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ranked #7,295 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★★
Echo Show Killer, all around great value tablet
I’m really immersed into Amazon’s ecosystem. I have the original Echo in my living room, an Echo Spot in my bedroom, The 2nd gen Echo in my home gym, an Echo dot at work, an Echo show in the kitchen, the fire 7 tablet, fire stick, fire TV box, and now a Fire 10 HD with Alexa. I have Alexa controlling my fans, TVs, fire TV devices, thermostat, security cameras, lights, surround sound, and space heaters.I’ve been using Alexa for the last 2 years and the devices have become a routine part of my daily life. I preordered the Echo show (Alexa with a screen) and was very disappointed with my $230.00 purchase. What I realized I really wanted was everything the Fire 10 HD with Alexa could do. It’s like amazon heard my grievances and within months developed the tablet I wanted.
When I heard about the new Fire 10 HD I hesitated on pre ordering it after feeling burned by my Echo show experience. I decided to wait and see how the reviews turned out. Well today I received my Fire 10 HD tablet and after a few hours of experimenting with it I’ve come to the conclusion not only is the Fire 10 HD tablet a snappy well rounded tablet, it’s also everything I wish the Echo Show would have been.
I currently own a ASUS Chromebook flip which is a mini laptop that can be converted into a tablet, a Fire 7 2017 tablet, and an android 10" ASUS Memopad tablet. So the real question is how well does the Fire 10 perform compared to other tablets? My experience is it’s very responsive to touch, I think out of my 4 tablets it’s the most responsive. It also has the best looking display. The display also looks better than the Echo Show. Other than my Chromebook my Fire tablet has more expandable storage, however my Fire tablet beats out all my tablets including my Chromebook with internal storage space. As a side note the Echo Show has no internal storage everything is stored on the cloud. My Chromebook and Fire 10 HD tablet run neck and neck on battery life I can get at least 8 hours of use from both of these devices. My 10" ASUS Memopad about 4-5 hours, Fire 7 table about 6 hours, and it goes without saying the Echo Show is plugged in so there is no internal battery.
My Fire 10 sounds significantly better than my Chromebook, it’s probably twice as loud as my
Fire 7 tablet, and on par with my ASUS tablet. The sound on my Echo Show is significantly better. Pages and content loaded without any stuttering. The memory never seemed taxed or overworked despite the fact I had multiple windows and apps running in the background while I was watching a movie on Netflix.
I really don’t understand the complaints about the sound or picture quality. I think that both are much better than I expected, and are strengths not weaknesses of the Fire 10. There are complaints about not having access to Google Play store. It’s not rocket science do a google search how to install google play on the new Fire 10. There are 4 links you click on that will take you straight to the 4 downloads you need to install straight from the tablet. Once you download them restart the tablet and that’s all there is to it. You now have complete access to google Play in under 5 minutes and all you had to do was 4 downloads. For those that complained about lack of HDMI output you can cast straight to fire sticks and boxes and even better control them with your voice. Using a HDMI cable seems like going back to the stone ages in comparison, but if it is a must you can buy a micro USB to HDMI converter pretty cheap on Amazon.
I honestly can’t think of one thing I can complain about with this tablet. If you purchase it expecting it to wow you over a higher end Samsung or Ipad it’s not going to happen, but for $150.00 you are purchasing this tablet at cost. Amazon isn’t trying to get rich off of the tablet, it’s all the other things you are going to buy from the tablet that is going to make them their money. It’s definitely the best $150.00 I’ve ever spent. Android tablets usually start to get outdated within 3-5 years. At the price point of the Fire 10 you can buy a new one every 2 years and still pay less then trying to stay up to date with Android’s tech.
Why should you consider buying the fire 10 HD over the Echo show? The tablet's screen is 10" vs the Shows 7". The tablet will show you everything the Echo Show can with the same exact artwork. You can't watch news clips from your daily briefing with the Fire 10 HD.The clips really don't show much footage and should not be a deal breaker. You can't use Amazon's video chat from the tablet. Chances are everyone you'd want to video chat with has Skype, Oovoo or other services the Show can't use. The Fire 10 is portable where as the Show has to be plugged in. The Show has an awkwardly positioned camera angle for video calls. The Show can't display as much content on it's screen. The Show has much richer audio and bass. However you can connect bluetooth speakers to the tablet and improve the audio. Both have the always listening capability with Alexa. Honestly unless you have to have Amazon's video chat all the advantages are with the Fire 10. As a side note you don't have to have an Echo Show to use Amazon's video chat. You can use it for free from your phone using the Alexa app. Let's face it you can pretty much do everything the Show is capable of doing with the tablet, plus you have all the features of a tablet, and it's portable! I personally feel the display on my fire 10 is much better than my Echo Show. All I ever use my show for is listening to music, news briefings, adding and removing items to my shopping list, maybe an occasional movie while cooking if there is any thing decent on Prime videos, and controlling my smart devices. The Fire 10 is perfectly capable of completing all of these tasks and more. Alexa on my Fire 10 works with all my home smart devices, and instantly carries over all of my existing Alexa settings. I can open apps by asking Alexa. Unlike my Echo Show I can watch Netflix, HULU, Youtube and other streaming services through my Fire 10.As a testimony to how much I love this tablet I bought 4 more for Christmas presents. I get the best of both worlds with all the benefits of Amazon's services, Alexa on my tablet and Google's Playstore. Having an Android tablet means missing out on how well Amazon integrates all of their services in to a tablet and no Alexa. If you found this review helpful please click on the this was helpful tab.
October 2017 · Electronics · verified purchase