The Fire 7 looks identical but has some upgrades under the hood. Amazon is updating its small and affordable Fire 7 tablet for the first time in three years.
Its obtaining some crowd-pleasing features: the updated tablet will feature USB-C charging, more reasonable battery life, and faster performance. Amazon is, however, increasing the starting price tag.
Amazon states that the tablets quad-core processor is 30 percent faster and will have 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB. In theory, the extra memory should make it so you can load more web pages at a time, and you wont have to wait around for apps to start back up as often when youre switching between them. The company also says the tablet will last about 40 percent longer between charges, estimating youll be able to do about 10 hours of browsing or video watching.
Of course, the headlining feature is how youll be charging up that battery. The previous Fire 7 featured a micro-USB charging port, but the refresh replaces it with a more modern connection. Amazon also says the tablet is available with a 5W power adapter in the box.
Amazon didnt answer whether that meant every tablet would come with the charging brick or if it would be an add-on option in time for press. The company also didnt immediately clear whether the $59.99 price point was for a tablet version with lock screen ads, the least expensive model of the current Fire 7.
There is one thing missing approximated to the previous version. The latest Fire 7 will only come in three shades black, denim, and rose instead of the four the earlier model was available in. (Sorry, fans of the color green.)
It is more or less the same spec-bump upgrade the Fire HD 8 got in 2020, and its nice to catch that Amazons less expensive tablet is getting the enhancements.
Like the previous years, the tablet will also be available in a Kids edition, which will come with a rugged blue, red, or purple case. As with the earlier version, the tot-focused tablet arrives with a year of Amazons Kids Plus service that includes admission to educational shows and exclusive games. However, its also gotten a price bump. It begins at $109.99 instead of $99.99, but you can now upgrade to 32GB of storage if your child wants to hold a lot of content for long road trips or flights.
Both renditions of the Fire 7 are available to preorder today and start shipping on June 29th. Youll likely want to glance elsewhere if youre looking for a complete powerhouse of a tablet (the entry-level iPad is probably a fine place to start); the Fire 7 should be fine if youre glimpsing for something to play videos, read books, or act as a way to interact with Alexa.