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Amazon Fire HD 10 tested by Which? - is this cheap tablet cheerful too?
Amazon is known for making some of the cheapest tablets around. And while the latest Fire HD 10 is more expensive than the rest of the range, its starting price of £150 is hardly wince-inducing when a 10.2-inch iPad will set you back more than twice that.
If all you need is a tablet for streaming video such as BBC iPlayer and Netflix, and perhaps sending some emails and doing some online shopping, Amazon's tablets are always an attractive option.
The latest HD 10 starts at £150 'with special offers', which means you will get occasional ads on the lockscreen recommending content and products for you to buy on Amazon. If you don't fancy your tablet becoming an at-home billboard, you can opt to pay £10 extra to get rid of them, either when you buy the tablet or after you've received it.
Sound the right model for you? Jump straight to our full Amazon Fire HD 10 review or read on to find out more about its features.
Amazon Fire HD 10: what do you get?
Amazon tablets can sometimes deliver the basics better than other Android models at the same price, which is the key selling point.
The specifications sheet for the Fire HD 10 is attractive. Amazon has upgraded its processors for its 2019 and 2020 models, up from 1.5GHz to 2GHz. This effectively means they should be about a third quicker than previous-generation models. Older Fire HD tablets weren't terribly slow, but this speed boost is most welcome in 2020.
Portability and charging
The 10.1-inch screen size and half-kilo weight means this is more of an at-home tablet than one to take out and about with you, but its shape and size means it should be comfortable to use when surfing on the sofa. There's also a USB-C charging port - again, a new addition for late-2019 and 2020 Fire tablets - which matches most modern Android smartphones, meaning you can more easily share chargers between your devices.
The screen
The screen has the highest resolution of any Amazon tablet, delivering a Full HD picture that should look nice and sharp, and make text easy to read even at smaller font sizes. Our lab test - which requires two experts to agree on the quality of the screen - has found in the past that cheaper tablets can be left wanting when it comes to the colours and brightness of a tablet's screen, although it is rare for a model to completely flunk the test.
Apps and storage
While Amazon has come in for some criticism in the past for a smaller selection of apps on its app store, if your needs don't stretch beyond the most popular streaming services and games, you should be well covered. You should check the Amazon App Store's website to see if there any any apps you desperately want are available or not.
The base model comes with 32GB of storage, but there is also a 64GB version available. Both allow you to insert a micro-SD card of up to 512GB to expand your storage if you need, though, so you needn't worry about running out of space in the long-run.
Voice control
This tablet also works with Amazon's Alexa smart assistant and if you leave it plugged in or attached to the dock (sold separately) you can use it like one of Amazon's Echo Show devices, performing all sorts of commands hands-free.
On paper, then, it's an attractive offering. Read our full Amazon Fire HD 10 review to find out how it fared in our stringent lab tests. Or, take a look at three alternatives to see what the rest of the market looks like.
Other affordable tablets on test
Spend £60 less: Alba 10-inch tablet, £90
The very cheapest 10-incher on our website. We won't lie, very cheap tablets often have some major shortcomings that make them a false economy, but some of them can be fine for the basics. Read our Alba 10-inch Tablet review to see if this Alba passed muster.
Same price: Lenovo Tab M10, £150
This cheap tablet from Lenovo comes bundled with a speaker and supports the same Alexa smart assistant tech as the Fire HD 10. That's a lot of tech for not much money. Read our Lenovo Tab M10 review to see if it's up to scratch.
Trade-up: Apple iPad 10.2, £319
The very latest Apple iPad requires you to spend quite a lot more, but you do get a powerful processor, high-resolution screen and the impressively well-stocked App Store. Read our full Apple iPad review to see if it's the one for you.
Want something else? See all our tablet reviews.
