This is not the first time we are hearing about Amazon’s new 10-inch Dire tablet. It was originally unveiled back in September along with a slew of other Amazon devices. The tablet has finally gone up for sale on the Amazon US website, starting at $140.
As a reminder, the Fire HD (2023), also known as the 13th gen tablet, has a 10.1-inch, 1,200 x 1,920px LCD panel that happens to be compatible with Amazon’s Stylus pen and has on0device handwriting recognition. The MFA stylus, purchased separately, offers over 4,000 levels of pressure sensitivity and promises a “pen on paper” feel. This feature effectively brings the Fire HD 10 closer to the more expensive Amazon Fire Max 11, which also supports pen input and starts at $230. There is an optional Bluetooth keyboard case as well.
The new Fire HD 10 tablet promises to be 25% faster than the previous 2021 model it replaces thanks to a MediaTek MT8186A (2 x Cortex-A76 @ 2.05 GHz and 6 x ARM Cortex-A55 @ 2 GHz, plus a 1 GHz ARM Mali-G52 MC22EE GPU) chipset. It is paired with 3GB of RAM. The combo is still quite budget and not meant to compete with any modern iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab device. After all, the target use case for Fire tablets remains quite different and budget-friendly.
As mentioned, the Fire HD 10 costs $140 for the ad-supported 32GB version. Removing the ads will result in a $154 price tag. Besides that, you can also upgrade the internal storage to 64GB, which retails for $180. The Fire HD 10 has a microSD card slot, which can officially accept cards up to 1TB for additional space, in case you want to load the device up with things like movies.
While you won’t get an industry-leading multimedia experience out of the Fire HD 10, it is still equipped with a stereo speaker setup and a 3.5mm audio jack. You also get Wi-Fi 5 (ac) support for streaming your favorite content. And while Amazon does not share its battery capacity, it should be good for up to 13 hours of use on a single charge. The Fire HD 10 can charge at up to 15W, and a full charge should take around 3 hours.
Rounding off the specs here, the Fire HD 10 tablet measures 246 x 165 x 8.6mm and tips the scale at 434 grams, which is a little lighter than the previous 2021 model. The tablet is also equipped with two cameras – one on the front and one on the back. Both have a 5MP resolution, which is an upgrade from the 2MP 2021 selfie.
As a reminder, like other Fire HD tablets, the Fire HD 10 (2023) runs Fire OS 8, an Amazon Android port geared towards Amazon content. It has the company’s own apps and app store pre-loaded and no Google Play Services. You could, theoretically, sideload some third-party apps, but getting a full set of Google Services to run is usually a more involved “hacking” affair.
Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023) Kids version
Speaking of pre-loaded apps, the new Fire HD 10 tablet is also available in two kids’ versions. The Fire HD 10 Kids and Fire HD 10 Kids Pro. Both start at $190 and basically differ in the amount of “padding” added to the case of the tablet for extra safety. The Kids version is available with some Disney-themed cases as well. Kids modes come with a 1-year subscription to Amazon Kids+ and a 2-year worry-free guarantee, which means Amazon will replace a broken tablet, no questions asked.
