An Apple tablet is a princely gift to give a child, but picking the best iPad for kids can be tricky because every kid is different.
I know because my team and I review tablets for a living, so we regularly get questions from parents about slates we recommend. I generally suggest most parents looking to gift their kid an iPad go with the entry-level Apple iPad because its cheap, colorful and gives you the full iPad experience.
If you can afford to splurge on something a bit nicer, I suggest you look at upgrading to the iPad Air because it looks and feels a bit more premium than the base iPad, with a faster chip inside and the option to upgrade to a larger 13-inch display.
But for kids (and adults) with small hands I recommend the iPad mini because while it's more expensive than the base iPad, its small size can be a unique selling point for folks who prefer it over the larger size and heft of the base iPad.
I also recommend you take advantage of Apple's parental controls—check out our step-by-step guide to how to set up parental controls on an iPad for a quick walkthrough.
Before you buy, make sure to check out our regularly-updated list of the best iPad deals to see if you can snag a killer discount.
The quick list
Apple's basic 10.2-inch iPad is the cheapest model, which is why I recommend it most as the best iPad for kids: it's easiest to replace if broken or lost, yet is still plenty fast and fun enough. For a great deal, look for older or refurbished models.
Apple's iPad Air is a nicer version of the basic iPad that comes in two different sizes and offers plenty of speed thanks to its M2 chip. If you can afford to splurge, this is the iPad to upgrade to.
Apple's iPad mini is the best iPad for kids with smaller hands, since its 8.3-inch screen makes this the smallest iPad you can buy. But its still plenty fast, and the screen is sharp and bright enough that even larger folks won't have to squint to see it.
Alex Wawro is a lifelong journalist who's spent over a decade covering tech, games and entertainment. He oversees the computing department at Tom's Guide, which includes managing iPad coverage and reviewing many himself every year.
The best iPads for kids you can buy today
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Best overall
The 10th Gen iPad is sleeker than its predecessors, with a larger display and great battery life. It's a great entry-level tablet, and I think it's the best iPad for kids because its the cheapest iPad you can get from Apple.
That means it's the easiest to replace when lost or stolen, so hopefully you'll feel good about trusting even a younger kid with this slate. Luckily it's fairly durable, and even older models offer good speed, good cameras and great battery life.
In fact, I recommend you look for a deal on older or refurbished models when buying an iPad for a kid, because the older versions are still plenty good enough and can often be had at a steep discount. If you can manage to find the 2021 iPad, that was the last one to ship with a headphone jack--which is important if your kid has a pair of wired headphones they love.
Read our full iPad 2021 review.
The iPad to upgrade to
Apple's Pad Air 2024 is basically an upgraded version of the base iPad that's more ideal for consuming and creating content, and its $599 starting price might be worth it if you want to give a child a premium tablet that you can trust them to take care of for years to come.
Thanks to the power of Apple's M2 chip the iPad Air is almost on par with the iPad Pro in terms of performance, even though it costs hundreds of dollars less. That isn't to say the Air is now a Pro replacement, but the gap in power is considerably smaller.
Overall, the latest iPad Air is an almost perfect tablet that's a luxury device best entrusted to older kids. This is arguably the best tablet for most families, especially if you want something a bit better or bigger than the base iPad.
See our full iPad Air (2024) review.
Best for smaller hands
The iPad mini 7 is a great pint-sized slate that gives you all the benefits of an iPad in a smaller, palmable size.
It's great for kids with smaller hands who have trouble managing a full-size iPad, which is why I recommend it most often to well-off parents who want to give their child an expensive gift to keep them occupied on long trips.
The A17 Pro chip onboard makes it feel as fast as the bigger iPads, and it's actually faster and more capable now than the basic iPad. That helps justify the added expense of this smaller tablet, which costs roughly $150 more than the base iPad.
Plus, it's great for reading comics and picture books because the 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display is easy to hold in one hand and close in size to a sheet of paper. And you can use it all day too, thanks to the 10-hour battery life. Of course, Apple promises up to 10 but in our battery tests we actually saw the iPad mini 7 lasting 10 hours and 34 minutes, which is about 20 minutes less than its predecessor but still a great run.
However, you should know that this tablet doesn't support the Apple Pencil 2, so you're stuck using the basic Apple Pencil if you want to doodle or take notes.
Still, it's an easy iPad to recommend for young kids who want an iPad but can't manage the extra size and weight of the full-size models.
Read our full Apple iPad mini 7 review.
How to choose the best tablet for you
Still unsure which iPad is right for the kid(s) in question? Here are some important things to consider.
Screen size: Apple sells iPads in a variety of screen sizes ranging from 8 to 11 inches. If you expect your kid to be watching a lot of videos or playing games mostly at home, you'll want one of the larger models like the base iPad or the iPad Air. But if the kid in question will be toting the iPad around a fair bit, or has smaller hands, consider the iPad mini — it has a screen that's just as good as its bigger siblings, but it's a bit smaller and easier to hold.
Budget: You can spend anywhere between $330 - $800+ on an iPad for kids, or more if you splurge on extras like an Apple Pencil or Magic Keyboard. If you can afford the higher end of that spectrum, the $599 iPad Air or the $799 iPad Pro 11-inch are excellent tablets that will serve an older child well for years. If you have a smaller budget or don't want to trust a younger kid with such an expensive tablet, the base iPad ($329, or $299 with educator's discount) is a better choice because it offers all the capabilities of an iPad without the higher price tag of its siblings.
Age: How old is the kid you're buying this iPad for? Obviously if it's for you and your family, buy whatever you like, but if you're getting a tablet for a specific child, we recommend you don't shell out for the high-end options unless the lucky kid you're giving it to can be trusted not to break or lose a $500+ tablet. The entry-level iPad is plenty good enough for kids ages 5-12, though if you want something smaller the iPad mini is also quite good — though it does cost $499. If this is for an older kid who can be trusted with an expensive device, the $599 iPad Air and $799 iPad Pro 11-inch should serve them well for years.
Battery benchmarks: comparison
Battery life is one of the key things to consider when buying an iPad for a child, and you can't always trust manufacturer claims about how long they'll last on a single charge.
That's why we put every tablet we test and review through a series of battery tests, then average the results and compare them against the competition. I've assembled the tested battery life of every tablet on this page here in one handy chart, including every tablet recommended in our guide above as well as some other competing tablets, just to give you a sense how our recommendations stack up to the competition.
When we test tablet battery life we run the tablet through our custom performance benchmark, which times how long the tablet can last on a full charge when endlessly surfing the web via Wi-Fi. If you use your tablet in a more dynamic way, like say playing games while streaming podcasts, you will likely burn through your battery faster than we did.
So while I stand by our testing and the battery life results we compare in the chart below, I want to be clear that your own experience will vary!
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Time (hours:mins) |
|---|---|
| iPad 10 | 10:57 |
| iPad mini 7 | 10:34 |
| iPad Air M2 | 11:30 |
How we tested these tablets
First, we run as many benchmarks as that iPad will allow, to see how fast they are in ways that can be compared directly against competitors. We then use colorimeters and light meters to measure how colorful and bright these tablets’ screens can get. After that, we put them through our in-house battery test, which times how long it takes — while surfing the web with brightness at 150 nits — to drain a tablet of a charge.
After that, we do the same things you or your kids do — browse the web, watch YouTube, play games, write messages — and then a lot more. We try and write some (or all) of our tablet reviews on the tablets we're testing, and we try to test out an attachable keyboard if possible.
For more information, check out our how we test page for Tom's Guide.
