Amazon Fire HD 10 is probably a strange tablet line for many people today. Many users are often attracted to tablets from Apple or Samsung, but not everyone has the budget to own them and Amazon Fire HD 10 is the cheap tablet we evaluate. is the best in the price range.
Amazon Fire HD 10 ( 2021) has a slight improvement over its predecessor Amazon Fire HD 10 2019 such as a slightly brighter screen, 1GB more RAM and a smaller, lighter design. While it’s probably not a must for anyone who owns the 2019 version, it certainly shows Amazon’s ability to deliver a value proposition that’s good enough for a lot of people.
Deep in the Amazon Ecosystem
The Fire tablets have always been about consuming Amazon content. They started out as the “Kindle Fire,” intended for reading color books and streaming video. The mission has expanded, but only slightly; you can certainly play games and join Zoom calls on these tablets, but Amazon will drive you, again and again, to the videos and books it wants you to buy.
What You Get for $150
The Fire HD 10 is made of matte plastic, and you can get it in black, 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 little door. The battery is not removable. It measures 9.73 by 6.53 by 0.36 inches and weighs 16.4 ounces.
The basic model has 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and ads on the lock screen. There are two mix-and-match ways to upgrade it right off the bat: pay $15 to get rid of the ads, and pay $40 for an additional 32GB of storage. Doing both just breaks the $200 barrier, but even among $200 tablets, the Fire HD 10’s features are about as good as you’re doing to get, and for the base price of $150, they’re impressive. Just don’t expect them to stack up against what a fancier tablet or phone can do.
Android, But Not Android
Amazon’s Fire OS 7 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 across the top—books, video, etc.—there are now three main tabs: For You, Home, and Library. Unlike on other tablets, you can’t add widgets or customize the interface.
Home is the app grid you expect from any Android device. Library is a stack of carousels of different kinds of content you’ve downloaded from Amazon: Kindle books, audiobooks, apps, Prime Video, Amazon Music playlists. For You is a slightly annoying algorithm-generated stack of things you’ve used recently followed by things Amazon would like you to buy based on what you’ve previously used.
In the lower left corner of the interface, there’s a little house icon. Press it and you get a device dashboard with all of your Alexa-enabled smart home gadgets and Alexa routines. Hands-free Alexa usage is supported, and a toggle will put the tablet into Show mode, which turns it into an Alexa smart display that shows timers, song lyrics, and recipes. (Of course, if a smart display is all you need, you can save a little money by getting an Echo Show 8)
One of the Fire HD 10’s strengths is support for multiple user profiles and parental controls. You can create different adult and child profiles. You can assign only specific content to kids’ profiles; restrict the hours they use the tablet, the amount they use it, 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 details on that.
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