Ellipsis Kids (Verizon Wireless) - Review 2022

The Ellipsis Kids ($249.99; 16GB) is one of many tablets on the market today vying for your child's attention. But different nearly kids' tablets, the Ellipsis offers LTE coverage on Verizon's network, so you lot can go online anywhere, and not simply where Wi-Fi is available. It certainly isn't the fastest slate out there, but information technology comes with lots of fun and educational kid-friendly content. If you're looking for an LTE-uniform tablet to keep kids busy on long machine rides, it's a solid pick. But if you can alive without LTE (and the built-in children's software), the Amazon Fire is an excellent pick for i-fifth the cost.

Design

The Ellipsis Kids is a manifestly-looking black tablet that weighs 12.vii ounces and measures eight.i past 4.9 by 0.four inches (HWD). It comes with a thick light blue rubber bumper, which adds a good deal of grip, protecting the tablet from bumps and falls. It also has several indents on the back console, which farther improve your grip and add some way points. Verizon also sells a colorful $35 case that comes with a stylus and doubles as a kickstand for video watching.

The screen is an 8-inch, 1,280-by-800-pixel panel that looks reasonably sharp and bright. Information technology's definitely a step upward from the 1,024-past-600 display on the 7-inch Kurio Xtreme 2 kids tablet, though it can't compete with higher-terminate panels on adult tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 (which boasts a stunning 8-inch Super AMOLED screen with ii,048-by-i,536 resolution).

The right side of the tablet is home to power and volume buttons. On the lesser you lot'll find a micro USB port that's somewhat subconscious past the bumper. The only reason to remove the rubber bumper is to admission the left edge of the tablet, which is where y'all'll detect access to the microSD and SIM carte du jour slots. The tablet comes with 9GB of available storage, and the microSD slot works with cards up to 200GB.

Software
The Ellipsis runs the older Android 4.4 KitKat OS. It offers two different software experiences: Developed Fashion and Kid Mode. Adult Fashion is pretty much just the stock Android launcher, with access to the Google Play app store. Only in that location isn't much reason to use the tablet in Developed Mode; if that's all you're looking for, you can get a higher quality experience all around with a similary priced slate like the Asus Zen Pad S eight.0.

Child Style is where Ellipsis really shines. From Adult Way, simply tap on the Kid Mode push to launch Zoodles, an educational software platform for kids. The main carte du jour is a horizontally oriented cartoon jungle, and the top of the screen is home to icons for Books, Cartoon, Games, and Videos. Below that is the Toybox, which grants your child access to whatsoever apps you have installed and have given them permission to use. (Kids Photographic camera and Kids Photos are available here, out of the box.)

A map icon in the upper left corner lets you change the await of the main menu to desert, mountains, and other environs by borer different locations on a map. Finally, an icon in the upper right takes you to your child's profile. From there, you lot can track what your child has been using the tablet for, and how many Zoodles points they take earned.

Verizon Ellipsis Kids Inline 1

The principal parental controls are accessed through the Dashboard icon, which you tin, confusingly, simply access after first tapping the map icon. The Dashboard is password protected past a four-digit code. Zoodles suggests using your birth year, but I'd advise choosing iv numbers at random then your child is less probable to effigy it out. From here y'all tin choose what apps announced in your child's Toybox, meet detailed overviews of how much fourth dimension your kid has spent in various subject areas (including Language, Life Skills, Math, Science, and Social Studies). You can fifty-fifty 'promote' particular subjects to prioritize them every bit Zoodles determines what content to offering.

The Zoodles content is high-quality. There are simple educational games, like Monkey Multiple, where a monkey volition ask your child a multiplication question with three possible answers floating downwardly equally air bubbles, and your kid has to shoot the right answer with a pellet gun. Videos include a number of different educational lessons, and Books includes titles like Little Scarlet Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk. Drawing is just what is says: You can draw on the tablet's screen using your finger or a stylus.

Other kids tablets, like the Fuhu Nabi Elev-viii, have a fairly comprehensive ecosystem of child-friendly games and videos. Only the Zoodles software really stands out because and so much of its content information technology aimed at educating children, whereas others simply distract them with apps like Fruit Ninja.

Performance

The Ellipsis is powered by a ane.5GHz quad-core processor. It scored 22,040 on the Antutu Benchmark, which tests overall organization performance. That isn't nearly every bit powerful a showing equally the Nabi Elev-8 kids tablet (32,581), but information technology gets the job done. Switching between modes and opening apps can be slightly sluggish, merely the feel feels adequately smoothen in one case you're upwards and running.

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The 5-megapixel camera on the back of the Ellipsis takes decent photos, though they are slightly overexposed. Shooting 720p video can exist a bit frustrating, as the camera is slow to focus—it'south much better for all the same shots. The 1.3-megapixel forepart-facing camera takes grainy selfies, but should work for the occasional video call. The Kids Camera app has big icons and is intuitive to use.

Verizon Ellipsis Kids Inline 2

For audio, the front-facing speakers sound tinny and slight, even with the volume turned all the manner upward, y'all'll want to plug in a pair of 'phones, like the kid-friendly Nabi Headphones.

Battery life is zero to brag about. The v,000mAh cell in the Ellipsis lasted 3 hours, 42 minutes in our rundown exam, which streams video over Wi-Fi at full screen effulgence. The Kurio Xtreme 2 (4 hours, 16 minutes) and the Nabi Elev-eight (6 hours, 26 minutes) both concluding longer.

As for LTE, I had no trouble connecting to Verizon'southward network consistently in midtown Manhattan. Unfortunately, the tablet doesn't support the carrier's 2G or 3G networks, which ways your connectivity is express to where Verizon's LTE network (or Wi-Fi) is available. The tablet can exist added to existing Verizon plans for $ten per month, or you can get a stand up-alone plan starting at $30 per month for 1GB of data

Conclusions

If you go on lots of long machine trips and you need abiding connectivity, the Ellipsis Kids tablet is a useful way to focus your kid's attention on content that is fun, engaging, and educational. That said, you'll merely be able to get online where LTE is available, and battery life isn't the best, so you'll want to invest in a car charger. At this cost, you lot're not far off from the iPad mini 2, which isn't built for kids, but features a wealth of child-friendly apps and games through Apple'due south App Store. The Kurio Xtreme 2 and the Nabi Elev-8 are solid, lower-price kid-focused alternatives, although they are limited to Wi-Fi connectivity. And for even less, we recommend the $50 Amazon Fire for its combination of operation, content, advanced parental controls, and very low price.