VTech InnoTab 2 -Blue

I brought this for a long car journey we had to make and both all my sons age 2 to 6 enjoyed this innotab. I downloaded extra games from the vtech site which you were given 2 for free. These are all educational but fun my 3 year old particularly like the counting kitty game. I also added some ebooks which he enjoys to read and these are great for my elder son too. As my eldest speaks french I downloaded some french games which he played with his younger brothers and helped them get used to hearing french around them.On the vtech site you can also downloads videos so I added tellytubbies for them to watch but they also have music videos and music cds for the kids to sing along with. The kids have found the camera the most fun with this. It is easy to take good pictures and then add features to them such as wigs and hats and they seem to find this hilarious.I did buy the charger to play this with as it does eat the batteries quickly however rechargeable batteries would probably last a while and then you could just charge them as with the charger they have to stay in the same place to play it, but we also had a car charger to keep it going for the whole journey too.It has been dropped by the younger too and they are not as gentle with the screen but it is highly resilient which is definately necessary. Definitely recommend it was an excellent purchase you can keep adding to and it keeps their hands off my kindle.

I am writing from the point of view of non-English speaking children.Our goal was NOT to teach them English, but to give them a cool toy. I was worried, that the English menu and the English speaking games will be too complicated for them - but I was completely wrong. They (boys aged 8 and 5) seem to navigate with ease, only a couple of times had they ask for an English speaking adult to help. (It is true we have the mobigo2 as well, so they were familiar with the concept of cartridges, and touchscreen – but that was also no problem to pick up either.) Photo and music so far is not yet a big thing for them, yet it is true the SD card I inserted to the device was a small memory one – so not too much to explore for them. They like the sticker-book type of applications and the drawing and coloring software that came with the device.We purchased straight away 4 cartridges (2 is waiting for the winter), given the fact that in the case of mobigo our experience was that one cartridge is fun for about 2-3 months, than they need something new, than after a while they play with the "old" one yet again. The cartridges are fun for them (yet Dora the explorer is partly Spanish, so it is perhaps too much confusion with the languages for them to introduce a third one..), so far they use 2, plus the original that came with the Innotab. There is no need so far to have more games - my advice would be to purchase one or two straight away with the device. (You can download two games/books from the website for free, but these games are short mini-games, about a fifth of the game that is on one cartridge.)The first device sadly developed some sort of error, only seemed to work with the free cartridge, and not recognize any other one, no matter what did I try (change of batteries, update from the homepage with the use of the CD packed inside+our home computer+internet+cable packed, restarted..) no change. Both Vtech and Aamazon.co.uk were very helpful and quick, and they suggested the best option would be a replacement. Amazon changed the device for free to a new one (it works perfect, touch wood), plus they reimbursed a part of our postage costs. (Vtech offers a 2 year warranty, but I hope we will not have to test it once more.) So super service from Amazon.Although the goal was not necessary to learn the language, our sons know a couple of words in English (mainly numbers, colors) thanks to this device - which is probably not too much, but will not do harm either. This device is pretty much the Holy Grail that parents look for - balances the fun, the cool and the education. And in my experience this device works very well with non-English speaking kids. The games have age suggestions on them - I found that they were almost correct to my sons as well, despite the fact, that they do not speak English. For example the 3-5 years games for the 8 year old are fun, but after a while he changes to the game that has a higher age suggestion, since he quickly "finishes" it - so bravely pick the games that are age-appropriate.As we have the mobigo2 and Innotab2 as well, my advice for those who are thinking about buying only one from these two devices would Innotab2, because it has bigger screen (better for the eyes), and very similar games than the mobigo cartridges - yet is "has room to grow into", since there is e-book in almost every game, and has a built-in camera to have fun with (no flash lights, so proper light is a must) and place for SD card to view films or videos during travel (that you can later buy separately). Yet it is true that mobigo has a slide out key-pad, while on this device has a touch-on-the-screen keyboard function – so perhaps letter-recognition is easier with the mobigo2 for the smaller kids.I hope it is helpful for other parents, who are looking for some high-tech electronic toys for their non-English speaking kids.All the best, Livia

My son loved palying the games and watching movies on his Innotab while on long journeys. The lack of variety and challenging games was the downside for me and I couldn't 'log' my sons play as we had no game cartridges but downloaded them all off the innotab interface, another downfall. My step son has the Leap Pad and this proves to be much better although they couldn't watch movies or listen to their own downloaded music with it.

Our Innotab 2 stopped working after exactly 6 months. However, I did get a refund from Amazon. My 3-year old son enjoyed playing with the Innotab for a couple of weeks but quickly got bored with it. I thought it took ages to open applications. I also didn't like the lack of brightness of the screen and the quality of the camera. I now bought a Samsung Galaxy Kids Tablet which was more expensive but is worth every penny. I like this one a lot better than the Innotab and I am sure my son will enjoy playing with it much longer than with the Innotab. In the end I also think it is a cheaper solution as you can get a lot of free downloads and don't need the cartridges.

Very happy with the innotab, don't know what some reviewers expect from a kid's tablet...but I think it's great fun, easy to use, decent camera, downloads that don't cost the earth, loads of memory capacity & despite being dropped countless times is still going strong! My son's spelling & handwriting has improved significantly, keeps him entertained for hours and it's educational. Happy kids = happy parents :)