Amazon Fire Tablet Review: Yes, You Can Buy a Usable Tablet for Under $50

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The Amazon (AMZN) Fire Tablet costs just $49.99 or, if you’re willing to pick up a six-pack, under $42 a pop.

Amazon Fire Tablet Review: Yes, You Can Buy a Usable Tablet for Under $50

Source: Amazon

That’s for a 7-inch tablet with a full-color display, seven-hour battery life, dual cameras and the ability to run apps.

In contrast, Amazon’s least expensive Kindle — a 6-inch, monochrome e-reader — costs $79.99 and Apple’s (AAPL) cheapest tablet (the two-year-old iPad Mini 2) starts at $269. Heck, according to IHS Technology’s teardown, the display alone on the iPad Air 2 costs Apple $77.

One obvious question is: How on Earth does Amazon manage to manufacture and sell a tablet for under $50?

We’re not touching that one today. This is all about the second obvious question: Is the Amazon Fire tablet actually usable?

Read our Fire tablet review to find out.

Amazon Fire Tablet Review: The Good

Amazon Fire Tablet Review: The Good

Source: Amazon

Surprisingly, there’s a lot to like about the new Amazon Fire tablet.

Build quality is decent. It feels solid, the plastic case is well rounded with no poorly finished seams or sharp edges and the bezel surrounding the 7-inch display isn’t huge.

The 7-inch IPS LCD display may not be HD (what do you expect for under $50?), but it doesn’t look terrible. In fact, it doesn’t look bad at all. We’ve seen cheap LCD panels in Chromebooks, and while those are often dim and washed-out looking, the Amazon Fire tablet is much better. It’s nowhere near as saturated as an iPad display, but using it doesn’t amount to visual torture.

The MediaTek (MDTKF) quad-core CPU and Amazon’s Fire OS combine for a reasonably snappy user experience. There is a slight pause while apps launch, and bringing up the virtual keyboard takes a microsecond longer than you might be used to, but even demanding games like racers run smoothly on the Amazon Fire.

In a welcome surprise, the battery (which Amazon rates at “up to seven hours” of use) actually lasted closer to nine hours in use.

Finally, while built-in storage is limited to 8GB (less when you factor the operating system in), the Amazon Fire has a microSD card slot for expansion. A 128GB microSD card may cost as much as the tablet itself or more, but it’s still a cheap way to get loads of storage.

Amazon Fire Tablet Review: The Bad

Amazon Fire Tablet Review: The Bad

Source: Amazon

It’s hard to use the word “bad” when talking about a $50 tablet — where user expectations are already as low as they can get — but there are areas where the Amazon Fire has obvious compromises.

While the display looks much better than expected, you can still see individual pixels, and that relatively low resolution will bug some people who want to use this as an e-reader.

Wi-Fi is limited to 802.11b/g/n so you won’t see the speed of 802.11ac downloads. It’s not like you’re going to try streaming 4K video on a sub-HD display, but it does mean some web pages won’t load quite as quickly and apps will take a bit longer to download.

While it’s great that Amazon managed to put not one, but two cameras in this thing, at VGA and 2MP resolution, they don’t take good photos.

The speaker is also basically an afterthought. It’s there, but you’ll be much happier using headphones.

It’s an Amazon Fire, which means you’re locked into Fire OS and the Amazon App Store. Alphabet’s (GOOG,GOOGL) Google Play is off limits.

Finally, to get the Amazon Fire tablet at under $50, you have to agree to Amazon’s “Special Offers,” which means advertising on the lock screen.

Amazon Fire Tablet Review: Specs

Amazon Fire Tablet Review: Specs

Source: Amazon

  • 7-inch IPS LCD touchscreen at 1024 x 600 resolution
  • Quad-core MediaTek CPU @ 1.3GHz with 1GB RAM
  • 8GB storage, microSD card expansion slot
  • microUSB 2.0
  • 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
  • VGA camera, primary 2.0MP camera
  • 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, integrated speaker
  • Battery rated at up to seven hours mixed use
  • Black plastic case (7.5 x 4.5 x 0.4-inches, 11.0 ounces)
  • Runs Fire OS 5 “Bellini”
  • MSRP: $49.99 with special offers

Amazon Fire Tablet Review: Conclusion

Amazon Fire Tablet Review: Conclusion

Source: Amazon

You would be hard pressed to find anyone who would rather be using the new Amazon Fire tablet than an iPad Mini 4.

But at $399 for Apple’s latest compact tablet, you could buy a six-pack of Amazon Fire tablets (one for every person in the family and maybe a spare or two) and still have enough left over to buy a new Fire TV Gaming bundle for the living room.

What makes this especially interesting is the fact that Amazon’s $50 tablet is actually usable. You’re not buying a six-pack of coasters.

We all know Amazon’s mode of operation with hardware. No need to make a profit, just get it into people’s hands and make your money when they start buying gear from amazon.com, buying e-books and apps or signing up for streaming music and video.

But at prices as low as $42 (in quantity) while offering a perfectly usable tablet experience, it does make one wonder how long companies like Apple will be able to continue justifying their premium pricing?

Expect AMZN to move a lot of Amazon Fires over the holiday season and if you’re in the market for a compact, casual-use tablet, you should consider one too.

It’s not like you have much to lose by buying one.

As of this writing, Robert Martin did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2015/11/amazon-fire-review-amzn/.

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