Handheld gaming device "like" a smartphone . ?

[Doc4]

My 4-year-old son loves playing Angry Birds. He's constantly pestering SWMBO (... guess he hasn't figured out the "O" part of that yet ...) for her smartphone (Samsung Galaxy) so he can play Angry Birds. Of course, it being her smartphone, he usually ends up downloading a whole whack of expensive bandwidth, deleting photographs, doing weird stuff to her Facebook page, and lord knows what else.

Now, I'm thinking there has to be some sort of handheld device for playing angry birds that isn't a phone, and doesn't have internet connectivity (to avoid downloading &c)??

What's the best solution?

 

[Beerhunter]

The only things I know are playstations handhelds and the Nintendo 3ds. I do not know of the software for each system. Hope that helps.

 

[SalvadorMontenegro]

I, too, enjoy playing Angry Birds. So THAT'S what my ex-girlfriend meant when she said, "You know, you behave like a @#$% 4-year-old sometimes!" That's a huge relief.

It's on PSP and PS3 and supposedly it's coming to the Wii-U. You're going to have to download it, though. I don't think there is a tangible version, unless the Wii-U version is. Apparently it's on Kindle, so you could do that and make it a two for one - games and a learning tool.

 

[Fatboy]

Buy a used android phone. You don't have to have phone service to use it on wireless just a Google account to download apps. I have one of my kids old phones on my desk at work just to stream music over the company wireless.

 

[life2short1971]

iPod touch. It will also hold many other games. Movies. Songs, You name it.http://www.apple.com/ipod-touch/

 

[Spinch]

I'll second Fatboy's suggestion of an old Android phone- you can connect it to a wifi network, get Angry Birds and whatever else, then tell it to forget the network- not much potential for abuse there.

 

[ChefJohnBoy-ardee]

iPad Mini or one of the small tablets? Used iPhone, iPod touch, etc. Used droid that you can enable wifi on. etc etc

 

[rajagra]

Samsung Galaxy S 8GB Wi-Fi MP3 Player 4.2 inch
A smartphone without the 'phone.
Got mine for £70 ($110) off Amazon, I expect it's possible to find them at that price if you look around.
I'm very impressed with it. Use it daily. It even has half-way decent speakers, amazing for its size.

If you don't want Internet connectivity on it, don't configure the wifi.

 

[parapaul]

Samsung Galaxy S 8GB Wi-Fi MP3 Player 4.2 inch
A smartphone without the 'phone.
Got mine for £70 ($110) off Amazon, I expect it's possible to find them at that price if you look around.
I'm very impressed with it. Use it daily. It even has half-way decent speakers, amazing for its size.

If you don't want Internet connectivity on it, don't configure the wifi.

View attachment 341870

That's exactly what I was going to suggest! Although at age 4, one of the cheap Chinese Android phones or 7" tablets on eBay might be a better option. My kids (ages 6&8) have the 7" tablets and love them. £50 each and they do everything the kids need.

 

[Mike H]

Might also look at a Nabi, parental controls are great, but it is a tablet.

 

[John Von Wuggz]

I've bought my children a Kindle HD (wouldn't recommend it), iPod Touch 5g, and iPad Mini. The iDevices are great.

 

[soapbox]

I'll add a vote for the iPod touch. Alternately, and I don't know if Angry Birds is available for it, but Nintendo DSes are more durable than a Touch and are very popular. Deservedly so, I think.

 

[cnnc97]

My 4 1/2 year old got a Nabi 2 tablet that has a kid mode and a parent mode on it. When in parent mode I see no real difference in capabilities with my older son's Nexus 7. I can log into the parent mode to download apps from Amazon or surf the internet. I can also control which apps she has access to when it's in kid mode. So I restrict her from getting to Amazon or anything like that and accidentally downloading something. I'm not sure if it's fool-proof but so far we haven't any any unexpected downloads.

She got if from the in-laws so I'm not sure what they paid for it. It might have been cheaper than the current Amazon price in the link below.

http://www.amazon.com/Fuhu-NABI-NAB...ie=UTF8&qid=1371055966&sr=8-1&keywords=nabi+2

 

[Edcculus]

i'd vote for ipod touch. You can set up parental controls. You can download whatever you want for him from the app store. He would have to put in your password to be able to make app store purchases as well. Since its only a wifi device, no worries about surfing the internet/eating up a bunch of data. I'm pretty sure you can totally disable in app purchases as well.

It could "grow" with him too. You can put music on it that he likes. Movies for car trips etc.

 

[Amer]

Another vote for iPod Touch from me. Wi-Fi but no need for 4G or phone service. Other than that, it's practically an iPhone.

 

[Doc4]

Once again, B&B is a treasure-trove of great information.

 

[Toothpick]

make a life size version.

 

[heybatter]

yeah a used or older model iPod Touch would be ideal.

 

[MixedMotives]

what cnnc97 said is perfect you can restrict what they can do
http://www.nabitablet.com/nabi2

 

[zethreal]

I agree with the "Get an old android smartphone" crowd. I gave my old smartphone to my roommate & her son. They both use it to check their emails ( when they have wifi ) and play games. She doesn't have it set up for google checkout, so noone can buy expensive games/apps without a credit card.

I think it has gotten more use for games/apps since I gave it to her than it did in the 2 years I had it as my full time device!