The 2021 version of Amazon's Fire Hard disk 10 packs all the operation you demand for web browsing, content consumption, and smart-domicile management. Amazon's limited app selection keeps it from broadly competing with general-purpose tablets such every bit Apple tree'south iPad, but if you don't heed the Fire'southward limits, yous'll find the new model very satisfying.
This review covers the core feature ready and capabilities of the Fire HD 10, 2021 edition. Nosotros also have carve up reviews of the Fire Hd ten Kids and Kids Pro, the Burn down HD x Plus, and the Fire Hard disk drive ten Productivity Bundle and Plus Productivity Parcel, all of which add features and accessories to the base model. One of those may be a better option for you if you demand its specialized assets, just the $150 Fire Hd x is our overall top option of the agglomeration and our Editors' Choice amid sub-$200 tablets.
Deep in the Amazon Ecosystem
The Fire tablets accept e'er been about consuming Amazon content. They started out every bit the "Kindle Burn down," intended for reading color books and streaming video. The mission has expanded, simply only slightly; you tin can certainly play games and join Zoom calls on these tablets, but Amazon will drive you, once more and once more, to the videos and books it wants yous to buy.
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This year's Fire lineup has a bewildering assortment of options, but they're all the Fire HD 10 at middle. Hither's what you lot'll become with the various versions:
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Equally with whatever bundle of features and accessories, whether it makes sense to get 1 of the variant models depends on whether you desire everything it contains. The Kids and Kids Pro too get an Editors' Choice nod from the states; we think they're the best kids' tablets you tin can become for less than $200, with sturdy cases and fantabulous parental controls. The Plus is terrific if yous need an Alexa smart display equally well as a tablet and are willing to trounce out for a wireless dock. On the other hand, the Productivity and Plus Productivity are unlikely to brand anyone very productive; there are just likewise many apps missing from the Appstore, for reasons we'll go to below. And for most uses, the basic Fire Hd 10 has the best combination of price and performance—no frills, none needed.
What You Get for $150
The Fire HD 10 is made of matte plastic, and yous can go it in blackness, blue, green, or pink. It has dual stereo speakers on top, a USB-C port for charging and transferring files, and a microSD memory card slot behind a niggling door. The bombardment is not removable. It measures 9.73 past 6.53 by 0.36 inches and weighs sixteen.four ounces.
The bones model has 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and ads on the lock screen. At that place are two mix-and-match means to upgrade it right off the bat: pay $xv to become rid of the ads, and pay $xl for an boosted 32GB of storage. Doing both but breaks the $200 barrier, but fifty-fifty among $200 tablets, the Fire Hard disk 10'south features are nearly equally expert equally yous're doing to get, and for the base price of $150, they're impressive. Merely don't await them to stack up against what a fancier tablet or phone can do.
There'southward a 5MP photographic camera on the back of the matte plastic tablet.
Amazon describes the 10.1-inch, 1920-past-1200, 224ppi screen as "brilliant." That's overstating the case; it doesn't get tremendously brilliant, and the viewing bending is limited. However, the brandish has nicely deep colors when you look at it straight on.
Photos taken with the 5MP rear camera are poor, with washed-out colors, poor dynamic range, and digital noise. But the 2MP selfie camera isn't bad, especially when compared with cameras on similar tablets. It delivers perfectly acceptable image quality for video conferences and even functions a bit in low light. The Fire Hd x automatically syncs your pics with Amazon Photos.
The tablet handles Zoom but fine.
The dual stereo speakers are acceptably loud, giving a 96.3dB reading at six inches from the tablet. Music also has a flake of a space-filling sound to it because of the concrete separation of the two speakers, though information technology's actually tinny; when I was listening to the Killers' "All The Things That I've Done," for example, the high-hat and organ were almost inaudible. If you're listening to music, watching videos, or taking a long video phone call, accept reward of the standard 3.5mm headphone jack or Bluetooth headset support, both of which evangelize dainty articulate audio.
Android, But Not Android
Amazon's Burn OS seven is based on Android 9, but with Google services largely replaced by Amazon services. Its interface has been radically simplified. Where it used to have a launcher with types of content beyond the superlative—books, video, etc.—at that place are at present three primary tabs: For You lot, Home, and Library. Unlike on other tablets, you tin't add together widgets or customize the interface.
Home is the app grid you lot wait from any Android device. Library is a stack of carousels of dissimilar kinds of content you've downloaded from Amazon: Kindle books, audiobooks, apps, Prime Video, Amazon Music playlists. For Yous is a slightly abrasive algorithm-generated stack of things you've used recently followed past things Amazon would like you lot to purchase based on what you've previously used.
In the lower left corner of the interface, at that place's a footling firm icon. Press it and you lot get a device dashboard with all of your Alexa-enabled smart domicile gadgets and Alexa routines. Hands-free Alexa usage is supported, and a toggle volition put the tablet into Show style, which turns it into an Alexa smart display that shows timers, vocal lyrics, and recipes. (Of grade, if a smart display is all you need, you lot tin can save a piffling coin by getting an Echo Show 8.)
One of the Fire HD 10's strengths is back up for multiple user profiles and parental controls. You tin create different adult and kid profiles. You lot can assign but specific content to kids' profiles; restrict the hours they use the tablet, the amount they use information technology, and what kind of content they use for how long; and look over their web history. A subscription service, Amazon Kids+, delivers a steady stream of books, comics, and videos for kids ages 3–12. I have more than details on that in my Fire Hd 10 Kids review.
Improved Power
Amazon powers the 2021 Burn down Hd 10 with Mediatek's Helio P60T, the same processor that's in the 2019 Burn down HD 10. It delivers about 50% ameliorate web browsing performance than the scrap in the Fire HD 8 model, according to the Basemark Spider web benchmark—a significant, noticeable comeback. (I didn't run comparisons with the Fire 7 because it's very boring, has only 1GB of RAM, and couldn't complete whatever of our benchmark tests.)
On the overall PCMark Work 3.0 benchmark, the Hd ten scored 5376, far better than the HD 8'south 4290. It as well comes with 3GB of RAM, more than the 2GB in the Fire HD 8 and the 2019 HD 10. That makes for a much more fluid feel switching apps, peculiarly if you're using productivity apps such equally Microsoft Part. This is the start Amazon tablet on which I never experienced a slowdown or stutter.
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More RAM enables a new split-screen feature. It'due south relatively easy to pop two apps onto the screen at once, something I found very helpful when I was writing my Fire HD ten Productivity review.
The P60T provides enough power to play videos and audiobooks, display Kindle books, practise Alexa stuff, make Zoom calls, and run some basic games. It doesn't take a gaming GPU, but stick to older, casual, or lower-res games and you'll exist fine. The older action game Riptide GP2 stuttered on the Fire HD 8, but played smoothly on this Hard disk drive 10. Roblox is playable here but can be jerky.
Older activity games, such as Riptide GP2, play well.
Battery life is excellent, lasting for 12 hours, 48 minutes of Amazon Prime video playback over Wi-Fi. The battery charged from apartment to 100% in 3.five hours.
There'southward dual-band Wi-Fi in the Fire Hd 10, just its maximum speeds are limited by the chipset. On a 500Mbps symmetrical connection with excellent signal strength, it managed no college than 275Mbps downwards. I saw 143Mbps downwards on an iPad and 134Mbps down on the Burn at one location with middling signal, and 44.6Mbps down on the iPad and 12Mbps downwards on the Burn in a very weak-point location.
The tablet has a USB-C port and a standard headphone jack.
The App Gap
Right at present, Amazon'southward express app store is most of what holds its tablets back. Amazon tablets don't accept Google Play or any other Google apps, because Amazon is trying to position itself equally a Google competitor. That means Android developers accept to separately submit their applications to Amazon'due south shop, and many oasis't done that.
The Appstore isn't a total zilch. It has Discord, Minecraft, and Roblox; Microsoft Function and a bunch of Office-similar apps; and Hulu, Netflix, Paramount+, and Sling Goggle box.
But there are no Google apps, including YouTube. Both of our standard examination games, Alto's Odyssey and Genshin Impact, are missing, as are the benchmarking apps we utilise for tests. If yous want to communicate over Signal or Slack, there's no app for that. If yous like watching Apple TV+, you won't do it here.
It is certainly possible to get other Android apps onto this tablet. You can download the APK files from APKMirror.com or transfer them over from another Android telephone. In that location are dozens of web pages about how to hack the Google Play store onto Amazon tablets; they don't work right now because of a new version of the Burn down Bone, just I'grand sure they'll be updated soon. But all of these solutions are kludgey and bad, and you shouldn't take to alive with them. The Google Play ones, especially, are unsupported and tin can break with OS upgrades.
This is why I think of Amazon'due south tablets as media consumption and Alexa devices rather than full-featured competitors for Chromebooks or Apple'south iPads. The device is powerful enough to rank with those other tablet, just you have to jump through hoops to go apps that should be a few taps abroad.
Tablet or Kindle? Both Is Good
A 10-inch tablet isn't an platonic ebook reader. If you're reading standard, black-on-white text books, you'll be much better served with the restful screen and lighter weight of an E Ink reader such every bit the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. Yet, the Fire 10 Hard disk drive excels at displaying picture books and comics. As I said in the Burn down HD 8 review, an 8-inch tablet is just a little too small for a two-page spread in a comic volume. On a 10-inch, 1080p tablet, that spread is dainty and readable. Magazine pages are too readable at this size.
Amazon's Burn down tablets put Audible's audiobooks front and center. They also support a feature called immersion reading: As you heed to the audiobook, the text of the book is displayed and highlighted in sync with the audio and then yous tin follow along. Retrieve of it as subtitles for an audiobook. This is particularly useful for outset readers, language students, and people with auditory disabilities.
Amazon wants you to go your media through its congenital-in store, but information technology also supports Overdrive and Comixology, too as various PDF and CBR readers that work with sideloaded or downloaded content. Unfortunately, Marvel Unlimited and DC Universe are among the apps missing from the Appstore.
An Indisputable Bargain for Amazon Fans
The new Fire Hd x is Amazon's best tablet, thank you to the zippy processor and capacious amount of RAM. Amazon tablets have a reputation for sluggishness, but that isn't the example any more. This tablet has the same chip as the Lenovo Chromebook Duet; information technology's the best you lot're going to get at this price.
Only this is still an Amazon tablet, not a general-purpose Android or Apple slate. The user interface is great for easily getting to Amazon content, and the multiple user profiles and parental controls are terrific. You just accept to contend with Amazon quirks similar the limited Appstore.
The best tablet is nonetheless an iPad—if you tin afford information technology. A sixth-gen iPad costs $329. Samsung's Milky way Tab A7 looks meliorate than the Burn HD 10 in every mode, with a higher-resolution 10.4-inch screen and full Google Play back up, but it costs $220. Meanwhile, almost tablets in the $150 range are clunky and wearisome. The 2021 edition of Amazon'due south Fire HD x gives yous past far the most power and features you lot're going to go for less than $200, and earns our Editors' Choice award.
Amazon Fire HD 10 (2021)
The Lesser Line
Amazon updates the Fire HD 10 to evangelize a very good tablet for $150, as long as what you want to do is command Alexa and eat Amazon books and media. Fifty-fifty without the Google Play shop, it's the best tablet you can get for less than $200.
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