Reviews Amazon Fire Hd 10 32gb Quad-core Hands-free Alexa-enabled Tablet

Editors' Note: There is a new version of the Amazon Fire HD 10 available. Cheque out the Amazon Fire Hard disk drive 10 (2021 edition).

The Fire HD 10 fulfills Amazon's simple programme for its tablets: Like other Fires, it's an inexpensive ($149.99 with lock screen ads) fashion to consume your Amazon content. At starting time glance, information technology doesn't announced to exist the befouled-burning deal that the Fire Hard disk drive 8 is, merely it still offers enough of bang for your buck. You get a abrupt 1080p brandish, solid overall performance, and an piece of cake-to-use UI that includes parental controls and Alexa voice assistant integration. Even though it'due south the same hardware released in 2017, the Fire HD 10 just remains the best 10-inch tablet for the toll, earning information technology our Editors' Pick.

Pattern and Features

The Fire HD 10 looks and feels like a larger Fire Hd 8. Information technology's a solidly built tablet with a black, blue, or orangish plastic body. The slate measures 10.3 by half-dozen.3 by 0.4 (HWD) and weighs 17.4 ounces. That'due south bigger than the 8-inch HD eight (eight.four by 5.0 past 0.4 inches, thirteen ounces), but similar to other ten-inch tablets like the Lenovo Tab 4 10 (9.7 by 6.vii by 0.3 inches, 17.7 ounces). It'due south a sturdy slab that'll survive some knocks and dings, merely it isn't officially rugged or waterproof. If y'all want to use it as a kid'due south tablet, option up a case.

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There are loud dual speakers on the left side (or the lesser if you're belongings it in landscape orientation), along with a standard headphone jack, a USB port, and a microSD bill of fare slot to supplement the 32GB of internal storage; information technology worked fine with a 256GB card.

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The HD x has a 10.i-inch, 1,920-by-one,200-pixel screen, which is better than the ane,280-past-800 screens most of the competition come with. The resolution works out to 224 pixels per inch, which is good enough to prove real 1080p video with solid viewing angles. Alas, it looks a little dim, overcast by a protective plastic layer. Under Display settings you can enable Blue Shade, letting you reduce blue light during dark hours, something that'southward reputed to allow for better slumber.

The Burn Hd 10 supports dual-band Wi-Fi, unlike the Lenovo Tab 4 10. Connected to the 5GHz network at PC Labs and 30 feet from the router, we drew top speeds of 149Mbps downwardly and 138Mbps upwardly. Speeds dropped further abroad, merely remained in the high double digits throughout testing. The tablet too has Bluetooth 4.ii for wireless sound.

Processor, Battery, and Camera

Within, the Burn HD 10 runs Amazon's latest Fire Os 5.5 (a heavily modified version of Google's Android) on a 1.8GHz MT8173B MediaTek processor. In Geekbench's single core and multicore functioning tests, the Hard disk 10 scored 1500 and 3000 respectively, more than than double the HD 8 (629/1687). It also outperformed the Tab 4 10 past a similar margin (680/1898).

The Hard disk drive x'due south more powerful processor and 2GB of RAM make for a more responsive UI, smoother overall performance, and ameliorate multitasking than the HD 8. Spider web browsing using the default Silk browser is fast, and the slate had no problem streaming 1080p video and opening multiple tabs. The only time I encountered whatsoever stuttering was when scrolling through my extensive Kindle library drove.

Ultimately, it'southward no match for Apple's 9.seven-inch iPad, which has a faster processor, not to mention a sharper screen. But it costs less than one-half every bit much, so these differences are easy to get past.

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Battery life is solid. When streaming full-screen video over Wi-Fi at maximum brightness, the tablet clocked vi hours, 14 minutes. That's a couple of hours short of the Tab 4 x (8 hours, xi minutes), only over an hr longer than the HD 8 (iv hours, 42 minutes). It should be enough juice to continue kids entertained during a long car ride, and y'all can always supplement it with a portable charger. Enabling Low Power mode and Automatic Smart Suspend helps extend runtime by tamping downwardly screen brightness and turning off wireless connectivity when it'south not in use.

The tablet's cameras are about an afterthought: VGA on the front and 2MP on the back, they're primarily for video chatting. They're fine for that, merely render muddied, blurry images in any mildly challenging circumstances.

Software and Ecosystem

Amazon's Fire Bone is based on Android and runs Android apps, but you can't access the Google Play shop—you can merely utilize Amazon'due south. Amazon's store has a lot of competing media services (Netflix and Hulu are no problem), simply there are still a few gaps, notably the Curiosity Unlimited comics reader, well-nigh Google apps, and most banking and mobile payment apps. Information technology's possible to sideload many Android apps past downloading the apk file, loading information technology on a microSD card, and installing information technology via a file manager, but information technology requires some work.

Amazon's Os looks nothing similar Android; rather, information technology'southward a carousel of your downloadable Amazon content and apps. The tablet includes a new screen on the carousel, For Y'all, that shows what you were most recently reading or watching and encourages yous to become dorsum to it. Under that, of form, there are enough of promotions for other things to buy from Amazon that you might similar.

Hands-gratis Alexa is available here. You tin can yell out "Alexa!" and have the tablet respond to whatever Alexa-compatible query even when the screen is off, similar an Amazon Echo. A new Show Style characteristic essentially turns the HD ten into an Echo Prove. When paired with a $54.99 Prove Style Charging Dock, things like time, date, notifications, weather, directions, recipes, and news briefings can all be displayed on its screen through voice commands.

That said, I wouldn't supplant your one-time Repeat with an Hd ten just yet. While the tablet'south microphone is pretty responsive when you lot're shut by, altitude and background noise tin can throw things off. A conversation taking place in the background while I was issuing commands confused Alexa, while theEcho Dot had no trouble picking up on my phonation. And while sound quality is about on par with the Dot, it doesn't come shut to whatsoever of the other Echos.

Parental controls allow y'all to set up up multiple accounts for kids, each with dissever passwords, with a curated prepare of apps, restrictions on in-app purchases, time limits, and web browsing limitations. There's also a kid-friendly background and a simplified interface. Access to Alexa is blocked when parental controls are enabled, preventing whatsoever attempt to circumvent the restrictions.

A Fire HD 10 Kids Edition costs an boosted $fifty and adds a durable "kid-proof" case, a two-twelvemonth warranty against all damage and breakages, and a 1-year subscription to FreeTime Unlimited, which provides fifteen,000 pieces of hand-curated content in the grade of books and movies.

When it comes to preloaded software, naturally you lot have Amazon's entire app suite onboard, along with some default apps and utilities similar Contacts and Calendar. Out of 32GB of internal storage, y'all have 24.3GB available for employ. Information technology'southward plenty for your Kindle library and a fair corporeality of video. If you lot plan to download a lot of apps and multimedia, you tin always pop in a microSD card.

Comparisons and Conclusions

At $149.99, the Fire HD ten undercuts almost entry-level Android tablets by $xxx to $50. You pay for the discount with lock screen ads (which you can get rid of by paying $15) and a tablet that'southward completely tuned to brandish Amazon content, with no Google Play shop. If you tin live without Google Play, the choice is clear.

Among Amazon's own tablets, deciding which to buy is a scrap harder. For less coin, the smaller Burn down HD 8 and Fire seven get y'all access to the same ecosystem of apps and content for even less money. The Hd eight is our Editors' Choice for affordable mid-size slates. The Hard disk 10, while more than expensive, boasts a bigger, sharper screen, a more than powerful processor, and more RAM. Nosotros think that makes it a justifiable upgrade if yous want the larger brandish. It too makes it our Editors' Choice for low-cost, big-screen tablets.

Amazon Burn down Hd 10 (2018)

Cons

The Bottom Line

With a sharp display and hands-costless Alexa integration, Amazon'due south ten-inch Burn HD 10 tablet is the best value for your dollar under $150.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/amazon-fire-hd-10

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