Still the best for the budget-minded

The Amazon Fire HD 10 has long been the gold standard for tablets under $150, offering decent performance, a high-quality display, and exceptional software support. But Android manufacturers are closing the gap, with attractive tablets from Samsung and Lenovo available for under $200, alongside Amazon’s more premium Fire Max 11, frequently priced for a similar amount.

The latest Fire HD 10 refresh aims to extend its reign as the budget tablet king, providing improved performance, a sleeker design, and a pressure-sensitive display. However, did Amazon do enough to hold off the competition?

Price, specs, and availability

Exactly where you think

The Amazon Fire HD 10 is available through Amazon starting at $140. Frequent sales bring that price much lower, with Prime Day and holiday discounts slashing the price to under $100. If you buy a Fire HD at full price, it almost feels like you’re doing something wrong. Amazon offers the Fire HD 10 in two configurations: 32 or 64GB of storage, with your choice of Black, Ocean, or Lilac colors.

Design, hardware, and what’s in the box

Bend but don’t break

If you’ve seen a Fire HD 10 in the last four years, you’ll be familiar with the current generation’s design. While some Android competitors opted for metal builds, Amazon has stuck with a plastic unibody enclosure for the Fire HD 10. It won’t win any design awards, but it also won’t show signs of wear the first time you bang it against a table. It’s a bit thinner than previous generations, with the camera hump ever so slightly protruding from the plastic backing.

In keeping with Fire HD tradition, Amazon includes some crowd-pleasers on the Fire HD 10. You’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack along the frame for audiophiles who can’t give up their wired listening experience. In addition, the Fire HD 10 has a MicroSD card slot for expandable storage up to 1TB, allowing you plenty of space to download shows and movies for viewing in airplane mode.

If you’re coming from a pre-2019 Fire HD model, you’ll enjoy upgrading to USB-C — your Fire HD 10 will now charge in under a decade. Amazon has also kept the two stereo speakers along the top of the tablet, and they aren’t just for show. No one will confuse the sound with a concert hall experience, but playback doesn’t distort at higher volumes, and the overall sound quality is good for the price point.

A strengthened aluminosilicate glass protects the Fire HD’s 10.1-inch display, and Amazon claims the Fire HD 10 is 2.7 times as durable as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8. Amorphous testing numbers aside, the Fire HD does feel solid, and it’s definitely a tablet you can hand to a child without undue anxiety.

Display

Is it binge-worthy?

Amazon Fire HD displays used to be depressing, with dull colors and poor backlighting marring the full 1080p experience. But Amazon’s recent efforts have been excellent, and the current Fire HD 10 is no exception. Colors pop off its 10.1-inch IPS panel, with decent contrast for an LCD. It sports a 1900×1200 resolution, with an added sharpness that was missing in previous generations. It’s not a massive upgrade from the 2021 Fire HD 10, but I definitely noticed an improvement.

A good screen is a great equalizer for tablets. It doesn’t take much horsepower to run Netflix, so the bulk of the experience is determined by how enjoyable the screen is to look at during binge sessions. Amazon understands this better than most, and I’m happy to say the Fire HD 10 display is still fantastic for movies and shows, especially considering the price you pay.

Software

2017 all over again

The Fire HD 10 runs Fire OS 8 out-of-the-box. If you’ve never used Fire OS, it’s somewhere between the prisoned oasis of iOS and the Wild West of Android. If you’re feeling spicy, you can sideload the Google Play Store and Google apps, but the Fire HD is happiest when you stick with the Amazon ecosystem.

Despite Fire OS 8 being a newer release, it’s not exactly modern. You still won’t find gesture navigation, and the notification shade leaves a bit to be desired, but Amazon keeps it simple for a reason — it makes it easier to update. Fire HD tablets are supported for four years, but the magic of Amazon’s tablets is that the performance you get on Day 1 is often the performance you get on Day 1,000. I have 7th gen tablets from 2017 that still work well enough for streaming, and keeping the OS lightweight ensures Amazon can maintain a baseline user experience.

As you’d expect, Amazon’s suite of apps is included on the Fire HD 10. The Kindle app works well, and watching Amazon Prime Video is a seamless experience. Amazon’s Silk Browser will never be my first choice, but it’s no longer horrifying. Amazon Kids gives you granular control over what your children see online while showing games and apps designed for different age groups. Not to be forgotten, Audible is still one of the best for audiobooks, with nearly unlimited titles.

No discussion of an Amazon product is complete without mentioning Alexa. It still works fine for voice commands and tasks, but beyond using your Fire HD 10 to control your home lighting or HVAC, it can also be used as an Echo Show. If you get a simple stand, you can pop your tablet over to Show mode and enjoy a 10.1-inch Echo Show powered by Alexa in your office or kitchen.

Performance

It doesn’t feel snappy

Amazon claims the Fire HD 10 is 25% faster than its predecessor, and I can somewhat feel that difference. I mentioned earlier that the Silk Browser is no longer a nightmare, and that’s due to smoother scrolling and faster load times. I still noticed hiccups and stutters in performance, but my inner monologue quieted dramatically when I remembered the Fire HD 10 can often be had for under $100.

Unlike previous versions, this year’s Fire HD 10 is pressure-sensitive, allowing a USI 2.0 stylus to be used. Amazon included its $35 stylus for review, and the result was surprisingly good. Amazon claims 4,096 sensitivity levels, giving the Fire HD Wacom layer-esque abilities, and I enjoyed marking up a page in OneNote and sketching in Picsart. If you’re an artist looking for a relatively inexpensive tablet for drawing, the Fire HD 10 is a respectable choice. It won’t provide the low-latency experience of a Galaxy S-pen, but you’re not paying ten times the price, either.

Games like Roblox are playable on the Fire HD 10, but I recommend sticking to less graphically intensive titles for the best experience.

Battery life

How long does it last?

A quality screen for binge-watching is only as good as the battery powering it, and the Fire HD 10 excels at lasting throughout the day. Amazon claims 13 hours of screen time; while I got less than that in testing, it still managed 12 hours. It’s a good thing the battery life is impressive because the recharging speeds are anything but.

It’s nice of Amazon to include a charger in the box, but a hamster wheel would recharge the Fire HD 10 faster than the 9W brick included. When using the 9W adapter included, expect charging times of around 4 hours. If you purchase a 15W charger, the recharging time is reduced to around 3 hours.

Camera

Well, it has one

The Fire HD 10 features two 5MP cameras: a front selfie lens and a rear sensor capable of 1080p video recording. Like most tablets, the front camera is more important, and the Fire HD 10 does a decent job for Zoom calls and conferences. Even though the rear camera is far from impressive, it works well for simple tasks like document scanning.

The first three are taken using the front camera. The last three are taken using the rear camera.

Competition

What else is out there?

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab A8 will set you back $50 more than the Fire HD 10, but it gives you the flexibility of full Android. If Google apps are important to you, the Tab A8 might be worth a look with similarly impressive battery life and a sharp 10.5-inch HD display.

The Lenovo Tab M10 costs around $170 but offers a higher-resolution 2K display and more RAM. If you’re worried about the Fire HD’s performance, the M10 Plus might give you the extra kick you need, with other creature comforts like a quad-speaker setup and multitasking.

Should you buy it?

Given the amount of sales Amazon runs per year, it’s hard to argue the value of the Fire HD 10. While it will never be the best in any category, it doesn’t have to be. Amazon understood the assignment — the Fire HD 10 needs to provide good battery life with a quality display and decent performance. Stylus support works well and adds another layer of value to an already impressive package.

All told, Fire tablets are like potato chips. You start out thinking you’ll buy just one, but a few Prime Day sales later, and your hand is stuck in the Pringles tube like the rest of us.