A good and affordable tablet

I’ve been testing Amazon’s new Fire HD 10 Plus tablet for the past few days. It started shipping to customers earlier this week and starts at $ 179.99, just over half the price of the entry-level iPad.

The Fire HD 10 Plus is Amazon’s most advanced tablet and has a few more features, like additional RAM and wireless charging, that make it a better buy than the regular $ 149.99 Fire HD 10.

Unlike Apple, Amazon’s tablet business doesn’t generate a large chunk of the company’s revenue. Instead, they are just portals to Amazon’s content and services. They are attractive because they are cheap, but they allow you to stream movies, music, and read books. They are great if that’s all you need from a tablet. Still, I think most people who can save a little more will find that they can do a lot more with an iPad.

Here’s what you need to know about the new Fire HD 10 Plus.

If you’re like many people who just want a tablet to play some basic games, read Kindle books, stream Netflix and Amazon Prime videos, or listen to music from services like Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, and others, the Fire HD 10 Plus ( or even the entry-level Fire HD 10) is a good choice.

It’s lightweight and offers a large 10.1-inch screen that’s sharp, bright, and colorful. The tablet is made of plastic, but the soft-touch finish helps make it feel a bit less cheap. However, you won’t find metal or any other high-end design features that you would get on an iPad.

I like the stereo speakers that play audio from both sides of the tablet, rather than just one side, so the audio sounds balanced when watching movies in landscape mode. They are fine for playing music, for example, I liked listening to classical music while reading at night, and they are loud enough.

Amazon increased the RAM to 4GB this year, which means it feels a bit faster when running apps at the same time. It didn’t really seem slow to me, even when I ran Netflix on one side of the screen while browsing the news on the other side.

Another perk you don’t get with an iPad: there’s a microSD card slot to expand storage so you can download more movies, photos, and music to listen to when you don’t have a Wi-Fi connection. I recommend buying the cheaper 32GB model for this reason, rather than the 64GB model, as microSD cards are cheap and can easily be put on the side.

Amazon includes wireless charging in case you want to buy another optional accessory, the wireless charging base, which brings the total cost to $ 219.99. It works well. Just place the tablet on the dock and it will start charging. Again, you won’t find this on an iPad.

There’s a unique “Show Mode” and it turns the Fire HD 10 Plus into an Amazon Echo Show with a display. This is great if you are using the wireless charging stand. It will show you recipes, the weather, and act as an echo when you say “Hi Alexa” nearby. It’s convenient if you’re already part of the Echo family and want to turn the tablet into a hands-free assistant in places like the kitchen. However, most of the time I only watched movies while it loaded onto my desktop.

I also like that Amazon’s home screen shows you all the things you might want to quickly access: the book you’re already reading, the last TV show you watched, the books you’d like to read, the apps you recently opened. and the weather. It is very convenient. And you can easily control smart home devices like your lights and cameras if you already have them connected to an Amazon Echo. Unsurprisingly, it fits in very well with Amazon’s products and services.

Amazon also released a $ 49.99 Bluetooth keyboard case accessory for its tablets this year. It’s included in a new productivity bundle with the regular, not plus, model of the tablet for $ 219. That bundle also offers a year of Microsoft Office worth $ 69.99. Amazon sent me the keyboard, which also works with the plus model. It’s decent for a $ 50 keyboard and works well for things like typing in Microsoft Word. But the keys are a bit tight and it lacks backlighting, so I often found myself using a computer when I needed to do real work.

Finally, the battery life was excellent in my tests. Amazon promises up to 12 hours of use. I started playing a looping movie, with the brightness set to about 50%, at 10am and at 10pm it was still playing with about 28% battery life. So it exceeds Amazon’s promise in this regard. Speaking of battery, I like that Amazon continues to use the more modern USB-C charging port, which is the same charger you already use for your computer or Android phone.

You’ll get a lot more for your money with the regular $ 329 iPad if you like having access to lots of apps. Amazon’s app store is still pretty basic compared to Apple’s app store. Sure, you will get all the great streaming apps like HBO Max, Netflix, Hulu, and other popular apps like Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, and more.

But others are missing. You won’t find Slack, for example. None of the Google apps like YouTube, YouTube TV, Gmail, Chrome, Maps, and others are there. Instead, you have to rely on Amazon’s far inferior Silk browser to browse the web (unless you want to hack to get Google services). Consider this if you are thinking it might be a good option for your children to use. for homework: are the apps the school requires compatible?

And speaking of the browser, it’s still not very good. You can use Chrome, Safari, or Edge on your computer or phone. But all your websites and passwords saved in those browsers will not transfer here. So you will need to remember all your logins for everything. It’s okay if you just want to, say, go to CNBC and read the latest news. But it’s not great if you want to stay in sync with the browser you use on other devices like your phone or computer. IPads are compatible with all those browsers and sync better.

And other things that seem strange are missing. Amazon’s new Luna game streaming service, which works on Android, iPhone, PC, and Amazon Fire TV and is actually quite fun, is not compatible with the tablet. I hope it will be added soon as I would expect an Amazon service to work on a tablet dedicated to Amazon media offerings.

The cameras are not that good either. The 2 megapixel front camera is fine if you want to do a quick video chat, but it is not very sharp and the videos / photos are too dark. The same goes for the rear camera.

If you’re like a lot of people and you really just want a tablet to catch up on Netflix on the couch, browse any of Amazon’s services and don’t worry about having to access specific apps like Slack for work or anything from Google. makes, then, of course, that the Fire HD 10 Plus is a good tablet. And I think that’s what Amazon is targeting – people who just want something simple and affordable to watch movies and read books. In fact, I recommend saving some money and buying the $ 149.99 model that has slightly less RAM and lacks wireless charging, but still performs well and comes in three additional colors.

But if you want a tablet that has a much better browser, more apps, and a more premium design, just save for the $ 329 iPad. I know it costs a lot more, but you can do more with it too.