Leappad Explorer Review

The Leappad Explorer Tablet is a follow up to last year's award winning Leapster Explorer and is designed to be more like an iPad than its predecessor. Whereas an iPad can easily be broken if dropped, the Leappad, whilst looking like a kid's iPad, is actually made of far robuster stuff. 

The list of features on the Leappad is impressive:

• A broad curriculum to help your child learn
• A built-in camera and video recorder
• Skill levels that automatically adjust to each child's pace
• 100+ games and activities (works with all Leapster Explorer games and apps)
• Appropriate for children ages 4 to 9 years

Like an Ipad the Leappad has a touch screen that allows even little pudgy fingers to operate it easily. However there is also a stylus with a cord if your child prefers that. The stylus is also designed to be used with the writing/drawing tasks etc. 

Built into the unit is a camera and a video camera. One of the great things about how the system works, in my opinion, is that it fully integrates these into the apps. For instance, in the studio app your child can add pictures and video of themselves, as well as personalizing the whole story. There is also a certain amount of image manipulation that makes it fun for children to play around with the camera as well as taking standard pictures. The quality of the images it takes isn't fantastic to be honest, but they are more than adequate for what it is designed for. 

The art studio is a great feature as it has a huge range of colors, stamps etc that keep my daughter occupied for hours and I am absolutely thrilled with the educational elements of this system. My daughter's handwriting has improved, as has her sight reading, just as a consequence of using this system for a short time. The system adapts the difficulty level as she learns. You can actually see some of these in action on the videos included in this article.

You can also set up different profiles, so if you have two children at different levels they can each have their own profile and have work at a different level. 

The only real downside for me about this system is that it seriously eats batteries! My child gets through several sets a week. I have got around this by using rechargeable batteries, however in reality it would be much more useful as far as I am concerned if the unit itself could be plugged into the mains and recharged like the Nintendo DS. Perhaps this is one for them to develop for the future. 

The only other negative I can see is that I think they are pushing it a bit with their upper age limit of 9 years old. I can easily see children below the age of four being able to use it, but I can't see children over 9 wanting to play with it- it simply isn't advanced enough. For this reason if your child is nine I would just think before you buy as it probably won't last them very long. 

This Leappad Explorer is perfectly designed for small children, being easy to operate, bright, durable and pitched exactly at their level.

The apps that come pre-included are fantastic; my child is completely enthralled by  them. They are also so educational that you don't feel bad about your child playing on the leappad. I have also found that unlike other toys that my daughter has had where the novelty quickly wore off, this system is proving to get more attractive to her as time goes on, not less. 

In terms of useability I think this really does live up to its hype of being like an ipad for kids. It doesn't, of course, have all the features of an ipad, but it does have all the features that you need for a child of that age group and integrates them so seamlessly throughout its various apps and games that the whole system benefits. 

When I am on my ipad my daughter happily sits next to me tapping away on her Leappad, drawing and creating some new story or picture. I couldn't be happier with my purchase- if they just made it rechargeable it would be perfect!