Amazon Fire HD 10 (2021) review: still great value for money

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Fire HD 10 is not The best tablet You will always use. Not far. But it’s cheap, it’s quite powerful, and it’s good enough for many of us.

Amazon’s 2021 update to the 10-inch Fire HD 10 reflects the 8-inch modelThere are now two variants, one with 3 GB of RAM and one with 4 GB of “Plus” model.Amazon also added something it calls Productivity Pack, Which includes a Fire HD 10 tablet (3-GB RAM model), a Bluetooth keyboard case, and a 12-month subscription Microsoft 365 (If you don’t cancel it will automatically update).

Yes, you are right. Amazon positions Fire HD 10 as a device that can do real work. Surprisingly, as long as you don’t need to use the Google app, this will prove to be correct. Fire HD 10 is still dragged down by Amazon Fire OS, it does not have a large number of applications that you can find in the Google Play store. Nevertheless, with a keyboard and a slightly better screen, the new Fire HD 10 is a bit like a netbook-a small, cheap, powerful, and portable device.

Small workhorse

The new Fire HD 10 has uniform bezels on all sides, but there is not much difference on the outside. It still has a 1080p, 10.1-inch display, although Amazon claims it is 10% brighter than the 2019 model. I can’t compare them side by side, but there is no problem using Fire HD 10 in bright light. The screen will not let you down, but it can be used to browse the web, watch videos, and anything you might do with it.

The extra RAM is immediately noticeable. There is no longer any jitter when scrolling, and the application is opened quickly and smoothly. I did not notice any pauses or noticeable delays, which has been plagued by low-end Android tablets. Like last year’s 8-inch model, this update finally makes the Fire HD 10 fast enough that you won’t even realize that you’re using a low-end device.

The battery life is maintained at approximately 12 hours. Obviously, it depends on what you are doing. Playing movies continuously consumes battery faster than browsing the web. But it is still within the range of more expensive competitors. As for manufacturing quality, despite their bulky size and plastic casing, Fire tablets have always been surprisingly durable. I have had cracks on the screens of both iPads, but I have never experienced the same on the Fire.

If you choose the Plus model (more than $30), you will get an extra GB of RAM, as well as the option of wireless charging (see our guide Our favorite wireless charger), there are some additional colors to choose from. Amazon sent me regular and Plus models for testing. In most cases, I didn’t notice any major difference, but for an extra $30, additional RAM can make the purchase more forward-looking.

The most interesting upgrade is the Productivity Bundle with Bluetooth keyboard and Microsoft 365 subscription. The latter makes up for the fact that Fire HD 10 obviously does not have Google software. This means there is no Google Docs, Sheets, Drive or even Gmail (you can connect to Gmail through Amazon’s default email application). To make matters worse, even the web version cannot be loaded in the included Silk web browser, and there are no popular alternative browsers available in the Amazon App Store.

Microsoft 365 can do everything that Google’s online office suite can do, but if all your colleagues are using Google and you need to be able to edit shared documents in Google, then this is a controversial issue. After using Microsoft 365 for a week, I actually started to prefer it to Google’s products, but in the long run, it still doesn’t help me because I rely on Google apps to work.

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