Amazon Fire 7
Cheap, cheerful and fun, the Fire 7 is a great tablet for Prime families – just don’t expect too much
SCORE PRICE £42 (£50 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/290fire7
It would be easy to be snobby about the Amazon Kindle Fire 7’s chunky frame and modest specifications, but this would be missing the point. This is a tablet that’s focused on having fun at the lowest price possible, and at £50 (often discounted lower), it’s easily the most affordable tablet on test.
The Fire 7 certainly looks like a fun device. Our review unit featured the “Punch Red” back cover, but others include “Canary Yellow”, “Marine Blue” and plain old black for those who don’t like happiness.
The chunky frame feels durable too, which is an important consideration when the Fire 7 is likely to end up in the hands of younger family members. There’s even a dedicated Kids Edition with protective cover and one-year subscription to Kids Unlimited for £100, often discounted to £80.
Don’t ignore Kids Unlimited either: it’s a handy service that bundles games, videos and books based on your child’s age, with the added benefit that you’re given more control over time spent on the device and what they can access. You don’t need to buy the Kids Edition, though, as it’s a £1.99-per-month add-on if you’re already a Prime subscriber.
Fire OS places Amazon’s services at the heart of the interface, which makes it easy to select from the wide range of music and video content available through Prime. Kindle ebooks and Audible audiobooks are also front and centre, and Alexa is supported, as you would expect. The compromise? You’re forced to use Amazon’s Silk browser and its more limited app store.
The more significant compromises are apparent when you look at the hardware specs. The 1.3GHz MediaTek MT8127 processor returned the lowest results in Geekbench here, and the GFXBench Manhattan test wouldn’t even run. It was still nimble in general use, but things slow down quickly if you do too much at once. The 8GB of storage won’t go far, either, and while there is a 16GB model, simply adding an SD card makes more sense.
The screen is another area where costs have been shaved. The 1,024 x 600 resolution means that smaller text looks fuzzy and finer details are lost. It’s still an IPS panel, though, and it’s bright enough when used indoors. The screen is fine for cartoons and kid’s movies, and it managed to loop our test video for 8hrs 30mins, which is more than enough for a long journey.
Despite its shortcomings, this is a capable media player and simple gaming device. So long as you manage your expectations, the Fire 7 is a lot of fun for very little money.