When you think of Amazon hardware, premium design and powerful performance probably aren’t the first things that come to mind.
Its Kindles and Fire tablets have typically prioritised affordability above all else – and while that formula has worked, it hasn’t produced the most exciting tech around.
That looks set to change with Amazon’s latest hardware. Its new Kindles and rebranded Alexa tablets are sleeker, smarter and considerably more capable than their predecessors – and although they come with higher price tags to match, I’m surprisingly okay with that.
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The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is the first Amazon tablet I actually want to use
Amazon has been making Fire HD tablets for years, and they’re fine for those that need a cheap tablet for watching videos and keeping the kids entertained – but let’s be honest, they’ve never been that good for much else.
The meagre processor and hardware combination meant they could never really power games beyond basic titles like Candy Crush, and then there was app availability. Despite running on a custom version of Android, Amazon included its own Appstore in place of the vastly more popular Google Play. It had some popular apps, but there was a lot that it didn’t have. You could, of course, sideload apps, but Amazon has been clamping down on that of late.
So when Amazon announced the rebranded Alexa Tablet collection earlier this week, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.
The headline option is, of course, the new Alexa Tablet 12 Pro; it features a 12-inch 120Hz screen with an optional nanomatte anti-glare screen that should do a great job of dissipating reflections – much like Apple’s top-end iPhone Duo. Amazon has further leant into this by including a special reading mode that activates when accessing the Kindle app, making it a pretty competent big-screen e-reader replacement.
It’s also a day-and-night upgrade in the performance department compared to the outgoing Fire HD tablets, sporting a MediaTek Dimensity 8400 chipset that should be more than enough to play even challenging mobile games.
Crucially, it comes with proper, full-fat Android and access to Google Play, with no restrictions on what you can download on the tablet. That in itself is a gamechanger for Amazon’s tablets; the other upgrades are just the icing on what is now a very tempting cake.
It turns Amazon’s tablets from something fine for casual movie-watching to something that could feasibly compete with Apple’s entry-level iPad – especially when paired with the optional stylus and POGO-connected keyboard for boosted productivity. I never thought I’d be saying that about an Amazon-produced tablet.
Now that’s the all-singing, all-dancing top-end model, but there are also more affordable options with the Alexa Tablet 11 and Tablet 8. While these drop premium features like the 120Hz refresh rate, Dimensity power and the matte finish, they should still offer a much better experience with full Android than what came before. An all-round win, really.
I’ve been a fan of Kindles for years; in my mind, they just make sense.
They’re relatively cheap, hold thousands of books, and combined with my Kindle Unlimited subscription, there’s a library of millions of titles for me to read. Yes, I could’ve gone down the Kobo route, or more recently, something like a Boox, but for me, nothing beats the range of books and convenience that the Kindle offers.
That said, I’m very much a bog-standard Kindle kind of guy; you won’t see me splashing out for high-end models like the Colorsoft. My current Kindle is the entry-level model – with ads – from 2022, and it still perfectly suits my needs.
So colour me surprised when I saw the upgraded Kindles last and felt a yearning, not for the entry-level 2026 model but the more premium model. Why? I can’t say for sure, but I think it has a lot to do with the aluminium body.
My main problem with my current Kindle is that it’s showing its age – badly. The cheap, plastic body is marred with scratches and scuffs, it’s cracked in one corner, and there’s a split bit of plastic just to the left of the screen. I actually fidget with it when I read, which probably doesn’t help, but y’know. It’s there, so I’m going to fidget. It got to the point where I ended up covering the rear of my Kindle in stickers, just to help keep it together.
An aluminium frame though? I wouldn’t have most of those problems right now. Yes, it’d still be scuffed and probably scratched given how I just throw my Kindle into my bag, but it wouldn’t be falling apart like my plastic-framed Kindle is right now.
And, let’s be honest, the cool touch of aluminium will feel miles better than the warm touch of plastic. Does it make an actual difference to the reading experience? No, but it’d definitely feel nicer to hold over longer periods – especially combined with its overall slimmer dimensions and the gorgeous green and blue colour options.
I also think it has a lot to do with the new magnetic case; not just for protecting the Kindle, but because it adds a physical page-turning button. It’s a simple addition, yes, but as someone who loved the experience of physical button-clad Kindles of yesteryear, it’s something I want. Badly. And I can’t remember the last time I thought that about a Kindle.
A little bit of Panay magic?
The big question is, what triggered these massive hardware upgrades? Amazon has been releasing budget-friendly Kindles and Fire HD tablets for years, and they’ve, for the most part, followed the exact same formula.
There are, of course, plenty of factors that influence decisions like this, but I can’t help but feel that ex-Microsoft boss Panos Panay played a big role in the transformation we’re currently seeing.
Panay was the guy at Microsoft; the former Chief Product Officer not only presented at Microsoft announcements with a very, let’s say, unique style, but he headed up Windows 11 and birthed the entire Microsoft Surface line. That’s quite a pedigree, and likely why Amazon snapped him up back in 2023 to replace then-outgoing hardware chief Dave Limp.
At Amazon, Panos now looks after much of Amazon’s hardware, including, yep, you guessed it, the Alexa tablets, Kindles and Ring hardware, alongside Blink, Fire TV, Echo and Alexa itself.
You could argue that we would’ve seen his influence before now, having been there for approaching four years, but as with all tech releases, these things take time to develop. That gap, in my mind, sounds about right, and the higher-end aesthetic definitely fits with the Microsoft Surface ethos that he spearheaded.
The end of Amazon’s truly budget tech – but its hands were likely tied
Now the caveat to the introduction of all this higher-end hardware is that prices have risen, in places, quite substantially. The aluminium-finished Kindle, for example, costs £169/$189, when the plastic-backed alternative from 2024 cost just £94/$109.
But of course, the biggest hit is to Amazon’s budget tablet line; with the Alexa tablets, the older, even more budget-friendly Fire HD tablets have been canned.
I still think that what Amazon is offering with the newer Alexa tablets makes them all-round more capable than the Fire alternatives, but there’s no denying that they’re also much more expensive. The top-end Tablet 12 Pro with the matte finish comes in at £499/$549, more than Apple’s entry-level (and very popular) iPad.
Amazon will have been working on these products for quite some time, but I wonder how much it was influenced by the rising cost of components like RAM and storage. Yes, previous Fire HD tablets weren’t exactly brimming with RAM and storage, with the tablets usually coming with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, but with such razor-thin margins at its £99/$99 price point (for the HD 8 at least), I don’t think it could’ve taken the hit of rising component prices.
At least with the newer tablets, Amazon can justify the rising price of components and, thus, its own products, more than it would be able to with its very basic, entry-level Fire HD tablets.
So yes, this does look like the beginning of the end for Amazon’s truly budget smart tech, but if it means better, more capable and genuinely interesting products, I wholeheartedly welcome the change.
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