Would we be mad to get DS an iPad Mini for Christmas?

[macnab]

DS will be 8 in March. Quite tech-savvy, he plays apps on my old samsung galaxy phone (wifi only in the house, no sim card in it) and he loves his playstation.

He is asking for a tablet for Christmas. I'm worried that it will get dropped and broken - so much money for a gadget but I'm also worried that a cheaper tablet might not work so well, could have issues with anti virus etc.

So, what are you opinions on costly gadgets for this age group? Are we mad? Should we just get him the Kindle Fire or are iPads really worth it?

I got both my DC iPad minis in the Black Friday sales last year. I was originally going to buy hudls, but it was only £20 more for the iPad minis so it was a no brainier. Particularly given tesco are now withdrawing the hudl due to issues.

I don't have any regrets.

They have the cases from eBay linked to below.

I think 8y is find for a tablet.

I personally prefer an iPad - we have them at home and I invested in several at my school too. I have a Kindle Fire which I won but didn't like it at all. I'm not keen on the Samsung one either. But much of this is individual choice.

You can get some pretty good covers for them as well as toughened glass screen covers. But tbh an 8y is old enough to look after property, though I know that can depend on the individual child.

DragonmotherKhaleesi - yes it can

You can disable safari. If you keep the passcode and the password to yourselves they will not be able to add safari or YouTube back.

We have. 6 year old boy with severe autism..... We rely on his IPAd...
Google Griffin survivor cases. We have an iPad and an I pad mini which have both been totally immersed in water, stood on by a 18kg child and thrown across Waitrose and hit the floor and an annoying guy who was berating my severely disabled child!
Expensive but worth every penny !!!

We've finally given in and given our 3 1/2 year old an I-pie as she calls them for Christmas. i think as long as they aren't glued to it it's fine x

What is PS? I'm assuming some sort of code for £?

davros for some reason whenever someone typed the pound symbol before mn changed it to PS. It's now been fixed.

Ooh, conspiracy?!

The new Amazon kids fire, the one with expandable storage, was 99.99 then it was reduced to 79.99 for the last week but has gone back to 99.99 now by the looks of it. Worth keeping an eye though they may reduce again.

This is our case and as I said before, very good it is too :)
m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Griffin-Survivor-Tough-Rugged-Case-For-iPad-Mini-1-2-3-Brand-New-/262106538195?nav=SEARCH

If he can look after it than I think it is fine for an 8yo. I wouldn't buy my teen one as it wouldn't be looked after.

Thanks

My husband got me an ipad mini for my birthday in October. I'm not in awe of it tbh though I'd never tell him. I prefer the android system. I'd get him the Samsung one.

I personally wouldn't get my dc's an iPad. I personally think that there are other cheaper alternatives out there that are just as good. We have the Google Nexus 7 and my dd (3) has the kindle for kids but at 8 years old he probably wouldn't get that much use out of it.

But ultimately it depends, considering you'd be due a bonus then obviously you can afford the extra. Also a family member got their dc a second hand iPad off eBay and its like new and works fine, so that could be an option too.

ds and sd have the samsung galaxy tab 3 and i haven't found any problems with it aside from storage with large apps can be a bit of a juggle around if they want lots of large games. I bought them a cheap tablet off ebay when they first got one and it was an absolute disaster, didnt work properly was really slow. The plug itself gave dp an electric shock, i ended up having my money refunded by amazon in february after constant faults so i would get a well known brand name rather than a cheaper one.

Bit late to this thread, but my DS got his iPad mini 3 last Christmas and honestly it's been brilliant. It's been brilliant on long car journeys (family live 5 hours away) and indepensible on rainy days and poorly days. He's treated it with absolute respect.

Most people on our local fab mums site have run out of present ideas by 8 because they got an iPad each for their kids when they turned 2 so I don't think 8 is a daft age to get one though I'd probably go for something cheaper. Ds2 will turn 9 in Jan and currently saving up for a kindle fire. We have a family iPad and ds2 plays on it and hasn't broken it yet and he is 3.