Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Whenever a product has nothing but 5-star ratings, buyer beware. This product isn't what it makes itself out to be. It's a cheap off-brand (probably $30) tablet in a unique case that features a foot. That foot is cute and child-friendly, but the case is absolutely not shatter-proof and doesn't protect the tablet if your kid decides to toss it across the room...like I wanted to about ten minutes into trying to set this thing up. The first bad sign was when they suggest you scan a QR code to activate the product with the parents app...except there's no QR code to scan. Then they give you a four-digit code to put into the app...which does nothing. The app wants the full serial number or no dice. So, again, they're asking you to do something that doesn't work. Okay...weird. Not feeling super confident at this point, but let's give this thing a fair shake. The tablet finally boots up and immediately starts playing content, which is nothing but a video that my 2-year-old will tolerate for about a minute before losing interest. It isn't all that engaging and you can't click on anything on the screen. You can't stop it, skip it, etc. You just have to grit your teeth through it. As this thing continues to play, I scour the app in search of a way to customize the age group so that activities are at the 2-year level (like on ABC Mouse). Nope. Not available. Quite frankly, the parent app is useless. It lets you start a learning session, which is timed...and there's supposed to be a place to adjust the timer (which is supposedly set to 15 minutes from the factory). I couldn't find that adjustment anywhere. Maybe it's there, but I gave up. All the app can really do is turn the device off, which I guess is handy if you're one of those parents that likes to use the "uh-oh, it's broken!" excuse to get your kid away from stuff. Now to the software. One word: unimpressive. Annoying characters. Too much talking. Videos flow into other videos without giving the kid a chance to interact or you a chance to skip them. Again, maybe this is just the way this whole thing starts out and it gets better as the AI "learns", but there's no chance my kid would give it that much time. And if you're thinking, "well, sounds like your kid has been raised on YouTube and has the attention span of a gerbil," you couldn't be more wrong. We have a screen-free kid who can play on his own for a good 45 minutes at 23 months. Take away from that what you will. At $199, this thing is a waste. It's cute, I'll give it that. But engaging? Hardly. Worth the money? Not a chance. Sorry AILA, but this is an immediate return.