LAS VEGAS—Kids' tech devices haven't really taken off in the U.S. While a whole bunch of companies have been building safe, filtered and protected tablets and phones for years, American parents are much more likely to give their kids Kindle Fires or iPod touches.
That doesn't mean the kids-tech companies will stop trying. Today at the CTIA Super Mobility Week trade show I got a few minutes with the new Kurio Phone and Kurio Xtreme Tablet, kids' gadgets announced months ago but which only seem to be coming to market now.
The Kurio Phone is a small, relatively generic-looking Android phone with a highly customized interface. It has a 4-inch, 800-by-480 screen, "dual core" processor, Android 4.2, and 4GB of storage. The phone appears to be compatible with AT&T, T-Mobile, and their sub-brands (like Cricket and MetroPCS), but on 3G, not LTE.
I couldn't get many more details because this phone is locked down, which is sort of its point. Enter the settings? Parentally controlled. Web browser? Filtered. You can't even turn on Wi-Fi without a parent's permission. The phone comes with a ton of built-in games, and it has both Google Play and Kurio's own protected, child-friendly app store - although let's note that to enter Google Play, you need a parent's permission.
I like how Kurio gets these permissions, though. You can enter a code or, better, text a parent's phone to get a text back with permission. That's more flexible than other purely password-based parental controls. Kurio also gives parents a complete management console. So the phone itself appears pretty lackluster, but the controls are absolutely top-notch.
The Kurio Phone is coming on Oct. 1 for $159 unlocked, Kurio said.
The new Kurio Xtreme tablet (shown at right) is a 7-inch tablet with a removable rubber bumper, an Intel Atom processor, 16GB of storage plus a MicroSD card slot, and a very heavily customized version of Android 4.4. You can set up two kinds of users: adults, who get access to everything on the tablet including Google Play, and kids, who see a Nook-like "shelf" of curated apps and don't get to touch the settings.
The tablet has some interesting "Kurio Motion" games, which are basically Kinect games run using the tablet's front-facing camera. They're a great idea - they're supposed to get your kid moving - and I figured out the skiing game within the first few minutes.
But overall, in brief use, I was deeply unimpressed with performance. The screen looked grainy, especially compared to competitive devices like the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7" and the Nook HD. Even Subway Surfers, not a terribly high-test app, felt sluggish to load. So far we have been disappointed in every Intel Atom Android tablet, and the Kurio Xtreme is looking like no exception.
Kurio's major selling points here are going to be price - $129 for the tablet - and its heavy Internet filtering and content protection. Both the tablet and phone also have 24/7 customer support, which will help parents. We'll try to review both of them soon.