Amazon Fire HD 10 2023 Review: A Bargain or Waste Of Money?

The Amazon Fire HD 10 2023 is the latest 10-inch budget tablet from Amazon, which usually costs around 140 Dollars, but on shopping holidays like Black Friday and Prime Day, it can go as low as 80 Dollars. It’s not a premium tablet, of course, but it does offer a few interesting features, including an active stylus this year. This raises the question: Is the Fire HD 10 a real bargain, or just a waste of money? That’s what you’ll learn in this review.

Design & Build Quality

It’s a waste of money if you’re looking for a tablet with a high-quality design. The Fire HD 10 feels very cheap. It is made entirely of plastic – which doesn’t have to be cheap, of course, but it does feel like cheap plastic. However, Amazon promises quality and it is actually 2.7 times more rugged than the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8, which is made of aluminum.

At 8.6mm, it’s thin enough and weighs a relatively light 434g. I think it’s great that we get a standard headphone jack and a MicroSD card slot. The latter can even be opened without an eject tool. The slot is hidden behind a simple flap that is easy to open. It’s charged using a USB C 2.0 port which does not support external monitors.

There is a 5-megapixel camera at the front and back, which take pretty good pictures in good light, at least considering its price. Obviously, 5 megapixels lack detail, but otherwise the quality is not bad and is actually better for video chats than many expensive laptops. However, photos and videos are hardly usable in difficult lighting conditions.

Display & Speakers

The Amazon Fire HD 10 2023 has a 10.1-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. As always, I think fullHD on 10 inches is sufficient. Texts look sharp enough and viewing angles are relatively stable.

The screen is pretty good in this price range. It’s a little brighter than the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 and you can watch Netflix and other streaming services in HD resolution. This makes it quite suitable as an entertainment tablet in this respect.

I also compared it with the more expensive Amazon Fire Max 11 and the Fire HD 10 is slightly darker and has a slight green tint.

The two speakers are fine but not amazing. The sound is not as clear as on the Fire Max 11 and the Samsung tablet is a good deal louder. I think the sound quality is okay for the price, but it would have been nice if it had been a bit louder. It can be too quiet in a noisy kitchen – and that’s what it’s advertised for with the Alexa voice assistant.

USI 2 Pen Support

You can write on the Fire HD 10 2023 with any stylus that supports USI 2 technology. These are many pens for Chromebooks, but also for the Google Pixel Tablet and the Fire Max 11. I used the same USI 2 pen that Amazon also sells for the Max 11 which costs 35 Dollars. Compared to an Apple Pencil or Microsoft Surface Pen, that’s very cheap.

Unfortunately, the USI 2 technology is not really good. Whether on a Chromebook, the Google Pixel tablet or this Amazon Fire HD 10 2023: The pens or rather the technology is a bit disappointing. Yes, you can write notes and draw with it. But they are not as precise as an Apple Pencil, Samsung S Pen or Microsoft Surface Pen. These three are much better.

I therefore cannot recommend the Fire HD 10 if you are specifically looking for a tablet with a good pen. The pen is okay for playing around and also if you just want to write down rough notes. But if you want to do a lot of handwriting at school, university or work, then I recommend a tablet from Samsung, Apple or Microsoft. If it has to be cheap, get a used one.

Hardware & Performance

The Amazon Fire HD 10 2023 is powered by a MediaTek MT8186 processor, which has access to 3GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of internal storage. There is no version with LTE. If you want to install a lot of games, I recommend the 64GB version, as 32GB is not very much these days.

A look at my Geekbench 5 benchmark comparison shows that the processor performance has improved compared to its predecessor and is also better than the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8. However, the graphics performance has gotten slightly worse.

In the 3D Mark Wild Life test, it’s on a par with the Samsung A8 and is even slightly more powerful than other competitors such as the third-generation Lenovo Tab M10 Plus. The Amazon Fire Max 11, on the other hand, is a good deal faster.

Ultimately, however, we’re seeing something that I’ve been observing with tablets for about two years now: Prices remain the same from generation to generation and the performance also remains roughly the same. A great example of hidden inflation.

Well, the benchmark results suggest that the Fire HD 10 is not a perfect gaming tablet, and that’s true. You can’t play demanding games with the highest graphics settings. However, many do run, including PUBG Mobile, but you can only set the graphics to HD here. But then it runs pretty well.

I also tried Warcraft Rumble, where I occasionally experienced slight stutters. In the end, however, it’s playable, there are really only slight stutters. The same applies to Diablo. Slight stutters are visible from time to time, but it’s definitely playable – but with lowest graphics only.

Well, it’s best suited for casual games. This includes games like Plants vs Zombies, which is a lot of fun on here and that’s all it’s really good for. It’s not a gaming tablet for gamers, but more for casual gaming. And if you really want to play more demanding titles, you should go for the version with 64GB storage.

The performance is also sufficient for most simple apps. It’s performance is not great for sure but good enough. You’ve seen the benchmarks and you can’t expect more from an entry-level tablet. In Chrome, for example, I was able to surf the Internet comfortably most of the time. However, if demanding websites are open with several tabs, it can stutter.

Software: Fire OS without Play Store

The Fire HD 10 comes with Fire OS version 8, which is based on Android 11. However, it’s important to understand that it’s not Google’s Android, but Amazon has taken the open source version of Android and adapted it itself. Although it is based on Android 11, Amazon keeps it up to date with updates – in fact, Amazon releases updates surprisingly frequently, but these mostly only close security gaps or fix bugs.

All of Google’s offerings are therefore missing out of the box. There is no Chrome, no Gmail, no YouTube and no Play Store. Instead, Amazon has its own browser, its own app store, and many of its own offerings such as Audible audiobooks, Kindle e-books and Prime Video.

The Alexa voice assistant is particularly noteworthy compared to other Android tablets. You can access it at any time by voice command. And if you activate the Echo Show mode, the tablet transforms into an Echo Smart Display and works in exactly the same way.

Read: The best free apps for Android tablets

You can use the tablet without Google apps and many things work well. In the Amazon App Store you can find apps from Microsoft, as well as Netflix and quite a few games. However, the selection is much smaller.

I like to use the apps from Google and have therefore installed the Play Store myself. It’s pretty easy and then you can also install Chrome, Gmail and so on, and ultimately, it behaves like any other Android tablet.

Battery Life

In my battery test, the tablet achieved a battery life of exactly 10 hours, which is an excellent result. For this test, I always run an HD YouTube video at maximum brightness in an endless loop.

Amazon Fire HD 10 2023 Test: My Conclusion

So, is the Amazon Fire HD 10 2023 a real bargain or a waste of money? Well, that depends on the price you buy it for. I think on days like Black Friday and Prime Day, when it’s under 100 Dollars, it’s a bargain. For less than 100 Dollas you get a solid and usable tablet.

The battery life is long, it’s very rugged and the display is good its price. At under 100 Dollars, it’s a great tablet for Netflix, Prime Video, surfing the internet and playing casual games. Obviously, it’s exciting if you use Amazon’s offers anyway, especially their voice assistant.

At its original pricing of 140 Dollars, it’s not a waste of money, but it’s nothing special either. If you have the predecessor, it’s not worth upgrading anyway because they are almost identical. Personally, I would rather add a couple of Dollars and get a Xiaomi Redmi Pad SE, which offers a whopping 128GB of storage and a 90Hz display for around 200 Dollars. I think the Redmi Pad SE is a great choice in the budget range, check out my full review to learn more.