Amazon’s new Fire 7 Tablet in pink.
Amazon
After a long three-year run, Amazon is finally updating its entry-level Fire 7 tablet with a small price increase. For $10 more at $59.99, the Fire 7 2022 gets a faster processor, stretches the battery life to 10 hours, and finally uses a universal USB-C port.
If you’re interested in a low-cost tablet for web browsing, video calls, content consumption, and tons of social media, Amazon is taking preorders for the all-new Fire 7. It starts at $59.99 and comes in black, blue, or pink. The new Fire 7 will also begin shipping on June 29, 2022.
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Amazon Fire 7 Tablet: What You Need to KnowAs the name suggests, the Fire 7 features a 7-inch touchscreen with big bezels. Weighing in at just 9.9-ounces, it’s slightly lighter than the previous gen, which weighed in at 10.01-ounces. Like the previous generation and other Fire tablets, Amazon opted for a plastic build, and 35% of the Fire 7 uses post-consumer recycled plastics.
The Fire 7 runs a heavily customized version of Android called FireOS. On it, you’ll sign in with your Amazon account, see a myriad of preloaded apps and use the Amazon App Store to download third-party ones. While it’s built on Android, you won’t have access to the Google Play store here. Rest assured, though, big name apps like TikTok, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Twitter, and countless others have counterparts in the store.
Powering all of this will be a quad-core processor (clocked at 2.0GHz) and 2GBs of RAM. Amazon says it is up to 30% faster than the previous version, which featured a 1.3GHz quad-core processor and just 1GB of RAM. This processor is identical to the Fire HD 8 tablet ($89.99; amazon.com).
So what does this all mean? The Fire 7 is likely best used as an entry-level tablet for more simple tasks; think web browsing, e-reading, streaming video, and light gaming. Those looking for a work machine likely won’t be best served by Amazon’s offering and will want to look at an iPad or another Android tablet.
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The good news is that this faster — and likely more efficient — processor also extends the battery life to as long as 10 hours. You’ll recharge the Fire 7 through a USB-C port, which might be the best addition since it replaces an aging, micro USB port. And the Fire 7 sticks with a 2-megapixel front facing camera and the same lens on the back for 720p HD recording.
Lastly, the Fire 7 comes with 16GB or 32GB of internal storage plus a microSD card slot for expansion. It sticks with a single mono speaker and keeps a headphone jack. The starting $59.99 price includes “Lockscreen Ads,” which means you’ll see advertisements on your lock screen. You can pay to remove these in the future or spend $74.99 to get a Fire 7 out of the box with no lock screen ads. Either way, you also get a 90-day warranty included.
Amazon Fire 7 Kids Tablet: What You Need to KnowIf you’re shopping for a child, Amazon’s also upgrading the Fire 7 Kids. It takes the same hardware as the standard edition, swaps in a user interface designed for kids, a year of Amazon Kids+, an Amazon Kid-Proof Case, and a 2-year warranty. Basically, it is a tablet that is safe for kids to use with plenty of content and a guarantee to swap it out if the screen breaks.
It also costs a bit more — Fire 7 Kids comes in blue, purple, or red and starts at $109.99 for the 16GB or $129.99 for 32GB. And when the time comes, you can take it out of the kid-proof case and engage the standard FireOS interface.
If you’re new to Amazon Kids+ — a service that gives you access to safe apps and content for kids — you’ll get a year free. Otherwise, it will be $2.99 a month. The only other feature we’ll call out is a parental control dashboard that is intuitive to use for parents. This way, you can authorize and specify what your child has access to on the device.
Let’s RecapAfter three years, it’s nice to see Amazon delivering a few quality of life updates to its entry-level tablet. For $60, you’re likely getting a gadget fit for streaming, video calls, web-browsing, and even some lighting game.
We’re eager to go hands-on with the Fire 7 closer to its official launch date of June 29th, but there’s likely a good amount of value here.
The Fire 7 and Fire 7 Kids tablets are up for preorder at $59.99 (starting) and $109.99 (starting) from Amazon.
Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.