Amazon’s cheap-but-good-enough media tablet gets a much-needed speed boost and updated software for 2019, doing just enough to make the Fire HD 10 still the budget tablet to buy for bigger-screen video watching.

Now in their ninth-generation, Amazon’s Fire tablets follow a tried and trusted formula: undercut the competition on price with a good enough screen, good enough performance and Amazon’s version of Android, Fire OS, wrapped in a robust plastic body.

The £150 2019 Fire HD 10 doesn’t break the mould. In fact, side by side with the previous version released in 2017, the only things that separate them are a USB-C socket instead of the old microUSB for power and a new paint job (now available in subtler black, twilight blue, plum and white rather than bold primary colours).

Dropping the old microUSB for USB-C charging, which has become the standard for practically everything, is a step in the right direction. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

At 9.8mm thin, 504g in weight and 262mm long, the Fire HD 10 is fairly easy to hold on a couch or pack for the commute. A range of own-brand cases can put a cover over the screen that folds into an effective kickstand.

The plastic is hard wearing and while there’s some flex in the body, it feels like it can take a bit of rough and tumble just fine.

The full HD 10.1in screen has a 16:10 ratio that’s perfectly suited to watching video, meaning you get a bigger picture than you would on a similarly sized 10in screen with a squarer 4:3 ratio (such as an iPad). It won’t beat the screen on a top-end tablet, but the LCD display is crisp and bright enough with wide viewing angles to make the most of sharing movies and TV shows indoors.

Stereo speakers in the top are fairly loud and clear, but lack bass and sound a little shrill when turned up to maximum. There’s a headphone socket or Bluetooth for connecting your own headphones.

Specifications

Screen: 10.1in 1920x1200 LCD (224ppi)

Processor: 2GHz octa-core

RAM: 2GB

Storage: 32 or 64GB plus microSD card slot

Operating system: Fire OS 7 based on Android 9

Camera: 2MP rear and front-facing cameras

Connectivity: Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth, USB-C

Dimensions: 262 x 159 x 9.8 mm

Weight: 504g

Good battery, good enough performance

Add up to 512GB of storage via microSD card - good for about a month’s worth of video. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The Fire HD 10 gets a much-needed speed boost for 2019. Amazon says it’s 30% faster than the previous version, which doesn’t make it lightning fast but it feels a lot more responsive in operation.

Swiping around the system, loading and jumping between apps is all fairly smooth, if not quite rapid. The response to your touch feels quicker too, while video apps handle just as well as much more powerful tablets, scrubbing through video with ease.

Searching the web in Amazon’s Silk browser can be a little slow, as can loading large games. It can get a bit bogged down if you try to do much as it’s installing apps in the background. But if all you want to do is a bit of light browsing, accessing the odd email and binge-watching your favourite shows on Amazon, Netflix, Sky or BBC iPlayer, the Fire HD 10 is perfectly serviceable.

Battery life is a solid 11 or so hours, longer if you’re watching video locally rather than streaming. It is easily enough to see me through four movies or an entire TV series.

New for this year is the addition of USB-C. With the included 9W charger the Fire HD 10 takes four hours to fully charge. With something more powerful it’s closer to three hours from dead – best done overnight.

Fire OS 7

Fire OS 7 brings picture-in-picture support for continuing to watch video as you do other things. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The Fire HD 10 ships running a new, updated version of Amazon’s Android version called Fire OS 7, now based on the much more recent Android 9 rather than the older Android 7.

Not that the interface has changed much. It’s still based on a carousel you swipe through, with a customised “for you” screen that predicts what you want to do, such as continue that movie you were part way through, or use a recently opened app.

There’s a more traditional app home screen too, which you can customise with folders, as well as one for books, video, games, shopping, music, audiobooks and a newsstand. It works well enough. New for Fire OS 7 is picture-in-picture so you can keep watching videos while you do other things.

The big difference between Amazon’s Fire OS and regular Android is the lack of the Google Play Store and Google’s various apps and services. Amazon’s App Store has most of the media consumption apps you’re likely to want, including Spotify, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, Netflix and Sky Go, and it has a fairly large range of games. But, BT Sport, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Photos, Chrome and anything made by Apple are a no-go.

You also need an Amazon account to use it, and a Prime subscription giving access to Amazon Prime Video to make the most out of the tablet.

Observations

The hard-wearing plastic body now comes in four attractive and more grown-up colours. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

Some apps such as Sky Go or BBC iPlayer refuse to load videos and other content onto a microSD card, meaning you’re stuck using the limited 32 or 64GB of storage

Hands-free Alexa is available and it can be used to control video playback including scrubbing

Amazon’s older Fire HD 10 cases fit the new one

The cameras are mediocre, but good enough for the most basic of photos or video chat in good lighting

The Fire HD 10 isn’t encrypted out of the box – I recommend turning it on in settings with a passcode

Price

The ninth-generation Amazon Fire HD 10 costs £149.99 for 32GB or £179.99 for 64GB of storage – but you will have to look at ads (dubbed “special offers”) on the lockscreen. It costs £10 to remove the ads.

For comparison, Amazon’s Fire 7 costs £50, Fire HD 8 costs £80 and Apple’s iPad costs £349.

Verdict

The new Amazon Fire HD 10 does just enough to stay at the top of the bigger-screen budget tablet pack.

It’s more responsive. It’s durable. The 10.1in widescreen is crisp and bright enough to make watching movies and TV shows indoors a good experience. The wide viewing angles and fairly loud and clear speakers make it easy to share with others. It won’t compete for screen quality with Apple’s iPad Pro, but then it’s one fifth the price.

If what you’re after is a media-consumption tablet – which let’s face it is what most people do with even their top-end tablets – then in many ways the Fire HD 10 is all the tablet you’ll need. Just don’t expect it to have blistering performance, and be prepared to swim in Amazon’s ecosystem with its own App Store and no Google services.

If you don’t need the 10in screen the £80 Fire HD 8 is a better buy, but you will struggle to find anything from a known brand that’s even remotely as good as the 2019 Fire HD 10 for anywhere near £150.

Pros: good screen, solid battery life, good speakers, microSD card slot, USB-C charging, headphone socket, feels durable, reasonable performance, good Alexa integration, most of the apps you need, good value Cons: rubbish cameras, slow charging, no Google Play, some apps lacking from Amazon App Store, Silk browser isn’t that great

The new Fire HD 10 is the exact same size as the previous version and fits into the same cases and accessories. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

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