Over the past five or so years, as Yoto and Toniebox have become the most well-known makers of screen-free audio players for kids, the two brands have often been pitted head-to-head — including by me, on this very website. The usual verdict is that the Toniebox skews younger, the Yoto Mini a little older, but both companies have been trying to extend the age ranges of their products as much as possible in both directions.
The latest effort is the Tonieplay, give the Toniebox 2 a level of interactivity that Yoto players don’t have and could potentially make the Toniebox 2 more engaging for older kids, who often start to age out of the Toniebox around 5 or 6 years old.
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But it’s a very challenging proposition to make a toy more appealing to both babies and older kids at the same time. I wanted to see how the new player stacks up against its predecessor, so I tested the Toniebox 2 and some of the new Tonieplay games firsthand, on my own and with my almost-3-year-old son.
What’s the difference between the Toniebox 2 and the original Toniebox?
Both players have a cushioned exterior that protects the player from damage — and kids from getting hurt — should it be thrown across a room. But the corners of the Toniebox 2 have been smoothed and softened even more, making it safer for very little kids. And it comes in five new colors, including powder pink and baby blue, that are very nursery appropriate.
I like the sleeker look of the Toniebox 2 with its rounder edges and bands of rubbery silicone at the top and the bottom, rather than the same textured material over the entire thing. It has more visual dimension and a tonal color palette that is pleasing to look at. I also like the new colors, even though I’m a little sad there’s no longer a slime-green option, my favorite from the original slate.
Functionally, the basic controls are the same. To turn on the Toniebox 2 you squeeze either one of the ears. To turn it off, you squeeze and hold one of the ears. To turn the volume up you squeeze the bigger ear and to turn it down you squeeze the smaller one. You still have to hit the side of the box to change songs or chapters. And you still tilt the box to fast-forward or rewind. I was hoping for an improvement to this feature because it’s annoying for parents and frustrating for kids. So from what I can tell, nothing significant has changed in that realm.
The new player has a lot more memory, 32GB versus 8GB of storage, which is helpful for playing the interactive Tonieplay games and good for older kids who regularly listen to audiobooks or have a bigger collection of Tonies. But it didn’t change my experience with the regular Tonies at all. And speaking of regular Tonies, there is a new collection of squishier Tonies figures called My First Tonies. They’re geared toward kids between 1 and 2 years old and currently available in a travel set. These new Tonies and all of the original Tonies figures are compatible with both the original Toniebox and the Toniebox 2. But the Tonieplay controller and games only work with the Toniebox 2.
The Toniebox 2 has several new sleep features including a sunrise alarm clock that plays a handful of wake-up sounds and gradually brightens the light ring on the top of the box. (The ring also glows and changes colors when Tonies are playing or gives light cues during certain games.) And there is a sleep timer that you can set to slowly lower the volume and dim the light ring over a chosen period of time. This is a nice feature for kids who like to fall asleep to music or sleep stories.
Where the older Toniebox had to be loaded onto a clunky charging station, the new one charges via USB-C. Because it is rated as being safe (and not a choking or strangulation hazard) for children under 3, the charging cord it comes with is comically short, about three inches long. And if you choose to set it up for 1- and 2-year-old listeners, you won’t be able to play a Tonie while the box is charging. But if that’s annoying, you can set it to ages 3 and up and use another USB-C charging cord, as long as you don’t leave it with an unaccompanied baby. For similar reasons, the Toniebox 2 does not have a headphone jack and is not compatible with wired headphones; the company plans to release a software upgrade that will allow you to pair the Toniebox 2 with Bluetooth headphones, though.
The new games add interactivity, but the overall experience is still screen-free
Right now there are 12 available games for ages 3 and up to ages 7 and up, including amystery game with four possible endings, designed for kids ages 5 and up to 7 and up.
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I didn’t quite know what to expect from the Tonieplay games. But so far I’ve been delighted by the three I have played. I am especially impressed with the Winnie the Pooh game and how quickly my son was able to play it more or less independently. The backstory of the game is that Tigger jumped through the accompanying board book in such a chaotic way that he scattered objects from all of the other characters’ pages throughout the book, so to hear the audio stories for each character you first have to help find all the missing objects. It’s very cute and while it doesn’t take long to get through each “round,” it’s an engaging game that my son has wanted to play over and over again. I like how the Tonieplay games add a new layer to using the box, with the controller Tonie, the book/board, and the audio all complementing each other, so it doesn’t feel so much like a thing to passively sit down in front of.
The Toniebox 2 is more expensive, but kids can start using it earlier — and it might last them longer
The original (non-bundled) Toniebox, which will ultimately be phased out, comes with one Tonie figure and costs $100. The Toniebox 2 comes with the same basic Tonie figure and costs $140; that price increase primarily gets you Tonieplay compatibility, the new sleep features, and the lower age rating for the redesigned toy overall.
Because the costs $160. Additional games cost between $20 and $25 each. But I appreciate the option to do more with the player in a way that upholds its status as “screen-free,” and, as more games are released, I think the Toniebox 2 could help parents stave off the pull of a tablet or iPad for longer.
With that said, the Toniebox 2 still looks like a product made for very young children; even with games that could appeal to older kids, I think it will be a hard sell for tweens who might prefer a Yoto Mini player for audio or an iPad or Nintendo Switch for games. And, until we started testing the Toniebox 2, my son and I were using the original Toniebox and loved it. So if you already have and enjoy the original Toniebox, I don’t think you necessarily need to replace it with the Toniebox 2 unless you really want to play the games.
If you’re buying a Toniebox for the first time, I would absolutely get the Toniebox 2 for the new features — especially since it will still work with older Tonies figures. But if you can find a good deal on the original Toniebox, especially bundled with a handful of Tonies, I still think it would make a good gift, as long as you are okay with the trade-off of buying the outgoing model that won’t have the same interactivity.
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