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Tablets are an interesting thing. Depending on the brand, and budget, their capabilities and enjoyment can vary widely.

Review: New 2021 Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet

It’s been just over two years since I last reviewed Amazon’s Fire HD 10 tablet. Since then Amazon’s been working on some improvements to this walletfriendly tablet. In this review of the all new for 2021 Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet (technically the 11th generation), I’ll look at what’s been improved and if it’s noticeable, how well the tablet works overall and whether I can recommend it for you.

What’s new for 2021?

The tablet looks much the same as it did a couple years ago, and most of the improvements are found on the inside:

New split screen option to show two compatible apps sidebyside for multitasking
More powerful octacore 2.0 GHz processor and 3GB RAM, with 50% more RAM than the previous generation
10.1”, 1080p Full HD display is 10% brighter than previous generation with more than 2 million pixels.
Improved battery life, up from 10 hours on previous generation to 12 hours now.
Front facing camera has been improved: now a 2mp camera
Dedicated kids version available

Style & aesthetics
I hate to say it, but this tablet does feel like a budget tablet. It feels light, hollow, it’s kind of fat (more so if you add a case) and can even lean towards cheap. But with that said, it seems fairly durable, and the screen is large and bright. This is not a showy tablet, it’s definitely more a workhorse; think of it as a Jeep where some other brands could be Porsches.

Even so, once you get past the looks, this is a pretty powerful and versatile tablet, and you're definitely not buying it because of the looks anyway, right? If you're getting this tablet you're buying it because it's inexpensive, and has most of what you're looking for for either home, school, or work.

Speed: Is new Fire HD 10 faster?

Some have complained the Fire tablets are laggy, and to be honest, past versions have been. So I renewed a comparison I did last time where I compared the old Fire HD 10 and the Fire 8 with to my Apple iPad Pro to see how long it takes to open apps:

Prime Video: 3 seconds on Fire HD 8, 12 seconds on Previous gen Fire HD 10: 12 seconds, 34 seconds on new 2021 Fire HD 10
Netflix: 6 seconds on Fire HD 8, 2 seconds on Previous Gen Fire HD 10, instant on iPad
Calendar: 2 seconds on Fire HD 8, 1 second on Previous gen Fire HD 10, instant on iPad, 1 second on new 2021 Fire HD 10
Silk Browser: 10 seconds on Fire 8, 4 seconds on previous gen Fire HD 10, instant on Safari, 3 seconds on on new 2021 Fire HD 10

I didn’t really find the new 2021 Fire HD tablet to be noticeably faster.

Available apps & games

This tablet is loaded with apps and productivity tools, and there’s even an option to get oneyear subscription to Microsoft software bundle Microsoft 365 Personal if you also purchase they keyboard.

On the new for 2021 Fire HD 1 there's a web browser called Silk, email, maps, contacts, calendar, calculator, docs, weather and more. If you want to have much of the functionality of a small tablet computer, this device will definitely put it all right in front of you.

Of course a big draw will also be the Kindle app for reading books. Once signed in, you’ll have access to your full library without having to redownload them all again.

Obviously the Amazon App Store comes loaded onto the tablet so you can download other apps you might want, but the Google Play store is not available for those that are wondering.

I quickly added Spotify, YouTube, Netflix, Instagram, Twitter, Google Keep (I LOVE this organizer and note keeper) and a few others. I found many of the daily apps I use on my iPhone are also available in Amazon's app store, so that was a nice surprise.

Does Canada get audible yet?

Disappointingly, (and I noted this two years ago) Audible for audio books is still not available in Canada, so using that app is still a not possible.

Also, I still can’t see tools like Canadian banking apps, or Canadian News apps, but there are a bunch of US news apps.

Someone on my Instagram feed at @ErinLYYC asked me about Fortnight and a quick search of the Canadian app store shows it’s not there either.

Camera & photography

I think cameras on tablets are mostly superfluous… I'm almost never carrying around my tablet when I want to take a picture, but with that said, more and more people are using their tablets for video calling, so an improvement to the frontfacing camera seems to make sense.

You can use Amazon’s Alexa app for video calling, or chat with anyone who has an Echo Show