I am admittedly an Apple product lover; I love my mac computer and ipod and iphone... I am sure, given the opportunity I'd love the ipad. But you know what? Even if (and I realize this is hypothetical but I really do mean it) I had an ipad to hand my kids this xmas (ensue peals of laughter from those who know my financial status!) I'd STILL prefer the Nabi.
Why?
The Nabi makes the most sense and being a blue blood New Englander born and bred I guess sensibility (a nice way of saying cautious about money) is ingrained in me. It also makes sense bc as a teacher I will never earn enough to pay off my student loans, let alone outfit my kids in iPads!
I like a great deal and pride myself and hunting them down... The Nabi fits the bill! As my earlier blogs reflect I LOVE everything entertaining and educational about the Nabi... for the purposes of this specific post I am trying (again those who know me well know this is not easy) to stick to one point-- and in this case that's cost and why the Nabi is an amazing deal!
The down and dirty about what the Nabi offers for it's price tag:
The Nabi is at present $149. A steal by anyone's standards (not that I am suggesting the price be raised!). It comes with hundreds of dollars of preinstalled apps, music, videos, games, ebooks etc..., comes with a USB for connecting to a home computer and downloading content that way, has a micro SD slot and comes with a charger. Also comes standard with a protective bumper car worthy case that I love!
Let's compare the Nabi's competition:
Cheapest possible iPad: $499 + cost of apps. Comes with usb cord and charger. No protective case.
Leap Frog Leappad: $99 + games that are $25 apiece. Does not come with batteries, charger or protective case. And based on parent reports online it eats batteries the way I have been eating christmas goodies I'm baking for teachers, friends and neighbors!
V-Tech Innotab: $79 + games that are $20 apiece. No protective case included, no charger, also runs on batteries.
Buy Leap Pad or Inno Tab and two or three games and factor in the cost of batteries and you are WELL over the standard $199 price of the Nabi ($149 is a sale price).
If you're a mom, dad, aunt, uncle, grandparent, or tech savvy kid who is reading this blog and trying to convince your parents to buy you a tablet-- look no further than nabi.
Great article. My one comment is that there are other competing devices that are more similar to the Nabi, such as the Coby Kyros, and cost around the same (I think I saw the Kyros for $175 at Toys R Us), but those other tablets are mostly of poorer quality like the Kyros. The one that isn't poorer quality is the Kindle Fire. The only thing about the Fire is that it's not designed with Kids in mind (neither is the iPad really), so you don't have the parental controls that are important to some parents, nor do you have the games, videos, and books for free that the Nabi has.
ReplyDeleteWhat got me to get a Nabi was the SALE price of $150 (the Nabi's normal $200 price is the same as the Fire), which was just low enough that after selling our old Kyros tablet, I'll probably end up having spent $50 or so, a reasonable price for a "big" present given our current budget. If the sales price wasn't around, I'm not sure I would have chosen it, mostly because at least right now it's not come out in enough quantity to where someone has started to try to root it. The Fire has already been rooted and so if you want to you can get Android Market on there and download any apps you've bought through that, and you can get Google Music, Google Maps, etc., which you currently can't do on the Nabi.
But for those who've never touched Android or Android tablets before these considerations aren't relevant, so the Nabi I'm sure is going to do very well for most. Mom and Dad will get Kindle Fire's and the kids will get Nabi's. :)