Amazon has just announced an all-new Fire HD 10 Tablet. The new model is a significant update to the previous version thanks to its 1.8 GHz quad-core CPU that offers a 30% boost in performance over the previous generation. The new Fire HD 10 also bumps the screen up from 720p to 1080p and doubles the RAM to 2 GB. Also included, which is a first for any Amazon tablet, is hands-free Alexa capabilities that let you control the tablet and access all of Alexa’s features without having to press any buttons.
For Amazon’s new flagship tablet, they’ve thankfully made improvements nearly across the board, making it a potentially great media consumption device. Applications should launch quicker and run smoother with the new MediaTek quad-core CPU that splits its cores at 1.8 and 1.4 GHz. Amazon says this results in a 30% performance improvement over the 1.5 Ghz/1.2 GHz CPU in the previous model. A bump up from 1 GB of RAM to now including 2 GB of RAM will also go a long way to make using this tablet a smooth experience.
The new Fire HD 10 finally brings a full HD 1080p screen back to Amazon’s tablet line. With a resolution of 1920 x 1200 and a 224 ppi, the IPS display should provide a great experience viewing movies, TV shows, photos, and reading. The tablet comes with 32 GB of internal storage, but there is a 64 GB model available for $40 more. The extra internal storage is likely unnecessary for most because the tablet comes with a microSD card that can take up to a 256 GB card to expand the internal storage. Amazon Video, Netflix, and Showtime all offer downloading videos onto the microSD card for offline viewing.
The tablet hardware is rounded out with a pair of stereo speakers that are capable of immersive Dolby Atmos audio. There’s also dual-band 802.11ac WiFi support as well as a VGA front-facing camera for video calls and a 2MP rear-facing camera. All of this combines for a rated 10 hours of battery life.
On the software front, the big new feature is hands-free Alexa capabilities. Amazon added support for Alexa to their tablets by holding the home button last year, but now this new Fire HD 10 is the first model to allow talking to Alexa by just saying the voice assistant’s wake word, just like with an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot. This, of course, gives you access to all of Alexa’s various capabilities and skills, but it also gives you hands-free control of the tablet, much like the Echo Show’s screen. You can ask to start playing Amazon content or ask to launch apps, as well as control video playback (play, pause, rewind, and fast forward) all without needing to touch the tablet.
Amazon is also bringing the ability to view your home security cameras through Alexa on the new Fire HD 10, just like you can currently do on the Echo Show and will soon be able to do on the Fire TV. There’s also a new “For You” personalized page on the home screen that shows you what you’ve been watching/reading and makes it easy to continue or quickly find what’s next. It will also make personalized recommendations based on your viewing/reading preferences.
The all-new Fire HD 10 is available to pre-order now for $149.99 and will be released on October 11. That’s a significant drop in price from the previous model’s price of $229.99, which is impressive because they’ve made improvements nearly across the board.
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Nice upgrade, though it’s still not up to the specs the Fire HDX had 4 years ago. I really wish that tablet would have gotten more support from the public.
The only way I could have seen that happening at a higher price would be to get the play store on it, which obviously was unlikely
The price is great. Don’t really care for widescreen for 10″ tablets, in fact for tablets in general. I really liked my Fire HDX ( the smaller one) and still have use for it. Quality tablet as was the Fire phone. Hard to get back to Amazon hardware, except for the Echo line and Fire TV, after Amazon abruptly switched hardware goals. They seem to think only inexpensive products will sell. Not sure where that leads to.
Finally! Not quite the HDX replacement I was looking for, but close enough on the critical specs. 1080p was such an obviously needed bump for this device. I wish it were a little smaller, closer to the 9″ mark, and the wider screen form factor of the newer tablets is not as comfortable to read on as the HDX ratio. But still, big improvements in storage, performance, and display, for a really affordable price. Come Black Friday, I’m in for one at the sale price.
Does it’s Alexa support ESP?
We don’t know. I ordered one and will be testing that out fully, so check back when it’s released for my review.
UPDATE: I just got confirmation that the Fire HD 10 does have ESP. http://www.aftvnews.com/alexa-on-the-new-amazon-fire-hd-10-tablet-will-support-echo-spacial-perception-esp/
How would this compare to a Samsung S3 10 inch tablet (besides the screen resolution)?
I’m looking for a 10 inch tablet, but want one with high specs. I’ve never used a Kindle, but the low prices have always turned me away.
I would probably still get one of the Lenovo tablets.
Main issue is the Amazon App Store. I have apps that don’t exist on AAS, and Im not going to have it when I can get a competitors for notuch more.
Just put the Google Play store on my $60 HD8. Takes about three minutes.
Yep. I did that last week, too. BUT now PlayStore apps think my tablet is a phone and installs phone sized versions of apps instead of tablet versions of apps. Did this happen to you, as well?
Now how can I justify this purchase. I have the 7′ model and a 10′ ipad pro. I am truly impressed at the specs and the price drop.
If you have a 10″ iPad pro, you really don’t need a Fire HD 10, unless you’re looking for a “beater” tablet. The only thing I can think of that the Fire HD 10 could offer is a huge amount of offline video storage for Amazon/Netflix via the microSD slot.
I kind of disagree. There are lots of things a Fire can do that an iPad can’t. It’s wide screen, so you can watch videos without the black bars. You can see thumbnails of your magazines on the home screen any time a new issue is available. You have access to the most popular voice assistant available. You get recommendations customized to your tastes about books, videos and music you will enjoy. You can have most books and magazines articles read out loud to you, even without an Audible version.
I have both an iPad and the newer Fire 8 tablet. I have Amazon Prime and love how it’s integrated into the Fire 8, but I primarily use my iPad. I am much more comfortable throwing the Fire 8 in my bag when I leave the house and for traveling. I think the dual speakers on the Fire 8 sound better than the iPad, so I often use the smaller of the two to watch Prime Video in bed at night. They each have their benefits. If the price is right, I might pick up the new 10 on Black Friday and give my 8 to a family member.
I had a Fire 7 but upgraded to the 8 on Prime Day. It’s much faster, less glitchy and has better resolution than the 7.
So this is becoming more like the echo show but portable and cheaper…I like this idea
I would love to see these type of specs in an 8″ version but I’m guessing we won’t see anything until June next year.
For the price who can complain.
What benefits does the Echo Show have over this? This is cheaper and I can prop this up on my kitchen counter instead of the Echo Show.
The show has a music speaker
It depends on your personal use case really. I can defintiely see how this tablet does enough for some people to choose it over the Echo Show. Off the top of my head, the Echo Show has great speakers, video call capabilities with drop-In support, and more voice controls (scrolling, selecting, etc..). I’m sure there are more that I’m forgetting, but if you don’t mind the weaker speakers and just want a big screen to watch videos on, the Fire HD 10 is probably a better option.
So can you connect this to a regular speaker, like a dot? Through Bluetooth or wired? Because if so, then the show is now pointless.
Does it have a HEVC hardware decoder?
Yes, it has an h.265 / HEVC hardware decoder.
So what does that mean? It can stream 4K video (but downscale it for the nearly-2k screen)?
Also, do these tablets support AC3 audio? I had to download codecs on my phone to get sound.
No, not really. There’s no benefit to streaming 4K and downscaling, so no streaming service would do that. For streaming, the main advantage is that h.265 / HEVC 1080p streams will use less bandwidth and potentially look better than h.264 1080p. There are also a lot of people who have converted their personal media library to h.265 / HEVC so it uses less drive space, so having an h.265 / HEVC capable device is important.
So Mediatek probably just includes that in the chip and Amazon probably didn’t ask for it?
Can someone tell me which android version is used for its Fire OS?
I have search it, but i cant find this info
From Wikipedia – FireOS 5.x is forked from Android 5.0. Doesn’t make much of a difference at the consumer level since it has been so heavily customized.
Oh, i see. Too bad. I was expecting an update of its Android 5.x base to Android 6.0.1 or maybe Android 7.x.x
Many apps are close to stop supporting Android 5.x, Kodi stopped support for Android 4.4 in its 17.x release, i hope they dont stop supporting Android 5.x with its next release
Finally! I was hoping Amazon would keep the HD 10 and make a few of the exact upgrades they just announced. I have all the Amazon tablets but the 10 is used the most as the others are too small to read magazines or watch videos. Very happy to see the increase in resolution, RAM and processor.
How is “For You” different from the current “Recents” screen?
Will alexa hands free be available on older tablets? I just bought the 8 HD (2017) a month ago…
That’s what I’d like to know also. Elias mentioned in his post above that the hands-free capability on the new 10 inch tablet is a software enhancement.
If that’s correct, then presumably Amazon COULD perhaps extend that same enhancement to the other tablet models in its current line or even recent Amazon tablets capable of running the latest Fire OS version.
Elias, do you have any idea or indication of whether Amazon’s potentially going to extend the same hands-free Alexa capability to their other tablets besides the new 10-inch version?
Can the HD 10 show two pages of a Kindle book at the same time (landscape orientation), like you can on an iPad?