Famous for its kid-friendly portable tablets, Fuhu now has its sights set on your living room. The company's new Big Tab HD brings the classic Fuhu Nabi experience to 20- and 24-inch devices, while adding in new apps designed for large-screen use. We got some hands-on time with the new mega-slate, which will arrive this fall at $450 for the 20-incher and $550 for the 24-inch model.
The Big Tab's massive black bezel is surrounded by a removable silver frame, which has a small gap at top that serves as handle for carrying it around. The slate (we used the 20-inch version) can be laid flat for tabletop games, or propped up using a kickstand that flips out from the bottom of the rear panel.
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The 20-inch Big Tab sports a 1600 x 900 display, while the 24-inch version steps it up to 1920 x 1080. Both versions are powered by an Nvidia Tegra 4 processor and pack 16GB of storage.
To take advantage of this massive amount of real estate, Fuhu has crafted five new app categories. Two Play brings classic board games like checkers and chess to the touchscreen, while Game Room does the same for things like air hockey. Show Time turns the Big Tab into a personal TV with content from Disney and Cartoon Network, and Story Time presents young users with big, interactive storybooks. Big Canvas is self-explanatory, letting kids get wildly creative using digital brushes on a 20- or 24-inch surface.
Of these new experiences, I found Story Time and Big Canvas to be most enjoyable. I swiped through an interactive version of The Jungle Book, which felt like a fusion of the classic 3D pop-up books from my childhood and more traditional e-books. And while the Dream Pro Studio art app is already on the Fuhu DreamTab, painting with it felt way more satisfying on the Big Tab's wide surface.
Though it's about four times the size of the Fuhu Nabi XD, the Big Tab retains the same colorful Nabi interface that runs on top of Android 4.4 KitKat. The tablet retains most of Fuhu's key apps, like the Wings Learning System and the motivational Chore List, as well as the Dreamworks-themed content from this year's Fuhu Dreamtab. Fuhu's renowned parental controls make a return on the Big Tab HD, and mom and dad will get to manage any of their kids' Fuhu tablets remotely this fall when the nabigator app launches for iOS and Android.
While $450 seems like a lot to spend on a kids' gadget, you're getting a 20-inch slate that serves as a television, board game surface, digital canvas and whatever else your little one wants to use it for--all for less than an iPad Air. Fuhu has impressed us in the past with its children's offerings, so we're eager to spend more time with this super-sized slate.
