Best Amazon Fire Tablet 2023

The Fire Max 11 is a surprisingly good budget tablet that is – as with all Fire tablets – let down by a lack of choice when it comes to which apps you can install. However, if the apps you want are in the Appstore or you are willing to use web apps, it’s the best choice from Amazon’s range despite being the most expensive.

It really looks like an iPad 10.2 and is the only Fire tablet to have a metal body, something that makes it feel more premium. The 11 inch screen is great – especially for watching video – and the speakers aren’t bad either. Cameras are good as well, something you can’t say about other Fire tablets.

With decent performance on top, only the relatively slow charging can be criticised.

Not included in the price but good accessories if you want them are a keyboard case and stylus, both of which are available separately.

The Fire 7 is the smallest in the range with, as you’d guess, a 7in screen. It’s great value, despite the price increase for this new model as it has better battery life (10 hours) and a more convenient USB-C charging port.

The reason you may want to steer clear is because saying that it isn’t hugely powerful is an understatement. Obviously, you shouldn’t expect a lightning-fast tablet for this price and you’ll have to put up with waiting a little longer for apps to load than you’d expect. Basically, it’s the best option for kids because they are unlikely to complain about it… unless you’re buying it to replace a broken iPad, which won’t go down well.

The screen has good colours and good-enough viewing angles, but the low resolution of 1024×600 means it’s not as sharp as the HD 8. Again, this won’t bother kids.

The Fire 7 has hands-free Alexa like its more expensive siblings, which is nice, and this new model has a USB-C charging port that’s much easier to use than the annoying old microUSB. And there’s still a headphone jack.

Remember that you don’t necessarily have to buy the Fire 7 Kids Edition. Even the $59/£59 version comes with the Amazon Kids app that offers great parental controls and there are dozens of free games available in the Appstore that kids will love.

The cameras are poor, but that is a trait of all Amazon Fire tablets, sadly.

The Fire HD 8 is now on its 12th generation. Its screen may be only one inch larger than the Fire 7, but it makes quite the difference. It has a higher resolution of 1280×800, but we wish the screen had been upgraded for this new model – it’s not even full HD.

Cameras are the same on both tablets, but processing power is a little better which means it’s not quite a sluggish. There’s also more RAM (even more in the Plus model), more storage and you can expand that by up to 1TB using a microSD card.

It still isn’t particularly responsive and, of course, everything about the interface and available apps and services is the same. 

The HD 8 has Alexa built-in and the assistant will respond even when the tablet is in standby with the screen off, a bit like one of Amazon’s Echo speakers.

The Plus model costs $20/£20 extra and has wireless charging and works with the optional wireless charging dock to turn the tablet into a sort of Echo Show. This is useful for video calls, music videos and watching Amazon Prime videos. But note that the standard model also has Show Mode, so you only need something to prop it up, and maybe to plug it in to the mains to get the same effect.

As with all three Amazon tablets, there’s a Kids Edition of the Fire HD 8. It comes with a bumper case, year’s subscription to Kids+ and a two-year warranty.

The Fire HD 10 costs a lot more than Amazon’s smaller tablets, but it also gives you a lot more. The 10.1in screen is obviously bigger, but the resolution of 1920×1200 means it has a higher pixel density of 224ppi. That means it looks sharp and – as with its siblings’ – it’s a great screen with vibrant colours and good viewing angles.

It has a faster processor and 3GB of RAM as standard which means it’s more responsive than the cheaper tablets here. There’s also a Plus model available which has 4GB of RAM, wireless charging and, like the HD 8, supports Show Mode that makes it very much like an Amazon Echo Show. 

Charging is via USB-C and the battery lasts for 12 hours. 

Anyone looking for a standard iPad-size tablet shouldn’t be disappointed with the HD 10 considering the $149.99/£149.99 price. And it’s also available in a Fire HD 10 Kids Edition and the Fire Kids Pro for 6-12 year olds for $199.99/£199.99.