Vtech Preschool Learning Tote and Go Laptop - 2010 Version
by V Tech
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Toys and Games Reviews of Vtech Preschool Learning Tote and Go Laptop - 2010 Version
Customer Review: my toddler's favorite toy
Summary: 3 Stars
UPDATE:
NOTE: This review is for the "monkey edition" of the laptop. It appears that V-tech has updated the product since I purchased it, and the feature animal is a squirrel now.
It's been nearly a year since I purchased this for my daughter (now 26 months), and she's still enjoying it. Even with heavy use, we've only had to change the batteries once. The mouse works fine, the sound works fine, and that stupid volume control still drives me mad.
I came back to upgrade my review based on the educational value and enjoyment my daughter's gotten out of this. At 26 months, she's beginning to read and spell simple words, and this toy is helping her develop and reinforce those skills. Now that she's learned to use the mouse, "match the shadow" is her favorite game, though she still loves the letter match and missing letter games. She's gotten endless hours of fun out of this toy, and there are still 20+ more games for her to grow into.
This may be the best money I've ever spent on a toy.
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I purchased this as a Christmas gift for my then 16-month-old daughter, even though she's younger than the target age, because she's been fascinated with my laptop for months.
She LOVES it.
The games range in difficulty from easy ("press a letter to hear its sound") to moderately hard ("remember the word and type in the missing letter"), which makes it appropriate and engaging for a wide range of ages.
Now, at 18 months, my daughter knows the alphabet and the numbers 0-10, and I credit this toy at least partially for that. She spent hours playing "press the letter" and "press the number". Now, she's become fascinated with the "challenge yourself" feature - which presents a random game from any difficulty level when pushed. She'll push it over and over until it gets to one she can do, which is rather annoying, but not the toy's fault.
I agree with other posters' complaints about the volume controls. The "medium" setting is very loud, and the screeching monkey that indicates the volume may be the most annoying noise my ears have ever been subjected to.
Using the mouse is a little awkward; if it's not snapped to the side of the computer, the mousepad can slide around instead of the mouse, making it difficult to maneuver. And since it only snaps on the right side, lefties may have more trouble using it.
Overall this toy balances education and fun nicely, and I'm anticipating getting several more years of use out of it.
Customer Review: Small screen, non-intuitive interface, annoying music
Summary: 2 Stars
I only paid $19, so I'm not so upset that I bought it, but I was disappointed in this toy. I'll focus on three main problems:
The small screen: It measures only 1.5 x 2.5 inches across, black and white, with big pixels and poor resolution. It's not at all like a computer screen, more like the screen of an old-style handheld electronic game. You have to use quite a bit of imagination to make sense of what it's showing. Kids today are used to better-quality displays.
The interface: When you open up the toy and turn it on, the natural instinct is to imagine that pressing the keyboard buttons (which are ornamented with pictures that could do well as memory tags) might do something, like select a kind of game. But no. They do nothing. In order to actually get to one of the games, you have to press one of four large buttons on the bottom of the toy (each selects a different category of games), then you have to unhook the mouse and use it in a non-intuitive fashion to cycle through the games (which are labeled with numbers), and then you have to press the mouse button to select a given game. The intelligent, just-turned-3-year-old that I know hasn't figured this out even after several months. She just turns on the toy, listens to the music, turns it off and on again a few times, and then gives up in boredom.
The music: You can't turn it off, and it's annoying. The games would be just as much fun with less music or no music.
Also, the keyboard is in alphabetical order, not QWERTY order, which may be partly justified by the setup of the games but seems poor training for real computer use.
Overall, I'd buy this toy only for somewhat older kids who can navigate the interface. And I wonder if there aren't better things on the market.
Customer Review: A real hit at a great price!
Summary: 5 Stars
When our son got the VTech Thomas laptop for Christmas, our 4-1/2 year old daughter immediately fell in love with it too. So we decided to get her a "computer" of her own. I checked out the Magic Wand version for her, but was very disappointed that there were only 10 activities and several of them were very "dumbed down".
Luckily, this one has all of the great activities (30!) of the Thomas version for less money. There are some basic mousing skills activities, which are great for kids who are just starting out on "computers." There are simpler activities, like "which one is bigger" and "which side has less", and concepts like left/right. There are several number and letter activities, some involving typing on the keyboard. (The keyboard is alphabetically arranged, not a QWERTY.) There's also a music composition activity, where they "play" the number keys sort of like a piano, then it plays back all smoothly.
Really too many others to name here. What's nice is that the activities are all listed around the screen (which is small and in black/white, but that doesn't bother my kids any, as they are not savvy in more sophisticated gaming devices). In the Thomas version, there's no list, and you have to scroll through the options, and it's not always clear what the activity is. This one has them numbered for you, so if you know what your kids want, you can go right to it.
I like the variety of activities, and the fact that there are some that are a little beyond their current level, so that this toy will continue to challenge them for a while. Although we've only had these for a few days, they've already endured a few hard falls to the floor without any apparent damage, so I hope that's a good sign.
Customer Review: Finally...something he'll play with!
Summary: 5 Stars
My 2 and 1/2 year old son is much like many toddler boys, in that, he just doesn't hold still very much and rarely actually plays with anything, at least not as it is intended to be played with. This toy has finally assured me that he CAN sit still and CAN focus on something and CAN play without throwing and pounding. He was a little on the young side for it, and so I thought that he would REALLY not use it, but he proved me wrong. This is THE ONLY toy he really plays with. He LOVES it. He takes it in the car, to the sitter's house, in the bathroom (hee hee), and often times I will look up from what I am doing and see him sitting nicely on the couch with his "puter" on the arm, playing the games, saying his letters and numbers and cheering along with the praise! He is very smart this has been a large part of why he is so far advanced in letter recognition and counting. There is also the added bonus of teaching the ever so important computer skills of typing and mouse use. I personally think that the screen design is terrible, with the tiny black and white screen in the middle of such a large area and all the lists next to it, but he doesn't seem to notice or mind, so, no matter. I can only imagine how cute it would be if it were a bigger, prettier picture. Other than that, it is cute, a great size overall, being small enough with a nice a handle so he can cart it around himself. It is also very durable and still works and looks perfect after 3 solid months of constant hard play. I was hesitant, because I thought the price was too low for something that would actually withstand and work, but it is the best $18 I have ever spent. Buy it, you will not be disappointed, your toddler will love it, and they WILL learn something!Customer Review: Great learning toy 2 Stars
We love this toy and I would have given it more stars if not for the fact that we have now had it for only a few months and it no longer works! My two year old is still in the chewing phase and chewed on the cord a bit and now the mouse no longer works, so you basically can't use the thing at all and my almost four year old is devistated! This was his favorite toy and now he can no longer use it because of the flimsy design of the mouse. Whoever thought to give a corded mouse computer to kids this young? I mean I understand that it makes it good for lefties or righties, but if you have younger kids at home you have to keep this out of thier reach and than the older one can't play with it much. That is no fun since the younger one did enjoy it as well, but is still too young to understand you can't chew on it! The other problem is that the battery compartment is too easy to open on this thing. I know a 3 year old should know not to play with batteries, but that won't stop many if they get it opened, and they easily could..not sure why most of the vtech toys that are marketed to 3 and up are like this..seems to me that you should still have a screw in the battery compartment for anything marketed to a 3 or even 4 year old esp since my boys are still into the mouthing thing, sure they are not the only ones! It was a fun and educational toy while it lasted, but we are going to go with the more expensive and safer more durable fisher price one...I still think this one is better in alot of ways, but since I still have a young one who will destroy it and even my 3 and half year old isn't that trust worthy with it, I will have to get the more durable one from Fisher price...maybe it will last longer...:(