Amazon says the Fire is its best-selling tablet of all time. It's certainly the best tablet in its price range.
The Fire delivers middling performance and a mediocre display. But, at $50, it does so extremely inexpensively. (Amazon briefly sold it for $35 during the run up to its Prime Day sale event in July.) If you're an Amazon Prime member, you get a tablet that serviceably plays all of the TV shows, movies, music and games that come with your membership; you can also download them all for offline use. Bottom line: no other tablet delivers comparable value at such a low price. (You can evaluate the competition in CNET's roundup of budget tablets under $200.)
Since we last reviewed the Fire, Amazon has expanded the available color options to include magenta, blue and tangerine in addition to black, and added a $70 version with 16GB of internal storage -- twice the capacity of the $50 version. And the Fire includes a microSD expansion slot so you can add storage on your own up to 128GB. (For $20, you can buy a 64GB microSD card on Amazon.)
There's also a kid's version of the Fire that comes with a protective case and one-year subscription to FreeTime Unlimited, which offers kid-friendly books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games. Also included is a worry-free guarantee that gives you access to unlimited replacements for two years. The 8GB kid's version costs $100, and the 16GB model costs $120.
As of right now, there's no official word as to when or if Amazon will be refreshing its tablet lineup for the 2016 Christmas shopping season. But it's certainly a possibility: the 2015 models are approaching the one-year anniversary of their debut.
Editors' note: The original Amazon Fire review, first published in October 2015 and updated since, follows.
The Amazon Fire is special for one reason: it costs $50 or £50. (Amazon doesn't typically sell hardware in Australia, but the US price converts to about AU$70.) It's an unremarkable-looking tablet that runs Amazon's custom Fire OS 5 Bellini operating system, which is based on Android but can't natively access the Google Play store, and offers easy access to Amazon's vast media library.
At its low price, the Fire is an attractive option for frugal customers who don't care about the latest and greatest technology. In fact, it's a great option for those who don't care much about technology at all. For an undiscerning user, the Fire is simply an inexpensive device for watching video, reading, light gaming, browsing the Web and, of course, shopping the Amazon store. At a price this low, you can buy six of them for less than the cost of one Apple iPad Mini 2 -- you pay for five and Amazon throws in the sixth for free.
Just like the Fire, this review is simplified to the bare essentials. Since it's a tablet with specs so dated we haven't reviewed a comparable model in over two years, it's an exception to the rule. The review answers the important questions by focusing on what the Fire has to offer, if it's worth buying and, if so, for whom. We've never seen tablet at this price that was worth recommending. Is the Amazon Fire the first?
If you're a Prime member, yes. The operating system is tailor-made for watching and playing all of the TV shows, movies, music and games that come with your membership. You can also download them all for offline use, onto a memory card or the internal storage. No other tablet will give you the same perks for such a low price. However, if you're not a Prime member the Fire tablet does little to change your mind about what you should expect from a tablet that costs $50 or £50. For more details, keep reading.
The rounded edges comfortably sink into your palms and the smooth plastic back is pleasant enough, but the finish lacks grip support and feels more slippery than silky.
| Tested spec | Amazon Fire | Amazon Fire HD 6 | Amazon Fire HD 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weight | 0.69 pounds (313g) | 0.63 pounds (290g) | 0.68 pounds (311g) |
| Width (landscape) | 7.5 inches (191mm) | 6.7 inches (169mm) | 8.4 inches (214mm) |
| Height | 4.5 inches (115mm) | 4.1 inches (103mm) | 5 inches (128mm) |
| Depth | 0.4 inches (10.6mm) | 0.4 inches (10.7mm) | 0.3 inches (7.7mm) |
| Side bezel width (landscape) | 0.62 inches (15mm) | 0.62 inches (15mm) | 0.68 inches (17mm) |
The plastic construction does feel a bit flimsy. If you give the tablet a small squeeze both front and back panels slightly cave in. Yet its hefty weight makes it feel solid -- if you were to keep squeezing, it doesn't feel as though it wouldn't crack in two. We, however, did not put this to the test.
Its thick girth and big bezels make it look more like a tablet that came out in 2011 instead of 2015. It's not ugly or anything, but top tablets today feature sleek, super-slim constructions and the Fire looks dowdy and unfashionable in comparison.
The Fire tablet's operating system is tailored for Amazon Prime users. The latest version sports an updated look with a few new features. You can find all the details in the Fire HD 8 review.
The Fire doesn't have access to all of the Android apps in the Google Play Store. Instead it has the Amazon app store. It's curated and doesn't offer as great of a selection. It has many popular games, like Hearthstone and Angry Birds, but you're unlikely to find any of the new and trendy games that are available in the Apple App Store and Google Play store.
No, but it would definitely enhance your experience with the tablet. More on that below.
Yes. With an Amazon Prime account you can download any of the TV shows or videos available in the Prime library. You can also download content you've bought from Amazon or load your own video files onto it, either with a microSD card or by transferring them onto the tablet directly.
Surprisingly no. To be sure, everything from apps to videos take at least a handful of seconds to load, especially if they're bigger file. But I expected it to be a lot slower. As with the Fire HD 8 , download times were also on the slow side.
I didn't encounter as many performance quirks as I was expecting. When I was browsing the Prime library, a few menu pages of video content wouldn't load. Another time, I downloaded a game and watched the download complete and install, but when I tried to open it I was redirected to the game's download page in the app store and had to download it again.
If many apps are open in the background, performance can get sluggish. Games and apps will take longer to launch and tap response is delayed. Occasionally, the screen had difficulty responding to taps. I had to increase the pressure (which felt more like pressing a button than pecking at a touchscreen) before it would recognize the gestures. This happened randomly then went back to normal. The top edge of the tablet can also get a little warm after using it for a long time, but not so warm that it becomes uncomfortable.
The screen has a 1,024x600-pixel resolution, so it's not high-definition. And, unlike the Fire HD tablets, it is not a Gorilla Glass screen, meaning it's not as solid and durable.
Viewing angles aren't very wide (when you view it from the side the screen looks darker and harder to see) and it's best for single person viewing. The screen isn't very bright, but it's luminous enough to comfortably view indoors in normal lighting situations. The color range is limited and there's a prevalent green hue on the screen that's most noticeable when you compare the screen with the Fire HD 6's. The Fire HD 6 displayed more accurate colors, while everything on the Fire looked like it had a thin film of green over it.
