Amazon has refreshed its popular Fire 7 tablet for 2022, giving it a USB-C charging port, a faster processor and double the memory – a significant improvement over the 2019 Fire 7 tablet. These upgrades, along with longer battery life, make this $60 tablet (with ads) a solid choice for those looking for an affordable tablet for consuming media, especially for young children.
I took the tablet with me for a long weekend in place of my iPad and it was great for streaming videos and music on Netflix and Spotify as well as reading my book in the Kindle app. However, don’t expect to do a lot of work or play graphics-rich games on this device like you would on an iPad. It doesn’t have the software, the speed, or the processing capability.
$59.99 on Amazon
The latest Amazon Fire 7 tablet is a great affordable option for kids or anyone who just wants a basic device for reading and watching shows.
The Fire 7 tablet is an ideal content-consuming device for young children, when you need an extra device at home, or when you’re driving or on vacation. At 7 inches, it’s the right size for holding and watching videos, reading, and playing simple games. Although the screen resolution is not HD (1024 x 600), I don’t think kids watching videos on a screen not much bigger than a Pro or Max version of a smartphone will notice or will care a lot. They’ll probably be happy to have their own tablet to watch and not have to share with a sibling.
The Fire 7, although technically an Android tablet, runs on Amazon’s Fire OS 8 software and uses its own Silk browser. Therefore, there is no Google Play Store. You’re limited to the apps available in Amazon’s app store, which isn’t as extensive, so you might be disappointed not to be able to download some of your favorite games or apps. However, most popular social and streaming apps are available. For my weekend, I downloaded the YouTube, Hulu, and Spotify apps from the Amazon Appstore as well as Kindle, Instagram, and Zoom.
They worked fine for the most part, but there were times when there was lag or the screens didn’t load as quickly as I’d hoped. A few times my Kindle app crashed or closed while I was reading my book and I had to reopen the app. It’s not a breach of contract on a $60 device, but not something I’d find acceptable on a more expensive iPad or tablet running the full Android software.
One of the most notable upgrades for the Fire 7 tablet is that Amazon ditched the old Micro USB charging port in favor of the new USB-C type port. Since many of our devices have already made the jump to USB-C, that means one less charging cable to carry with you when you’re on the go. Amazon includes a USB-C charging cable as well as a 5W wall charger in the box, but at 5W it will take about four hours to fully charge the device from scratch, so plan ahead. long journeys.
Battery life has also been improved, with Amazon offering 10 hours of use on a single charge. Individual battery usage will be affected by the apps you use and the amount of streaming you do, but even close to 10 hours is a significant improvement over the previous generation, which promised seven hours. I had no problem listening to music and streaming a video on the train, with plenty of battery to read my book on the Kindle app.
Sustainable and smarter design
Amazon says the Fire Tablet 7 is more durable than the iPad Mini, and while I haven’t dropped or damaged any of these devices (yet!), the Fire Tablet is solid to hold and the construction in plastic with rounded corners seems solid. You can grab a third-party case from Amazon for less than $10.
There is a new button layout on the refreshed Fire 7 tablet which indicates that the device is primarily designed for consuming content. The power and volume buttons have been moved to the top left of the device and the front camera has been moved to the center of the left side of the screen, making it a perfectly centered top camera when shooting. use in a horizontal position. , with the buttons at the top right for easy access. The headphone jack is in the lower right corner.
It’s great for watching videos and video chatting, but I found it a bit awkward when playing in a vertical orientation, only because I had to cross over to the top left to get to the on/off button.
Many parents give their kids volume-limiting headphones to use with a tablet (“Baby Shark” on the loop, anyone?), which are usually wired as opposed to Bluetooth connecting. While you can use Bluetooth to connect, there’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired headphones, which is important now that many iPads have dropped that port. The built-in speaker sounds great for listening to audiobooks or maybe a podcast, but I wouldn’t recommend it for listening to music.
It’s great for kids – and Amazon Prime subscribers
What makes Fire tablets so popular with parents are the free built-in parental controls. Parents can set a password to restrict app purchases and only allow age-appropriate content to be viewed. They can set up and manage individual profiles for everyone who uses the tablet, giving children daily time limits and setting age filters for videos, games and books.
Parents can also subscribe to Kids+, which is a paid Amazon content service with thousands of games, books and apps to keep kids busy on long car or plane trips.
Amazon is also selling a Fire 7 Kids Edition bundle for $109 that includes a kid-proof carrying case with built-in stand, one year of Kids+ subscription, and a two-year worry-free damage insurance plan. If your child accidentally drops the tablet and it breaks, Amazon will replace it.
Amazon Prime subscribers and Alexa users will appreciate how well the tablet integrates with these services, including Prime Video, Kindle, Audible, Amazon Music and Amazon shopping. There’s hands-free support for Alexa; you can ask Alexa to play music and videos, open specific apps, check the weather, access and control smart home devices and more. You can also save photos and videos to the Amazon cloud, although the 2-megapixel camera isn’t what you’ll want to use as your main camera.
If you’re looking for an iPad or Android replacement that works with your favorite productivity apps and games, this isn’t the tablet for you. Since the device runs on Amazon’s version of Android, you won’t be able to download any of the apps from the Google Play Store. That means Google apps like Gmail, Sheets, and Maps aren’t available, as well as the YouTube Kids app, a favorite among parents. A simple search on the Amazon Appstore brought up several apps that appear to be YouTube Kids, but when you search for the developer, you’ll see that it’s not an official YouTube app. User feedback reinforces it. YouTube suggests that parents go directly to the YouTube website using the Silk browser on the Fire tablet.
The App Store offers official Microsoft apps like Outlook, Teams, and Word, but no Photoshop or accounting apps are available.
You also won’t be able to run graphics-intensive games because the CPU simply can’t handle it. Stick to basic games like Roblox and you’ll be fine.
If you’re tech-savvy, you can download Google Play, but we don’t recommend it for most people.
The 2-megapixel front camera is OK for video calls (Zoom, Skype, and Facebook Messenger are available), but don’t expect to take impressive photos with it unless the lighting conditions are perfect. Amazon hasn’t upgraded the previous-gen cameras at all, so if you stick to basic snaps and videos for kids to enjoy, that’s good enough.
The Fire 7 with 16GB of storage is available in black, denim, and pink for $59.99, a $10 price hike over the 2019 version or $79.99 for the 32GB model. You can purchase a Ad-free version for $74.99, but I personally don’t really mind the ads (they only appear on the lock screen and help make the device great value for money). If you need more space, you can add up to 1TB of expandable storage with an optional microSD card.
If you want an inexpensive tablet for streaming videos, music, and reading books, the Fire 7 tablet does the job. 10-hour battery life, boosted processor, and the addition of a USB-C charging port make this tablet a good affordable device for young kids doing simple tasks like reading and streaming content . This is especially true if you are an Amazon Prime member.
If you’re hoping to use more robust apps and play graphics-intensive games, or do any real work on them, you’ll be disappointed. For that, we recommend upgrading to the Fire HD 8 Plus with its faster processor and better screen resolution, which is the current favorite budget option on our best tablets list.