Toys "R" Us got in on the kid-friendly Android tablet craze with the Tabeo tablet in 2012. This year it is upping the ante with a sequel. The popular toy retailer announced the Tabeo e2 will launch in October for $149.
The Tabeo e2 includes a dual-core 1-GHz processor and Android Jelly Bean 4.2. The 8-inch slate offers a 1024 x 768-pixel resolution, up from last year's 800 x 480-pixels, allowing little ones to enjoy games and movies in even more detail. The Wi-Fi slate has Bluetooth functionality, 8GB of storage, and a mini HDMI output for viewing content on a television screen.
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In order to entice parents looking for the perfect gift, Toys "R" Us is including a wide variety of preloaded content with the Tabeo e2. Kids will have access to popular games such as "Need for Speed Most Wanted" and "Fruit Ninja" out of the box, as well as educational programs such as "IStoryBooks" and entertainment apps such as "Cartoon Network" and "My Little Pony."
The Tabeo has its own dedicated app store for kid-friendly content, and the device boasts an improved set of parental controls that allows adults to block specific apps and control how much time their child can spend browsing the Web. The Tabeo e2 will be available in blue, pink, and silver when it launches, exclusively at Toys "R" US stores and tabeo.com.
The children's Android tablet market is growing rapidly, and the Tabeo e2 has even more competition for this holiday season. The $199 Fuhu Nabi 2 earned four stars and an editor's choice award in our review thanks to its Tegra 3 processor and strong parental controls. The multi-user functionality of the stellar $269 Nexus 7 (2013) makes the device just as good for kids as it is for mom and dad, plus its got a 1920 x 1200-pixel display and a 1.5-GHz Snapdragon CPU on board. On the other hand, the sluggish, low-res Oregon Scientific Meep shouldn't pose much competition, despite being a few dollars less than the Tabeo e2.
Overall, the $149 Tabeo e2 is shaping up to be a solid and affordable contender for kids, and the Toys "R" Us exclusivity sure won't hurt.
