Samsung squeezes an arm of Galaxy into the hands of kids

Tablets for kids? They’re apparently more normal than we expect, and while you could always just dangerously hand that iPad to your children, there’s always another idea.

That other idea is a tablet made for kids, and Samsung is hoping to entice a new group of kids with its Galaxy Tab range and some bright colouring.

Launched as the Galaxy Tab 3 Kids, Samsung is repackaging its 7 inch Galaxy Tab 3 with a brightly coloured plastic grip called the “Kid Grip Cover,” as well as a skin on the Galaxy Tab’s version of Android that makes it more kid-friendly.

It’s much the same product that Samsung released earlier, with Android 4.1.2 “Jelly Bean” on a 7 inch tablet with 1024×600 (not-quite HD), a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n, 8GB internal storage with a microSD slot, Bluetooth 3.0, and a 3 megapixel rear camera, though there are some software increases, too.

Some of the apps included on the Tab 3 Kids will include a hair salon game, inventions, a story cloud, and Samsung will be making more available through the use of e-books and edutainment apps to help encourage kids to both enjoy themselves and learn at the same time.

“Galaxy Tab 3 Kids is an exciting addition to the Samsung Galaxy brand of mobile devices as it’s the first of its kind that we have offered in Australia,” said Arno Lenior, Samsung’s Marketing Director for Australia.

“It offers something for parents and children that make it an ideal tablet for families,” said Lenior, adding that “research has shown that children influence tablet adoption in Australian homes so we feel it is important to offer devices and content that can offer experiences for different age groups.”

Without the orange plastic case, it's a yellow Galaxy Tab 3.

For those parents worried about the time their kids spend using the tablet, the Galaxy Tab 3 Kids will also come with a “time management” feature that will make the tablet only useful at certain time periods, with a password lock applied to all other times.

The tablet can also be used as a regular tablet, with the kids mode switched off and switched over to the standard mode, which resembles standard Samsung TouchWiz Android, just like how Samsung released on other Galaxy Tab 3 models earlier in the year.

Pricing for the Galaxy Tab 3 Kids will come in at $299, which is $50 more than the standard 7 inch Galaxy Tab 3 that Samsung has based this on, though you do get a kid-friendly interface and plastic grip, so let that influence your decision appropriately.