Does a kid need an Amazon Echo Dot? And if so, does a kid need a grown-up Echo Dot? Or an Echo Dot Kids Edition? Or does a grown-up need a kid to have a Kids Edition more than a grown-up edition?
These are the questions we parents struggle with. Well, that, and what's for dinner.
But today it's all about the Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition. It is, for all intents and purposes, an Echo Dot, just like it's always been. Only now it has a cool little case. That seems silly, I know. Why does a 3-inch speaker need protecting? All I can say is you've never met my sweet little daughters — and that it's also more about whatever it is that might get knocked onto the Echo Dot than it is the Echo Dot doing the knocking.
More interesting with this more-expensive Echo Dot — it retails for $79 but we're already seeing it for $69 — is that you get a year's worth of Amazon Free Time, for free. (Well, rolled into that more-expensive price.) That gets you access to all kinds of kid-friendly content, and some parental controls that you kids might or might not find a workaround for. (My money's on the kids, though.) That in and of itself pretty much makes up the difference.
But what it doesn't do is answer our original question. Does a kid need an Echo Dot? And in that case, does a kid need a kid-friendly Echo Dot?
That one's on you to answer.
Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition ($79)
The Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition is just like any other Echo Dot. It's got a small speaker. It's got Alexa. And this one comes with a kid-friendly case, access to loads of kid-friendly content, and has parental controls to keep the kid from having too much fun with it.
It's not a bad deal, if only for the kid-friendly books and music and games and stuff. But if they're on the cusp of being a mini-grownup instead of an oversized baby, you might just save some cash and go for the real deal.
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