Relight my Fire
Amazon’s range of tablets has always been good value, but now the tech giant has stepped things up
IT’S long been true that Amazon offers the best value for money when it comes to tablet computing.
Its Fire devices certainly are not the best you can buy, but – backed, and likely subsidised by, Amazon’s unassailable strength in the online retail market – they are among the cheapest.
This week they became a whole lot more capable, too.
It’s a debate that’s been around since tablet computing went mainstream with the iPad – are they real computers? Can you do work on them? Or are they just for play?
Amazon’s efforts have been firmly aimed at the play market until now, with devices that were good for reading, watching video, playing casual games, and video calling with family and friends. The two new devices revealed this week make tentative steps in the other direction – Amazon is saying you can do some work with its Fire HD 10 and HD 10 Plus tablets, and they start at only £149.99. The first upgrade over the previous model comes, as you might expect, in the processing power and memory – the new octa-core 2.0 GHz processor is paired with 3GB RAM for a speed boost for all apps.
The screen also gets an upgrade and is 10% brighter than previous models. The new 10 HD has a revamped design and is even thinner this time around, too.
The HD 10 Plus brings a bit more memory for better performance, what Amazon calls a ‘premium finish’, and support for Qi wireless charging.
Both versions are available with 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, plus support for up to 1TB of expandable storage via a microSD card.
Of course, this new Fire does all the same things the previous one did when it’s play time – access to Prime video and music, Amazon’s ebook ecosystem, and lots of apps and games make this a perfect entertainment system. Alexa brings the voice control, and her wealth of information too.
But there are some neat additions to the system which might make doing something a bit more productive a bit easier.
There’s a new version of Fire OS, for a start, which brings split screen viewing so you can have two apps open at once, displayed side-by-side.
Then there’s a new keyboard case accessory – this brings a detachable bluetooth-based keyboard case for those who want to do real typing.
This is available for £49.99 on its own, but can be bought as part of a “Productivity Bundle”.
This teams up with an HD 10 or HD 10 Plus with a keyboard case and a 12-month subscription to Microsoft Office 360. Starting price for that is £209.99, which is absurdly low enough to make you want to ask: “Are you sure?”
It’s a proper pitch for workers to
hop on the Fire bandwagon, and although it won’t suit everyone, there are still a lot of people out there who use little else but apps you can get for these devices and live on Microsoft Office. Alongside these new Fires for adults, Amazon is also updating the version of these devices it makes just for kids.
These are essentially a HD 10 with a protective case and modified software to allow parents, via an app on their device, to control what their kids can see and do on theirs.
This year Amazon is making a version for older kids, which is more streamlined and has a more muted colour scheme – confusingly it’s calling it the Fire HD 10 Kids Pro. I don’t know what’s pro about it, but it fills in an area of the market Amazon clearly feels it was missing out on.
■ The Fire HD 10 Kids and Kids Pro costs £199.99. There are smaller versions of the Pro with the 7 costing £99.99 and the 8 coming in at £139.99. The Fire HD 10, 10 Plus, Kids, and Kids Pro can be ordered today and will begin shipping on May 26.
For more details visit amazon. co.uk