Top Pick for
Best overall
Top Pick for
The whole family
Top Pick for
Educational tablet
Top Pick for
Small screen
Finder's team trawled through dozens of product listings and selected these top picks based on customer reviews left around the web. In every category, we thoroughly checked key features and found which products would be most suitable to take on what your kids had to throw at them.
Read more detail on our methodology below.
Apple has a lot of strong plays in the tablet space, but when you're talking kids – whether you want an educational or school tablet, or just one for more "fun" activities – a lot of them tend to be very pricey indeed.
We can't exactly call the 9th generation Apple iPad "cheap", but it is the lowest cost iPad you can buy even though the "current" model is the more powerful 10th generation device.
That's a fine tablet, but for the needs of most youngsters, the A13 Bionic chip in the less expensive 9th gen model will be more than enough.
Like every other iPad, the 9th Gen iPad runs on Apple's iPadOS, the current best tablet-based operating system on the market with a huge array of available apps covering everything from educational needs to video streaming and games.
Apple does provide controls that can make it much easier to manage which apps are on your child's iPad as well, so you can fine-tune according to your needs and their wants too. There's even support for the Apple Pencil stylus if your kid has artistic talents, although the use of the Lightning port on the 9th Gen model means it'll only work with the 1st gen Apple Pencil – so buy wisely.
What's not to like here? Apple's shifted largely away from Lightning for charging iPads. This is the outlier that still has it, which means you might need to keep a few spare cables and chargers to hand if everything else is USB-C.
Apple has largely kept the 9th gen model around because it wants an affordable play in the market, but that does mean that eventually when new iPadOS updates roll round needing more power, it'll be the first to hit the obsolete list.
Want to know more about the Apple iPad 9th Gen? Read our comprehensive review here.
Save on Apple iPad 9th Generation
11% off Apple iPad 9th Generation
11% off Apple iPad 9th Generation
61% off refurbished Apple iPad mini 4 Wi-Fi + 4G/Cellular 128GB in space grey
In the 2023 Finder Retail Awards, we surveyed over 34,000 Australians about their retail purchases to discover which were their favourite brands across 170 product categories and over 1,200 total brands.
For tablets, Apple was ranked 2nd for value for money, 1st for performance, 2nd for ease of use, 1st for features and design and 2nd for battery life.
5 brands were rated across these decision criteria.
If you need a tablet the whole family can use, look no further than the Google Pixel Tablet. Released in mid 2023, the Pixel Tablet is designed to handle any application your kid throws at it courtesy of a new Tensor G2 chipset.
It has a spacious 11-inch touch screen that is ideal for learning and streaming. The back of the tablet features a nano-ceramic coating for slippery-fingered kids.
The package includes a Charging Speaking Dock that magnetically connects to the tablet. This allows the tablet to double as a digital assistant and smart home hub when the kids aren't using it. The dock contains a powerful speaker that's loud enough to cut through the busiest households.
Best of all, the dock keeps the tablet fully charged - so no more hollering from your kids about running out of batteries.
Other noteworthy features include inbuilt Chromecast for hands-free video streaming, advanced photo editing tools such as Magic Eraser and Photo Unblur, 8-megapixel front and back cameras, 1080p video recording at 30 FPS and a 2-year warranty.
In terms of software, there are currently around 50 apps optimised for the Pixel Tablet including YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, Google TV, Play Books, WhatsApp, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Sheets. In other words, your kids should have access to all the software they need, whether it's being used for study or play.
There are two options available - a 128GB model for $899 and a 256GB model for $999. Apart from the storage, both versions are identical.
As the name suggests, Samsung's Tab A7 Lite is designed to be a simple and indeed light tablet, which makes it a good match for kids who you wouldn't want to weigh down with a heavy device. Reviewers noted that its screen was nice and bright – but they also noted that it wasn't terribly high resolution, but that's quite common in the low-cost Android tablet space.
They also applauded the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite's speakers – often something you get very poor quality from in the lower end of the pricing pool – as being notably good.
As you'd expect, it's an Android tablet relying on apps from the Google Play Store. Google's done a fair job pushing its developers to make more tablet-friendly apps. And while that's not quite as universal as it is on the iPad side of the fence, there's still a quite wide array of available, kid-friendly apps to pick from.
Few tablets have good cameras and the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite might even fall short of that, with reviewers noting its 2MP selfie and 8MP rear cameras as being mediocre at best. You probably don't want your kid taking too many selfies, but if they do need to take photos of school projects or the like, this might not work all that well for them.
In the 2023 Finder Retail Awards, we surveyed over 34,000 Australians about their retail purchases to discover which were their favourite brands across 170 product categories and over 1,200 total brands.
For tablets, Samsung was ranked 1st for value for money, 2nd for performance, 1st for ease of use, 1st for features and design and 1st for battery life.
5 brands were rated across these decision criteria.
If you're buying a kid's tablet on a seriously compromised budget, you've got to expect compromises along the way. Orbic's Tab8 4G certainly ticks the boxes for low price, available locally for $149 with 4G mobile capability and a level of water resistance built in – both of which are quite unusual at this price point.
Not that we'd advise using the Orbic Tab8 4G in the pool any time soon. Its water resistance has more to do with surviving small rain showers than any kind of water immersion. Still, every bit helps here.
It's otherwise a basic 8-inch tablet running on a lower-end processor with a simple display screen. The one upside here is that having less processor power means that its 4300mAh battery really can last a decent length of time for such a cheap tablet. Just don't think your kid will become the next big photo portrait artist courtesy of the Orbic Tab8 4G's very basic 13MP rear and front-facing 8MP cameras because they flat out won't. Nevertheless, if you're looking to spend as little money as possible (or your kid has a habit of breaking stuff), this is a solid option.
If you want to avoid the full tablet experience to limit games and other distractions, you need to look at the world of strictly "educational" tablets. LeapFrog has long been a leader in this space, and its LeapPad Ultimate is generally very well-regarded by reviewers and consumers.
A lot of that rests on the fact that the hardware is designed around the kind of use – and let's be honest, abuse – that kids are going to heap on a tablet, especially younger kids. The LeapPad Ultimate is designed for very young children between 3 and 6 years old, so older kids may find it a touch limiting.
The focus here is strongly on educational outcomes including reading, writing and number comprehension, giving kids a leg up in the years before they commence formal education for the most part.
The downsides here are that while the LeapPad Ultimate offers a very kid-tailored experience, it does so outside the usual tablet worlds of iPadOS or Android, and that means it's by definition a limited experience. You can get more content from LeapPad for the device, but it's on the expensive side. Whether it's good value for your kid will depend largely on their educational needs at that point in time.
Not all tablets for kids have to be tiny. Indeed, there can be some big benefits in going large in screen size when choosing a tablet for your kid to use. It gives them a more expansive play space – and it's a little easier for you to see what they're up to as well.
On the iPad side, that's limited to the larger iPad Pro line, and that's great if you've got a serious budget for that kind of device, which is also total overkill for most kids. That's why we've chosen the Galaxy Tab S7 FE, a much lower-cost device that still packs in a 12.4-inch display into its lower price point.
It's a slightly older device now, and that can only help in lowering the general price, which is nearly always a relief to cash-strapped parents. If you wanted a larger tablet for artistic purposes, it's also worth noting that Samsung does include a stylus device – "S-Pen" in Samsung-Speak.
In the 2023 Finder Retail Awards, we surveyed over 34,000 Australians about their retail purchases to discover which were their favourite brands across 170 product categories and over 1,200 total brands.
For tablets, Samsung was ranked 1st for value for money, 2nd for performance, 1st for ease of use, 1st for features and design and 1st for battery life.
5 brands were rated across these decision criteria.
Small hands can often struggle with bigger tablets, whether that's around issues of using them or, more calamitously, dropping them due to weight.
If you're after a smaller tablet for your child, it's hard to look past Apple's iPad Mini, now in its 6th generation. It's a super powerful tablet with a huge library of educational and fun apps to choose from, including many free options. The A15 Bionic chip that lies beneath its 8.3-inch screen is nicely powerful, so it's a tablet that could last your child a good number of years as they shift their educational needs and goals.
It's also compatible with Apple's better 2nd gen Apple Pencil if they're the artsy type. The use of USB-C charging is also quite welcome, especially as the smaller frame of the iPad Mini doesn't give it a whole lot of space for battery capacity.
Like all things Apple, there is a price premium to pay. It is notably more expensive than the regular iPad, which remains our pick for the best general tablet for kids. But it's totally proof that you can get good things in small packages.
61% off refurbished Apple iPad mini 4 Wi-Fi + 4G/Cellular 128GB in space grey
In the 2023 Finder Retail Awards, we surveyed over 34,000 Australians about their retail purchases to discover which were their favourite brands across 170 product categories and over 1,200 total brands.
For tablets, Apple was ranked 2nd for value for money, 1st for performance, 2nd for ease of use, 1st for features and design and 2nd for battery life.
5 brands were rated across these decision criteria.
Temu
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Lenovo
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Amazon
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Dell
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Save while you spend on certified refurbished laptops and tablets with warranty same as new at Dell. While stocks last. T&Cs apply.
Otterbox
Buy a case, get 20% off a screen protector
Ends
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MyDeal
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Shop on a range of brand-new, used or refurbished tablets & iPads and save up to 45%. T&Cs apply.
The Good Guys
Extra 20% off clearance sale
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Kids can really push devices to their limits, subjecting them to plenty of wear and tear over the years. To protect any of these devices, we'd recommend you look for thick and sturdy cases as well as screen protectors to prevent any accidental damage.
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6We compared a range of tablets fit for use by kids from the brands mentioned below, making sure to rule out anything that wasn't easy to come by for Australian consumers:
Using our extensive review experience as a primary guide, we considered the specific needs of children regarding tablet usage. These include durability, battery life, app availability and suitability and parent-friendly features such as content control or online management.
Based on that research and our own reviews, we selected what we feel are the best options for any parent, grandparent, guardian or similar looking to buy a tablet for a younger person.
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