Amazon Fire HD 10 (11th gen)
Upgrades to the 2021 model include a slimmer design, extra RAM and Dolby Atmos, but don’t get too excited
Amazon’s Fire HD tablets are never the last word in luxury or horsepower, but they do a great job for the price – and improve with every generation. This year’s
Fire HD 10 is thinner and lighter, with a brighter screen and 3GB of RAM versus 2GB. There’s also a Plus model to consider, replete with 4GB of RAM and wireless charging via Amazon’s charging dock (sold separately) or any Qi-compatible charger.
The Fire HD 10 and Fire HD 10 Plus cost £150 and £180 with 32GB of storage, while 64GB models cost £190 and £220. If you want to avoid Amazon’s lockscreen adverts, you’ll have to pay an extra £10. There’s also a new Productivity Bundle available for each tablet, which includes a detachable keyboard case (sadly not supplied for review) and a 12-month Microsoft 365 subscription for an extra £60.
As the old proverb says, if you’ve seen one Fire tablet then you’ve seen them all, and the Amazon Fire HD 10 does nothing to dispel this truism. It’s a slab of plastic and glass, with thick 15mm bezels and rounded corners. At least Amazon offers various colours: black, lavender, denim or olive.
Although slimmer and lighter than the previous Fire HD 10, it still measures 9.2mm thick and weighs 465g. It feels well built, though, and I’d be more confident handing this to a child than an iPad. The tablet’s ports and buttons are all located on the right edge when held in landscape orientation, with a volume rocker sitting above the power button, USB-C port and 3.5mm audio jack. The Dolby Atmos dual speakers are situated on the top edge. There’s more than enough volume, with only a hint of tinniness at the high end, and a surprising amount of bass.
I can’t be so positive about the Fire HD 10’s cameras. The 5MP rear-facing camera and 2MP front unit suffer from noise and a lack of detail, and both are limited to 720p video.
The Fire HD 10’s IPS display remains largely unchanged from the previous version. It still measures 10.1in and has a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution to give a pixel density of 224ppi. Its maximum brightness has increased from the peak of 398cd/m2 we measured on last year’s model to 498cd/m2. Considering the price, sRGB coverage of 90% and an average Delta E of 1.68 are strong, and it displays punchy, vibrant colours.
More disappointingly, the same MediaTek Helio P60T chipset as the 2019 version powers this year’s model. Amazon’s app store only offers Geekbench 3, where it returned 1,590 in the single-core test and 6,254 for multiple cores. That compares well to the 911 and 2,644 of the Amazon Fire HD 8 ( see issue 316. p80) and it felt snappy and responsive in day-to-day use with fast boot-up times and speedy app switching.
When it comes to battery life, the Fire HD 10 excels: it lasted 19hrs 1min in our video-rundown test. The numbers on the graphics side of things aren’t as impressive. The GFXBench
Manhattan 3 onscreen test returned an average frame rate of 20fps, which means you might have to dial visual settings down to achieve smooth frame rates in your favourite games.
That’s if you can find them. The Fire HD 10 runs Android 9 with Amazon’s Fire OS 7 overlay, and the list of games and apps on Amazon’s store is limited compared with Android Play.
Fire OS 7 brings a couple of enhancements compared to previous versions, including a split-screen mode that lets you display two apps onscreen simultaneously, so you can sneakily read a Kindle book while you’re on a Microsoft Teams call. You can also enable hands-free Alexa, with the Fire HD 10 serving as a makeshift Echo Show.
In truth, this latest
Fire tablet isn’t a huge upgrade over its predecessor, but no other tablet comes close in terms of sheer value. With improvements in several areas – and no price increase – the Fire HD 10 is still an outstanding choice if you’re after a big-screen tablet but don’t want to splash out on an iPad.
“In truth, this latest Fire tablet isn’t a huge upgrade over its predecessor, but no other tablet comes near in terms of sheer value”