At a glance
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- User-friendly interface
- Tight integration of Amazon services
- Echo Show smart home dashboard
- Very cheap
Cons
- Cheap-feeling materials
- Slow charging
- Limited app store
Our Verdict
This 12th-gen refresh offers a marginal bump in specifications versus the previous edition, which was released in 2021 .
The cameras too – a 5Mp main sensor and 5Mp front-facing camera – now record 1080p Full HD video compared to creaky old 720p. This means Zoom calls will look a little clearer.
Finally, the new model is also 30g lighter than the 11th-generation Fire HD 10 tablet, so it’s easier to carry around and crash on the couch with a book or TV show.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
Design & Build
- Black plastic with a matt finish
- Type-C USB, 3.5mm headphone jack
- Lightweight, but cheap-feeling
The version I was sent was black, but lilac and ocean blue versions are available as well.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
If you’re holding the tablet in landscape and facing it with the camera on the top edge, you’ll find two speakers sitting up on the top edge, and the power key, volume rocker, USB port and headphone jack on the right-hand edge. On the bottom edge, there’s a microSD slot, should you need to expand storage.
Screen & Speakers
- 10.1-inch LCD display
- Full HD+
- USI 2.0 stylus support
- Stereo speakers
Thomas Newton / Foundry
Without having a stylus to hand, I can’t say for sure how good stylus feedback in the display is, but it’s safe to assume that it’s on par with the Fire 11 Max experience – in other words, very good.
I recorded a peak brightness of 369 nits, which is not fantastic, not really vibrant enough for outdoor reading, unless you’re somewhere shady. That’s par for the course for budget tablets though, the Nokia T21 , Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 , and Oppo Pad Air all returned similar results, although the Fire Max 11 and Galaxy Tab A9 are a bit brighter.
The stereo speakers are not too bad, far better at delivering TV and movie sounds and dialogue than they are for music playback – bass tones are not very well defined, and cymbals sound thin and tinny. Again, to be expected for a device of this size and price.
Specs & Performance
- Mediatek 8-core processor
- 3GB of RAM
- Ideal for light browsing, emails, and casual games
There is a game mode, which temporarily disables Alexa and hides notifications for optimal performance, although Asphalt 8 was only just about playable. The Fire HD 10 is really better suited towards less demanding titles, like Clash of Clans.
The Silk browser is pretty good at running with north of ten tabs open, although it struggled with some busier web pages, like the BBC homepage and The Guardian.
Occasionally struggled to jump between apps and processes. Exiting the camera, Clash of Clans, and the Kindle app all saw the tablet freeze for a couple of seconds and take me back to a blank home menu. A second later, all of the widgets and app icons ghosted into view. Not the end of the world, but also not very confidence-inspiring either.
Benchmarking results tallied with my observations – the scores here are roughly on par with other tablets in its category, and as the Manhattan and T-Rex frame rate scores show, it’s just not cut out for fast-paced gaming.
In terms of wireless connectivity, you get Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.3, which is a little disappointing for any new device in 2023. That’ll be fast enough for streaming video and music, but note that the Fire Max 11 supports the more recent and faster Wi-Fi 6 standard.
Cameras
- 5Mp rear camera
- 5Mp front camera
- Full HD video
The main camera is not much to write home about. It’s only really capable of taking passable photos where there’s adequate natural light. Indoor photos tend to look pretty ropey – as you might expect from a camera in a bargain basement tablet.
The front-facing camera is adequate for selfies, and for video calls, which is likely the main reason you’d be interested in a tablet’s camera quality. The camera interface is also rudimentary, and hard to get to grips with.
Switching between front and main cameras, for example, requires you to tap the three dots icon in the bottom left corner, and then hit the double arrow icon – why this shortcut has been squirreled away to a sub-menu is a mystery.
As mentioned earlier, the tablet is now capable of shooting Full HD video rather than standard HD 720p so there is at least some improvement and good news if you plan to use the Fire HD 10 for video calls.
Battery Life & Charging
- 13 hours quoted lifespan
- Weedy 9W charger
Battery life is good, with the PC Mark Work 3.0 battery life test giving me 10h 11mins. A little off the quoted 13 hours, but plenty of power for most people’s purposes.
Less good is the fact that the Fire HD 10 takes just over four hours to charge using the supplied 9W charger. After 15 minutes from empty, I was on 4%, and after half an hour 8%. After an hour, 18%. That’s extremely slow going.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
Software & Apps
- Fire OS 8, based on Android 11
- No Google Play Store
- Alexa and Echo Show Mode
It’s very easy to navigate, especially if you’ve used an Android tablet before. The main page is divided into three sections where you can check out recommended apps and media, a home page, and a library of everything you’ve downloaded, and all the tabs you have open in the Silk browser.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
On that note, you can’t even download other browsers from the Appstore – it’s very much a case of use the Silk browser or go home. It’s the same story on every Fire tablet out there, so this is nothing new but you should be aware.
As with more recent Fire devices, Alexa is ‘hands free’, meaning you can send it voice commands even when the display is off, and the tablet’s locked.
Echo Show mode also returns on the Fire HD 10. This essentially turns the tablet into a smart home display, showing off things like weather, trending recipes, a TV guide, trending recipes, and more.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
Price & Availability
If you can put up with adverts on the lock screen, you can have either option away with a £10/$15 discount.
If you’re willing to part with a bit more cash, good alternatives include the Xiaomi Redmi Pad SE , which has a superior display, better battery, more internal storage, for around £50 more.
The Oppo Pad Air is another good option – again, better display, more storage, not much more expensive, although the battery’s longevity is not quite as good. Also consider the recently-tested Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 , which is a similar price, has a smaller display, but comes with more internal storage and Googke Play.
Thomas Newton / Foundry
Specs
- Display: 10.1in, USI 2.0 stylus support
- Resolution: 1920 x 1200 (224 ppi)
- Processor: Octa-core up to 2 GHz
- Storage: 32 or 64 GB (expandable by up to 1TB)
- RAM: 3GB
- Camera: 5Mp front, 5Mp rear
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.3
- Alexa-enabled: Yes, hands-free
- Sound: Dolby Atmos-branded dual-stereo speakers, microphone
- Battery Life: Up to 13 hours
- Charging: USB-C (USB 2.0)
- Weight: 433.6g
- Dimensions: 246 x 165 x 10.9mm
Author: Thomas Newton, Contributor, Tech Advisor
With more than 15 years of experience, Thomas has tested, benchmarked, and messed around with countless phones, laptops, soundbars, speakers, printers, and smartwatches, and during a visit to a Wi-Fi testing facility, locked himself inside an anechoic chamber “to see what it felt like.” These days, Thomas mainly, but not exclusively, tests home networking devices and security software for Tech Advisor.
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