Product Review - Toys and Electronic

Product Review - Toys and Electronic 

I have decided to start reviewing products we have tried that we felt may benefit our special needs children. We have two, my DS1 has a mild intellectual disability, and DS2 has spastic diplegia cerebral palsy with weakened core muscles and fine motor delays (on top of many, many health issues). 

Coby Kyros Internet Touchscreen 7036

If only it were heavier I'd use it as a paperweight! Two of our boys, DS1 and DS2, each received one for Christmas from their grandparents and aunt because we've been trying, without success, to get them each a computer for in class use. DS1 had his for three days and on the third day when it was plugged in to charge the charging port broke off and fell inside the unit, it was not pushed hard nor abused in anyway but broke nonetheless. Even more disappointing was the fact that it was past the 30 day return policy for the store they bought it at leaving the only option being to contact Coby, oohhh boy let me tell you how much of a disappointment that is! 

First off to return an item to Coby you must pay to ship it to them, of course you must do it properly otherwise it could sustain more damage in the mail and no one wants that because they'll claim that to be abuse and chances are they will not replace/repair it. Off to Canada Post, it's going to cost $25 to ship it to them, since they were on sale that was 1/4 of the cost of the product. Now if we lived in the USA we would have also had to sent a money order to cover the cost to ship it back, however, since we are in Canada we don't have to do that. Nope! BUT they will contact us with the freight shipping cost to ship it back and invoice us for it, which has to be paid before they will return it. I have bought and returned many products over the years and have never had to pay for shipping before (that wasn't reimbursed) especially for something that was clearly a defect with the product. 

Now once they receive it they will closely inspect it and dub whether or not they believe it was a warranty issue or not. If it is not they will either call you and bill you for the repair or sent it back without doing a thing so you are out about $50 if you feel the repair costs aren't worth it. If they deem it a warranty issue they will either replace it with a new unit, refurbished unit, or repair it...but hey it still cost you $50! On top of all of that from Nov-Feb it takes 6-8wks just for them to process it, tack another 3-7 days both ways for shipping unless you pay the extra to overnight it or do the 1-2 day delivery option (I looked into both, $39 and $48 for those two options OUCH!) so basically you may be without it for a good 2.5 months and maybe even longer if they decide to repair it instead of replace it. Again I've never had an item take that long before, even my laptop I had back in 2wks (16days if you include shipping time). 

Now on to the tablets themselves. GetJar was CRAP, I can not download any of the spec needs programs that I wanted to download for either of them, they are not on GetJar they are on Google Apps which you don't have access to. I couldn't even get a decent game for them, besides Angry Birds, which took days to get because GetJar kept refusing to work. Now you know how with your computer, phone, and most other tablets if there is an update or anything changes you are notified? Yeah we get nothing like that on the Coby, if it wasn't for my husband looking it up we would have never known they've migrated to another App store -_- and no the new app store doesn't seem to be any better. Back to the GetJar though, that came preloaded, DS2 had his for an HOUR and in that hour he was able to download mounts of scams to his tablet, you know the ones that want your cell number and bill you? It wouldn't have been so bad if DS1 didn't fall for them and provided MY cell number which had me bombarded with text messages, oh but don't worry the tablet warns you that there may be ads attached to the free games. Too bad they don't warn you that most of these ads are scams and are disguised as games, games that peek the interest of kids, games that tell the kids they need to enter a phone number to be able to get them and even once the number had been entered do not provide said game. If that wasn't bad enough the other ads direct kids to Amazon to toys related, or closely related, to that game. It is as annoying as commercials on TV, there is nothing like having your child sit down to play a math or word game and running up to you a few minutes later begging for the toy it just shot them to on Amazon....but hey I think we've covered the "I wants" for the next 20 birthdays and Christmases! 

They have basically become YouTube TVs, that is pretty much all that interests them anymore.

Now function I must say it is quite lacking here too, since DS2 has fine motor issues he tends to have more then one finger on the screen at once, this is not an issues with my iPhone, however with the tablet it's been causing it to not respond to his movements and has froze numerous times. When it freezes the power button no longer responds so I can't just turn it off and back on, you need a small pin to be able to reach the reset button in the back which is a pain in the butt! This means that he can not reset it himself and he gets very upset because he can't do it, he also become upset because he will be in the middle of something when it freezes (like playing a game or watching a show) and he has to start all over again. 

At the end of the day this tablet would be best used as a disk for skeet shooting, a paper weight, or even a frisbee. Spend the extra for a better quality tablet that has access to a better app store, you will be thankful that you did!