Review of the Nabi 2

Nabi 2 Review

I got both girls Nabi 2s for Christmas. I had debated between the Kindle Fires, Nabi 2, and iPads for my girls before finally deciding on the Nabi 2. There are some great things about the decission we made and some not so great things here is a full review.

The selling poitns that we used when making the decission to purchase a Nabi 2: 

1. The Nabi 2 was $170 so about $100 cheeper than a Kindle Fire and $129 cheeper than the cheepest price on an iPad Mini during the holidays. 
2. The Nabi 2 has the full Google Play Market, and locks out to the Nabi Mode or allows you access to the Parent Mode. I really liked this option! I can put just the apps or even portions of apps on the Nabi mode. Books I want them to be able to read inside the Children's Nook App and lock out the rest of the app for example. 
3. It has timelocks just like the Kindle Fire if you choose to download the app and implement them. 
4. The Nabi 2 has a chore chart and you can actually load 'reward coins' that children earn on their own by signing off they have done chores. With the coins kids can buy real apps or real books, and music inside approved apps. The Nabi sends YOU the parent an e-mail asking permission for each download, and doens't take their money until you approve it. 
5. The Nabi is shatterproof, drop proof, and even water resistant. We got rubber bumpers for them in each of our girls favorit colors. This was the huge selling point for me! 
6. The girls can still Skype family and be on a 100% approved skype list. I put in the addresses that are allowed to Skype them or they are allowed to Skype and they can call freely within their time limits, and approved lists. 

Now that you know the selling poitns here are a few downsides we considered: 

1. They don't have the Apple App Market. Let's face it there are a lot of great apps that are only out there for Apple right now. 
2. There weren't many reviews that were more than a few sentances and a star rating out there at the time we bought them. 
3. They have limited customizabililty on the outside. We bought them each a colored bumper that was their favorite color and some times to write their names on the back. But as far as dozens of choses there just aren't any great options. 
4. Some of the first round Nabi's had problems and we did end up exchaning one of ours because it wouldn't update. 

How they have worked out? 

So far well... I have 2 reviews. My older daughter's is amazing! We downloaded the Google App Market update with out any problems put all her favorite apps on there and she plays it non-stop! She uses the chore chart, and has even earned a few items such as special toys and food for her pets (an app). It's been an awesome tool for teaching and enteretaining. 

My younger daughter's (exactly the same Nabi) hasn't worked yet. We can't update it, the screen skips and we've had nothing but issues. She does enjoy the preloaded apps but can't do anything else on it. I contacted Nabi cares and although it took them nearly 2 weeks to get me the replacement paper work to exchange it they did get it to me! I mailed it back today so I hope to report that the new model is up and running next week sometime. I will post an update with that. 

So far I give the Nabi 2 an overall rating of 4 out of 5. They take a little getting use to switching between children's mode and parent mode, although it's fantastic when the kids are playing. I love the tons of controls, and yet when you hand it off the kids are totally free to do what they want and need to do on a tablet. 

You can buy Nabi 2 on Amazon and have it shipped for free! Try it out for yourself here...