Best Tablets for Kids on Flights and Road Trips

For ages 3–8, an Amazon Fire Kids tablet: it comes in a bumper case with a two-year no-questions warranty, a year of Amazon Kids+ content, and controls a 9-year-old could not defeat in our test — for $110–$200. For ages 8 and up who need school apps, a real browser and a device that lasts, the iPad with Screen Time is the better long-term buy at $349 plus a case.

Kids+ is Amazon's subscription library of children's books, videos, apps and games, included for a year with Kids tablets and then $5.99 a month (or $79 a year for a family). The tablet works without it — you can add apps yourself — but most of the "included content" families expect is Kids+.

Amazon Kids profiles and Apple Screen Time both held against our 9-year-old's attempts (guessing the PIN, changing the clock, factory reset) as long as the parent PIN is not the phone unlock code. Samsung Kids and Google Family Link held too; Family Link's weakness is that it depends on the parent's phone being reachable.

A parent sets up each tablet with a 5-year-old and a 9-year-old profile. The children use them for two weeks; the 9-year-old is asked to try to get around every limit. We then drop each tablet ten times from one metre onto a wooden floor in its case, run the same video loop at 50% brightness until it dies, and price the tablet with a case and a year of subscription.