4 Best Budget Tablet 2017 Best Budget Tablets To Buy
Some of us don't have much money to spend on a tablet, so here are some of the best budget tablets money can buy in 2017.
1. Nvidia Shield Tablet
Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 review: Now with Android Marshmallow
Ditching superfluous features makes the Shield K1 one of the best sub-£200 Android tablets
When it arrived in 2014, the original Shield was a seriously powerful gaming tablet that packed in a lot of extra value if you happened to own an Nvidia graphics card. Unfortunately, a battery overheating issue forced the company to recall a large number of tablets, and eventually withdraw it from sale completely. The Shield Tablet is now back as the K1, a facelifted version with a battery that won't blow up unexpectedly.
Originally reviewed at £150, the K1 provided fantastic value for money. Unfortunately, source the tablet in 2017 has become somewhat of a task. It is extremely hard to find new, and you'll have to look at buying it used through eBay.
Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 review: K1 vs original Shield
Battery aside, the differences between the K1 and the original Shield Tablet are mostly skin deep. You’d be hard pushed to spot the difference between the two; the K1 has a silver Shield logo on the rear rather than a shiny black one, the edges of the tablet are matte, rather than shiny, and the speaker grilles have a rubberised finish, rather than the plastic seen on the original. The ports, buttons and speakers are all in the same places too.
You don’t get a stylus with the K1, but while gamers are unlikely to miss it, anyone wanting to sketch or take notes can buy Nvidia’s DirectStylus separately for £15. There’s no docking mechanism to store it inside the tablet, however. There’s also no power adaptor in the box, which helps keep costs down. You’re almost guaranteed to have a micro USB cable lying around the house, but unless you have a 2A charger it could take a while to refuel the tablet once it runs out of juice. If you insist on having an Nvidia-branded cable and charger, you can pick up the pair for £18.
There have been a few cost-cutting changes inside, too, simplifying the range by ditching the 4G LTE modem and the 32GB storage option. The K1 is only available in a 16GB, Wi-Fi only configuration. There’s still a microSD card slot for adding extra capacity, and when Android Marshmallow arrives it will be far better at handling external storage than Lollipop is at present.
Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 review: Android Marshmallow
Nvidia's stayed true to its promise of regular Android updates for its Shield devices updating the Shield Tablet K1 to version 6.0 Marshmallow. It was a bit of a tumultuous update process with the company temporarily halting the roll out due to Wi-Fi bugs introduced in an earlier version. The good news is that those problems have seemingly been fixed, so you should expect the update to arrive in due course.
One of the more important updates that Marshmallow brings is better management of external storage. Now when you add a microSD card, the operating system can more effectively integrate it with the internal storage, essentially treating them both as one and the same. On top of this, Nvidia has updated the Camera app with a new design that takes inspiration from Google's Material design language.
Other Marshmallow additions, such as Google Now On Tap, are also now introduced. Importantly, the update also brings with it support for the Vulkan API, which provides more efficient access to the Shield Tablet K1's graphics hardware. There are other plenty of smaller bug and performance fixes, too, including better power management so it's worth checking if the update has been rolled out to your device.
Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 review: Performance
The K1 is almost identical to the original Shield tablet. It has the same Nvidia Tegra K1 quad-core processor running at 2.2GHz, 2GB of RAM and the incredibly fast Kepler SMX GPU, which made the original such a potent gaming machine. The Shield's chip is slightly different to the one found in Google’s Nexus 9, which is dual-core and 64-bit, but in practice there’s little performance difference between the two tablets.
A Peacekeeper browser benchmark score of 1,148 is on par with Samsung’s £400 Galaxy Tab S2, which helps make web browsing feel very fluid and responsive. GeekBench 3 single- and multi-core scores of 1,142 and 3,554 are also among the fastest we’ve seen from an 8in Android tablet, which helps Android 6.0 Marshmallow animate, open apps and multi-task smoothly.
With near-identical hardware, it was no surprise that the K1 turned in almost the exact same battery life score as the original Shield Tablet. At 12 hours 39 minutes, it’s among the better 8in tablets, but still falls slightly behind Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2 and Lenovo Yoga Tab 3, which both managed over 14 hours. Even so, you’ll get a full day of use from the K1, and should manage over five hours when playing graphically intensive games.
Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 review: Gaming
The Kepler GPU is one of the most powerful tablet graphics chips around, so it should come as no surprise that it excelled in the GFXBench GL Manhattan tests. Scores of 1801 (or 29fps) in the onscreen test and 1961 (or 32fps) in the offscreen test are second only to the iPad Air 2. There’s simply no other Android devices that are as fast. It shows in games like Blizzard’s Hearthstone, with battle animations looking incredibly smooth.
As a Shield device, the K1 includes access to Nvidia’s GeForce Now and GameStream services. The former provides unlimited access to 50 PC games, streamed from the cloud to your tablet, for £7.49 a month. The selection is mostly limited to older titles, with newer games like the Witcher 3 available separately at a premium, although they justify the extra cost by including a Good Old Games or Steam key for offline play.
GameStream is the free alternative that uses a PC equipped with an Nvidia graphics card to stream your games library locally over a wireless network. It works brilliantly if you have powerful enough hardware; Nvidia suggests a GeForce GTX 650 or higher desktop graphics card or a GeForce GTX 800M laptop GPU as the minimum for uninterrupted play. A dual-band 802.11n router is also recommended for 1080p streaming. It’s frustrating that Nvidia hasn’t added 802.11ac, but this was missing from the original tablet so it’s not a surprise to find it absent here too.
A controller, like the optional Shield Tablet Wireless Controller (£50, www.ebuyer.com), is essential for serious gaming. It connects via Wi-Fi direct rather than Bluetooth for lower latency, and for up to four-controller multiplayer gaming on a single tablet. The Xbox-style layout makes it ideal for console ports, but the built-in touchpad and volume control buttons are handy for mobile-focused titles too. A headset jack and integrated microphone let you use Android’s voice-operated features too.
Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 review: Display and sound
It appears Nvidia has used the same display panel in the K1 as it did for the original Shield Tablet; both have a 1,920x1,200 resolution and relatively high pixel density of 283ppi. An sRGB colour gamut coverage of 79.2% was above average when the Shield first launched, but in a £150 tablet it’s a very respectable score indeed. Black levels remain rather high at 0.4cd/m2, and a contrast ratio of 823:1 wasn’t particularly high, but an above average maximum brightness of 434cd/m2 gives photos and videos plenty of punch.
Importantly, viewing angles are excellent, and while not earth-shattering, the panel is easily one of the best you’ll get in a £150 Android tablet.
The side-firing stereo speakers are still some of the best we’ve heard from a tablet, producing a clear mid-range and relatively crisp trebles. There’s even some semblance of bass presence, and stereo separation was noticeable in films and TV. You won’t need to reach for a pair of headphones for YouTube or Twitch videos, either, as the speakers are impressively loud.
Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 review: Camera
The 5-megapixel cameras on the front and back produce fairly respectable images outdoors where there’s lots of light. Saturation is reasonable, but they were a little soft. The HDR mode left images looking a little washed-out, and there was still a lack of sharpness. The front-facing camera works surprisingly well indoors and in low light, as would be the most likely situation when streaming game commentary using the Shield’s Twitch integration.
Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 review: Verdict
We loved the Nvidia Shield when it first arrived, and the price cut only makes us love it more. For £150 there’s very little else out there that’s as powerful or as flexible when it comes to gaming. Losing the stylus and power adaptor to significantly lower the price doesn’t make it any less of a bargain, as we didn’t find the stylus very useful and have plenty of USB cables lying around.
The design, while tweaked, can’t compete with the Asus ZenPad S, and many will prefer Google’s Nexus 9 for its 4:3 aspect ratio display, but you’ll have to spend significantly more to get anything better.
Click Here To Learn More About NVIDIA SHIELD K1 - 8-Inch Full HD Tablet (Black) - (192 Core Tegra K1 Processor, Micro SD Card up to Additional 128 GB, 4K Ultra HD Ready)
2. Amazon Fire HD 8 review: 2017 model on the way with Alexa
The Amazon Fire HD 8 sets the standard for budget tablets, but there's a new one on the way
Pros
Fantastic battery life
Superb build quality
Doesn't break the bank
Cons
Rubbish camera
You know that Fire HD 8 tablet we already know and love? Well, It's getting a slight 2017 upgrade. The best thing about it? Alexa is launching as standard.
That voice activated AI assistant will soon be responding to your every beck and call; be it reading you an audio book or telling you the weather. And, because the HD 8 is so cheap, this will be a great budget alternative to Amazon's other Alexa-powered device - the Echo Show.
Other than that, there's little else new. Essentially, it's still the same tablet we're familiar with, from an identical processor to the same 8in 1,280 x 800 resolution screen on the front. Don't expect much else different, which isn't necessarily a bad thing - you can no longer buy the 2016 model after all.
As for pricing, this new Fire HD 8 is £10 cheaper this year too: at £80, and you can pick one up from 7 June.
Amazon Fire HD 8 review: In full
Last year’s Amazon Fire HD 8 was a fairly decent cut-price tablet, but it struggled to stand out against its even cheaper Fire 7 sibling, or indeed Amazon’s larger Fire HD 10. This year, though, Amazon’s revamped its 8in Fire tablet, giving it more storage and more powerful internals.
Whereas last year’s model was hamstrung by just 8GB of storage, the new Fire HD 8 now comes in 16GB and 32GB models, which can be expanded up to 200GB via microSD. There’s also a new quad-core 1.3GHz chip inside, as well as 1.5GB of RAM.
At first glance, it looks a lot like last year’s Fire HD 8. It’s still a relatively chunky piece of kit, weighing 341g, but at least its thick screen bezel comes in one of four funky colours: black, blue, tangerine or magenta. Despite its girth, it feels very robust and well-suited to the rough and tumble of general home life, particularly if you’re considering buying this for a child. It might be fairly basic in terms of design, but considering it costs just £90 for the basic 16GB version (with special offers, mind – it’s £100 if you don't want adverts on your lockscreen), it’s easily one of the better-made tablets I’ve seen in this price range.
Amazon Fire HD 8: Performance and battery life
Start using the Fire HD 8, however, and it’s clear how Amazon’s managed to keep the cost so low. The quad-core 1.3GHz MediaTek MT8163 processor, for example, isn’t particularly quick, although it should serve you well for the most part. With a Geekbench 3 single-core result of 644 and multi-core result of 1,854, it’s not the best out there, but menu transitions were reasonably smooth, and general navigation didn’t present any major hiccups.
It’s not particularly well equipped for dealing with high-intensity games, though, only managing an average of 7.1fps in GFXBench GL’s onscreen Manhattan 3 test. However, simpler games such as Threes and Temple Run ran perfectly fine, so you should still be able to get in a bit of gaming to while away a long car journey.
Web browsing was reasonably smooth, too, but I saw some noticeable performance dips when scrolling through particularly media-heavy web pages, such as The Guardian. That’s not hugely surprising given its Peacekeeper browser performance score of 568, although it’s certainly not the worst score I’ve seen.
Where the Fire HD 8 really shines, though, is battery life. Setting the screen brightness to our predefined measurement of 170cd/m2, the Fire HD 8 managed 13hrs 4mins of continuous video playback, which is hugely impressive. It’s by far the longest-lasting Fire tablet we’ve seen, surpassing both the Fire HD 10 and Fire 7 by around four hours.
Amazon Fire HD 8: Display
At £90, the Fire HD 8 was never going to have an award-winning screen, so its underwhelming 66% sRGB colour gamut coverage isn’t wholly unexpected. It’s quite a low score, sitting well behind the MediaPad M3 and Iconia Tab 10, but colours were, on the whole, reasonably well balanced and images were neither too warm or too cool, so it’s not quite as disastrous as it might first appear.
Likewise, its 1,280 x 800 resolution might not sound like much, but text is still reasonably crisp and easy to read, and its contrast ratio of 968:1 helps texts stand out against lighter backgrounds. It’s exceedingly bright, too, hitting a high of 455cd/m2. That’s more than enough for using outside, and I was able to see the screen clearly even in the relentless autumn sunshine.
Amazon Fire HD 8: Camera
One thing you won’t be using the Fire HD 8 for is photography. Its 2-megapixel rear camera is a rather token effort from Amazon, and outdoor shots showed a serious lack of detail. Colours were washed out, too, and grain was evident throughout. Turning on HDR makes things even worse, thanks in no small part to the lengthy amount of time it needs to take an image.
There’s no rear flash either, making dark indoor shots near impossible to make out. You’ll have to rely solely on natural light when taking family snaps indoors, but even if you do manage to find good lighting conditions, the Fire HD 8’s high noise levels mean you’d simply be better off using your smartphone.
Amazon Fire HD 8: Fire OS
Like the rest of Amazon’s tablet lineup, the Fire HD 8 runs Amazon’s Fire OS, which is based on Android. It’s not quite as flexible as your typical Android tablet since you’re tied into using Amazon’s dedicated app store, as well as most of its own services such as Amazon Music, Audible audiobooks and Amazon Photos when it comes to media consumption. As a result, anyone knee-deep in an Amazon Prime subscription will probably benefit greatly, but non-Prime customers or those less familiar with Amazon’s services may not find it so open or inviting.
Either way, Fire OS 5.0 is certainly much easier to use compared to previous versions of the OS, as its awkward carousel layout has now been replaced by a more traditional grid system. You still have dedicated tabs such as Home, Books, Video and Games, which also advertise other recommended products to you, but I didn’t find it particularly intrusive. More irksome were the constant barrage of adverts on the lock screen, which I found very irritating each time I turned it on. You might not find this particularly bothersome, but I’d much rather pay an extra £10 to get the ‘Without Special Offers’ version of this tablet and never see them ever again.
We might be seeing proper Alexa integration in the near future, too - Amazon’s cloud-based voice assistant service that can answer questions and perform certain functions every time you bark commands at it. It won’t be always listening for a trigger word like the Amazon Echo, but an upcoming OTA update will eventually allow you to press and hold down the home button to enable voice commands, so I’ll update this review with my impressions as soon as it’s available.
Amazon Fire HD 8: Verdict
Despite its shortfalls, Amazon’s latest Fire HD 8 tablet is quite the tablet. At just £90 for the basic 16GB version, its excellent battery life, superb build quality and decent performance make it a great choice for those looking to save a bit of money, and it’s a particularly good choice for kids. It has its shortcomings, but at this price, you’d be hard-pushed to find a better value Android tablet for less. It wins a Recommended award.
Find Here To Read More About Fire HD 8 Tablet, 8" HD Display, Wi-Fi, 16 GB (Black) - Includes Special Offers
3. Acer Iconia Tab 10 (A3-A40) review: A great Android tablet for under £200
Perfect for Netflix, the Acer Iconia Tab 10 is a decent budget tablet purchase
With fewer tablets hitting our shelves year-on-year there’s less choice than ever for consumers who only want a slate and nothing else. Acer hasn’t yet forgotten that Android tablets are still a thing, however, and despite the doldrums the market finds itself in, the company keeps releasing new products. Its latest is the Iconia Tab 10, first launched last year, which gets a significant upgrade for 2016.
The design has been completely overhauled. It’s no longer the basic featureless tablet of 2015, with eye-catching bronze detailing and a textured back for extra grip. It really looks the part and at first glance, it looks like a premium product instead of the £150 budget tablet it really is.
Get your hands on it, though, and you start to notice some flaws. It’s much flimsier than I expected it to be, with the thin plastic housing flexing and bending unnervingly when put under even the slightest bit of pressure. This might not be the best product to hand over to your kids, unless it’s clad in a fairly rugged protective case.
It does have a decent selection of ports and connections, though. There’s Micro USB for charging and data transfer, a 3.5mm headset jack, and a microSD slot for expanding the 32GB of onboard storage, while a Micro-HDMI port hides beneath a curious chromed flap on the top edge. Wireless connectivity runs to 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
Display
Typically, budget tablet manufacturers sacrifice screen resolution and overall picture quality in an effort to bring the cost down. The Tab 10 bucks that trend and has a reasonably impressive 10.1in 1,920 x 1,200 IPS screen, which is capable of displaying 80.3% of the sRGB colour gamut.
Compare this with the Alba tablet’s 76.4% and the EE Jay’s 67.6%, and the Acer is the clear winner, even if contrast ratio isn’t quite up to scratch at 634:1. Likewise, viewing angles are decent, and with a maximum brightness of 255cd/m2 it’s useable in most indoor lighting conditions; I’d stick to the shade if you want to use it in the garden, though.
Speakers
The Tab 10’s other main strength is its quad front-facing DTS-HD speaker system, and for a device like an Android tablet that exists primarily for media consumption, that’s important. In practice, I found sound quality was wonderfully crisp and very clear overall.
The volume isn’t anything to write home about, but this shouldn’t be too much of a problem given you’re going to be holding it quite close for the most part, and although there isn’t a lot of weight to the sound, the Tab 10 isn’t unusual in this respect. Either way, it makes for a great Netflix streaming device, which is exactly what you want in a tablet of this size and price.
Performance and battery life
Running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the Intel Atom processor found in last year’s Iconia Tab 10 has been set aside and replaced with a speedier 1.5GHz Mediatek MT8163 processor. It’s paired with 2GB of RAM.
This doesn’t look all that impressive, and it delivers the performance you’d expect from a tablet in this price bracket. A Peacekeeper score of 659 is acceptable, and even a touch faster than its rival the Alba 10in (it scored 547). I wasn’t able to run the GeekBench 3 test as it crashed every time I ran it; a quick hunt around the web, however, indicates that you should expect scores of around 1,900 in the multi-core test and 650 in the single-core test.
Those numbers would put it slightly in front of its key budget rivals, the Alba 10in and EE Jay, and in general use the Iconia Tab 10 is reasonably responsive.
What it isn’t, however, is a great tablet for gaming. It rendered only 184 frames in GFXBench GL’s onscreen Manhattan 3.0 test for an average frame rate of 3fps, and although it will comfortably run simpler games such as Angry Birds 2 and Hearthstone, you only have to load up something a little more demanding, such as Sky Force Reloaded to see lots of stuttering and frame dropping.
Last but not least, the Tab 10’s battery life was also disappointing, with its 6,100mAh battery lasting a mere 6hrs 26mins in our continuous video playback test with the screen set to a brightness level of 170cd/m2. That’s in line with the EE Jay, but a long way behind the Alba 10inch’s 11hrs 31mins.
Conclusion
Acer has done a decent job with its latest shot at the budget tablet market, notwithstanding the cheap-feeling build and mediocre overall performance.
The full HD display and quad speakers are excellent, making it a great device to watch movies and TV on the go. It looks quite nice as well, as long as bronze and brown is your thing. In short, if £150 is all you’re willing to spend, the Acer Iconia Tab 10 is a decent choice, just don’t expect it to play advanced games.
To Learn More About Acer Iconia Tab 10 (A3-A40) 10.1 inch Full HD IPS Touchscreen Tablet (MT Cortex A53 Quad-Core, 2GB RAM, 32GB Storage, DTS-HD Premium Sound, WLAN, BT, 2x Camera, HDMI, Micro SD, Android 6.0) - Black/Gold Click Here.
4. Amazon Fire tablet review: 2017 upgrade on the way
The Amazon Fire tablet has been upgraded for 2017, and it now has Alexa support
Pros
Super cheap
A great choice for kids
Cons
Sluggish performance
News: Amazon Fire tablet gets Alexa support
Good news! That Amazon Fire tablet we already know and love, has seen a 2017 upgrade. The best part about it? Alexa comes as standard, straight out of the box.
It's a feature we've been asking for for a while, and while this new 2017 Fire tablet doesn't seem to improve much else, Alexa looks to be well worth the upgrade. This may be a great, cheap alternative to that other Amazon device they've only just announced - the Echo Show.
Now, it's basically the same tablet through and through - which is good considering the 2016 model is no longer available. Pre-orders are already live, and you'll be able to pick up the 2017 Amazon Fire tablet on 7 June for £40. Expect my updated Amazon Fire tablet review in due course.
Amazon Fire tablet review
Amazon might be primarily known for internet shopping, but it also produces some of the best tablets and e-readers you can buy – and the brand-new Amazon Fire continues the trend. Previously called the Amazon Kindle Fire, the new Amazon Fire comes with a doubled-up 16GB of storage, and costs only £10 more than the original, 8GB version of the Amazon tablet. Oh, and it also adds some fresh new colours to the back of the tablet for more colour. So, it may be cheap and colourful, but is it worth buying? Read our in-depth review of the 2015 Amazon Fire tablet to find out.
Amazon Fire tablet review: Performance
When the tablet launched, it shipped with just 8GB of storage, although there was a microSD slot to upgrade storage space. This is handy, particularly as a 32GB microSD card can be bought for less than £10. Ultimately, twice the storage for £10 more is worth it, and 16GB is enough storage for light use and web browsing, whereas 8GB is really not enough.
Start using the Fire, however, and it’s clear to see how Amazon has been able to make it so cheap. There might be a quad-core processor running at 1.3GHz, but it’s beyond sluggish. In Peacekeeper, a test of browser performance, the Fire could only manage a pitiful 283 – easily the worst score of any tablet Expert Reviews saw in 2015, and a quarter of what Tesco’s £100 Hudl 2 is capable of. Even the three-year-old Nexus 7 managed over 100 points more overall. This translates to choppy scrolling, particularly on media-heavy web pages, with lots of re-draws if you have multiple tabs open at once. It doesn’t help that you’re forced to use Silk, Amazon’s own web browser, as Google apps such as Chrome aren’t available. It has most of the features you would expect, but performance doesn’t come close.
Everyday performance suffers on account of the underpowered chipset too. Geekbench single- and multi-core results of 356 and 1,143 respectively are among the lowest scores seen from a 2015 device, again falling behind the Hudl 2. Loading even simple apps can take several seconds, as will opening the Recent menu or returning to the homescreen. At first it’s easy to think you simply didn’t tap the right place onscreen, but after a while it’s clear the device simply can’t keep up with your inputs. Once you’re in apps things are mostly smooth, but animations and transitions are still disappointingly choppy.
Unsurprisingly, it’s a similar story when it comes to graphics. The Fire refused to run GFXBench at all, and effects-heavy games such as Blizzard’s Hearthstone stutter dramatically during gameplay. Simply drawing a card from your hand can cause slowdown at times, so this certainly won’t be the device to play 3D titles such as Grand Theft Auto III. Less-demanding 2D games will be smoother, but you’ll still have to wait a while for them to load.
At least battery life isn’t abysmal. With the screen brightness set to 170cd/m2, the Fire managed 8hrs 43mins of video playback. This is about average for a 7in tablet, so for general use you should be able to last a full day away from home without having to reach for a mains socket.
Amazon Fire tablet review: Design
In addition to more memory, Amazon has also introduced magenta, tangerine and blue colours. They're nice and bright, and certainly look much more fun than the traditional black version. This may be important if you're planning on buying a tablet for a child. While it's good to see these changes, they don't materially change my opinion of the tablet or affect its performance, as you can see from the rest of my review.
It doesn’t even look bargain-basement when you take it out of the box. Yes, the screen bezels are a little on the chunky side, and it’s surprisingly heavy given the size, but otherwise it’s actually not bad at all. The matt plastic finish on the back is actually preferable to the glossy fingerprint magnet on the back of the Fire HD 10.
Amazon Fire tablet review: Display & Camera
The Fire was never going to have an amazing screen, given its bargain-basement price, so in many ways a meagre 59.3% sRGB colour gamut coverage isn't surprising. It’s easily one of the lowest scores seen from a tablet, and twenty percent behind the Hudl 2. It’s a similar story in our other objective tests, with a fairly average maximum brightness of 330.2cd/m2 and a rather high 0.34cd/m2 black level that leaves darker images looking rather grey and milky. A contrast ratio of 959:1 isn’t terrible, however; it means images and video have a surprising amount of depth, even if the colours aren’t very accurate. Subjectively, the screen looks very grainy, and while viewing angles are respectable, the very low 1,024 x 600 resolution makes text look blocky and difficult to read in smaller fonts.
It doesn't exactly paint photos taken with the 2-megapixel rear camera in the best light, but then the sensor is fairly atrocious anyway. Outdoors, images are seriously lacking in detail and colours look very washed out. Everything appears incredibly grainy and zooming into any photo reveals noise and artefacts. There is an HDR mode, but it takes around a second to capture an image, making camera shake something of an issue, and the results aren't any more lifelike than photos taken with HDR disabled.
Unsurprisingly there's no flash, so you're reliant on natural light when shooting indoors. As soon as you dim the lights, noise levels fly through the roof and details plummet. It struggled to find any texture in the Expert Reviews still life when the lamps were switched off, leaving massive parts of the image in shadow. With the lights on results were a little better, but basically any modern smartphone will have a superior camera sensor.
Software: FireOS
Amazon’s custom version of Android has always divided users; anyone heavily invested in the Amazon ecosystem can appreciate having quick access to their eBooks, music, video and cloud storage, but the lack of Google Play and apps that other Android users take for granted are deal-breakers for many others. Now that Amazon has switched to Android 5.0 Lollipop, it has found a sensible middle ground between the familiar Android UI and its own layout, which makes the whole tablet much more user-friendly.
The old carousel style home screen has gone, replaced with a much more familiar app grid layout that makes finding third party apps much easier. Each Amazon service still has its own dedicated home screen, just a swipe or two to the left or right. If you have a Prime subscription it’s a great way to access instant video content or Prime music, and Kindle owners will have instant access to their books through the Cloud library.
That being said, there are still some glaring omissions in terms of app support, most notably Gmail, YouTube and Google Drive, and Amazon’s app store still has a long way to go to match the selection available from Google Play.
There might only be 8GB of storage on board (16GB with the more expensive option), but that small amount can be forgiven in such a cheap tablet – particularly when the Fire has a microSD slot for adding extra capacity at a later date. Otherwise, there are no other ports, beyond a 3.5mm audio jack, meaning you’ll have to rely on a Fire TV or Fire TV stick for sharing content to a bigger screen.
Amazon Fire tablet review: Verdict
With such an incredibly low price, the Fire doesn’t really have any competition. The closest match would be the Tesco Hudl 2, which costs twice the price. If you’re looking for a cheap tablet to give to your children, Amazon’s own Kids Edition Fire also costs £100, but includes a heavy-duty protective rubber case and two-year worry-free guarantee, arguably making it better value for cautious parents. The new Fire makes sense for anyone looking for a first tablet, though, or a cheap second device for travel, university or for keeping in the kitchen, as long as you’re aware of its limitations.
To Read More About Fire Tablet, 7" Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB (Black) - Includes Special Offers Find Here.
