Amazon Fire 7 and Amazon Fire 7 Kids edition review

We can talk processor speeds, resolutions and battery capacities all day long, but with Amazon’s new-and-improved 7in Fire tablet there’s just one number that matters: £50. This is still the cheapest tablet we’ve ever come across from a major brand, with clear potential to widen the market, or work as an additional device in homes where there’s already one or more knocking around.

It’s worth bearing in mind that, while I’ll have plenty of negative things to say about the Fire, it’s still a tablet with a quad-core processor, two cameras and Amazon’s slick, family-friendly software at a price that would have been unimaginable before its first appearance. You might look at this as yet another sign of the death knell of the tablet, but there’s a more positive spin: at this price, just about anyone can afford one – or give one to their kids.

Not only that, but it’s seen a bit of a 2017 bump, too. A facelift and a healthy spec boost to be precise, 2017’s Amazon Fire 7 – now just called the Amazon Fire tablet – Amazon Alexa is here, and it’s the cheapest device she’s made an appearance on thus far.

This new tablet now has dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi support, a lengthier battery life (more on that later) and four new colours, should you want to get all jazzy. Given the 2016 model is discontinued, this is the one you’re stuck with. Is it still as good, if not better, than last year’s model? Let’s find out.

Amazon Fire tablet review: Design

Before Amazon stripped the Kindle from its Kindle Fire branding, its tablets were known for delivering robust build quality and stylish designs, despite their bargain-basement pricing.

Sadly, while solid construction has remained a hallmark, recent Fire tablets have struggled to make an impression in terms of style.

For £50 – I can’t stop saying it – you might think it unlikely that the entry-level Fire would change that, and you’d be right. This is as generic and featureless a 7in tablet as you can imagine, over 1cm thick, crafted from glass and fairly cheap-feeling matte-black plastic, and with only the shiny silver power switch and volume rocker at the top to lend it the merest hint of design nous.

That’s a shame, and that rear plastic shell has a bit more give than I’d like, although at least you can’t peel it away from the corners as you can with some unbranded budget monsters.

Amazon Fire tablet review: Display

The Fire has a 7in IPS display, although the thick frame makes it look smaller than it is. Come to the Fire from a 2013 Nexus 7 or even the 2013 Fire HD and you would swear that it had a tiny 6in panel. And, just when you thought 800 x 1,280 was becoming the entry-level standard for bargain-basement tablets, along comes Amazon with a 600 x 1,024 screen.

This is arguably the Fire’s biggest shortcoming. With a pixel density of only 171ppi it’s far from crisp and crystal-clear. Any digital newspaper, magazine or graphic novel with small text is a pain to read, and you’ll struggle with some busy websites, too. Any HD video you stream or purchase from Amazon will only play at SD resolution, and this just adds to the Fire’s basic, weirdly dated feel.

Nor is it a particularly good 600 x 1,024 screen. It’s surprisingly bright – we measured this new one at 330cd/m2 – but there’s also not much contrast at 959:1, while colour accuracy is average to poor across the board. Colours look washed-out and there’s precious little punch when you’re looking at photos or watching video.

Put it next to a 2013 Fire HD and it’s noticeably inferior in all respects. It’s inferior to the Tesco Hudl 2 as well, but since that tablet has now been discontinued too, that’s no longer a valid comparison.

Does that make it unusable? No. You can still stream SD video, run apps and read your Kindle ebooks, browse the Web or read and send emails, and you won’t have any problems doing so. This might still be Amazon’s worst screen ever, but if you remember what cheap, Android tablets looked like before the Nexus 7, then the Fire won’t seem that bad at all.

Amazon Fire tablet review: Performance

Nobody expects a £50 tablet to perform like one that costs £100 or more, and sure enough the Fire is one of the slowest we’ve seen, but it’s been the case with every iteration. With a 1.3GHz MediaTek MT8217 processor and 1GB of RAM it’s still faster than some rivals – the Snapdragon 400-based LG G-Pad 7 for a start – but there are noticeable pauses when launching or switching between apps, checking your email or opening a new browser tab. These aren’t painful, but they’re a shock if you’re used to something snappy. Still, 720p video from non-Amazon sources play without a stutter.

Load up some games and your experience will vary. 2D or basic 3D games, like Rayman: Fiesta Run, will run perfectly smoothly, but Asphalt 8 or Dead Trigger 2? Get used to seriously reduced detail levels or frequent jerks. The MT8217’s quad-core ARM Mali 450 GPU doesn’t support the features required to run GFXBench’s Manhattan 3.0 and 3.1 tests, while the T-Rex HD score of 13fps is pretty woeful by the standards of most tablets.

We weren’t expecting much from the Fire’s battery, but it achieved 8hrs 30mins of 720p video playback at 170cd/m2 before the screen went blank, a welcome improvement over last year’s 7hrs 42 mins longevity. Not bad for a £50 tablet.

This is the first time I’d say it’s a tablet for intensive, all-day use, and the important thing is that it doesn’t seem to waste much charge when it’s put to sleep and woken up, losing just 2% of its battery capacity when left overnight. You can also set the Fire to turn off Wi-Fi while it’s in standby, which helps quell idle usage to an even smaller trickle.

Amazon Fire tablet review: Software and Amazon Alexa

Speed might not be a reason to invest in a Fire, but ease-of-use could be. Now that Amazon has made the switch to Android 5.1 Lollipop – with its own FireOS 5.4 overlay – the firm has settled on a much-needed middleground between Android UI familiarity and it’s own, easy to use layout.

It’s an incredibly user-friendly experience. Gone is that carousel system, relying too heavily on swipes to get to your media, and in its place rests an Android-like app grid. This way, you can find third party apps much easier, and browse Amazon’s own services such as Prime Video, with just a few swipes.

There’s also Amazon Alexa too: its first super-cheap introduction. Just hold down the home button to access Amazon’s own voice assistant, and speak away. if you don’t like it, just turn her off in the settings menu, but how else can you shout wildly at an inanimate object and tell it what to do?

Finally, the Fire for Kids feature makes it easy for parents to control and monitor how their offspring are using their Fire tablets, while the Fire for Kids Unlimited subscription (£1.99 per month) should keep the little darlings in apps, games, books and movies without costing you the earth. There’s a reason why Amazon is pushing a buy five, get one free deal with the Fire. It’s business model that is no longer about selling individual, high-end tablets, but about putting one cheap tablet in the hands of everyone at home.

Amazon Fire tablet review: Features

Surprisingly, the Fire features two cameras, with a 5-megapixel camera at the rear and a 0.3-megapixel front-facing webcam. What isn’t so surprising is that neither of these is any good. The rear snapper takes awful, dull-looking fuzzy pictures without any autofocus to help out – tapping on the screen merely alters the exposure. The front-facing camera is actually worse.

Everywhere you look there are further compromises. The Fire has the bare minimum of sensors – an accelerometer and gyroscope, but no ambient light sensor or GPS. There’s only 8GB of storage with just 5GB available for use, although a microSD card slot makes that less of an issue. The Wi-Fi is straight 802.11n when the new Fire 8 and Fire 10 models include dual-band 802.11ac. Sound is mono, congested and tinny, meaning the Fire misses out in an area where Amazon has always been strong.

Amazon Fire tablet review: Verdict

But then we come back to the price. For £50, Amazon has delivered a pretty usable tablet for email, browsing and entertainment, particularly if you’re prepared to tie yourself into Amazon’s content ecosystem and embrace an Amazon Prime subscription. And, as it stands, it’s the cheapest means of using the Alexa voice assistant, too.

If money is tight, Amazon’s new and improved Fire tablet is the way to go, but you’re getting much more bang for your buck if, miraculously, you can snag a Tesco Hudl 2 from third-party party reseller. Obviously, this will be roughly twice the price, though – so if you want to save a few pennies, and are after your first tablet without having to break the bank, this new Fire tablet is a solid choice.

	Amazon Fire specifications
Processor	Quad-core 1.3GHz MediaTek MT8127D
RAM	1GB
Screen size	7in
Screen resolution	600 x 1,024, 170ppi
Screen type	IPS
Front camera	VGA
Rear camera	2MP
Flash	No
Storage	8GB
GPS	No
Memory card slot (supplied)	Yes
Wi-Fi	Single-band 802.11n
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4 LE
NFC	No
Wireless data	No
Size (WDH)	191 x 10.6 x 115mm
Weight	313g
Operating system	Amazon Fire OS
Battery size	2,980mAh