Gadgets

Amazon Fire 7 Tablet Review: Alexa Makes Her Debut on Tablets

By: Tonya Gida - @inquirerdotnet

01:40 AM February 19, 2019

If what you were in need of was a low-cost tablet, Amazon’s Fire range has always been a good option. Though their design and specifications never really wow the world, they are still the more reliable way to go compared to other low end tablets on the market. Fortunately, my Amazon Fire 7 Tablet review has revealed that the slight update this year to the Amazon Fire 7 Tablet is miles ahead of the super low priced tablets you might impulsively purchase alongside your morning cereal at the supermarket.

There haven’t been many changes from the preceding model- the overall performance and design is the same other than a minor display improvement in terms of clarity but, regrettably, not resolution.

The main new feature is Amazon’s digital user friendly assistant- Alexa. This is the first time Alexa would be accessible through a tablet. If you and Alexa already relate on first name terms as a result of you using an updated Fire TV or an Echo. The fire 7 tablet turns out to be a convenient additional voice remote for house use as well as performing its original job of being a tablet- particularly if you’re deep in Amazon’s ecosystem.

As with its forebears, the least expensive model is priced at $50 with 8GB worth of storage and Special Offers which display ads on your lock-screen. For $60, you can get the 16GB model. However, if you want to get rid of the ads, you would need to add an extra amount of at $10 to the original price of whatever model you’re purchasing.

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FEATURES

Review Price: $49.99

7-inch 1,024 x 600-pixel IPS screen
8GB storage with micro SD
Fire OS
Alexa
Strong Prime integration

DISCUSSION

You would have a difficult time differentiating between the Amazon Fire 7 Tablet and its predecessor if they are placed side by side. The Fire 7 Tablet still lacks litheness like the model before it and the display is bordered by a large bezel. It’s a bit heavy and feels like plastic with a back that if pressed; bends.

Although the above may sound very unencouraging, the Fire 7’s design and build are suitable for a tablet priced lower than a newly released video game

A model with extra rubberised encasing for young kids is available but the standard model still feels as if it can handle being carelessly handled as you go about your day.

The prime 7’s bland design can be slightly helped if you go for one of the more vibrantly coloured and fun models which come in red, blue and yellow. The black model was what was used for this Amazon Prime 7 Review and its lacklustre gave little room for the elation a colourful variant would have brought.

All the prime 7’s buttons are located at the tablet top, as well as the Micro USB charging port and headphone jack. The micro SD slot is found behind a flap along the edge, which allows you increase the storage capacity up to 256GB

While the build quality might punch slightly above the Fire 7’s low, low price, the screen is very much what you would expect for a cheap tablet. This equates to big, blocky pixels, which are particularly bad for rendering smooth-looking text and also not great for images.

Despite the fact that the build quality might hit a little higher than the Fire 7’s cheap, cheap price, the screen still meets the standards set for an inexpensive tablet. The 7-inch display’s resolution is an unchanged 1024 x 600, which gives a pixel density of 171ppi. This translates to huge, blocky pixels which are especially awful for delivering slick quality text. It’s also terrible for pictures.

If your intended use for the Fire 7 Tablet is for mainly reading Kindle books, then the text rendering is not optimal and causes a tiring experience. However, browsing on the internet with the Amazon Fire 7 Tablet isn’t the most terrible on the planet.

There’s no ambient light sensor, so you’re left manually adjusting the brightness. The brightest setting will just about get you by on all but the brightest days outdoors, but you still might find yourself struggling.

You have to manually alter the brightness as there is no ambient light sensor. The highest level of brightness will likely serve you well outdoors on all but the sunniest of days yet there is also the possibility that you may end up grappling with it.

For night use, the Prime 7 has a Blue Shade mode that lowers the blue light without interrupting your night’s rest. It is really not a sophisticated solution particularly when weighed against something such as the iPad Night Shift. All Blue Shade does is tint your screen very, very orange.

Be ready to always clean up the screen as I found it easily picked up greasy fingerprints.

CONCLUSION

From my Amazon Fire 7 Tablet review, it’s saddening to see that at the very least; the display resolution quality has not been enhanced. But maybe, that’s expecting a lot from such a low priced tablet. Bearing in mind that the Fire 7 Tablet could be regarded as a gateway to Amazon’s digital magazines, eBooks and store front; possibly Amazon could have found a way to make up for its low cost through another product or service.