The first thing you notice when you pick up the new and improved Amazon Fire 7 tablet is how it feels in the hand. In the past, Amazon’s tablets have felt a little bit, well, cheap.
That’s all changed with the new 7 – it feels more robust than it looks when you get up close. I’ve been testing one for a week or so, and I can tell you that the improvements do not stop there. The 7 is the smallest in the Fire range, and has been the one to avoid given its under-performing power and disappointing battery life.
These are the very issues Amazon has addressed in this latest update. We have a 2GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM inside now, which makes for a more responsive feel across the board. I’m not going to tell you that scrolling doesn’t lag, and opening apps can still take a while – but it’s more than usable.
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Battery life has also been improved and the device can now go for up to 10 hours on a single charge. This makes the device so much more usable than the previous version... which simply did not last long enough when away from a charging source. Another plus is the switch to USB-C charging - meaning you might just be able to get by with one fewer cable.
As always these days, video calling is a big feature in any tablet, and Amazon says the new 7 is optimised in this regard – certainly the 2MP camera produced a decent enough stream for keeping in touch with friends and family. The rear camera is also a 2MP unit, and isn’t likely to be of much use unless it’s the only camera you have to hand.
Elsewhere we have the latest version of Fire OS, which brings a streamlined Android experience with Amazon’s skin built on top. It’s optimised for Amazon experiences like Prime Video and Kindle reading, but you can download many of the other popular other streaming apps, too - Disney+, Netflix, iPlayer and Now are all there. Alexa is also handily built-in.
The real killer feature, as always, is the price – starting at £59.99 for a unit that’ll show you ads, it’s hard to argue it isn’t a stone-cold bargain with the improvements in speed and battery life. The version without ads is a tenner more, and might be my favourite go-anywhere, do-almost-anything Fire tablet.
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