Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet, built for relaxation, 10.1" vibrant Full HD screen, octa-core processor, 3 GB RAM, latest model (2023 release), 64 GB vs. Every other tablet in the universe
This story has a tragic ending — if that confirms your fears then stop here, otherwise please read on for the adventure of a lifetime
When you have had one too many glasses of wine, there are two things that one is advised to avoid online:
- Replying office emails (to some jackass who wants to have the last say)
- Shop on Amazon
I have had my share of scares with the first one, but the Amazon genie-wish-for-a-price came as a surprise. A surprise when my wife received the package next day and wondered why I ordered table coasters which look like 3 inch floppy disks from back in the day.
In case we have a younger generation reading this, they look like below and they were fun to sling open and then let go — nice playtime with the fingers and obviously rendered what we called as bad sectors — essentially making your data corrupt and the disk useless — again as below:
But we are past the days of flippy floppies and in the age of tablets. What could ever go wrong with that you ask.
I ordered the Amazon Fire HD 10 latest 2023 edition one late night and marveled at my personal genius for spending a quarter of the money on a tablet and making everyone else look like a fool.
This was soon to change because of certain immediate reasons.
No, it was not because of the Amazon app store being the only one available through this tablet. Installing google play store is a couple of steps lengthier than it should be but it can be done and one can start over if something messes up. How much you can trust that device for your banking apps and other sensitive data is an open debate — the one I take very seriously.
This is why I abstained from doing it and thought, well all I really do on tablets these days is consume media (Music, Movies, TV shows and books) and answer office emails. (keeping in mind advice # 1 up there)
Media
The media part seemed to work nicely or rather as expected on a USD$150 tablet. The thing was quite snappy with the latest chips and all playing Netflix or Prime like a breeze. There were also the usual suspect apps like VLC around to play anything on a home shared drive.
Speakers were decent but nothing to bang your head about — I bet the sound would be better with headphones but I never tried because that has nothing to do with the tablet experience itself.
The screen was full HD but felt cheap in terms of color, blacks and action sequences. Still no deal breaker.
I have two regular kindles for book reading and sometimes I wonder why I have the second one. Having a third device for that was not enticing at all — particularly with a backlit screen.
The back camera was just ok and I was not sure if my insurance provider would be able to read any receipts I submit through this thing.
The front camera was no full HD or anything close and without any software enhancements like the center stage. Just showing its presence and then melting away in the crowd.
Ecosystem
This is the itchy scratchy part.
While I am invested up to my neck in Alexa devices and Alexa managed home devices, the Amazon ecosystem is lacking the rest of the 75% that makes up an ecosystem, namely:
Phone
Laptops and related OS
Software and hardware sync
I am so used to letting my Airpods switch to the right device or copy pasting from one to the other that letting go of those perks is out of question.
Possibly the only good thing in this section was the USB-C charging capability — one less headache.
Microsoft office and Teams issues
The camera of this device is in the top middle in landscape mode — That is golden if you have read this piece of mine. Here we go Teams meetings.
MS Office is available on the Amazon appstore.
It install correctly.
My workplace though has an extra layer of security where Office is required to download a security app (provided by microsoft) to check your device and be given privileges to lock it down in case of being lost or stolen.
That app also installed correctly.
That app was then unable to authorize the device because it seemed either the Amazon tablet is not considered a safe device by my organization or no one has bothered to add it up as a safe device in that short list — because no one has ever bought or used one.
This was a big disappointment — Office and Teams being one of the standards apps and then being short of the google app store to do anything else was weighing down on me.
The Final straw
Now the USD$150 short of getting at least an Apple iPad (9th gen) was becoming a small pill to swallow for bigger gains.
Back in my ecosystem with better support in the future and overall just having a better device — no contest.
This is how buying the cheapest best tablet decision was overturned within the return days limit.
