Amazon Fire 7 Review: Cheapest. That’s the first word that strikes our mind when we imagine the Amazon Fire 7 (2024) – and at a price of just $50/£50 (around AU$70), that’s precisely what it is.
The tablet has targeted those customers who are budget-conscious yet looking for a tablet to read a book, sometimes watch YouTube videos, and do a little online shopping.
Amazon had to compromise on certain features and the outcome is a reasonably priced tablet that’s ideal for someone looking for a nice reading experience.
Pros
- Affordable
- Increased storage options
- Includes hands-free Alexa
Cons
- Disappointing display
- Underwhelming sound quality
- Amazon-centric OS limits app options
Amazon Fire 7 Review
Amazon Fire 7 (2024) Price and Availability
Announced on May 16 and released on June 6, 2019, the Amazon Fire 7 (2024) price begins at $29.99. That is approximately equal to the last-gen model, which is remarkable keeping in mind that the newest iteration is faster and accompanies more storage.
Design and Durability
The 2019 Amazon Fire 7 has a sturdy, rubberized exterior that makes it appear and feel like it’s been wrapped in an OtterBox Defender Series case. It’s not inherently a terrible thing. The gadget itself seems fully functional, as if it could withstand a fall from the kitchen counter without any damage at all. It will be difficult for you to damage it.
There is a somewhat thick bezel surrounding the screen. Although it’s a little unattractive, it serves a useful function by creating a little surface that readers may hold while on the go without inadvertently pressing the screen, which would cause the page to flip. Although we are unsure if that was part of Amazon’s design intent, it is unquestionably a nice touch.
Again, the firm has abstained from going for USB-C, so we are caught with an ageing micro USB slot, positioned on the top of the device. There’s a 7-inch IPS LCD screen, and a microSD slot concealed under a retractable flap on the right. This might give you the impression that Amazon Fire (2019) is water-resistant, but believe us, it isn’t.
On the top, for now, there’s even a volume rocker, a 3.5mm headphone port, and a power button, along with the aforementioned micro USB port. The outcome is a tablet that feels dreadfully jam-packed about button positioning.
Placing the volume buttons on the top of the device is one of the most horrible design blunders a maker can make.
Key Features of Amazon Fire 7
- 1,024×600-pixel display
- 7.6×4.5×0.4 inches (192x115x9.6 mm)
- 10.4 oz (295 grams)
- Quad-core 1.3GHz processor
- Front- and rear-facing cameras
- Free, unlimited cloud storage for all photos taken on Fire devices
- Dual-band Wi-Fi support
- Up to 512GB of expandable storage via microSD card (up from 256GB on the previous model)
- Battery life: Up to 7 hours of reading, listening to music, streaming video and web browsing
- Screen sharing: Let an Amazon expert guide you remotely through any feature on your screen for free
- Access to exclusive Amazon features, services, and media libraries
- New colour options: Black, Sage, Plum and Twilight Blue
- Strong & rubbery build
- Easy to grasp with one hand
- The top edge is excessively jumbled
Audio Cameras and Display
The Fire 7 comprises 2MP front and rear cameras. In dazzling light, the front-facing camera is good enough for video chat or a quick selfie but is not comparable with what you obtain on a modern cell phone. The rear camera is also fine in intense light for swift shots of receipts or documents. But both of these cameras do not perform fine in low light, which is not astonishing since camera quality is not one of the tablet’s major selling points.
Audio is displeased. As the speaker has been placed from the back to the side of the tablet, it keeps on offering average sound quality. Peak volume comes in at 90dB, but no matter what much higher than 60dB sounds sharp. At any number, the sound is flat and there’s no hint of bass. Fortunately, a 3.5mm headphone jack and Bluetooth 4.1 LE for external audio are present.
The rest is good. The Amazon Fire 7 (2024) feels strong and is comfy to grasp with one hand for extensive durations. It’s even handy and light enough to be carried everywhere.
The Amazon Fire 7 (2024) has one of the most awful and inferior quality screens when it comes to a tablet. It’s put down for $50/£50, so it’s irrational to expect much more than the 7-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1024 x 600.
That’s quite far from being perfect for normal media consumption, but you will face no problem reading what’s there on the screen.
The text appears to be crisp and clear on the screen. Even though the screen is bright, the screen struggles to make the content brighter when taken out in direct sunlight.
So, if you’re searching for a device for reading on a beach in the Costa del Sol, you will have to go for an e-reader such as the Amazon Kindle Oasis.
We tried to watch an episode of one of our favorite programs on the Amazon Fire 7 (2024) but sadly ended up closing it in just ten minutes. Colors were washed out on the screen and details were sparse, that is what we can say.
But still, the Amazon Fire 7 (2024) is best for those searching for a reasonably priced device to read the most recent John Grisham novel around the house and even on an airplane.
You’ll only need to pop up an umbrella if you wish to carry on immersing yourself in the action outside. But again, at a price of $50/£50, we have to make a few compromises if watching movies or reading in sunlight are the main concerns, go for something else.
Hardware and Performance
The major updates to the 2019 Fire 7 are having taken place in its interior. Amazon brought about minor changes to both the processor and storage. The Fire 7 comes with an updated 1.3GHz quad-core processor that Amazon declared is quicker than the 1.3GHz quad-core processor in the past model along with RAM of 1GB storage. Fortunately, the external storage can be increased to up to 512GB via the MicroSD slot if you want to download movies and TV shows to view in offline mode.
When talking about the internal upgrades, the 2019 Fire 7 is agonizingly slow. It takes quite a few seconds for the keyboard to come up, and screen transitions lag, and if you want to watch something on Amazon Prime Video, be ready to wait. It takes approximately an average of 14 seconds for the app to open. While the Fire HD 8’s hardware is just to some extent additionally powerful with 1.5GB of RAM, in general, the overall experience is greatly more pleasurable.
Battery life on the Fire 7 is also not that impressive. When you stream video over Wi-Fi at full brightness, the battery ends up after only 4 hours and 11 minutes. Further strict settings may enable you to take out one or two more hours, but if you’re going for a long trip you’ll need to go with an external battery. A micro USB cable and 5W charging adapter are included in the box, but it’ll take a short time to get to full charge as there is no option for fast charging.
Amazon Fire OS
Amazon’s Fire OS was built with the motive of media consumption, to drive Amazon Prime subscriptions, and to advertise products from Amazon.
When you switch on the tablet, you will see a lot of ads on the lock screen till the time you pay $15 to get rid of them. Swipe up to view the home page with Amazon’s custom apps and any new items you’ve to pay for. At the top of the screen, there’s a search bar and below it, you’ll find a lot of tabs that make your way to books, videos, games, and the Amazon store. You can either tap on these icons or go through between pages to go where you need to.
One main thing that’s absent from Fire OS is the Google Play store; it’s been substituted with Amazon’s own app store. It has numerous of the similar apps you’ll find in the Play Store, with the omission of any Google apps. The outcome is no YouTube, Gmail, Google Calendar, or even Google Play Music. Apart from YouTube, Amazon presents its own custom apps to substitute the usual suite that comes on Android devices. They’re not actually that polished, but they work in a pinch. If you’re daring, you can sideload apps, but you risk the chances of viruses and malware.
There are some pleasant additions to the latest version of Amazon Fire OS, on the other hand. Now that it uses Android Nougat as its base, picture-in-picture mode is accessible. Amazon has also included hands-free Alexa mode, as a result of which you can use the table for Alexa voice commands and get an audio and visual response, like the Echo Show.
Our Verdict
At $29, the 2024 Amazon Fire 7 is the mainly dependable and cheapest tablet you can purchase. But according to this year’s updates, they aren’t fairly sufficient to make it feel like you’re using a quick, modern device. But its overall experience is pretty nice and for just $29 you are getting a tablet so it is worth it to pay for one.