For the past 15 years, you’ve been able to buy a Fire tablet on Amazon. Which Fire tablet? It doesn’t matter: like Kindles, they’re pretty much the same from year to year. The company’s new line of tablets, however, is a major change. Amazon has dropped the Fire brand in favor of Alexa, and the new Alexa tablets are now Google-certified Android devices.
Throughout the history of Fire tablets, Amazon has minimized its use of Android. They ran Android apps from the company’s Appstore platform, but there was no Google integration with “Fire OS.” However, Amazon closed its app store last year. The new Alexa tablets run full-fledged Google-y versions of Android with the Play Store and all the apps you’d expect. This stands in stark contrast to Amazon’s Fire Sticks, which ditched Android for the custom Linux-based Vega operating system.
The Alexa tablet line consists of three devices, all redesigned with aluminum unibody cases. The Alexa Tablet 8 starts at $230 and the Tablet 11 jumps to $330. They run on the budget MediaTek 8189 processor, but it’s still an upgrade over the last generation Fire tablets. Both devices have 16:10 display ratios, better for watching videos, but the flagship tablet is a bit different.
Starting at $500, the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro has a taller 3:2 ratio, ideal for running multiple apps side-by-side. It also offers a matte screen upgrade for $50, and Amazon also sells a keyboard ($150) and stylus ($90) for this device. This device runs on a more powerful MediaTek Dimensity 8400 processor with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The display boasts an impressive 2800 x 1840 resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 500 nits.
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