Features:

  • Brilliant 10.1" 1080p Full HD display (1920 x 1200), up to 1.8 GHZ quad-core processor, 2 GB RAM, and up to 10 hours of battery life.
  • Our largest display, now with over 2 million pixels, stereo speakers, Dolby Audio, and dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi—perfect for watching Full HD video, playing games, reading magazines, and streaming content seamlessly
  • Use Alexa hands-free mode to pause videos, play music, open apps, show sports scores, display the weather, and more—just ask
  • Call or message almost anyone hands-free, or make video calls to family and friends with a Fire tablet, Echo Spot, Echo Show, or the Alexa App. Instantly connect to enabled Echo devices.
  • 32 or 64 GB internal storage expandable by up to 256 GB (using the microSD slot). Watch downloaded videos anywhere with a Prime membership, Netflix plan, or Showtime subscription.
  • Enjoy millions of movies, TV shows, songs, Kindle eBooks, magazines, Android apps, and games—including Netflix, Facebook, HBO, Spotify, and more
  • Prime members get unlimited access to over a thousand books and magazines, millions of songs, and thousands of movies and TV episodes—at no additional cost
Google Play Still Installs

I just bought this tablet on the black Friday sale and I was able to install google play store by following a guide at the xda developers forum. Find it by googling: [HOW-TO] Install Google Play Store (Fire OS 5.X) (No Root/PC/ADB). The tablet came with firmware 5.4.1.0. It just took a few minutes to install the google play apps and I did not have any problems, but later after the tablet updated to 5.6.0.0 the install button was grayed out when I attempted to side load another app (humble bundle apk), but I just put the tablet to sleep then turned it back on and the install button was no longer grayed out. Note that once you install google play services then you will probably be able to keep installing apps from the google play store regardless of what amazon does in later updates. So far amazon has just attempted to prevent people from side-loading apps, but once the google play store is installed on a tablet the apps that you install through it are not side-loaded. So unless amazon takes more drastic measures we should be able to keep installing things with google play. If you do have problems with something try googling: xda Amazon Fire HD 8 and HD 10. This will get you the xda forum area for these tablets. (See end of review for a way to replace the Fire OS launcher.) Pros: *Great screen: 224 dpi, vivid colors, very bright, and excellent viewing angle. *Very responsive touch screen *Apps run fast and smooth *32 GB Memory *2 GB RAM *Bluetooth works with all of my devices *Dual Band ac WiFi with good range *It is still possible to install google play services *It is possible to use another launcher (see end of review) Neutral: *610 on 3D Mark Sling Shot Unlimited benchmark *Average battery life *Average quality sound Cons: *Fire OS (based on Android 5.1) instead of vanilla Android *Outer casing, looks/feels a bit cheap. *Bad quality cameras *Weighs 17.5 ounces *Locked down to Amazon’s stuff, but you can get around some of it. *Advertises in the lock screen, unless you pay to turn off special offers. *No root at the moment and forced updates Bottom Line: This tablet is an excellent low cost multimedia tablet; great for videos, comics, books, and web browsing and decent enough for games and music. Review: The Amazon Fire HD 10 is a really solid large mid-level tablet. It may not be a high-end tablet, but it is certainly not low-end either. This is probably the best screen you can get on a tablet for anywhere near this price, it is bright, vivid, and sharp. Plus the Fire HD 10 has a large amount of storage and ram for this price. The touch screen is also super responsive, a better then my last tablet (dell venue 8 pro). The tablet runs very smooth and things hardly ever lag even when multitasking. All of the apps that I tried run fast, Firefox and Chrome are just as quick as on my high-end pc. Dual band ac WiFi. I haven’t really had it long enough to know, but so far the battery life seems about average. Decent enough speakers, fairly loud for a tablet, average sound quality. Bluetooth works with everything that I have tried: MEE Runaway Headphones, Fosmon Mini Keyboard, Logitech Ultrathin Touch Mouse, and even my Yemenren M8 Cordless Earphones (they only work with half of the things that I have tried them with). It is ok for games, I tried several and they worked well. Except for Need for speed no limits, everything was blacked out on it. It scored 12326 on 3D mark’s Ice Storm Unlimited and 610 on Sling Shot Unlimited benchmarks. For reference this is a bit better than the Galaxy Tab S and bit worse than the iphone5, iPad air, iPad mini 3, and the Galaxy Tab S2. This is a bit low for a 2017 tablet, but it is around the average for mobile devices so it should run current mobile games fine. The outer casing and buttons are matte plastic so they look/feel a bit cheap, but it seems durable and does not leave fingerprints. The tablet is a bit heavier at 17.5 ounces and a bit thicker at around 10 mm than some tablets of this size. Overall I am happy with this tablet, I bought it to replace an old windows dell venue 8 pro tablet with faulty WiFi and Bluetooth. In terms of hardware my 2013 dell ($400-$500) was sort of similar to this tablet (hard to compare because it is a completely different chip architecture), but it ran windows 10, while this is android, so the Fire HD 10 runs much faster. Also the WiFi and Bluetooth both work much better, the screen is bigger, higher resolution, brighter and more vivid, and the battery life is better. I bought a windows tablet at the time because I thought that I could use it for stuff at collage, but I ended up just using it as a multimedia tablet anyway. Replacing the Launcher: If you hate Amazon’s Fire OS you can use an app to redirect the home button to the launcher of your choice, this requires allowing an app permissions to see what you type on the tablet, but the app is open source so it should be safe. To find the tutorial for this google: New: Any Launcher, No Root (Launcher Hijack V3). Unfortunately a lot of launchers will bug you constantly to set them as default, which you cannot do on this tablet. Also widgets will not work on this tablet, because amazon disabled them completely somewhere. Here are the best launchers that I have found that work with this tablet and do not have to be set as default: Evie, Atom, NOVA, Holo, Leena. I highly recommend Evie, with the right settings it has a really polished look and feel like something that would have come installed on the tablet.

The best text-to-speech for Kindle books on the planet.

I specifically ordered this for Kindle books to be read back by Alexia. This function far exceeds my expectations! The reading is smooth and clear and relatively easy to operate. There is little documentation on how to use this powerful function but searching the internet garnered the necessary words to say. So basically any Kindle book can be played back as text to speech by Alexia. One can even change the voice from female to male and with different accents. One only needs to speak the following: "Alexia play Kindle book (and then the title)" at first I thought it wasn't working but it takes awhile to download on the first book.

A Fantastic Media Consumption Device

If you’re looking for a great do-it-all tablet, and, you use Amazon's services, this is a fantastic media-consumption tablet for you. I see this tablet made for two demographics: a beginner tablet for young kids (if they break it, it won't break the bank), and as an affordable iPad equivalent/backup Kindle. — AMAZON SERVICES — To start, this is an Amazon tablet made to do Amazon things. Since I use Amazon's Audible, listen to Amazon Music, watch Video, read their Kindle books, and shop on Amazon, this device is *perfect* for me. The digital content that you own or subscribe to can be streamed or stored on this HD 10. — SCREEN — Let’s talk about the biggest feature to arrive: a 1080p HD screen! This used to be on the HDX models, but that came with a hefty price. Now, we have a low-cost 1080p device and can watch movies at full HD resolution. Pixels per inch has increased which means everything looks sharper. PPI helps while reading as you are less likely to zoom in on photos or text in magazines and PDFs. Also, color saturation is bolder. Reds are distinctly redder, along with all the other colors [see photos]. 1080p resolution was the only thing stopping this tablet from being truly must-have, and now it’s here! — DEVICE SIZE — Not going to lie, the jump from 8” to 10” is pretty huge. 8” was big enough to still be compact; the same can’t be said of the 10". This device is now the same size (but wider) as a regular iPad [see photos]. In fact, if you’re watching movies, it’s slightly larger because of the widescreen shape versus the iPad’s squarish shape. — BACKUP KINDLE — I have a Kindle Paperwhite. With this tablet, I now have a backup Kindle that I can put all my books on and switch between the two. Granted, it's not the same reading experience, but it's more than fine as a backup device, and it helps divide the lifespan of both devices. Reading magazines and comics is much more enjoyable because of the large size and color screen. Plus, this is faster than a Kindle at page turning. Adding books is as easy as on a regular Kindle: connect it to a computer, and transfer your files into the Kindle folder. Done. — APPS — There are very few apps that I was interested in their store. I got the usual: Netflix, HBO, and Plex to watch my other content. There are lots of free (in-app) games, with the occasional free gem. Don't expect many productivity apps; emphasis is placed on games. However... *** MOVIES ANYWHERE *** As soon as you get your tablet, immediately download the ‘Movies Anywhere’ app on this and your other devices. Launched 10-11-2017, Movies Anywhere connects your Amazon + iTunes + Vudu + Google + Disney accounts together, and you can watch nearly all your movies from one app! This is as close to world peace as we’re going to get! Now, it doesn’t matter what device or service you use, if you buy a movie somewhere you can watch it anywhere! This is the deal sealer! — INTERFACE — It's an Android-based OS. I think that says enough. If you've used an Android, you've used them all. The interface and usability are perfectly serviceable. It's definitely not iOS. — STORAGE — You can download content to the device for offline viewing. If you intend on storing your media, storage is upgradeable with a microSD card up to 256GB. I think having this option is great and lets you decide how much you want to spend separately on storage. I have the 32GB version. I've downloaded some audio books and apps, and have yet to fill that up since I stream most of my content. *** TIP *** Use the tablet for a while before deciding if you want/need a microSD card. — SOUND — Depending on the content, the Dolby sound coming out of the two speakers is sufficient for anything. Obviously, don't expect a movie experience, but you will be able to listen to your music, your audiobooks, and your Netflix without issue. *** TIP *** Connect Bluetooth headphones/speakers or plug in headphones for louder and fuller sound. — BATTERY — The battery on this is darn good. It can last about 5-7 days with minimal to no usage. If you were to use it non-stop, you get about ten hours of use. Charge time is about five hours, so best leave that done overnight. — BUILD — The plastic back shell feels tough and durable. After a few months I decided to get the official case (which adds noticeable weight). I did buy a glass screen protector, as one should for any screen. — SUMMARY — This is a great deal for the Fire HD 10. If you wait for one of their tablet sales, then it’ll definitely be worth it. If you use a lot of Amazon services, this would make a perfect device for consuming all your media. Recommended.

Excellent unit

I upgraded from a generation 5 with ads to this generation 7 without ads and am giving the 5 to my grandson. Since the price difference between a 128gb SD and a 256gb SD is about $100, I went with the 128. I use this away from home since it is a lot smaller and lighter than my laptops. This is a lot better than using your cell phone 1. The customer service both phone and chat is outstanding. 2. The Alexa set up is better than it is on the Generation 5. 3. I would suggest that you go to “Settings” and the “Help”. An excellent manual is available in “Help”. 4. If you are new to the Fire HD 10, Take your time picking out your aps and delete the one that didn’t work out the way you want. 5. The screen size is fine and very clear. 6. If you have Alexa play music while you work on something on the Fire, you will find that the battery charge will drop faster. For you senior citizens, I am 83 years old and have no trouble using this unit.

Best of the Amazon line this year!

I'll preface this by saying I have 6 other Fire tablets, so I'm very much an Amazon fan. That said. My HD 10 is my favorite of the lot. Why? Well. It's got Dolby sound, which is awesome for watching movies. It loads apps fast, I never wait. It has snappy response when you type or want to do anything, and honestly, it loads faster than my iPad. I'm blind, but from what I'm told, the display is beautiful and clean. The fact that you can get a 64 gig Fire with expandable storage that can make it hold more than many ultra books is amazing. It is durable, light and thin. The battery life is amazing. Using VoiceView to read email, play some games, and type a paper, I've gotten more than 10 hours out of it. Alexa hands free makes Siri look like a child's toy. I can open any app with Alexa, and she can just go with me anywhere. The For You screen has allowed me to find new books and things I like, that I'd never have found before. And the big screen allows me to watch movies with other folks instead of alone. I can't see any cons to that. Maybe the fact that it's plastic, but really that's actually good. I have labradors. My tablets have taken many a fall thanks to their wagging tails. While my Apple devices have been scratched, my Amazon ones have not, thanks to that durable plastic backing. Now, for those of you curious. This Fire, like all the others, comes with VoiceView accessibility. Many android tablet makers turn off the accessibility shortcut when they put their skins over the OS. I've sent many a tablet back for that reason. Amazon allows you to turn on accessibility simply by holding 2 fingers on the screen when the device starts. Then it is permanently on, unless you turn it off. I haven't found any inaccessible apps, but I mostly use amazon content which is naturally accessible to us all. Oh, and while the NFB and others haven't noticed this, I have. Thanks, Amazon for the braille support! Now, I can pick which braille code I prefer, just as a sighted person can pick font. I can have VoiceView automatically mute when my braille display is on and connected, which is brilliant. The Fires are the only devices that allow this. So thanks, for allowing me to read, rather than listen like any other person. And thanks for making books accessible to us all, because rather than the library for the blind, I can just buy my books from the kindle store. Overall, if you want amazing sound, a beautiful display, and a tablet that can both work and play, and you want a large slate, this HD10 is perfect! It's my favorite tablet of them all! PS. I typed this on my Fire, so long document typing is more than possible.

HD 10 vs. HD 8 vs. iPad

Amazon is close to making the perfect budget tablet. First of all, I own the 2017 HD 8 as well and feel that this is a great upgrade. The size difference being obvious and the 10 might be a bit large for some but you may feel that it's a noteworthy upgrade. Everything seems to run smoother and faster. And it's brighter, sharper, and louder. The higher resolution is immediately noticeable. I can't believe that companies still make low res tablets. I bit my tongue and bought the HD 8 and regretted it for that. My 5 year old Nexus 7 had full HD and was sharp and crisp. This new HD 10 is beautiful. Even though it doesn't have the highest pixel density for reading fonts, it's perfectly acceptable for consuming video. The IPS display is very forgiving horizontally but slightly less so vertically. The screen is not as bright as an iPad but in my opinion it's fine for all but direct sunlight. The speakers, they're not full sounding at all. Very tinny with no bass. You're neighbors aren't ever going to complain, but it's significantly louder than the HD 8 which I struggle to hear anywhere except in a quite room. The HD 10, I can actually watch movies and hear things while I'm doing things around the house or at work. But paired to my Bluetooth speaker, this thing is really amazing. I have an Amazon Music account and since Alexa works even while in stand by, I can request it to play whatever I want. By now, most of you know what Alexa can do. And you know how convenient it is. And a lot of you spent money buying Echos, Dots, and Shows. And a lot of you have nice BT speakers and even stereo systems at home. Ummm... why not use your Fire HD 10 and your $300 BT speaker instead? My friend has a Show and it's fairly impressive. But my HD 10 and JBL Xtreme will blow it out of the water. Battery life is really good imho. I pushed it hard at work today. I had it streaming an event from 9:30AM to 3:30PM connected to bluetooth speakers. The screen was set to maximum brightness with adaptive brightness turned off. It had 2% battery left. I used the supplied charger and it took 3 hours to fully charge. 6 hours at max brightness is really impressive for a $150 full HD 10 inch tablet with a relatively high nit value. At medium or low brightness setting, I can't see why this couldn't last it's rated 9 hours of play time. I've had the HD 8 stream non stop for 8 hours before I had to shut it down for the day but I don't recall the battery capacity left. For all I know it could've gone 9 or 10 hours. That little sucker keeps chugging on. Unlock it's full potential. There are easy 4 step guides on YT to install Google Play Store. It literally takes 5 mins. Click to install a few files. That's it. This won't do anything bad to the tablet. All it's doing is installing files that all other Android tablets normally come with. It doesn't erase anything. And it doesn't overwrite anything. But you can install the YouTube app from the Google Play Store instead of the Amazon store and get full HD content. You can install Chrome browser and sync everything across all your platforms. Gmail, Kodi, Utorrent, yada yada yada. There's just so many things that Amazon app store doesn't have that many of us need. I wouldn't have purchased the HD 10 unless Google Play Store was available. Anyways, if you're on the fence between the HD 8 and the HD 10, I would steer you towards the 10. It provides a more immersive experience with it's sharp screen and loud speakers. If you want stocking stuffers this holiday, get the HD 8 and miser a HD 10 for yourself. And if you're on the fence between the HD 10 and the basic iPad, unless you're locked into Apple's eco system, I don't see a reason to spend more than double for the iPad with their locked storage capacity. A 32GB iPad is $329 and a 128GB is $429. For some of us, storage capacity is a big deal. Whether we're working with photography or downloading a ton of music, or storing hours and hours of movies and TV shows to watch in airports, planes, and hotels. And compared to the Pro models, the regular iPad feels cheap with it's thicker body and double layered screen (albeit still feels more top shelf than the HD 10). The one thing going for iPads are the wider 4:3 screen format for reading. I find older style screen formats to be more comfortable for stacking in longer lines for reading. What I don't like. There's no Fintie Tuatara with Magic Ring case! I have one for the HD 8 and it's incredible. Basically a giant rugged case with a kickstand that rotates so there's no limit on how to angle it in portrait and landscape modes. Also, the speakers are acceptable but I wish that they were better. Fuller sounding with more bass. And although I can link my Spotify premium account to the HD 10 Alexa App, when I request it, it says that Spotify is not supported on this device. That's a shame really because I use Spotify for all my music. I can still just use the Spotify app, just not with Alexa. The battery life is good. But can be better. Just compare it to an iPad. And last but not least, the screen is acceptably bright. But it can be brighter. Again, compare it to an iPad. But let's be real. This is a $150 tablet with a micro SD slot. EDIT: The Fintie Tuatara is coming out in a couple of days! And I added a 64GB micro SD card to store offline Netflix and Amazon videos. An entire season of Mind Hunter or Stranger Things is only a couple of gigs in standard quality and 7 or 8 gigs for high so you can store enough movies for a week or two for $20. To store vids on the SD card, go to the Fire HD Settings then Storage and make sure that Download Movies and TV Shows to SD card is clicked on. And in the Netflix app, click the hamburger then App Settings and set Download Location to SD card. You can also set the Download Video Quality to standard or high. Bought a 2nd Fire HD 10 in 32GB for $99 during Black Friday to keep at work for reading. Andy Weir's new book Artemis is calling. I've gotta go.

REVISED: 6-Star Video Quality; WAS: Finally a video-worthy, 10.1" semi-Android-ish tablet for $150

UPDATE: One full movie and much YouTube later, I have to take my hats off to Amazon; the screen is incredible, and in the Laptop Mag review they actually tested the screen on a colorimeter and it exceeds the standard for 100% sRGB color capability. It's easy to hold thanks to the rounded edge, but I'm adding a Moko case next week for safety. BTW the color accuracy of the HD 7 and HD 8 tested, per Laptop Mag, at 79% or so each; personally, I think the HD 8 is much better with colors and contrast than the HD 7, and both are much, much "worse" than the HD 10. After the HD 10, my 7 is going to be given away, and my 8 will be limited to Kindle. The HD 10 is THAT much better., ORIGINAL review, some updates added : This is an early review based on a couple of hours with the lunch-bag packaged 2017 Fire HD 10 that just arrived. I will update as I watch more videos. High points: 1. 1080p is essential. Forget those other bargain tablets (Lenovo Tab 4 10") with just 720p - sure the Amazon is a "GoogleApp-free zone" but for all practical purposes the 1080p capability is more important than the Google Apps. Remember, you can always use the web browser as a mobile "computer" alternative. 2. Beautiful, beautiful colors and super bright. Ok, not as bright as the 2017 iPad but that is downright blinding. 3. Great sound from the tablet and OF COURSE from headphones once you plug them in the old-fashioned, "real" earphone plug. 4. Wide angle, vs. copypaper-shaped, screen ROCKS for video. NO letterboxing (black bands above and below the video) except for Lawrence of Arabia and other extreme wide angle content. 5. $149. Let me repeat that: $149. $149 for a QUALITY tablet not no-name junk. 6. Amazon. Yeah we all complain about Amazon hardware being a tool to sell us Amazon stuff, but first we all voluntarily shop here anyway. Second, Amazon has some of the best software people in the world - AWS has been the backbone of other software companies. I don't expect any hacks or security from this Amazon tablet, ever. 7. The new Fire TV coming out later this month has Android Nougat 7.1 underpinnings, so expect an update to current FireOS before the end of the year. Negatives: a. No Google GMail, Maps, anything at all. No Apple iTunes, iMessage, etc. of course, but new Fire customers are often shocked to find out no Google either. b. Tons of reflections on the screen in room light. BUT I've paid many zillions of ducats for anti-reflective coated high-end tablets and still not liked room-light reflections. My solution is to watch videos in a theater-style darkened room. c. It's big. Don't throw out your 7" or 8" tablet. d. Those aren't cameras on it. They are abominations. Maybe useful for a product scan. <"Maybe useful for a product scan" IN GOOD LIGHT.> e. The location of the headphone jack is workable for movie watching but all the controls are on the same side. f. Battery is dropping faster than I thought, but full brightness could be a factor, or maybe the battery indicator isn't fully calibrated yet. g. Older version (Amazon's version) of Android. STANDOUT Where can you find a decent tablet THIS SIZE.

The Perfect Entertainment Tablet

This is my first time buying an Amazon Fire Tablet and it certainly wasn't my last. (I recently purchased the HD 8!) My previous tablet experience had been an outdated Ipad (first generation). Here has been my experience so far with this Fire tablet. The sensitivity of the touch is different from the Ipad. I admit this was the hardest part for me. With the Ipad, I found a very light touch would be enough from just a tip of my finger. With the Fire tablet, I find I have to use my finger pad or the plumpest part of my finger to activate and at times there would be no reaction because I did not tap it hard enough. I did buy a stylus MEKO (2nd Generation) [2 in 1 Precision Series] Disc Stylus Pen For iPhone X/8/8plus/7 iPad 4/ iPad mini and All Capacitive Touch Screens Bundle with 6 Replacement Tips ,Pack of 2 ( Black/Rose Gold) and found it easier than using my finger. What do I like about this tablet? It is built more for selfish entertainment: binge-watching, reading, browsing, music listening, games, minor socializing. I say minor socializing because this tablet does not have the greatest camera, just 2 MP, but I don't Instagram and the camera isn't my priority. For Movies and TV: The length is longer than the usual tablets I have seen and this is great for movie viewing especially the letterbox movies. For television shows, the images are clean and crisp. The sound, however can be a bit compressed or flat. I suggest speakers or headphones to get really good sound. You will not get it with the tablet speakers. Music: I use Amazon Prime Music and also have uploaded my own music onto my tablet. The music sounds great, but again via speakers or headphones. I also have the VLC app VLC for Fire and found there is a different in sound when playing my uploaded music. Even though the VLC has various equalizer settings, the prime music app seems to give my uploaded music more depth and clarity. Reading: I am not familiar with Kindle but for me this tablet works for reading magazines and books. The backlighting can be adjusted to reduce glare. However, at times I wish the screen was non-reflective. That would be the only downfall of this tablet. Apps: Yes, I use the Amazon app store for some of my apps but at times I find it doesn't have the vast array as another PLAY store. I haven't had any problems downloading apps from another site. They do run smoothly on this tablet. IMPORTANT: The PLAY place has apps that are the same as Amazon like Kindle, Amazon Shopping App. These apps may at times not work and this is due to the PLAY setting updating the apps also. To avoid this, go into the settings via the G-Play hamburger menu and go to settings, then find the auto update apps and set it to DO NOT AUTO UPDATE. This will allow only Amazon to update the Amazon apps and not G**gle. If any of the non-Amazon apps need updating, notifications will appear and you can update them manually. More Memory: Even though I find 64GB enough for me, it is nice to know the memory can be expanded. I did find the suggested Micro SD card to be the best for this tablet. I find the speed no different than the internal memory, but keep in mind this is only from a 32GB memory card. Insertion is simple, just put it into the slot and push. The card will "spring" into the slot. To remove the card, don't try to pull it out, just push it in and it will gently spring out for removal. Just make sure you unmount the card properly before removing or it could corrupt the card. Bloatware: I did not do anything to remove the bloatware because what you find on the web will not uninstall it. It will only hide it. I just gathered the apps into one place and put them in a corner or the second page. Size: The tablet is portable but this isn't some one-handed tablet. I would consider holding this with two hands or buy a good stand like this one: Thought Out Simplex iPad Stand Pro Air 2 12.9 10.5 9.7 mini Surface Galaxy Fire Tablet Holder Black Exceeded my Expectations: I am very satisfied with this tablet. It may not have the bells and whistles of Ipad but it is enough for me to enjoy my movies, games, and browsing of the web. I bought this at full price and found it well worth it!!

Great Value for the Price

As there are several different varieties of the HD10 Fire you can order, to clarify this review is for the 64GB of storage option with special offers. I am also writing this review from the perspective of being a long-time Fire owner, as I have owned and used nearly every model that has come out over the years (my family thinks I have a problem). To summarize, for $189 for the 64GB option I think you are getting a heck of a deal on a large-sized tablet in comparison to offerings from other table manufacturers. The price keeps getting lower for increased quality – last year’s model cost $230 and the year before that it was $379 for the 8.9” Fire HDX. As a heavy user of Fires for several years now, I am impressed with this year’s model not only because of the lower price but several things that annoyed me are much improved, particularly with speed of the processor and the quality of the display on several apps I use as well as video. Initial setup was pretty fast – an easy connection to Wi-Fi, enter your Amazon account username and password to establish this Fire is really yours, followed by an approximate ten minute download and installation of a software update. As I mentioned above, the speed of the Fire’s processor is noticeably faster than last year’s model: some games I like to play on the Fire are much faster in loading and moving onto the next level without much of a lag – last year’s model would hang and think about it for a while. Looking at the technical specs, the quad 1.8GHz is 20% faster: that makes a huge difference in not only some of the game apps I like but in other things such as switching back and forth between various apps (not only game apps, but apps I use around the house as well as for work). The screen resolution and quality of video playback is very crisp and very good – I thought last year’s model was a big improvement, but they stepped it up another notch with a screen resolution and pixels per inch 125% greater than last year. I watched portions of the same video with this year’s and last year’s model side-by-side and there was a noticeable difference in the quality. I’ve been more than impressed with the battery life – maybe my previous versions had different batteries, but the things that normally suck the battery down fast (streaming, some game apps) don’t have as much of a drain on this one. Where I normally have to put it on the charger mid-day, I’ve gone two days doing the things I normally do before feeling the need to charge it. I hope this experience lasts! It’s also not noticeably heavier than what I was expecting with a 16% increase in weight – I have it in a protective case, and when watching a video, playing a game, or reading a book you don’t really notice a difference. The two speakers are located on the side of the Fire in two not-noticeable ports. My usual test of this feature is cranking up Van Halen's “Panama” to maximum volume (I always want to see if it could really play the guitar licks and hear the bass), and I would alternate covering one speaker up over the other: you have true stereo sound, but you’re not able to crank it up as much as you could other models as the sound starts to degrade and you think you are about to blow the speaker. The speakers sound nice at about 50% or less on the indication bar and you do get to hear the bass. One thing to point out is there is not a default equalizer with this Fire: everything sounds the same. To get the most out of the bass and treble, as well as to turn down the mid-range, I highly recommend you downloading and installing one of the many free equalizer apps here from the Amazon app store as it makes a huge difference, especially if you are listening with headphones. Speaking of headphones, the sound sounds great using my cheap box store branded headphones. It also comes with a port on the opposite side of the speakers to insert a memory card – I added a 256GB memory card to transfer music to it. Sure, you can listen to your music store in the cloud or stream away from your favorite streaming provider, but as I travel a lot it is convenient to have a lot of music stored on it for listening to on the plane. Reading books is straight forward and turning pages is easy - just tap the side of the screen to go to the next page or back a page, or you can swipe your finger across the screen to do the same. The Alexa app is incorporated into this version of the Fire tablet – by default, it is “on” and always listening and you will need to manually disable the auto-listen feature and replace it with the “push to talk” option (for lack of a better phrase) if that is your desire. I didn’t realize that when I was in my office and thought I was talking to my Echo Dot – the Fire answered instead. Yes, I know the instructions say if two devices are in the same room the Fire would be the option of last resort to automatically answer, but that was not my experience. Having the Alexa app built-in for voice commands is convenient, as my household has become more dependent on the integrated Alexa gadgets running our household. I do like it built-in as I am able to put in an alarm or timer using my voice, mainly to tell me it is time to put the Fire down and my lunch break at work is over! One thing I don't like is everything pushes you to purchase something from the Amazon website- I understand it, but it would be nice to have a competitor's app store available for the Fire tablet. If you are new to the tablet world or need a new tablet, or are looking to upgrade from a smaller size I would highly recommend getting this one – not only for the positive technical aspects above but you can get all of this for less than $200. As someone who was disappointed with last year’s version and always looking forward to trying the next one, I am very impressed and will be retiring my beloved 8.9" model.

Echo Show Killer, all around great value tablet

I’m really immersed into Amazon’s ecosystem. I have the original Echo in my living room, an Echo Spot in my bedroom, The 2nd gen Echo in my home gym, an Echo dot at work, an Echo show in the kitchen, the fire 7 tablet, fire stick, fire TV box, and now a Fire 10 HD with Alexa. I have Alexa controlling my fans, TVs, fire TV devices, thermostat, security cameras, lights, surround sound, and space heaters.I’ve been using Alexa for the last 2 years and the devices have become a routine part of my daily life. I preordered the Echo show (Alexa with a screen) and was very disappointed with my $230.00 purchase. What I realized I really wanted was everything the Fire 10 HD with Alexa could do. It’s like amazon heard my grievances and within months developed the tablet I wanted. When I heard about the new Fire 10 HD I hesitated on pre ordering it after feeling burned by my Echo show experience. I decided to wait and see how the reviews turned out. Well today I received my Fire 10 HD tablet and after a few hours of experimenting with it I’ve come to the conclusion not only is the Fire 10 HD tablet a snappy well rounded tablet, it’s also everything I wish the Echo Show would have been. I currently own a ASUS Chromebook flip which is a mini laptop that can be converted into a tablet, a Fire 7 2017 tablet, and an android 10" ASUS Memopad tablet. So the real question is how well does the Fire 10 perform compared to other tablets? My experience is it’s very responsive to touch, I think out of my 4 tablets it’s the most responsive. It also has the best looking display. The display also looks better than the Echo Show. Other than my Chromebook my Fire tablet has more expandable storage, however my Fire tablet beats out all my tablets including my Chromebook with internal storage space. As a side note the Echo Show has no internal storage everything is stored on the cloud. My Chromebook and Fire 10 HD tablet run neck and neck on battery life I can get at least 8 hours of use from both of these devices. My 10" ASUS Memopad about 4-5 hours, Fire 7 table about 6 hours, and it goes without saying the Echo Show is plugged in so there is no internal battery. My Fire 10 sounds significantly better than my Chromebook, it’s probably twice as loud as my Fire 7 tablet, and on par with my ASUS tablet. The sound on my Echo Show is significantly better. Pages and content loaded without any stuttering. The memory never seemed taxed or overworked despite the fact I had multiple windows and apps running in the background while I was watching a movie on Netflix. I really don’t understand the complaints about the sound or picture quality. I think that both are much better than I expected, and are strengths not weaknesses of the Fire 10. There are complaints about not having access to Google Play store. It’s not rocket science do a google search how to install google play on the new Fire 10. There are 4 links you click on that will take you straight to the 4 downloads you need to install straight from the tablet. Once you download them restart the tablet and that’s all there is to it. You now have complete access to google Play in under 5 minutes and all you had to do was 4 downloads. For those that complained about lack of HDMI output you can cast straight to fire sticks and boxes and even better control them with your voice. Using a HDMI cable seems like going back to the stone ages in comparison, but if it is a must you can buy a micro USB to HDMI converter pretty cheap on Amazon. I honestly can’t think of one thing I can complain about with this tablet. If you purchase it expecting it to wow you over a higher end Samsung or Ipad it’s not going to happen, but for $150.00 you are purchasing this tablet at cost. Amazon isn’t trying to get rich off of the tablet, it’s all the other things you are going to buy from the tablet that is going to make them their money. It’s definitely the best $150.00 I’ve ever spent. Android tablets usually start to get outdated within 3-5 years. At the price point of the Fire 10 you can buy a new one every 2 years and still pay less then trying to stay up to date with Android’s tech. Why should you consider buying the fire 10 HD over the Echo show? The tablet's screen is 10" vs the Shows 7". The tablet will show you everything the Echo Show can with the same exact artwork. You can't watch news clips from your daily briefing with the Fire 10 HD.The clips really don't show much footage and should not be a deal breaker. You can't use Amazon's video chat from the tablet. Chances are everyone you'd want to video chat with has Skype, Oovoo or other services the Show can't use. The Fire 10 is portable where as the Show has to be plugged in. The Show has an awkwardly positioned camera angle for video calls. The Show can't display as much content on it's screen. The Show has much richer audio and bass. However you can connect bluetooth speakers to the tablet and improve the audio. Both have the always listening capability with Alexa. Honestly unless you have to have Amazon's video chat all the advantages are with the Fire 10. As a side note you don't have to have an Echo Show to use Amazon's video chat. You can use it for free from your phone using the Alexa app. Let's face it you can pretty much do everything the Show is capable of doing with the tablet, plus you have all the features of a tablet, and it's portable! I personally feel the display on my fire 10 is much better than my Echo Show. All I ever use my show for is listening to music, news briefings, adding and removing items to my shopping list, maybe an occasional movie while cooking if there is any thing decent on Prime videos, and controlling my smart devices. The Fire 10 is perfectly capable of completing all of these tasks and more. Alexa on my Fire 10 works with all my home smart devices, and instantly carries over all of my existing Alexa settings. I can open apps by asking Alexa. Unlike my Echo Show I can watch Netflix, HULU, Youtube and other streaming services through my Fire 10.As a testimony to how much I love this tablet I bought 4 more for Christmas presents. I get the best of both worlds with all the benefits of Amazon's services, Alexa on my tablet and Google's Playstore. Having an Android tablet means missing out on how well Amazon integrates all of their services in to a tablet and no Alexa. If you found this review helpful please click on the this was helpful tab.

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