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Need to keep your kids entertained sans-screen? Yoto’s formula is made portable in the compact Yoto Mini Player, a clever concept kids and parents will both love.
Kids gadgets come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but one of the more interesting movements we’ve seen in recent years has been the push away from screens. It’s not something every parent is doing — feel free to be the parent you need to be, and don’t be judged by others — but if you’re not a fan of just plonking your kids down in front of a phone or tablet, going screen-free is a thing.
There are plenty of solutions: books, colouring books, drawing pads and pencils or crayons, or just simply talking and playing with your kids, but there are also technological solutions worth trying. This year, it seems they’ve been especially in abundance.
Take the Toniebox, a neat concept combining toy and speaker to let kids listen to their favourite TV and movie characters simply by placing toy to speaker.
The Toniebox isn’t alone, either. The same year that gadget launched, so too did the Yoto, a curiously named product that brings together a similar concept — screen-free entertainment — but makes the concept easier more flexible, supporting more than just kids shows, making it also useful for slightly bigger kids.
In the Yoto Mini Player, the idea is to make that even easier to take once again, making for a portable idea both parents and kids can get behind in a seriously clever way.
What is the Yoto Mini Player?
A compact entertainer for the kids, the Yoto Mini is rather like what you might expect it to be, provided you’ve seen our review of the regular Yoto Player or even considered one in the past.
The idea is simple: screen-less entertainment for kids in a gadget shaped like a box. Without a screen, entertainment is basically music and audio books, but because you still kind of need a screen for a good interface, Yoto includes a small screen to help kids know what they’re listening to.
Kids can load their choice of entertainment using a card, inserting that choice into the slim slot at the top of a Yoto, and these can be licensed stories, music, or even cards made by parents of voice recordings or music. We record stories at bedtime and throw those onto a card.
Those cards could also be radio stations, provided you can map them using the Yoto system. They might even be things you’ve bought from the Yoto store, but don’t have a physical card for, and you also don’t even need the physical card to begin with.
Parents can use the Yoto app to send entertainment directly to a Yoto Player, and kids can even tune in without a card or app thanks to pre-mapped settings of a free 24/7 kids radio station Yoto supplies for pop and fun kids music, as well as a second made for chilling out with plenty of classical to soothe your children.
A Yoto Player has WiFi built-in to download tracks, but this won’t clearly work for the free live music services. However, both Yoto Players — big and the Yoto Mini we’re reviewing here — have 32GB of storage, allowing music and entertainment to be taken out on the go with kids.
Like its big brother, the Yoto Mini Player follows the same approach of entertainment in a little box, only it’s a much, much smaller box. This is a proper little box, and isn’t much bigger than a pocket mirror.
That said, the Yoto Mini Player also follows the same template, albeit in a more compact way. There’s a smaller speaker, a smaller screen, smaller and more obvious controls, and support for both Bluetooth and a 3.5mm wired headset jack.
What does it do?
Grab the Yoto Mini Player and set it up, and you’ll find all of a sudden, parents, you have a speaker you can connect up with the Yoto marketplace of content. Some of it comes on card and some of it doesn’t, but if you do have the cards, your kids can get to work.
Slot the card in and play some music. Slot the card in and play a story. Slot the card in and give your kids all the control for their own entertainment, with the tiny screen acting as a clever cue to what they’re playing.
The left control is all about volume and the right about deciding what you play, clicking the latter in to make that decision. It’s much the same control set up as the big Yoto, but just made smaller and more obvious.
While the large model is shaped rather like an older alarm clock, the mini Yoto is a little easier to use: it’s more obvious that the controls are controls, and even a two year old can use them. We tried.
Does it do the job?
There are differences in what the Mini Player does compared with its regular Player sibling, and one of those is in the speaker. These will both play the same cards, but the Mini will do it in mono. Mini equals mono, making it easy to remember.
That said, the speaker is still surprisingly loud, just not as loud. It’ll still also work on the go thanks to the generous inclusion of 32GB of storage inside.
Unlike the larger Yoto Player, however, the Yoto Mini is much easier to carry around, and that makes it handy for kids keen to take their entertainment experience on the go.
The screen is smaller, and clearly not something you need to rely on — it’s kind of just a visual cue to what’s being listened to — but the experience is otherwise the same, mono audio aside. Your kids won’t care about the difference in sound, though.
You’ll get a maximum of 14 hours from the Yoto Mini, which is a little less than the max of 24 of its big brother, but plenty for the size. Frankly, if your kids are listening to the player for longer than ten hours non-stop, it might be time to get them doing something else, like sleeping or having a meal.
The moment you do need to charge the Yoto Mini, it’s as simple as plugging the little box into a USB-C connection, which is a standard we all know and love these days.
What does it need?
Unlike its big brother, however, you can’t just leave the Mini on a wireless charging panel. It’s a feature we wish the Mini Player offered, but doesn’t.
Our guess is size restrictions likely prevent the Yoto Mini from having the same Qi charging panel as its big brother, and while we’d like it to be here, it’s not a deal breaker at all.
Very little is, actually. The technology is largely the same between the models, just a little bit smaller.
One feature that we think the Mini definitely needs is the nightlight, a handy albeit underused part of the standard model with a light found at the back of the unit. It would be perfect on the Yoto Mini, if only because the speaker already feels like an everything-device for kids, just like its big brother, only more portable.
A more portable night light with a speaker would make a lot of sense, especially since the little ones could carry it to bed, listen to calming music, and fall asleep with their favourite night light, too.
That’s not here. Your kids will have to learn to live without the night light on the Yoto Mini, or find it from some other gadget.
Is it worth your money?
However, the price is definitely right, attracting parental eyeballs for an eye-popping $120 price. Technically, the Yoto Mini is $119.99 in Australia, but you may as well round it up, because you’re not getting that penny back.
What you will get back, however, is some time as your kids gain some independence. Map some music or you reading stories to the DIY cards Yoto sells, or grab some of the story packs and let your kids have some fun.
For the price, you’re essentially giving your little ones their own source of entertainment while also treating them to independence. And when you tell them to inevitably turn it down, they’ll actually know how, thanks to decent physical controls.
Yay or nay?
Whether you’re new to the Yoto concept or someone with the proper large option, there’s little reason not to consider the Mini. It’s a compact entertainer for kids that’s a cinch to use. That’s about all parents could wish for. Recommended.
