The big boxing duel: Tiger vs Tonie
9.1.2020
Translation: machine translated
The market for child-friendly sound systems is growing. Beautiful boxes, figures and stories are not only fun for children. How does the new Tigerbox Touch compare with the Toniebox?
"Kids, you have to help me with my employees!" Rarely has this sentence caused so much excitement as on the day I bring the Tigerbox Touch home. A four-year-old action expert and a seven-year-old specialist in children's audio games are waiting there. Both are proud owners of a Toniebox. I am an installer and maintenance specialist. This is also needed from time to time, as both systems can only be configured online.
The clever dad pre-installs
When it goes "Nanananaaaaaaa!" for the fifth time and the children sing along more and more impatiently while the system reboots but is still not ready for use, I realise that I have made the ultimate rookie mistake with the Tigerbox Touch. The golden rule is: always charge and set up tech toys before your offspring find out about their existence. Otherwise you'll have stress. Pinch Tonieboxes in your ears with increasing desperation or pat your tiger's face in annoyance to get the new entertainment centre ready.
Take a few quiet minutes to do this, it's worth it. Setting up both systems is not complicated, but updates and setup take time.
Both systems require the internet and retrieve newly purchased content from the respective cloud. Once everything is set up and loaded, the stories can later be played offline and the children can manage them themselves. This means that neither tape clutter nor a scratched CD can cause tantrums. And, particularly practical, mum and dad have control over the basic settings. For example, you can set the maximum volume, which is extremely easy on the nerves and ears. You can take comfort in this if the initial start-up is a little more tedious than before, when all you had to do was insert a CD and press play.
The Toniebox
I was immediately taken with this audio cube with the cute little figures for each story and gave it to my daughter for her birthday. It goes without saying that my son also wanted a Toniebox. Practically any child who can grasp can use it. All they have to do to listen to stories or songs is place a "Tonie", i.e. one of the small magnetic figures, on the surface. If the figure is new, the box must be online. When listening for the first time, the content is transferred via Wi-Fi and can then be played offline at any time.
There are classics such as Heidi, Benjamin, Arielle & Co. as well as creative tonies that can be played with all kinds of content. Using the app, you can record something yourself and send a goodnight greeting to the figure from a distance, for example. The padded box is robust, nice to look at and feels good. Instead of staring at a display, children interact with the figures and the details are also playful. To adjust the volume, the ears of the box are pressed.
The Tigerbox Touch
The Tigerbox Touch goes one step further. You can use it in two different ways. Firstly, individual stories are available on "Tigercards", which are slid into the back of the box for activation. Secondly, there are "Tiger Tickets" that give your child access to the entire streaming offer of around 3,000 titles for a certain period of time. A Tiger Ticket for one month is included in the scope of delivery.
In essence, you get a kind of Spotify for kids with full cost control. Once a Tigerticket has expired, the plan is not automatically renewed. That's interesting. Because although Spotify is often already installed and subscribed to by parents, it's not ideal for children. Although you can hide "inappropriate content", it is difficult to create a child-safe environment. The only option is to create playlists, make them available offline and then cut the network connection. Or you can keep control yourself and be called every few minutes to start another story. Otherwise, it's just a click from the devil's kickers to the horror audio book, and the corresponding suggestions are often not for children's ears. It's a different story with Tigertones, which is aimed at children aged between two and twelve and is the library behind the box.
The Tigerbox Touch is powered by Android and even digital natives who have just outgrown their nappies will have no problem operating it via the display. Tap the desired cover, press play, done. As a parent, you keep the reins in your hands via the associated app. With an active plan, you can, for example, define the age range for which the stories displayed should be suitable or which topics your child is particularly interested in. Horse stories? Pirates? Princesses? It is also possible to select individual stories and display them as favourites on the box. The box has an 8 GB internal memory. That doesn't sound like much, but it's enough to have plenty of radio plays available offline. I find it particularly practical that a second story can be played in parallel via the Tigertones app in case the children can't agree. Oh yes, the children. It's time for their opinion. Whereby the Tigerbox Touch has the advantage that the enthusiasm for it is still fresh.
The children's opinion
My daughter takes her job as a tester very seriously. She asks me to write everything down in detail when I ask for her opinion. My son is her sidekick, who occasionally shouts something in between. So: what's better about the Toniebox and what's better about the Tigerbox Touch?
Daughter: "What's cooler about the Toniebox is that you can just take the figures and put them on it. With the Tigerbox, you always have to look for it (wipes your finger through the air). What's cooler about the Tigerbox is that you don't have to have every single figure."
Son (tearful): "I don't have that many Tonies. She has a lot more! (cheerful again) The tiger box is nicer because the tiger is on it."
The tiger logo is illuminated, and there is also an LED strip on the bottom edge that can flash to match the sound or be switched on as a night light. Both lights can be configured and are very popular with children.
Daughter: "What I think is cooler about the Tigerbox is that it lights up like this, the tiger and the bottom. And that it's a bit of a beat." My daughter checks what I'm writing and is happy. "Right." The quote is authorised. Continue in the text.
Daughter: "I like the fact that the Toniebox doesn't break straight away if it falls down. Because it has fallen down a lot."
Son: "The Tigerbox has only fallen down once! In my room."
That's a good point. The Toniebox is padded all round and forgives being thrown around a lot. The Tigerbox Touch has a display and bamboo wood on the top. Whether the thin silicone cover on the edges can decisively soften a heavy fall is something I'd rather not try out.
Daughter: "I think the wood is nicer than the plastic. And it's good that with the Tigerbox you can continue listening to other stories where you left off."
In the opinion of the children, the Tigerbox Touch is the clear winner.
My opinion
As nice as the Toniebox is for toddlers (and parents), the Tigerbox Touch is more interesting in the long term thanks to its extensive child-friendly streaming offer. Although we can borrow new Tonies from the public library every now and then, the endless radio play offerings on Spotify have outstripped them. If I saved myself the family account there, the plan with the Tiger Tickets wouldn't cost me much more.
In terms of sound quality, the systems are not much different. The Toniebox delivers 1 x 3 watts mono, the Tigerbox 2 x 2.4 watts stereo. Both are okay and not a deciding factor for me. The best thing is that you can limit the maximum volume anyway. Both also have a headphone connection, which we occasionally used on car journeys. Unfortunately, it broke inwards on one of the Tonieboxes. In addition, the battery was defective during the warranty period, after which the device was replaced. Apart from that, the Toniebox has been going strong for a year and a half and rarely needs charging. The Tigerbox should last a little longer at eight hours, but as the children swipe the display virtually non-stop, it usually runs out of juice more quickly. While the Toniebox has its own charging station, the Tigerbox Touch has a USB-C port. I'm just as worried about its integrity as I am about the 3.9" touch display.
Michael Restin
Senior Editor
Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.chSimple writer, dad of two. Likes to be on the move, shimmies through everyday family life, juggles with several balls and occasionally drops something. A ball. Or a remark. Or both.
