Amazon’s Fire HD 10 does everything you expect a cheap tablet to and nothing more

in recent years, the tablet world has been little more than the iPad world. If you’re looking

for a tablet, it’s very likely that the iPad is the right tablet for you. The iPad’s drop in price to $329 earlier this year strengthened its position even further. But back when the iPad cost $500 or more, there was a burgeoning market of cheap tablets that promised to do all of the iPad things for a lot less money. This was Amazon’s world. Its line of Fire HD tablets were way less expensive than Apple’s devices, and made for good alternatives if you didn’t want to spend the money for an iPad. Amazon never really left the cheap tablet market; you’ve been able to consistently get 7- and 8-inch Fire models for as little as $50 that worked fine as a device for kids or a Kindle replacement that could also play video. But now Amazon has refreshed its larger Fire HD 10 for the first time since 2015, with an upgraded display, faster processor, better sound, and lower price. A lot has changed since the last time the Fire HD 10 was updated — not least of which: the iPad is a lot cheaper now. So, Amazon is tackling that head-on. The HD 10 is much closer in size to the standard iPad, and at $149 to start ($80 less than the 2015 model), it’s less than half the price. (The $149 Fire HD 10 comes with Amazon’s ads on the lock screen; a one-time $15 fee will remove them.) So the obvious question, as always, is: does the Fire HD 10 work well enough to be a compelling alternative to Apple’s tablet, while saving you a good chunk of money? I’ve been testing the new tablet for the past few days, and my response is no. If you want an iPad to do iPad things (video, games, reading, email, etc.) and maybe sit in for a laptop from time to time, you should pony up for an iPad. But that doesn’t make the Fire HD 10 a complete write-off.                                                                https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/11/16453622/amazon-fire-hd-10-2017-tablet-review