VERDICT
With a nice robust design and innovative family features the Amazon Fire tablet is great for kids, but with a poor screen, lack of some core apps and confusing user interface it's not for everyone.
PROS:
- Family friendly
- Sturdy design Fantastically cheap
CONS:
- Poor selection of apps
- Questionable OS design
- Dated screen
Whereas even two years ago tablets in various shapes and sizes were still selling like hot cakes, global sales have taken a turn for the worse of late. Even Apple, virtual founder of the form factor, has been feeling the pinch - and Amazon is no Apple.
Manufacturers are increasingly targeting the budget end of the market with a slew of polycarbonate slates for the masses, of which Amazon's £50 (US$50) Fire is the latest example; indeed the tablet is so cheap and cheerful that the e-tailer is selling it in multi-packs - buy five and get a sixth free!
Amazon is trying to be everything Apple isn't, and reach every nook and cranny that Cupertino hasn't. While Apple is preaching to the high-end converted, Amazon is setting its sights on every tablet-deprived Tom, Dick and Harry.
At such low price points the big question, of course, becomes: what about quality? If spending £399 (US$499) or more on a tablet guarantees a smooth user experience, a machined glass and metal body and class-leading specs, what compromises will inevitably be encountered in the budget knock-off?
Design
The Amazon Fire tablet looks rather like one of those prototype slates you occasionally see in blurry screenshots taken in foreign labs - and in the hand it feels much the same as you suspect one of those devices might.
Amazon Fire
In short, everything that the iPad is, the Amazon Fire is not.
Although the rough-hewn polycarbonate feels nice in the hand, and the device feels reassuringly substantial, there's a distinct air of the unfinished about the Fire, and this is certainly noticeable in the button placement.
Aside from the very easily missed microSD slot on the right side of the slate, there's nothing of note on three of the four sides of the Amazon Fire tablet.
Amazon Fire
That means on top the volume rocker, 3.5mm headphone jack, micro USB port and power button all jostle for position, in what is a particularly confusing design choice.
The VGA front-facing camera sits above the 1024 x 600, 7-inch screen while on the back is the 2MP rear-facing camera, some subtle Amazon branding and the rear-firing speaker.
In the dark, trying to find the correct button to press was a little frustrating, and I often found myself fumbling around for far too long.
Amazon Fire
These days, although there is some variation, general trends in button placement exist as a result of design evolution, and Amazon's decisions in this regard are a little baffling.
Overall, the Amazon Fire looks unassuming, and uninspiring. You probably won't mind if you're watching video or browsing the web in bed, but whip it out on the train and it won't be turning any heads. Then again, at £50 (US$50) it doesn't need too - you're getting what your paying for.
Amazon Fire
Display
Screen technology has progressed in leaps and bounds since the appearance of the earliest tablets and smartphones.
As little as five years ago, resistive touchscreens were still in use, and now we have the likes of the gorgeous QHD AMOLED panel on the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 to dazzle us.
And as technology has trickled down to the budget end of the market, 'bad' screens have largely ceased to exist as designers adopt the discounted tech of yesteryear.
That being said, there is what might be considered an acceptable limit to the age of the tech chosen, and in the case of the Fire that limit may have been breached.
Amazon Fire
With its resolution of 1024 x 600 the Fire has around 171ppi, which on a screen this small isn't exactly great. Pixellation of text is noticeable, even when coming from a 720p screen, making reading an experience that isn't exactly pleasurable - and certainly not on a device that's expected to double as an e-reader.
Watching video isn't a spectacular experience either. HD video content is obviously beyond the capabilities of the device, but existing in the strange hinterland between 480p and 720p doesn't benefit the Fire.
It isn't all bad news, however. Viewing angles are decent and the screen appears to be fairly evenly lit, and adequately bright when required.
On the other hand, colour reproduction isn't exactly inspiring, with tones appearing rather dull and muted, and visibility in bright sunlight isn't very good.
For the price it's difficult to fault the quality of the screen on the Fire, and yet there's no escaping the fact that offerings from Asus and others offer far better quality for just a little more money, especially heavily discounted tablets like the Memopad 7 .
Since the release of the first Kindle, Amazon has operated a 'walled-garden' strategy with its content. That is to say that, given that it's a retailer first and foremost, the selling doesn't end with the purchase of the tablet.
To this end the company has designed its own fork of Android from the ground up, replacing almost everything native to the OS.
This extreme degree of modification can have its perks - although it is constantly improving, Android is still a less than watertight operating system - but Amazon's offering doesn't really fix any cracks.
Amazon Fire
Upon turning on the Fire tablet you're greeted with a 'carousel' - a series of segments each housing different content.
On the 'Home' screen is an extensive selection of preinstalled Amazon apps. Swiping to the left reveals the 'Recent' screen, where you'll find every recently used app. Swiping to the right brings up, in this order, 'Books', 'Video', 'Games', 'Shop', 'Apps', 'Music', 'Audiobooks' and 'Newstand'.
When you use the device for the first time it feels a little like stepping into a virtual storefront, an effect that's only emphasised by the fact that, by default, adverts are displayed on the lockscreen - you'll have to pay £10 (US$15) if you want to get rid of them.
This makes the user experience feel akin to accessing in-flight entertainment, rather than enjoying content in the comfort of your own home.
Amazon Fire
And the way in which content is accessed makes little sense. The user has to swipe downwards from within a particular section, or select whatever is 'recommended' in that particular section.
Otherwise, every action is performed through the omnipresent search bar at the top of the screen, which opens a Bing-powered (yup) search of either the Amazon store, the web or 'My Stuff'. The same actions can also be performed through tapping options on the home screen.
Overall, there seems to be a great deal of redundancy in the UI design that could be cleaned up, which further adds to the 'unfinished' feel.
Although it's based on a recent version of Android (5.1), Amazon's mobile UI feels like something that was experimented with, and abandoned, years ago.
Kid-friendly features
Earlier I compared the Fire unfavourably to an iPad, but if there's one thing a parent without plenty of disposable income would never do it's leave the family iPad in the care of a careless infant or angry pre-teen.
The Fire, however, is something of a gem in this regard; indeed, Amazon claims that its devices are 1.8 times more durable than the iPad Air 2 .
This kid-friendly approach extends beyond the design and build quality however. Amazon's software, although confusing and a little irritating to work with in some areas, has a number of innovative features baked in that will be appeal to parents with kids to amuse in the back of a car.
Amazon Fire
Parents can set daily goals, time limits, manage the content their child can access, buy a subscription to Amazon Fire for Kids Unlimited (of course), and can choose what functions their child can control on the device. Separate accounts can be created for different age profiles.
The strong profile support present in the OS makes switching between accounts a breeze, making the Fire an appealing option for those with young minds to amuse, whether at home or while travelling.
Amazon is taking a route here that few other manufacturers have chosen to explore as they focus on high-end users, and it's an approach that may yet pay dividends.
Apps
Given that Amazon operates its own fork of Android, and that it has a great deal of digital content and services to push, it also has its own app store. News flash: it doesn't have a great deal to offer.
Much has been made of the app wars, with Google and Apple way out ahead with millions of apps between them. Behind these two are a few stragglers trying to keep up, of which only Microsoft and Amazon continue to enjoy a modicum of success - and unfortunately for Amazon, even Redmond beats it in this regard.
Although the Fire has full compatibility with Android, Amazon's users won't be able to access any of Google's services out of the box.
That means Maps, Keep, Docs and all the rest are off-limits, requiring that they be side-loaded if they're to work properly at all, something that isn't an option for much of the Fire's target audience.
Amazon fire review
And those who do choose to side-load will find themselves limited, as pursuing this option means missing out on regular updates, something that's especially important with mapping apps.
Most users will therefore have to make do with the paltry selection of apps on offer in the store. Although a few bigger names have made the jump, including some on-demand TV services and some newer games, the Amazon ecosystem offers nothing close to the experience of even the Windows Phone Store.
The lack of an official YouTube app is one particularly striking example. The fact that one of the most popular online media services in the world has no representation in the store other than through some third-party offerings is indicative of wider problems.
For those who simply intend to use the tablet to access content and services already purchased through Amazon this may not be much of an issue; for anyone else the lack of available apps is likely to be a major turn-off.
The Fire's performance is actually quite good, especially at this price, thanks to a quad-core ARM processor clocked at 1.3GHz and backed up with 1GB of RAM.
Although the Fire doesn't exactly chew through demanding titles, it runs most games smoothly. While it doesn't quite reach the peaks of the iPad Air 2 , or theSamsung Galaxy Tab S2 , it can't be faulted.
This is mostly backed up by the Geekbench scores. The Fire achieved a single-core score of 359, beating the two-year-old Nexus 7 (2013) , and a multi-core score of 1191, trumping the Moto G , which runs a quad-core Snapdragon 400.
Amazon Fire
Although these numbers may not seem that spectacular, remember that this is a device that costs £50 (US$50) - and at that price performance is pretty impressive, if not world-beating.
With 1GB of RAM, the Fire isn't exactly a multi-tasking monstrosity, but it generally gets the job done. Switching between apps is the same as on stock Android: selecting the square soft-key gives you access to an extended Rolodex of apps, although running more than a few at a time will cause them to fully reload.
Amazon Fire
Performance is one of the areas in which Amazon might have been expected to make some compromises; thankfully, however, this is not the case.
This isn't a device for power-users, but it's certainly more than capable of the light browsing and Candy-Crush marathons that take up much of the casual user's tablet time.
Battery life
Without hundreds of notifications running throughout the day, and with a frugal processor and an anaemic screen resolution, the Fire's battery consistently achieved the seven hours quoted by Amazon, especially when playing video.
This, understandably, was not the case when gaming. As might be expected the tablet does heat up a little during long sessions and the battery can drop quite quickly, from seven hours to around three - but that's still the length of a short flight.
In general use, I found I could eke out a day and a half of web surfing, watching a little iPlayer, some casual gaming and listening to Spotify, which is around average. Standby time meanwhile was excellent, with the device dropping only around 5% of its charge overnight.
Be warned, however, that there are no battery-saver modes here, which is disappointing given that power-saving modes are fast becoming a staple of new mobile devices. For travellers and commuters this is likely to be a turn-off, as the feature can be a virtual life-saver.
Wi-Fi, storage and keyboard
I found that the Amazon Fire tablet was consistently able to achieve Wi-Fi connection speeds that were more than acceptable. Reception was decent too, with the tablet picking up signal even in areas of patchy reception in my home.
Amazon Fire
Those who spend a lot of time in their car should note that, as with any tablet lacking a SIM slot, the Fire does not have GPS built in, meaning it can't be used as a cheap sat-nav.
There's only 8GB of built-in storage, not all of which is immediately accessible to the user. This makes a microSD card essential for anyone who's planning to install more than a few apps or add some music to the device.
Amazon Fire
Speaker output is adequate. Although the driver is mono and rear-firing, it's nonetheless loud enough and can put out some decent, if tinny sound. However, given the fuss that Amazon has made about the Dolby Surround Sound in its more premium tablets, it's disappointing that more effort was not made in this area.
The baked-in Amazon keyboard lacks gesture typing, and is generally fairly perfunctory. This is also true of the 'Silk' browser, which feels a little like Chrome for Android with all of the fun removed and lacks much of the functionality present in more advanced, browsers. As both the keyboard and browser are proprietary Amazon solutions, they can't be altered or replaced.
Camera
Despite repeated exhortations not to use tablets to take photos, many users are increasingly looking to their slates as an alternative to the old point 'n' shoot camera, and tablet cameras are now obligatory.
But I'll say it again: don't bother taking photos with your tablet - and especially not with the Amazon Fire.
Amazon Fire
With its 2MP rear-facing camera and VGA selfie sensor the Fire has little in the way of serious camera chops, and won't be troubling the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S6or the LG G4 .
Not surprisingly, the results produced by both sensors are poor, from the front-facing camera in particular. Pictures look a bit like oil-paintings, with mushy details, poor colour reproduction and lots of noise.
Amazon Fire
At least Amazon's camera app makes the whole process of capturing images as simple as possible. Focusing involves a single tap on the screen, after which pressing the shutter button takes a photo; pressing the red 'Record' button starts the recording of video.
Everything is cleanly laid out and is mostly intuitive. This extends to the settings, with virtually the only concession made to user control being the inclusion of an HDR mode.
Camera samples
Amazon Fire review
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Amazon Fire review
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Amazon Fire review
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Amazon Fire review
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Picking up the Amazon Fire, and actually using it, makes for two very different experiences. The promise of the hardware and basic performance evaporate in the face of the lack of some core apps and the confusingly designed user interface.
We liked
With a robust build, various cases and a care plan available, this is a tablet you won't be afraid to bash about a bit. The screen is decently bright, the speakers produce an acceptable volume and battery life is about what you'd expect.
Performance too was something of a strong suit for the Fire tablet, with the device flying through Amazon's proprietary version of Android and most games I could throw at it. And did I mention it only costs £50 (US$50)?
We disliked
With its poor screen resolution, watching video or reading for any length of time on the Fire, especially with black text on a white background, isn't as enjoyable as it could be with a slight bump in pixel count.
While it offers robust and innovative features for the family, Amazon's version of Android is cluttered and confusing, and is geared too strongly towards selling products to the user. And it'll cost you £10 (US$15) to remove those advertisements on the lock screen, partially erasing the Fire's price advantage over better competitors.
Final verdict
Amazon is selling the Fire for £49.99 (US$49.99) (or in the aforementioned 6 for the price of 5 multipack). At this price it should be easy to recommend the tablet to everyone, and yet it isn't.
The race to the bottom in terms of tablet prices over the last year or so means there are a number of strong Android competitors which offer both better specs and better value.
If you factor in the cost of removing the lock screen ads, the Asus MemoPad 7 is around the same price, and boasts better stamina and power, and a nicer screen, in addition to offering an exponentially higher number of apps.
For first-time tablet owners, for parents looking for strong child controls, or for those already highly invested in the wider Amazon ecosystem, the Fire is a relatively easy sell. But for the wider public, it simply isn't worth the cash - some things are just worth spending a little more on.
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