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  Amazon Fire 7 (2022)

  The new Amazon Fire 7 tablet packs a 7-inch display, USB-C charging, up to 32GB of storage, and hands-free Alexa.

  Pros

  • Affordable price tag
  • Comes with a headphone jack
  • Expandable storage upto 1TB

  Cons

  • Slow charging
  • The display could've been better
  • Weak set of cameras

  $60 at Amazon

• 

  Amazon Fire 7 Kids

  The Amazon Fire 7 Kids is a child-friendly version of the Fire 7 tablet that comes with a protective case and a two-year warranty.

  Pros

  • Affordable price tag
  • Comes with a protective case
  • Included two-year warranty

  Cons

  • The display could've been better
  • Slow charging
  • A weak set of cameras

  $100 at Amazon

When Amazon sent over their Fire 7 tablet for me to review, they also included a Fire 7 Kids tablet. For those of you wondering what the differences are between the Fire 7 and the Fire 7 Kids from a hardware perspective, there aren't any. The Fire 7 Kids tablet comes with a big, poofy, foam rubber case, but inside, the tablet is exactly the same. What separates it from the standard Fire 7 tablet is the extra warranty and excellent Amazon Kids+ software layer. If you read my review of the Amazon Fire 7 tablet, you'll know that this is a cheap "knockabout" tablet that you should buy but not care about all that much.

• 	Amazon Fire 7 (2022)	Amazon Fire 7 Kids
  Storage	16GB or 32GB	16GB or 32GB
  CPU	MediaTek MT8168V/B	MediaTek MT8168V/B
  Memory	2GB LPDDR4 RAM	2GB LPDDR4 RAM
  Operating System	FireOS 8.3.1.1	FireOS 8.3.1.1
  Battery	3,750 mAh	3,750 mAh
  Ports	USB Type-C	USB Type-C
  Camera (Rear, Front)	Primary: 2MP, Front-facing: 2MP	Primary: 2MP, Front-facing: 2MP
  Size	180.68 x 117.59 x 9.67mm (7.11 x 4.62 x 0.38in)	201 x 162 x 28mm (9.71 x 6.37 x 1.1in)
  Colors	Black, Denim, Rose	Blue, Purple, Red

Adding on

But the Fire 7 Kids tablet has a few extras piled on top of it to justify that extra $49 it'll cost you. We'll take a look at those extras and find out if they're worth the extra money. Here's what you get when you buy the Fire 7 Kids tablet:

1. Amazon Fire 7 tablet
2. Foam rubber case
3. One year of Amazon Kids+ subscription
4. Two-year worry-free guarantee

Bumper case

That last item is the most interesting, and we'll get to that in a moment, but for now, let's talk about this case. This is a thick foam-rubber case that more than doubles the thickness of the Fire 7. But let me assure you, that thickness is well-used. It is not an exaggeration to say that I spent dozens of minutes literally bouncing this tablet off the concrete floor of my sunroom. I wanted to see if I could bounce it like a basketball. I never came close, but not from a lack of trying.

The corners of this case absorb rough impacts when dropped and indeed thrown from a sitting position. I dropped this tablet on its face, back, side, and corner, and the tablet itself suffered no damage. About the only way you're going to break this Fire 7 while it's in the case is if you happen to hit the screen on a corner of a table or something. Even if that happens…

Two-year worry-free guarantee

Amazon sees this tablet as a device for kids, and kids don't always take the best care of electronics. From drops to spills, there are probably a hundred different ways a kid could take out this tablet despite its armor. That's why Amazon backs this tablet up with a two-year, no questions asked, guarantee. If it breaks, send it back, and they'll send you a new one. The bumper only goes so far, and the guarantee takes you the rest of the way.

One year of Amazon Kids+

Amazon Kids+ is Amazon's subscription program for kid-friendly content. As parents, you can set up what your child is allowed to download, when they can access that content, and even set up reading or learning limits, such as, "Yes, Billy, you can watch Backyardigans, after you read for 30 minutes and work on this Math app for another 30 minutes." Amazon charges $4.99 per month for the subscription, so a year is a $60 value that you get included when you buy this tablet.

Why you should buy the Fire 7 Kids tablet

So who should buy this tablet? Parents who want to give their kids some worry-free entertainment are the main customers here. Having lived through the challenges of raising two children past the age of seven, I can attest to how stressful putting electronics in the hands of children can be. Personally, I have watched some parents hand an iPhone to children, and I have privately questioned their sanity. It's a bold choice.

This tablet, with its bumper case, is a much better proposition for something like that. Add in the two-year guarantee and the peace of mind it offers, and that by itself could justify the extra cost.

When my children were growing up, Amazon Kids+ wasn't really a thing yet, so I can't attest to how useful it would be for children that young. But, some of the foundations are there for it to be a worthwhile experience. If you want to set limits on screentime or what apps can be downloaded, Amazon Kids+ is a good mechanism for doing that. The main thing I really like about Kids+ is the Learn First mechanism that allows a parent to set learning goals that have to be met before a child can go on to watch a video or play a game. That's a really smart idea, and I frankly wish more parental control software did that, and yes, I'm talking to you Google and Apple.

What if you don't have a child?

The important point to remember here is that if you buy the Fire 7 Kids tablet, you are getting a normal Fire 7 tablet with an easily-removable bumper.

Some might look at that two-year guarantee and think to themselves, "If I buy this Kids tablet, I get the same Fire 7 tablet, but with a two-year guarantee, so if I break it, I can get it replaced for less money than a second Fire 7." That's a legitimate argument once you work out the math. The Fire 7 tablet is $60, and this Kids tablet is $110. If you break it once over the course of two years and Amazon replaces it, you get $120 worth of tablets for $110. You would save yourself $10 in the long run. Of course, that's only if you actually break it.

Put simply, even without the bumper, the Fire 7 tablet is a tough little tablet, and even if you break it within the first two years, you're only saving $10 on a replacement. As I said in my review, this is a cheap tablet that's already pretty durable. The bumper case that comes with the Kids edition allows you to bounce it off the walls and floor, for sure, but unless you plan to actually do that, it doesn't add anything else to the equation.

Of course, there's more to this than one single replacement. Amazon does not cap the number of replacement tablets you can get. As long as you can send the broken tablet in, Amazon will replace it throughout the two years. It can be two broken tablets, or twenty, though good luck explaining the number twenty to customer service.

Assuming you are not the most accident-prone person on Earth, the only reason to buy this tablet is if you have children that are in the appropriate age range. Amazon says that's between the ages of three to twelve. I suspect my daughter wouldn't be caught dead with that bumper past the age of eight or so, but of course, your mileage may vary.

Which one to buy?

Considering both tablets in this particular comparison have an identical set of specifications and features, there's no reason to pick the Kids' version of the Fire 7 tablet unless you have kids that are going to use it. You probably don't need the protective foam case or the two-year additional warranty if you don't have kids tossing it around. You also get to save $40 in the process as the regular FIire 7 tablet starts at $60 right now, whereas the Fire 7 Kids tablet starts at $100. You can always buy a third-party case to use it like a regular tablet and be totally fine with it.

A simple third-party case may not be enough if you have kids in your home who could potentially break the tablet while using it. Not to mention, the Fire 7 kids tablet also comes with a two-year warranty with no cap on the number of replacements whatsoever. So you can always get it replaced if the protective foam case isn't enough to save it when your kids throw or bounce it off a wall.