SOLOMARK Microscope for Kids and Beginners 20X-200X Magnification Microscope with a Microscope Smartphone Adapter for Photography

My six-year-old grandson enjoys this microscope very much. It is sturdy which is necessary for this age group. I rated it four stars because I sent an email to the company, before Christmas, about a possible missing part and I have not received a reply.

Great microscope. Bought as a gift for my naturalist grandson - and at 5 yrs old he can operate it on his own. Stays on his desk with a pack of slides. I like that it has two lamps, so he can view slides and also things he finds out in the backyard and woods.

Nice microscope! Has LED light feature to be able to light slides from below or both below and above. Good magnification and optics for the money. Easy controls for kids.

This little microscope is a great starter for kids with a very easy phone interface so they can save pictures of their explorations.

My nephew loved this! He’s 3.5 and thought it was so cool to look at bugs and “psycho germs” as he called them. He was fascinated and this intro-microscope was perfect for his little hands!

My granddaughter is having so much fun with it I love it

Don't be fooled by the cartoonish look of this device. It is actually surprisingly sophisticated and effective as well as being super easy to set up and use.It is quite compact. Almost uncomfortably small for an adult, actually, but its compactness has the benefit of making it very transportable and, because it is powered by three AA batteries, one can easily stuff it into a knapsack and take it out into the great outdoors to examine specimens at will and in an instant.The AA batteries power either of two lights: One in the base, with adjustable intensity, shines up to illuminate a slide, or one in the head unit which shines down upon an object on the platen or platter. The platen travels up and down about two inches to both accommodate specimens and to focus once a specimen is in place. There is also a zoom feature in the head unit that allows one to magnify an object even further.The mobile phone attachment is surprisingly simple to set up and use and allows one to take pictures of the magnified objects. It is a bit tricky to take a good photograph, but rest assured that setting up this function is a snap. The photos in this review are of moss with light source from below, and the mint mark on a Jefferson Nickel using the overhead light source. Everything about this device can be figured out with ease in a matter of seconds without the need for instructions.In addition to the microscope and phone attachment, the kit includes a bunch of cartoonish goodies: munchikin plastic sample bottles, plastic scalpel, tweezers and magnifying glass, eyedropper, a footed 10ml tube, stickers and clear specimen covers for preparing and labeling slides, a couple of prepared slides made of glass and ten clean, unused plastic slides for preparing one's own slides.This is really a remarkable device in that it is simultaneously semi-disposable and a legitimately 'scientific' lab instrumentwhich I recommend.Picture is of tardigrade habitat.

This is a nice little gift for very small kids whom you want to give something more educational than just another video game or piece of clothing. While it obviously is not going to lead to a breakthrough for curing cancer, it gives small kids (3-7 I would say) a look into how real microscopes works and will hopefully trigger an interest in science, which the vast majority of gifts are not likely to do.This is one of those gifts that actually teaches something while still being fun. While it is definitely not made to last forever it's the experience that counts and I think that it was made to last at least long enough for kids to get a good experience with science.