Amazon Fire HD 10
The best 10.1in budget tablet with quality in all the right places, and the bonus of hands-free Alexa
SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪ PRICE 32GB, £125 (£150 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/279hd10
The new Amazon Fire HD 10 is one of those products that doesn’t look all that exciting from the outside. It’s physically identical to the model it replaces, although it’s now available in blue and red along with the previous black, but there’s plenty of interest tucked beneath its humdrum exterior.
Top of that list is Amazon’s digital voice assistant, Alexa. The Amazon Fire HD 10 represents the first time outside the Echo range of products that Amazon has introduced a hands-free Alexa mode; the other Fire HD tablets and TV streamers need you to press a button to activate voice recognition.
Unlike the Echo family, it doesn’t have a far-field microphone array, but I found the tablet could pick up my voice accurately from 10m away. It doesn’t have to be unlocked to work, either, although Alexa can’t unlock your device: you’ll still need to input your password or PIN for that.
So what can you do with Alexa? Pretty much the same as the Echo. Say, “Alexa… play some Daft Punk”, “Alexa… turn up my lights”, or “Alexa... what’s the weather going to be like today?” and the tablet will work without any physical intervention. If you’re worried about the tablet’s always-listening mode, it can be disabled and muted by tapping the option in the drop-down notification bar.
Away from Alexa, the Fire HD 10’s IPS display is now slightly sharper, with a “better than Full HD” resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 where its predecessor’s was 1,280 x 800.
It’s much brighter, too. At 455cd/m2 versus last year’s 375cd/m2 peak brightness, the new HD 10 is easier to read in bright conditions. The screen still lacks punch and richness, though, with only 84.1% of the sRGB covered. Thankfully, contrast is still decent and viewing angles are excellent.
Inside, there’s a quad-core 1.8GHz MediaTek MT8173 processor that’s “30% more powerful” than last year’s model, and double the RAM (now 2GB). It’s definitely faster. The new tablet achieved a Geekbench score of 1,501 and 3,096 in the single-core and multi-core benchmark respectively, double the 773 and 1,512 of last year’s model.
Where you won’t see much improvement is gaming. The Fire HD 10 only hit 9.5fps in GFXBench Manhattan 3, so don’t expect to play intensive games on this tablet.
Battery life, on the other hand, sees a notable improvement, with the new tablet achieving 11hrs 22mins in our video rundown test in Flight mode – that’s a worthwhile improvement of 2hrs 17mins over last year’s model.
Amazon has added Dolby Atmos support and stereo speakers. The latter are located on the long left-hand side of the tablet, which makes it awkward with the tablet in a vertical position, but place it horizontally and the upwards (or downwards) facing speakers provide a more engaging and rich sound.
As with the other new Kindle Fires, the HD 10 runs Fire OS 5.5, which is based on Android but eschews Google’s apps and Play Store to run its own suite and app store. Amazon adds a new section called “For You”, which includes recommendations based on what you’ve bought, downloaded or streamed in the past.
Surprisingly, Amazon has downgraded the tablet’s cameras from HD to VGA at the front, and 5 megapixels to 2 megapixels at the rear. But the price makes up for that: it’s £20 cheaper than last year.
Despite first appearances, then, there’s a lot to be excited about here. The new Fire HD 10 is a responsive, sturdy tablet that provides great value. You can pick up a Fire HD 10 for £150 with 32GB of storage space, and although the 64GB version costs only £30 more, it’s hardly worth the expense when there’s a microSD card slot available. The addition of Alexa hands-free is also extremely welcome, while the price reduction comes as a pleasant surprise – especially as every other tablet and phone manufacturer seems to be raising prices right now.
SPECIFICATIONS
Quad-core 1.8GHz/1.4GHz MediaTek MT8173 processor 2GB RAM 10.1in 1,920 x 1,200 resolution IPS display 32GB/64GB of storage microSD card slot (supports up to 256GB) Dolby Atmos stereo speakers 2MP rear, VGA front cameras dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 1yr RTB warranty 262 x 159 x 9.8mm (WDH) 500g
“If you’re worried about the Fire HD 10’s always-listening mode, it can be disabled and muted in the notification bar”