The interface is fairly simple, with a traditional home screen of apps flanked by pages called “For You”, featuring app and content suggestions, and “Library”, listing things you own such as Kindle books, games, movies and other bits. Amazon typically supports its tablets for longer than low-cost Android rivals, with at least several years of software and security updates. The new tablet runs the same Fire OS 7.3 as the previous version and the Fire HD 8, which is based on Android 9 but lacks Google’s services and the Play store, instead relying on Amazon’s App Store and services. No mainstream web browsers are available in the Fire OS app store, leaving Amazon’s Silk browser the main choice - which means you have to sync your bookmarks from Chrome using an extension. The company offers trade-in and recycling schemes and publishes information on its various sustainability efforts. They contain 28% post-consumer recycled plastic. The Fire HD 10 and HD 10 Plus are generally repairable.

Batteries in similar products typically last for at least 500 full-charge cycles while maintaining at least 80% of their original capacity. SustainabilityĪmazon does not provide an expected lifespan of the battery in the tablet. Using a 15W charger shaved 30 minutes off that time, whether wired or wireless for the Plus model.

The tablet charges really slowly, taking at least four hours with the included 9W power adaptor. The tablet will last a couple of days with mixed use or more than 12 hours streaming video over wifi, according to my testing – but of course, playing graphically intensive games significantly decreases battery life.

A dedicated game mode automatically optimises the tablet for games, turning off hands-free Alexa and other background tasks when playing.īattery life is very good. That’s twice the amount of the previous-generation machine, which significantly improves multitasking. It has the same processor as the regular Fire HD 10, but with 1GB more of RAM for a total of 4GB. The Fire tablets are typically fast enough, but won’t beat more expensive rivals for raw performance. All the ports and buttons are in the right side of the tablet, while the microSD card slot for adding more storage space is in the bottom edge.

Kindle fire hd 10