Techies rule in toytown

Children's hightech is now a serious business. Toy shops stock cut-down computers and organisers that are far more advanced than the electronic learning toys of the past. And if the reaction of our young testers is anything to go by, they aren't just fads. These mini-computers are educational, encourage creativity and, most importantly, keep the kids off your kit - priceless if you've ever had to remove a rusk from your floppy drive.

Kiddy computers

The traditional slew of electronic learning toys has been made over to look like real computers and given grown-up features like word processors, printing and e-mail simulators. Games and quizzes vary, depending on the target age. Those aimed at under-fives are very simple, with games like pattern matching and spelling.

As the target age increases, so does the complexity - until young boffins are faced with questions worthy of Paxman. Some machines even let children set their own quizzes to test exam revision.

Our panel of expert testers went straight for the computers, over all the other tech toys on display.

James, aged 10, made a beeline for the Lexibook Power-Net 2000 ( ? 89.99, www.lexibook.co.uk ) in iMacish purple, with a flat screen, keyboard and mouse. Alice, nine, grabbed the VTech VPad (£79.99, www.vtechuk.com ), a silver laptop with a display that transforms into a touch-screen organiser. Six-year-old Freddie, meanwhile, went for the more basic Lexibook Power Dinosaur, right (£39.99), an electronic learning toy built into a large dinosaur head that apparently looked "just like a real computer". Within five minutes, and with no instruction, all three were playing.

James and Alice were engrossed in a general knowledge quiz and science quiz respectively. Freddie was excitedly playing a game mat ching skeletons to dinosaurs.

Teething on technology

Young children can also cut their teeth on a real computer, using the Fisher-Price Babyware (£29.99, www.fisherprice.com/uk ). It straps over any PC or Mac keyboard and replaces the keys with big, colourful buttons that look like an activity centre. Babies as young as nine months can bash them to play learning software supplied. In the US, Little Tikes has gone one step further, with the Young Explorer PC Pal, a chunky plastic desk for three-year-olds with a full-blown IBM PC built in.

Parents wanting to start them young will have to fork out $1,999 (£1,400), but at least it won't be binned when the child outgrows it. The PC can be removed and used on a normal desk.

Primary school PDAs

Just like in the adult world, children's electronic organisers are often a triumph of style over substance. The slender silver Lexibook Touchman ( ? 14.99), for example, is such a convincing Palm clone that you could whip it out at a board meeting, but it was quickly discarded by our testers as "boring" (and would be discarded by adults for the same reason), with a tiny display and dismally basic organiser functions.

The VTech Photo Notebook 160DC (£99.99), however, was a big hit with our young guinea pigs. Its biggest draw is a built-in black-and-white digital camera, but other features include a money manager, school timetable and language translators, as well as the usual games and quizzes.

Tech for tots

The Lexibook TV Puppy (£14.99) is a cuddly toy dog that doubles as a TV remote control. The fabric buttons on the paws and floppy ears are safe for three-year-olds. James liked it so much he was even willing to read the programming instructions. But the TV Puppy will doubtless be bought less by kids and more by mawkishly inclined grown-ups.

The tiniest tech for kids is the Tiger HitClips music player ( www.tigertoys.co.uk ), aimed at five-year-olds and up. Each £3.99 postage-stampsized cartridge holds a 60-second burst of pop, stored in memory like an MP3. The players are small and affordable too: a keyring-sized personal player for £7.99 or a slightly bigger boombox for £9.99. James said the boombox "sounds good, and the clips don't cost much". But parents beware: the loud, tinny speakers make Britney and co even more unbearable.

Kit to hog yourself

Even if you're not a parent, you might be tempted to the toy shop. Some of the latest high-tech "toys" are full-blown products. Looking for a budget MP3 player? The Cool-iCam Digi-MP3 (£99.99, www.cool-icam.co.uk ) is cheap, good-looking and very easy to use - after all, it's aimed at seven-year-olds and up. Its expandable 32Mb memory (up to an hour of music) is on a par with grown-up players too.

Another gizmo worth borrowing from a child is the Cool-iCam Micro (£59.99) digital camera. It's barely bigger than a matchbox, has no flash and the resolution is low (640x480), but it's a good introduction to digital photography for kids and adults alike. Our testers thought it was "cool" but were impatient to see the results. There's no display - you upload the pictures to a PC, and the target audience of seven-year-olds and up needs supervision.

Coming soon to a screen near you

In the Eighties, Fisher-Price US launched the Pixelvision, a $100 toy camcorder that was only briefly available and an instant hit with arty filmmakers. The rest of the toy world has finally caught up and kiddy camcorders are set to be the next big thing. Several were launched in the US this year, including models from Intel and Trendmasters.

Due to launch in the UK early next year is the CooliCam Movi Cam (£159.99) which records up to 40 minutes of low-resolution movies on a SmartMedia memory card, for uploading and editing on a PC. It's small, easy to use and looks like a mini camcorder. But again, it has no display.

A better option would be the Trendmasters 2000, currently only available in the US. It transmits to a TV or video recorder elsewhere in the house, so they can fill videotapes with their daft home movies instead.