Next month my young family and I will be travelling on a well deserved holiday. Unfortunately this involves a 7 hr drive... To help preserve the sanity of my wife and I, we are thinking of buying an iPad mini or similar android device. A 1st gen mini is available for £275 with education discount (inc 35 iTunes voucher, good enough for the kids), a 32 gig 2nd gen (better for me and my wife) for 455 (inc 35 iTunes voucher) or a recon 32 gig 2nd gen for 409 (without 35 iTunes voucher). Alternatively a kindle fire hd (160 for 16gig) "would do" for the holiday. My wife would prefer I buy the most affordable option but accepts I prefer the Apple ecosystem. Note, later this year I will be buying an iPhone 6 to replace my 4 and I would also like to buy myself a 2nd gen air or 3rd gen mini. Opinions please!
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iPad mini 7 hr drive + kids = 1st gen mini, 2nd gen mini or kindle fire hd?
- Thread starter p1rate chris
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They could be "fine" with the Kindle. There's tons of kids apps and it made to be simple like an iPad. The Amazon store frequently have sales and deals on apps.
As for your future ipad, I would wait if u like the idea of touch Id.
As for your future ipad, I would wait if u like the idea of touch Id.
I think this might be country specific so I'd look into that first. If this feature is available and you're already subscribed to Prime, I reckon the Kindle would make a decent stopgap and should save you from buying a lot of content. Just use the funds saved for the next gen iPad when it gets released around Oct/Nov.
If you get the iPad, be sure to turn on parental restrictions for buying apps and in-app purchases.
Thanks for your suggestions. I live in Germany and do have amazon prime, so maybe the fire hd makes more sense...
You can watch Amazon Prime movies on your iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000798971
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000798971
But Amazon Prime won't let you download TV Shows or Movies for later viewing on iOS or Android. It's only for the Kindle Fire HD/HDX.
But Amazon Prime won't let you download TV Shows or Movies for later viewing on iOS or Android. It's only for the Kindle Fire HD/HDX.
According to this page, you can't download prime videos to your Kindle either; you can only stream theme.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000742241
I own an iPad; I've downloaded videos I've purchased and streamed prime videos without any trouble. I understand you can borrow books from the kindle lending library only you have a Kindle, but aside from that, I'm not sure what a Kindle can do that an iPad can't.
If you prefer the Apple ecosystem, I would certainly go for an iPad over a kindle. The original mini is still a highly capable machine, but the second generation mini will probably remain viable longer.
Since you said you are likely getting a 3rd gen mini or air when they are released, I would suggest getting a first gen mini refurb or used. You can get them quite cheap now and I doubt your kids will notice the screen quality issue or not care.
Saturn recently had the mini1 16gb + lte for 299,-. There is all kinds of sales for the old mini going on.
Check mediamarkts and saturns night sales, too.
Or look here: asgoodasnew.com basically a refurb store with 30day return policy + 30 months warranty!
Nope, not true. I have a 1st Gen Kindle Fire HD and with the new OS update I can now download or stream TV Shows or Movies to my device. I've downloaded several TV Shows and movies to my KF HD for offline viewing. The only catch is once you start the viewing you have either 48/72 hours to finish watching or you'll need to resync the device with Amazon.
I checked out MediaMarkt briefly but not Saturn. Thanks for the link, looks very interesting!
Sure you can. That's outdated info, probably.
Caveat, OP needs to check if this is available in Germany, too.
Amazon Fire HD is for your wife and kids if she likes to read during long trip and kids can watch cartoon movies? I don't know how much Amazon Prime movie rental cost vs iTunes movie rental? rMini 2 is for yourself. Anyway hope you have a wonderful vacation. 
Once again, thanks for all the comments. A friend of mine has a kindle hd so I might take a look.
I am still undecided.
A recon mini 1st gen would "do", but they run to 200 for pretty old tech (Apple products do hold their value). On the other hand a 16 gig kindle fire hd is 160 (with ads), which is close enough to the cost of a recon mini to make me think twice... A second hand 16 gig mini 2 is 300, so for 100 more than the mini 1 I get the current version.
Of course, in all of this I still must consider my wife's point of view.....
I am still undecided.
A recon mini 1st gen would "do", but they run to 200 for pretty old tech (Apple products do hold their value). On the other hand a 16 gig kindle fire hd is 160 (with ads), which is close enough to the cost of a recon mini to make me think twice... A second hand 16 gig mini 2 is 300, so for 100 more than the mini 1 I get the current version.
Of course, in all of this I still must consider my wife's point of view.....
Amazon Prime Instant Video is included with a Prime subscription in the US. If you're already a Prime subscriber (e.g. for 2-day shipping), then it's effectively a freebie. This is the only reason I'd even suggest buying the Kindle HD as it can save quite a bit of funds buying/renting content or streaming video over 3G at $15/GB (typical overage fee for AT&T and Verizon in the US).
If the OP is not a Prime subscriber or if the offline video feature is not available in his country or if he has unlimited data, then I'd definitely go for the iPad Mini (either version). To be honest, I doubt the kids would even care if it's retina or not so you can probably go with the recon Mini. One of my nieces is getting my aunt's 3-year old iPad 2 and she's really excited about it. By the way, she calls her dad's Nexus 7 (2012) an iPad, too.
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I have both an iPad Air (my 4th iPad) and a Kindle Fire. I travel a lot and the option for Prime members to download and view the instant videos offline was my deciding factor between a Fire and a Mini.
My 7 year-old granddaughter love my Fire. There are a lot of games she loves. But then she also loves my Air.
If the option to download and view offline Instant Videos is not available to you (I note that you're in Germany) then my suggestion would be to go for the Mini. That way you stay in the same ecosystem.
I'm not a big Apple lover. I actually buy all my content (books and video/TV) from Amazon. But the kindle OS is a flat out mess. It's really good at what I bought it for - instant video and books. Other than that I simply don't use it. While I usually upgrade my iPad every year I will not be buying another piece of Amazon hardware. I'm sure the Fire I have will last me for several years and by then I won't be traveling so much or I'll find something else to occupy myself.
Sorry for the long post. In my opinion, buy the Mini. You'll be happier in the long run.
My 7 year-old granddaughter love my Fire. There are a lot of games she loves. But then she also loves my Air.
If the option to download and view offline Instant Videos is not available to you (I note that you're in Germany) then my suggestion would be to go for the Mini. That way you stay in the same ecosystem.
I'm not a big Apple lover. I actually buy all my content (books and video/TV) from Amazon. But the kindle OS is a flat out mess. It's really good at what I bought it for - instant video and books. Other than that I simply don't use it. While I usually upgrade my iPad every year I will not be buying another piece of Amazon hardware. I'm sure the Fire I have will last me for several years and by then I won't be traveling so much or I'll find something else to occupy myself.
Sorry for the long post. In my opinion, buy the Mini. You'll be happier in the long run.
Amazon Prime Instant Video is included with a Prime subscription in the US. If you're already a Prime subscriber (e.g. for 2-day shipping), then it's effectively a freebie. This is the only reason I'd even suggest buying the Kindle HD as it can save quite a bit of funds buying/renting content or streaming video over 3G at $15/GB (typical overage fee for AT&T and Verizon in the US).
If the OP is not a Prime subscriber or if the offline video feature is not available in his country or if he has unlimited data, then I'd definitely go for the iPad Mini (either version). To be honest, I doubt the kids would even care if it's retina or not so you can probably go with the recon Mini. One of my nieces is getting my aunt's 3-year old iPad 2 and she's really excited about it. By the way, she calls her dad's Nexus 7 (2012) an iPad, too.
I have used Prime subscription for 30 days few months ago I decided to cancel it because I already have Netflix so no reasons to keep both. I sometime buy some stuff from Amazon but I prefer eBay anyway.
OP, since you are planning on joining the iOS ecosystem anyway I would say you should pick up the first generation Mini. Just grab it from wherever you can get the best deal. For your kids it'll be fine because they're not going to notice the lack of retina screen or care which processor it's running. They'll just be happy to have a new toy to play with. Plus any apps or content you purchase for their Mini can also be downloaded again for free once you get your new iPad/iPhone later this year.
Is that a standard warranty? I wish we had standard warranties like that here in the US.
Is that a standard warranty? I wish we had standard warranties like that here in the US.
By law warranty in the EU is 24 months.
After 6months you need to prove that the error is due to a construction fault.
Asgoodasnew.com just gives 30months as part of their deal.
Get the iPad mini 2nd generation iPad mini for 409, and make sure to tether your phone for internet