Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet

[mikkh]

I'm not really a tablet or laptop user, any limited on-the-go access I need, I can do on my smartphone and everything else can wait till I get home.

The Amazon Fire tablets are so cheap compared to Apple and Samsung's offerings that I was curious to see how good, or more more importantly how bad they were compared to their expensive rivals.

I did have a 'free' iPad with my current mobile phone contract, but the novelty wore off after a few weeks, It just became an expensive dust collector on top of my printer - so I sold it!

I include that to prove I have some experience with the market leaders and have some idea of what a good tablet is.

Obviously the Amazon device can't hope to compete with the raw power of the big name opposition, but for basic use there's nothing wrong with it and no obvious lag when surfing the internet etc.

My Dad was given an old Samsung tablet by my sister, maybe 3 years old at the most and it's absolute garbage compared to the newer Amazon one. It was probably one of the cheaper 1 GB RAM models, but still bordering on unusable fairly quickly - a 3 year old iPad still holds up pretty well, but Apple don't really do cheaper models

I got mine ( Fire HD 10) at a bargain price (£89) in a Black Friday deal, but even at it's full price of £149.99 it's still fairly cheap for a 10 inch screen and if you're patient you should never pay that much anyway because they do several offers throughout the year, where there's at least £20 off.

Pros: Cheap reasonably quick tablet
Decent if not spectacular battery life (2 hours on Candy Crush left me at 65%) Left in sleep mode overnight uses about 2% battery
Extra storage option via SD card available - unlike a certain more expensive rival !
Acceptable screen quality if you're not expecting miracles

Cons: No access to Google Play Store, but half a million apps are available through the Amazon equivalent
2 GB RAM can be a bit limiting with lots of apps open, get into the habit of closing down ones you're not using and it shouldn't be a problem
It's cheap for a reason, so corners are obviously cut. I think they've done well at this price point though and expected it to be much worse.


Overall I'm impressed, it's perfect for occasional use, but probably not for people who use tablets a lot.

[mikkh]

Spring sale price now £104.99 , not quite the Black Friday price I paid, but a nice saving on the usual full price

The base model comes with 32 GB of storage which is fine for most people, but if you think you'll need more (internal storage is much faster than add on SD cards)
The 64 GB model becomes £124.99 in the Spring sale and is worth considering if you intend to use it more than occasionally.

The 'without ads' option is only for the ultra finicky btw. The startup screen shows a random advert which you can quickly swipe away and the other adverts can be switched off in the settings.

It's £10 extra if you really can't bear the idea of adverts in any form, so £134.99 for double the storage and no adverts.

And no I don't work for Amazon, or I wouldn't add this little note of caution..... Price drops can sometimes mean a new model is imminent, but that shouldn't detract from a capable budget tablet.

If (or when) a new model does appear, it's likely to be minor changes - a slightly faster CPU, possibly extra RAM and a proud boast of x% faster, but it still wont worry Samsung or Apple.

[mikkh]

Well I called it, a new model is available for preorder now with a release date of May 26th. Details are a little vague, but it's basically what I said.

The base model now comes with an extra GB of RAM boosting it to 3 GB and there's an option of a 'plus' variant with 4 GB of RAM.

The octocore CPU details are not known, with Amazon loosley describing it as 'fast' ! The last model also had an octocore CPU, so it's not like they're suddenly jumping from quad core to give a real boost.

I would 'guesstimate' it's along the lines of 10 - 15% and barely noticeable, although the extra RAM will definitely help it feel quite a bit faster.

It comes with a wireless charging option (at a price) but they quote figures of 4 hours via the supplied cable and only being reduced to 3.5 hours if using wireless - not exactly a game changer.
Both figures are meaningless anyway, who lets their devices run down to 0% before thinking of recharging them?

10% brighter screen is also promised, but it's not like the previous model was dark or hard to see, so I just see that as a bigger battery drain rather than a desirable feature.

They're also pushing something called the productivity bundle which includes a bluetooth keyboard and a years subcription to Microsoft (Office) 365 for an extra £60 which isn't a bad deal if you need that kind of thing for work. You're basically getting a free keyboard and £10 off the normal yearly fee.

Still has the same very basic cameras, but who's using a tablet to take photos anyway? I guess they're adequate for video calls though.

The plus model is interesting with 4 GB of RAM, but the extra cost puts it dangerously close to a budget Samsung and not a massive leap to the cheapest iPads, which only have 3 GB RAM but don't seem to suffer from it. iOS (or more correctly iPadOS in current iPads) is probably more efficient, but I don't see the extra GB making a lot of difference in the plus model.

My advice, hang on to your pennies for the inevitable special offers - could be a fairly cheap Xmas present for someone, but if you've got your eye on the productivity bundle you probably have to go for it now, because they might not repeat that side of the offer.

[mikkh]

Black Friday comes round again and it's temporarily available for £79.99

Quite a bargain especially if it's the newest model.

And it is because it's got 3 GB of RAM.

All other Amazon products like Firestick, FireCube, EchoDot, EchoShow and a host of others are also available for roughly half price.

The event runs from November 19th to November 29th.

[jazzazz]

I have the Amazon Fire 8 (The 8" version), and I did Google finding the work around to get Google Play Store on it, fairly straight FWD, if you are decently half techie, LOL, but can void the warranty if you mess up during the steps, LOL.

I retired it though for an RCA 10 Viking (Bought on Amazon), a re-furb'd one, mainly for convenience. I'm not a real big Tablet person either, too limited IMO, although my Wife loves her IPad, mainly because she is totally uninterested in computers, and has zero desire to be shown or learn. So at least she is enjoying what she does on the internet, email'g, text'g, plays some games, etc.

Recently, I got my first smartphone (July), was totally satisfied with my Flip phone, a GoFlip 2 (4G), but then came across this RCA Reno 32G GSM Android UNLOCKED smartphone on Amazon for under $80 (U.S), and I am enjoying the perks of a smartphone now, the use of its' APPs, TEXT'g, voice TEXT, search, etc.. But I am not on it like my Wife, Son, Daughter In Law, and Grand Daughter 24/7 :-).

Only on in the evening resting on the arm of my recliner while watching TV. It is full off the rest of the day, except while shopping, walking, around town, etc.

On my MAC this moment, but out of my 4 devices, I can say that my Chromebook is still my favorite.

[mikkh]

Bit late to the party with your first smartphone, but I don't really use mine much either despite owning one (iPhone) for many years.
It's a modern obsession which always amuses me when catching a bus or train though. There they all sit glued to their phones like they're looking at something really interesting and because most make no attempt to hide what they're looking at, I can see they're just flicking through photos/old texts but not really looking at them - what's that all about?

I watched one flick, scroll, swipe through a dozen screens or more in about a minute, took a breath, then did the same again!
All while passing a particularly scenic part of the train journey that nobody but me noticed.

[jazzazz]

Cool, another new member. WE NEED MORE :-)

Spread the word Humming Bird :-)