AT&T is introducing a new, ruggedized 5G Android tablet with an affordable price and one unavoidable problem for potential buyers: They’re too old for the device.
The carrier’s new, TCL-built AmiGo Jr. Tab 2 is AT&T’s latest addition to the market for child-optimized tablets. The pricing involves some grown-up math: either $239.99 up-front or, if you activate a new line, $4.99 a month for 36 months ($179.64 total) with $1.70 in bill credits off a $20.99/month tablet plan.
The remainder of the AmiGo Jr. Tab 2’s specs are less impressive: an 8.7-inch, 1,340-by-800-pixel display, a stylus, 64GB of internal storage (which you can expand by up to 2TB with a microSD card), an 8MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera, and the older Wi-Fi 5.
An advance copy of the company’s press release touted more than 145 hours of battery life, footnoted as “Based on audio playback time with a headset”; that implausible number doesn’t appear in the published announcement, which instead cites “all-day” usage.
The operating system onboard is also two releases behind, the 2024-vintage Android 15. That does not suggest an update for the current Android 17 is coming anytime soon, not that Google’s new release offers much so far to set itself apart from Android 16.
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The more relevant software for potential buyers of the Tab 2, which AT&T recommends for children ages 3 to 10, may be the parental-control app available for Android and iOS, which offers usage monitoring and location tracking, plus the kid-friendly apps installed on the tablet itself. It joins a set of other AmiGo devices, including a smartwatch and a Samsung-made phone.
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Rob Pegoraro writes about interesting problems and possibilities in computers, gadgets, apps, services, telecom, and other things that beep or blink. He’s covered such developments as the evolution of the cell phone from 1G to 5G, the fall and rise of Apple, Google’s growth from obscure Yahoo rival to verb status, and the transformation of social media from CompuServe forums to Facebook’s billions of users. Pegoraro has met most of the founders of the internet and once received a single-word email reply from Steve Jobs.
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