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 and although it is available in two new colours, if you were to put the old and the new models side by side you’d struggle to tell the difference between them.
There’s plenty that’s new, however, not least the addition of Amazon’s digital voice assistant, Alexa. It’s the first time outside the Echo range of products that Amazon has introduced hands-free Alexa mode; with the other Fire HD tablets and current TV streamers, you have to press a button to activate voice recognition.
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 just like an Echo or Echo Dot without any kind of physical intervention. Plus, as with the Fire TV Stick, the results are accompanied by a full-screen graphical information card.
Amazon Fire HD 10 review: Key specifications, price and release date
- 10.1in 1,920 x 1,080 resolution IPS display
- 1.8GHz quad-core processor
- 2GB RAM
- 32GB or 64GB of storage
- microSD card slot (supports of up to 200GB)
- Dolby Atmos stereo speakers
- 2MP rear, VGA front cameras
- Available in blue, red and black
- Price: £150, 32GB; £180, 64GB (with lockscreen ads); add £10 to remove lockscreen ads
- Release date: 19th September, 2017
Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017) review: Features and first impressions
Alas, the Fire TV doesn’t have a far-field microphone array onboard, so you have to be right next to it for it to pick up your voice reliably, but it did work pretty well in the short time I had to tinker with it at the pre-launch event in London. And hands-free mode can be used from any screen on the tablet; even when the tablet is in standby mode.
Alexa isn’t the only improvement Amazon has made to its new budget tablet, though. The Amazon Fire HD 10’s IPS display is now Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) where its predecessor had a 1,280 x 800 screen. There’s a new quad-core 1.8GHz processor, which is “30% more powerful”, double the RAM rising from 1GB to 2GB, and, so says Amazon, better battery life, too, with an additional two hours over the previous model. Amazon has also added Dolby Atmos support and stereo speakers, so the Fire HD 10’s audio has been given a boost as well.
Elsewhere, the changes are less dramatic. There’s no 16GB model anymore, just 32GB or 64GB variants, and the tablet has a microSD card slot for adding up to 200GB of extra space. There are a couple of new colours, too – “marine blue” and “punch red” – in addition to black and a selection of snazzy folding cases in matching colours that allow you to prop up the tablet on a flat surface.
When it comes to software, the Fire HD 10 is just like other tablets in Amazon’s range. It runs Amazon’s Fire OS, which is based on Android but eschews Google’s apps and Play Store to run its own suite and app store.
Amazon hasn’t left this alone, either: it’s added a new section called “For You” to the UI, which will include recommendations based on what you’ve bought, downloaded or streamed in the past, although this isn’t exclusive to the Fire HD 10 like Alexa. It will make its way to Amazon’s other Fire tablets in due course.
Surprisingly, Amazon has downgraded the tablet’s cameras for the 2017 model, 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’s model.
Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017) review: Early verdict
Despite first appearances, then, it turns out that there’s a lot to be excited about here. The new Fire HD 10, which goes on sale on the 19th of September, is a responsive, sturdy tablet that looks to be stupendously good value. The addition of Alexa hands-free adds an extra dimension and the price reduction comes as a pleasant surprise, especially as every other manufacturer seems to be raising prices right now, not cutting them.
Sоurсе: alphr.com
