing their children to their own tablet, meaning our focus is on finding the best tablet for 8 year old when most children are getting their first taste of personalized technology.

With this guide, we hope to support you in choosing the best device for your family.

Best Tablet for 8 Year Old – Top Picks for 6 to 10 Year Old Child (2021 Reviews)

1) Fire HD 10 Kids Edition – Suitable for 8 to 10 year olds

Specifications:

Recommended age(s): 8-10 years old

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2) LeapFrog Epic Academy Edition

Specifications:

Recommended age(s): 7 years old

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3) Fire HD 8 Kids Edition – Best for 8 year old 

Specifications:

Recommended age(s): 8–10 years old

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4) Apple iPad Mini 2019 – Best iPad tablet for 8 to 10 year old 

Specifications:

Recommended age(s): 9-10+

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5) Samsung Galaxy Kids Tablet

Specifications:

Recommended age(s): 6-8 years old

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6) Dragon Touch KidzPad

Specifications:

Recommended age(s): 6-8 years old

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7) YISENCE Kids Tablet

Specifications:

Recommended age(s): 7 years old

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8) Contixo V8-2 Kids Tablet

Specifications:

Recommended age(s): 7-8 years old

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Do kids need tablets?

There is great debate about the necessity of technology for younger children, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that personal devices cannot be avoided forever, and that technology is often a useful tool for young minds.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you need to go buy your 6 year old the latest iPhone, but it is important to recognize that as children age they likely have greater needs for connection and education that tablets can be an effective way of facilitating.

Additionally, technological immersion is seeming more and more inevitable as education transfers online and children require the internet to keep in touch with their friends.

Tablets are a great introduction to using personal devices for developing minds and can help you as parents and guardians teach your children how to have a healthy relationship with technology before they become teenagers and stop listening to you.

Between the ages of 6 and 10 is when most children start to develop their sense of self and independence so it is a crucial time to start teaching good technology habits, including screen time limits and how to use technology for educational purposes.

Tablets, especially those geared towards children, are particularly well equipped to start this process of teaching.

Through tools like parental controls, adults can still manage what tablets are used for while allowing children a degree of independence over what games or activities to do online.

While the decision is entirely dependent on each family’s unique needs and values, tablets offer a safe transition for children into the world of technology.

How to buy a tablet for 8 to 10 year old children 

When making any technological purchase, there are a million different numbers and dimensions to consider, so we have assembled a brief buyers guide to help make the decision making process a little bit easier.

It is important to remember that every family and has different technological needs, so no tablet is going to be the “holy grail” for everyone, but we are confident that the tablets above are some of the best currently on the market to introduce children to technology and serve as educational tools for a variety of ages.

First, consider the age of your child and what you need the tablet to do.

Is it a device for school? Is your child the only user? Is it for games, learning, or both?

All of these can point you in the direction of certain categories of tablets.

For example, if you have an older child who might use this device for schoolwork as well as playing games, the Apple iPad or Fire HD 10 might be the best choice because they are geared towards slightly older children and have a wider variety of capabilities.

Conversely, if you have a younger child who will only be using the tablet for games, you can opt for a less expensive option that might have fewer capabilities, like the YISENCE Kids Tablet or the Contixo V8-2 Tablet, because your tablet doesn’t need to be as versatile.

Other important features to pay attention to are the storage and battery life. Even if screen time is limited to an hour or two a day, certain activities like watching or downloading videos can quickly eat up storage and battery life.

Additionally, tablets tend to get more use while traveling and longer battery life can be the trick to quieting cranky kids in the back seat. While some models might help you in the budget department, additional storage and battery life can be worth the investment in the long run.

Depending on the age of your child, you want a tablet that can adapt to their needs as they age. This applies to both contents as well as parental controls, which often need to be adjusted if a tablet lasts several years. Pay attention to how easy it is to adjust parental controls on a tablet as well as what games and educational content are made available or preloaded onto the tablet, and whether that can be changed. While a tablet doesn’t have to be a huge investment, it can be beneficial to know that the device you purchased can be used for many years to come to get the most bang for your buck.

Ultimately, there is no one size fits all for kids’ tablets, especially when they grow and change so quickly.

Looking forward, consider what you hope your child will get out of using a tablet –

is it a tool? A toy? A learning device? All three?

These answers vary from family to family, but they can help guide you towards the best fit for you. Every product on this list has been thoughtfully designed to best serve a generation with an unprecedented relationship to technology, so trust in their good intentions as well as your own.

 Frequently Asked Questions

• Should I buy a tablet with pre-loaded content?

It depends. While tablets with pre-loaded content are tempting because they offer an already curated selection of games, apps, reading material, and videos, parents must pay close attention to whether or not the pre-loaded content is beneficial to their child’s development.

For example, a tablet geared towards younger children may have a great selection of educational games pre-loaded on to it, but those games probably will not benefit or enrich the mind of an older child.

It is also wise to pay attention to whether or not pre-loaded content can be removed from the device – if not, and especially if it isn’t at your child’s learning level, it’s basically a waste of storage space.

• Does my child’s tablet need a camera?

Probably not, but it depends on what the tablet is for. You may have noted that nearly every tablet on this list features both a front and rear-facing camera, which begs the question: what are they for?

Because every tablet on this list has WiFi capabilities, they can feasibly connect to video conferencing platforms like Zoom as well as be used to take pictures and videos.

Most children, especially depending on their age, are not going to need to use their tablet for video conferencing, but many children do enjoy being able to take pictures and videos.

If a camera on the tablet is particularly bothersome to you, most tablets feature a means of disabling it or they can be easily covered externally with a piece of tape.

• How do I pick the right sized tablet?

Tablet size is heavily determined by the age of your child and the dexterity of their fingers. While the tablets on this list are generally geared towards children aged six to ten, several of them can also be used by much younger children too.

Most tablets are quite lightweight, typically less than three pounds, but screen size can make a big difference too.

Generally, larger screens are easier for less dexterous little fingers to manipulate and can be easier to see for children learning to read.

Also, consider the protective casing (or lack thereof) and how that affects both the size and durability of a tablet.

Older children are less likely to drop a tablet and so don’t need the same amount of casing, which can open up a range of lighter weight devices.

Portability can be a major factor in picking the right sized tablet too – no tablet is terribly bulky, but some can be much thicker than others.

Particularly if you travel often, opting for a slightly smaller model to save space can be a wise choice.

• What kind of parental controls should I look for?

Every tablet geared towards children has some form of parental control capability, but not all are created equal.

For example, the Fire HD models can be conveniently adjusted from an external parental app that tracks device use and content, while the Contixo requires parents to manually input settings onto the device’s profiles.

When picking out a tablet, consider the types of controls you’d like to implement, as well as you child’s potential tendency to try and evade those controls.

In general, you’ll want to be able to control screen time via device settings and content, whether through monitoring the device and/or placing browsing and download limitations.

Depending on the age of your child, the specific limits you might want to implement vary greatly as does the enforcement required, so paying attention to how parental controls get implemented on various devices is a crucial consideration.

Verdict

While every tablet on this list has its distinct advantages, we picked our favorite based on its versatility:

The Dragon Touch KidzPad. We feel this tablet along with its included stylus best allows kids to explore educational content and creativity in a safe, controlled fashion as well as being durable, portable, and easy to manage.

At the end of the day, we can’t tell you what the best tablet for your child is because that is entirely dependent on the unique needs of your child and your family, but we hope we have decoded the world of kids’ tablets enough to make your decision easier.