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Amazon’s Fire tablet series has developed a recognizable pattern: they come in small, medium, and big sizes, are significantly less expensive than comparable iPads, and are mostly used for reading and viewing movies or TV, with material most likely provided by Amazon itself. The corporation occasionally waits many years between updates, which is less frequently than its rivals. you can read our article on Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus review .
The bigger variant, the Fire HD 10, has undergone an update this year that includes a new body design, improved performance, and a variety of additional configuration options. With no additional expense to the iPad, Amazon’s top 10in Fire OS tablet now performs faster. The 2021 Fire HD 10 is available in two versions: the normal version, which costs £150, and the “Plus” version, which we reviewed here and costs £180 and has a few extra bells and whistles.
Compared to the iPad’s squarer screen, the tablet’s 10.1-inch LCD touchscreen is a little bit brighter than its predecessor and made for watching movies. The new Fire HD 10 is 36g lighter than the one it replaces and employs the slimmed-down and rounded design language first used on the 8in Fire HD 8 last year, giving it a noticeably more contemporary appearance.
Design
The Fire HD 10 Plus from Amazon is not objectionable. Although not exactly high praise, you are getting what you pay for in terms of aesthetics. The tablet’s soft-touch texture has a slightly rubbery feel, but it’s comfortable to handle for extended periods of time and feels similar to a generic case we might ordinarily put on a tablet at this price. It’s also more durable than we anticipated, showing little give or bend until we over twisted it. If you require a device that can withstand more abuse, Amazon offers a version of the Fire HD 10 series specifically for children.
With a few small exceptions, the Plus is nearly identical to the Fire HD 10: it has 4GB of RAM, wireless charging, and the previously stated soft-touch feel (up from 3GB). Its dimensions are 9.7 x 6.5 x 0.4 inches, and it weighs 16.5 ounces as opposed to 16.4 ounces, making it technically heavier. The Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 ($229), which offers a full Android experience in a little larger form without being overly expensive, is its closest Android-based rival. You’ll have to decide whether the limits of Amazon’s Fire OS are too great to get past because that gadget has downsides of its own.
Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus review: Display
The Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus’s display technology is undoubtedly its best feature. The resolution of this 10.1-inch widescreen LCD is 1920 x 1210, which has long been the norm for less expensive tablets of this size. Although it isn’t nearly as sharp as the least cost iPad 8, we believe that its photos aren’t all that dissimilar from those of the most expensive tablets available. Pleasantly rich and natural-looking color.
Of course, contrast isn’t as high as on an OLED display like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, but in a room with lights on, it’s difficult to tell. Due to its high peak brightness, the Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus also performs surprisingly well outside. our colorimeter, a screen-testing device, said that it got to almost exactly 500 nits. This level of brightness is typical of respectable low-cost smartphones with significantly smaller screens.
We were fairly delighted by how visible Bloons TD 6 was when we tried playing outside, but you’ll have to keep the screen clean to prevent fingerprint smudges hurting visibility in sunlight – there isn’t a radical oleophobic coating here, or an anti-glare layer. Additionally, the Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus incorporates an ambient light sensor, which enables the tablet to adjust the brightness level to the surrounding conditions. It’s wonderful to see Amazon offer this functionality here because it’s uncommon to find cheaper tablets with it.
Software
With only a small selection of apps available on the Google Play Store, Amazon’s Fire OS is insignificant in comparison to the full-fledged Android experience. However, if you have an Amazon Prime membership, a sizable collection of ebooks you’ve bought from Amazon and elsewhere, or simply don’t use a lot of Android apps, what’s now available may be adequate. also you will check our article on Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus review.
Comparable to stumbling down a grocery store aisle in search of the Amazon-branded version or some respectable-looking knockoff of your favorite Android app. Although Amazon’s Silk browser has advanced significantly, its user interface can be a bit puzzling due to our familiarity with Chrome and Safari on tablets. There isn’t an official YouTube app either, but restrictions like this encourage me to read a lot, which is beneficial in and of itself.
Hardware and performance
When you examine Amazon’s Fire HD series’ hardware in more detail, it departs from being “simply another tablet.” These tabs have an Android foundation and always have. But in contrast to other Android tablets, they have a very thick Amazon veneer called Fire OS. In the past, Fire OS was disorganized and, to be quite honest, rather frustrating. Older models of the Amazon Fire HD 10 had a layout that made them appear more like storefronts than actual tablets. There were home screen sections for many Amazon services. The majority of that has changed. There are now only three home screen pages on the Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus.
The Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus is no longer a collection of enormous neon billboards pleading with you to subscribe to Amazon services. Although that problem has been resolved, another one still exists. Instead of using Google Play, the Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus makes use of the Amazon Appstore. There are several things to download from this site, including programmes for Microsoft Office, which debuted earlier this year.
Nevertheless, we are nevertheless disappointed with the selection that is offered. There’s just not nearly enough of the amazing content from Google Play. If you look for your favorite game, you could find some crappy “guide” apps that were created solely to profit from the name rather than the game itself. You might question why more developers haven’t rushed at the chance to get on board given that Amazon has sold millions upon millions of Fire tablets. We don’t know why its shelves still appear to be somewhat empty, but it could be that developers have discovered that users of phones rather than tablets are more likely to pay for their programmes.
Amazon did attempt to produce a phone once. The outcome wasn’t good. Compared to earlier Fire tablets, the Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus feels pretty responsive, and since there aren’t many games available in the Amazon Appstore, this power difference isn’t really noticeable. Bloons TD 6’s final levels, when there could be hundreds of objects on-screen at once, had some chugging, but even this game had to be installed from a side-loaded Google Play version because it isn’t offered on the Amazon Appstore.
Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus review: Camera
The front-facing 2 MP camera has an aperture of f/2.2 and a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Amazon doesn’t give specific details regarding the mounted camera module. The front’s integrated optics are of a low enough quality to merely provide visual presence during video conversations. Selfies are incredibly hazy and out of focus. The photographs’ exposure might also be made better.
The 2 MP main camera of the predecessor would be replaced by a 5 MP lens with f/2.4 aperture. The lack of autofocus makes the image sharpness comparable to the 2-MP front-facing optics, and the photographs are likewise blurry. The dynamism in the images are also not very strong, and details and structures are frequently lost in blur. In extremely dim light, our test person is hardly recognizable.
Surprisingly well, the Fire HD 10 Plus captures color. We put the rear-facing main camera through additional testing with the ColorChecker port under regulated lighting circumstances, and we examine the 5 MP lens’s color reproduction in contrast to the real reference colors. The colors are faithfully portrayed. The ColorChecker only detects bigger differences in black and grey tones. The front-facing camera only captures moving images in 720p while the image sensor utilized on the back records videos in a respectable quality with a maximum Full HD resolution.
Battery life
Better battery life is a benefit of a processor that performs modestly and a screen with a lower resolution, and the Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus doesn’t let you down in this regard. You can watch videos for about 10 hours without needing to recharge, and that’s with the screen brightness turned up all the way. It will function flawlessly throughout the day or a very lengthy aircraft trip. Although Amazon hasn’t made the battery capacity public, it claims that the slate would typically last 12 hours of use.
Unless you’re just using it to listen to an audiobook on headphones, it seems a little optimistic, but based on our tests, you’ll likely come close to that most of the time. Although we don’t have official numbers, wired USB-C charging increases battery life by 10% in 15 minutes; it will take many hours to fully recharge. Wireless charging was not something we could test, but we anticipate it to take even longer. Notably, the regular Fire HD 10 doesn’t support wireless charging; only the Plus model does. also you will learn our article on Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus review.
Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus review: Price and availability
The prices of the Amazon Fire tablets are still relatively low. This slate costs $179.99 / £179.99 for the 32GB storage option and $219.99 / £219.99 for the 64GB model, which works out to about AU$400. If you don’t want the lock screen advertisements, add another $10 or £10 to those costs. Of course, Amazon also offers direct sales of these tablets.
In general, prices have been stable throughout 2022, but there is always the chance for discounts during sales events like Amazon Prime Day, so keep a watch out if you want an even more affordable tablet. At the time of writing, the official Wireless Charging Dock costs an additional $40 (or £40 in the UK), while the Bluetooth keyboard and a year of Microsoft 365 cost an additional $60 (or £60). Australia doesn’t currently have access to the slate.
Conclusion
The updated look and respectable performance of the 2021 Fire HD 10 have done just enough to retain Amazon at the top of the list of low-cost tablets. Few rivals provide the same level of software support for Android tablets at this cheap price as Amazon offers.
As long as you’re content to swim in Amazon’s ecosystem without access to Google or Apple’s apps, the tablet is a great lower-cost media consumption device thanks to its large, sharp screen, respectable speakers, and extended battery life. We advise saving the additional standard model because the Fire HD 10 Plus edition adds a soft-touch finish, wireless charging, and 1GB more RAM, none of which are actually necessary for a tablet like this.