Amazon has been trying to get its tablets in front of everyone it can, for a simple reason: The tablets are there to sell you stuff. And now Amazon is sweetening the deal with an enormous upgrade, and a price cut to go with it.
The Fire 10 is getting a complete overhaul on October 11th, with a quad-core processor, a battery that now lasts 10 hours, doubled storage with 32GB now standard, and a 1080p display. It also will come with “hands-free” Alexa functionality, and can serve as an add-on screen for your Echo, tracking timers and the like. Most notable, though, is all this is a lot cheaper; the previous Fire 10 was $230, and this one will start at $150. Yes, the price dropped by nearly a third. That more or less makes this the best tablet in that price range.
That said, there are trade-offs. The $150 model comes with “special offers” (that is, there are ads) that you can remove with a one-time $15 fee. It also features Amazon’s version of Android, which locks you out from Google’s app ecosystem in favor of Amazon’s, so if you were buying your music via Google Play or iTunes, you’ll be out of luck, unless you want to install a tedious workaround. That said, if you’re heavily invested in Amazon, or just want a large screen for your Amazon media, the Kindle Fire 10 just became a lot more viable.
(via The Verge)