While other brands occasionally try to break through, the tablet market is really split in two, with Apple’s iPads on the premium side and Amazon’s Fire tablets on the affordable one. There are random, cheap options from brands called things such as ‘Hakaug’ and ‘Doogee’, but it’s a wilful soul who takes a chance on one of those when Amazon’s offerings are already so attractively priced.
The Fire HD 10 we have before us today isn’t super-cheap by any means, but it looks like very good value for a 10-inch tablet, particularly when compared with the prices of iPads. It’s got the highest pixel density of the whole Fire tablet range, too, potentially making it the pick of the bunch for those of us most interested in watching movies on the move.
Price
The Amazon Fire HD 10 is officially priced at £150 / $140 (it’s unfortunately not available in Australia), but as with most of Amazon’s own devices, it’s regularly discounted, particularly around sales events such as Black Friday. For reference, the cheapest current iPad is £349 / $349 / AU$599.
With the Amazon Fire HD 10, your £150 / $140 gets you an ad-supported version of the tablet. We’ve become pretty immune to the ads, which are most obvious when they pop up on the lock screen, but you can pay an additional £10 / $10 for an ad-free version if you prefer. Or you can buy the ad-supported tablet and then pay the extra tenner to have the ads removed at a later date if you find them annoying.
The £150 / $140 entry-level option also gets you just 32GB of built-in storage, which is unlikely to be an issue if you’re just streaming movies and music but could be limiting if you also want to download games. Amazon will sell you a 64GB version but the price increase is quite steep, so we instead recommend going for the 32GB edition and making use of the expandable storage should you run out of built-in space. SD cards up to 1TB in size are supported.
Design
Unsurprisingly, the Amazon Fire HD 10 can’t match an iPad for build quality, but it doesn’t look or feel cheap. The plastic chassis has a nice texture that means it won’t slip out of your hands at the first opportunity, and the rounded corners give the device a soft, approachable air, particularly when combined with one of the more attractive colour options – we chose lilac for our review device.
The front is all glass (aluminosilicate glass, if you must know) and uniformly black when the screen is off. Bringing it to life reveals bezels that are about 2cm in thickness around the 10.1-inch, 16:10-ratio active display. The tablet as a whole is just 8.6mm thick (the standard iPad is 7mm) and 434g in weight (the iPad is 477g), and in the hand it feels both slim and solid.
Features
That 10.1-inch screen has a resolution of 1920 x 1200, which translates to just over Full HD in TV parlance. That equates to a pixel density of 224 pixels per inch, which is higher than any other Fire tablet, including the more expensive Fire Max 11, and not a million miles off the 264ppi of every iPad barring the surprisingly pixel-rich iPad Mini.
Running the show is a 2.0GHz octa-core processor that isn’t going to pull up any trees but is more than adequate for smooth operation, streaming and casual gaming. Should you wish to make the Fire HD 10 more of a productivity device, it’s compatible with accessories including a keyboard case and stylus pen.
Screen 10.1 inches
Resolution 1920 x 1200 (224 ppi)
Storage 32GB or 64GB (SD card expandable)
RAM 3GB
Weight 434g
Camera 5MP front, 5MP rear
Battery life Up to 13 hours
As you would expect, the Fire HD 10 has cameras on its front and rear. Both feature 5MP lenses and neither is much good for photography, but the one on the front, which is positioned in the middle of one of the longer bezels, is perfectly fine for video calls. When holding the tablet in landscape mode, as you would when watching a movie, the tablet’s speakers are on either end of the top edge, so they’re not covered by your hands. Headphones sound better, of course, and the Fire HD 10 is one of the few remaining portable devices with a 3.5mm headphone jack – though you can of course connect headphones (and plenty more besides) via Bluetooth if you prefer.
Amazon quotes 13 hours of mixed use from a full battery, and our testing suggests that figure to be pretty accurate. Charging the battery from empty to full takes about four hours using the bundled 9W charger and USB-C cable.
It’s possible to ‘hack’ an Amazon tablet to access the Google Play Store, but most owners will rightly stick with the vanilla Fire OS operating system and its bespoke app store. While this is limited compared to the Apple and Google app stores, most of the bases relevant to video and music consumption are covered. On the video side, Prime Video (obviously), Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, Now, Plex and all of the UK’s catchup apps are on board, and for music you’ve got Amazon Music, Spotify, BBC Sounds and TuneIn. You can even use cloud gaming apps such as Amazon Luna and Xbox Cloud Gaming. The only real disappointments are Apple TV, Apple Music and Tidal, which are missing and will be missed by a fair few buyers.
Picture
While the Fire HD 10 doesn’t support HDR, we’re immediately struck by how bright and punchy the image is when we click ‘play’ on the final episode of The Grand Tour on Prime Video. The purple of James May’s Triumph Stag and yellow of Richard Hammond’s Ford Capri really pop in the bright Zimbabwean sunshine, and the green fields and trees are lush. At the same time, the skin tones of the three presenters are realistically presented – May looks a bit sunburnt, but that’s because he is.
Switching to Rogue One on Disney+, it’s clear that the Amazon tablet can’t match an iPad for deep blacks – and it’s a little bit reflective in a bright room, too – but it doesn’t look unpleasantly grey or washed out, either. On the contrary, it’s a pleasingly contrasty performance. The tablet handles the more subdued palette of the movie well, authentically reproducing the dusty browns and greys of the uniforms of the rebel troops and the dirty white armour of a stormtrooper who’s seen better days.
‘Full HD’ doesn’t sound very impressive in a world of 4K and even 8K TVs, but it’s more than adequate for a sharp and fairly crisp delivery at this size. In fact, there’s an unexpected three-dimensionality to the Fire HD 10’s presentation, with characters and spaceships standing out effectively against backgrounds. There’s lots of detail in faces, clothes and scenery, too, and while there’s a little blur to motion, it’s not too distracting.
All told, the Fire HD 10 gets a lot right on the picture front, delivering movies and TV shows in a way that’s pretty faithful to creative intent and with a surprising amount of pop and definition.
Sound
If you’re watching a movie or TV show and find yourself without your headphones, the stereo speakers will do in a pinch. Being mounted to the top edge means the sound is fired upwards rather than out and towards you, but there’s decent clarity, particularly with dialogue. Unsurprisingly, there’s very little bass, making for a rather thin presentation overall, and there’s none of the pseudo-surround processing that you get with an iPad – but, again, the built-in speakers will do a job when required.
For music, it’s essential that you connect a pair of headphones. Do so and play Tool’s Invincible and you’ll discover a delivery that’s a little low on impact but pretty high on detail and tonally nicely balanced. The track’s larger dynamic shifts are handled well, and while things become a little congested as instrumentation is added, organisation isn’t bad overall.
The entry-level iPad is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a significant step up in terms of sound quality, offering more punch, control and subtlety, but for a tablet costing so much less, the Fire HD 10 is more than good enough.
Verdict
The Amazon Fire HD 10 isn’t going to knock your socks off, but expecting it to do so at this price is unrealistic. What it does do is offer a really solid picture performance that successfully balances authenticity with a surprising amount of punch and sharpness, and while the audio performance is less accomplished, it’s certainly good enough for a satisfying movie soundtrack and the odd bit of music listening.
With iPads costing as much as they do, the world needs a cheap-but-good alternative, and the Fire HD 10 is exactly that.
SCORES
- Picture 5
- Sound 4
- Features 4
MORE:
Read our review of the Apple iPad (2022)
Also consider the Amazon Fire HD 8
Read our Amazon Fire 7 review
