Amazon Fire 7 (2022) review: An ultra-budget tablet that works best with Prime

Amazon is nearly squeezing the cheap tablet market, in part because of products like the Fire 7.

The tech giant updated the 2019 version of the 7-inch portable tablet to improve speed, battery life, software, and more.

Doing this will also add additional offers to the price. But at £59.99, it’s hard to find more affordable options with more support everywhere.

The assumptions are simple: good design, good performance, and a reasonably priced screen. Ace-in-the-hole is a way to work with the accompanying Prime subscription.

If you’re already a Prime subscriber, the Fire 7 is an affordable and portable way to watch movies and TV shows, read Kindle books, and listen to Amazon music.

It’s not as good as the iPad mini, but it’s still only a fraction of the price.

Amazon has modified the design to bring it closer to the HD 8 and HD 10 tablets. Lower it to reduce the frame. With a 3.5mm headphone jack, you don’t need to use wireless headphones or a USB-C charging port.

The 2 GHz processor is backed up with 2 GB of RAM. So this tablet can handle it. However, if you touch the screen to install it or rotate it and wait for it to finish, there will be a slight delay.

Another thing to note is that there is no automatic brightness, so you have to manually adjust it each time. And while the monaural speakers are capable, they can’t be heard in a very noisy room.

The base level of storage is 16GB (only 9.5GB is actually available), but you can add more using a microSD card.

Fortunately, the Fire 7’s battery life is very good. The charging interval is about 10 hours. This means that it is suitable for long-haul flights and weekend vacations. Considering how portable it is, that’s a huge plus.

In terms of software, the Fire 7 runs on Amazon’s own Fire OS 8.3 built on Android 11. There’s no Google service here, though. You must trust the Amazon Appstore and Amazon Updates.

The app store is much more restricted than Google Play, but you can find some great entertainment apps (Netflix, TikTok, Disney+). There is no YouTube, Chrome or Google Maps.

Of course, this tablet actually exists as an Amazon-based shopping channel. You’ll see a home screen with recommendations for audiobooks, TV shows, or magazines you can buy from Amazon. If that doesn’t sound like your style, you can opt for an iPad instead.

But if you just need a cheap tablet to consume your content and you’re already a prime member, Fire 7 is easy.

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