Pros: Good educational games. Cartridges are reasonable. Possibility of connecting to the PC & Internet.
Cons: Expensive. Online functions buggy (as of 13 Dec 08). Not all SD brands are compatible.
The Bottom Line: Good handheld educational system for a 4 to 7 year old. Don't expect to use all the Online features. Not all SD Card brands are compatible with the system.
joda_b's Full Review: LeapFrog Leapster 2 Learning System Green
One of the main features of the Leapster 2 is its ability to connect to the computer where you can upload your childs progress to the internet, printer reward certificates and download new games. However, as of 16 September 2008, none of those features are working yet. The Leapfrog website gives a date of 2 October 2008 for the games to be available for download, but gives no date for the others to be available.
My 5 year old was excited to get the Leapster, to him, as long as the games work, which they do, everything is fine. Both the original and new leapster games work.
As a parent, I'm frustrated. When we couldn't get the Leapster to recognize our SD card (required for game downloads and saving info for upload to the internet), we thought it must be the SD card. So we tried another. The first one we tried was a 256 MB card (the max recommended by Leapfrog) by Edge. The second was a 32 MB SD card by Canon. NONE OF THEM WOULD BE RECOGNIZED. We searched online and followed the steps and nothing. We assumed our Leapster 2 must be broken, so we returned it for another. THE SAME THING. Then we turned our attention to the computer itself. We tried it on another computer, this time with Windows Vista (the first computer still had Windows XP). SAME THING. The Leapfrog connect software would not recognize that there was and SD card.
Next we call customer support at Leapfrog and explained everything in detail. After 45 minutes, the Indian woman on the other end finally confessed that they are still working on the SD card functionality. Thats when I noticed on the FAQ that the download feature won't be available until October 2, 2008. However, the connect software let's you download them to your computer now. YOU JUST WON'T BE ABLE TO SYNC THE GAMES TO YOUR SD CARD ON THE LEAPSTER 2 UNTIL THEY FIX THE SD DRIVERS FOR WINDOWS XP & VISTA. YOU WILL KEEP GETTING THE MESSAGE..."AN SD CARD IS REQUIRED." How frustrating.
The cartridge games work just fine. The quality of the screen is by no means Hi-Def or even close. To bad they can't create the educational games with graphics like on the handheld game systems. The nintendo DS doesn't cost much more than the Leapster 2, just $30 bucks more.
In short, your kids will love it. We have the Cars and Thomas cartridges. If you're expecting to interact with it online, print progress reports and award certificates...Don't count on it for a while.
The 4AA batteries we used lasted about 4 hours. At that rate, we'd be swapping batteries twice a week at least. We purchased the additional recharging system for another $34 dollars. Now we are more than a Nintendo DS with worse graphics and no online connectivity.
Oh well, the kids love it.
Update 13 Dec 08: We finally complained to the Leapfrog customer service long enough that they sent us an SD card. The brand was SanDisk. As I mentioned earlier, we tried three other brands before, so I was skeptical it was going to work. Much to my suprise, it worked, sort of. The Leapster connect software now recognizes we have an SD card and I was able to download the only 2 games available for download. Evidently the SanDisk brand cards are compatible. Leapster won't say if any other brands work or not. My son has played for hours, but when I check his playing time online, it is either missing or incorrect. I've ensured that he logs into his leapster 2 correctly. The internet interface still seems a little buggy, but they are working on it. However, I feel with all the other handheld educational systems they have coming out, they'll probably stop making cartridges for the thing by the time the online stuff is up to speed.
I still recommed it just for the play, that's all the 6 year old cares about anyway.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 69.99 Type of Toy: Educational
Age Range of Child: 6 to 8 Years
The best-selling educational handheld just got better! Now kids can play and learn on the go, then expand the fun online with game downloads and rewar...More at LeapFrog
The preschool gaming handheld that connects to the LeapFrog® Learning Path, an online experience that lets you see what your child is learning. Play ...More at Amazon
The preschool gaming handheld that connects to the LeapFrog Learning Path, an online experience that lets you see what your child is learning. Play an...More at eBay
The preschool gaming handheld that connects to the LeapFrog® Learning Path, an online experience that lets you see what your child is learning. Play ...More at Amazon Marketplace
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2010 Shopping.com, Inc.