Amazon’s 2023 refresh of its Fire HD 10 budget tablet offers buyers a decent experience for a good price, but better options are available for slightly more
Much like a strange mashup of Deeperlove and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Amazon is back once again to bring you Fire – the latest Fire HD 10 tablet, to be exact.
This 12th-gen refresh offers a marginal bump in specifications versus the previous edition, which was released in 2021.
The 2023 Fire HD 10 is powered by a MediaTek MT8186 processor, which Amazon says is 25% faster than the 2021 edition’s MT8183.
The cameras too – a 5Mp main sensor and 5Mp front-facing camera – now record 1080p Full HD video compared to creaky old 720p. This means Zoom calls will look a little clearer.
Finally, the new model is also 30g lighter than the 11th-generation Fire HD 10 tablet, so it’s easier to carry around and crash on the couch with a book or TV show.
Otherwise, it’s much the same as what we got last time around. A 10.1-inch display, up to 64GB of internal storage, and Android with Amazon’s FireOS custom interface and app store.
With the arrival of the Amazon Fire Max 11 this year, the Fire HD 10 is no longer the jewel in Amazon’s tablet crown. If you’re after an inexpensive tablet with a focus on getting some work done on the train between watching episodes of The Boys (maybe best not done on the train), then the Fire Max 11 may be more of what you’re after.
That said, the Fire HD 10 remains a good budget Android tablet – albeit one with an emphasis on Amazon services – that you could, in a pinch, use as a work device, even though the focus is mainly on entertainment.Design & Build
Black plastic with a matt finish
Type-C USB, 3.5mm headphone jack
Lightweight, but cheap-feeling
Design-wise, the Fire HD 10 is a very basic, no-frills tablet – matt plastic with no accents or metallic edges, just the smiley Amazon logo cut into the back. You don’t want to knock it for looking and feeling cheap, but at the same time, it kinda looks and feels cheap.
The version I was sent was black, but lilac and ocean blue versions are available as well.
On the plus side, it’s lightweight and comfortable to hold in one hand, whether in portrait or landscape. Given the focus on entertainment here, it’d be great if Amazon had worked a kickstand into the back like the Fire HD 10 Kids Pro, so if you wanted to drop this up on your coffee table, you’d need to fork out for a case or dock.
If you’re holding the tablet in landscape and facing it with the camera on the top edge, you’ll find two speakers sitting up on the top edge, and the power key, volume rocker, USB port and headphone jack on the right-hand edge. On the bottom edge, there’s a microSD slot, should you need to expand storage.Screen & Speakers
10.1-inch LCD display
Full HD+
USI 2.0 stylus support
Stereo speakers
The Amazon Fire HD 10’s display is nicely detailed with a resolution of 1920 x 1200, and it supports USI active stylus technology, so if you have a USI stylus from another tablet, or a Chromebook, it’ll work here too.
Without having a stylus to hand, I can’t say for sure how good stylus feedback in the display is, but it’s safe to assume that it’s on par with the Fire 11 Max experience – in other words, very good.
I recorded a peak brightness of 369 nits, which is not fantastic, not really vibrant enough for outdoor reading, unless you’re somewhere shady. That’s par for the course for budget tablets though, the Nokia T21, Samsung Galaxy Tab A8, and Oppo Pad Air all returned similar results, although the Fire Max 11 and Galaxy Tab A9 are a bit brighter.
