My Amazon Fire tablet is almost five years old, a proper antique by electronics standards, especially for cheap electronics, and although it continues to give good service, it has begun to show its age. It occasionally freezes up, requiring a restart to recover, and of course, the battery isn't holding a charge like it once did. Reading for about 45 minutes, as is my bedtime habit, can consume around a third of a full charge.
For these reasons, I've had it in the back of my mind recently to look for a replacement. The good part was that since my old one still works, I could bide my time to find the best possible deal. Sometimes, such deals come unexpectedly, as was the case when I recently replaced my old tablet, without necessarily upgrading it; that is, I replaced it with a newer version of the same model when I discovered all Fire tablets were on sale for half off as an early Prime Day deal.
A flagship Amazon Fire Max 11 had initially caught my eye, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that most of its flagship features, which would attempt to mimic the functionality of a laptop, albeit severely hampered by Amazon's locked-down operating system, was effectively overkill for my modest needs. This is especially true, since the accessories that maximize the Max 11's functionality, a keyboard case and stylus, add significantly to the cost without adding to any of the functions I use.
Fortunately, before I pulled the trigger on the Max 11, I noticed that the updated version of the Fire 10HD, which is a newer version of the model I have been using for the past few years, was also on sale for half off. That price was half the sale price of the Max 11 and much more appropriate for my modest needs, as I only ever use a tablet to read books on the Kindle app, read emails, but not write them, and view the occasional Web page.
Because of these very modest requirements, I am able to live with Amazon tablets' locked down operating system, but If I wanted to use it for any sort of productivity tasks, I would need to be looking at an iPad.
Amazon outdid itself with overnight delivery. I ordered it in the middle of the afternoon, and it arrived before dawn the next morning. That said, I was a bit peeved with the delivery driver, who chose not to carry it the last few yards to the front door, but instead to leave it at the end of the driveway, where it would have been all-too-easy pickings for a would be porch pirate since they wouldn't have to go all the way to the porch. This is especially concerning since I have recently had problems with outbound checks being stolen out of my mailbox. Fortunately, I got to the package before anyone else.
Unboxing the new tablet gave me a great sense of deja vu, in that it was so similar to the one I've been using, although there are some differences. The first one I noticed was the power and volume buttons were reversed so that the power button was on the left instead of the right, when the tablet is held in a vertical (portrait) orientation. On closer examination, I recognized the reason for that change. The front-facing camera was relocated to what would be the middle of the left side in portrait orientation, but would be top center in horizontal (landscape) orientation. This, coupled by the orientation of the opening splash, is a strong indicator that Amazon is pushing landscape as the default orientation for the tablet. Positioned in this way, the power button is at the top of the right side, which is a much more logical spot, at least for right-handed users. The relocation of the camera also resulted in the tablet being about a quarter inch shorter and maybe an eighth of an inch wider in portrait orientation.
Beyond these minor physical differences and somewhat upgraded specifications, it is basically the same as the tablet I already have. So what did I get for my money? The main thing is better battery life, by virtue of being newer, but also a little more RAM and a faster processor for better performance.
Given the way I use a tablet, I have decided to keep this new one in a fairly stock configuration, at least for the time being, to see how that affects performance. I'm also on the fence regarding whether to add a micro SD card to increase storage capacity, as I have done with the three previous Fire tablets I have owned.
Adding micro SD cards have produced mixed results. It made absolutely no difference on my first 7-inch fire tablet, which could only address the card as external storage. The Fire HD8 and Fire HD10 can address the card as internal storage, effectively making it a permanent part of the tablet. A malfunctioning card on the HD8 effectively bricked the tablet until I replaced it, but the second card eventually malfunctioned as well with the same result. The micro SD card has been much more satisfactory in the HD10. Last night, I found a brand new 128GB microSD card in a camera bag, and was on the verge of installing it in the new Fire tablet, but I ultimately decided to give it an extended test run without added storage capacity.
While this new tablet is largely an exercise in sameness, compared with the previous one, it does stand out in one particular area--performance. So far, this new tablet shows no sign of bogging down. Screens load almost instantly. There is almost no noticeable delay when moving between apps, or even going from page to page in the Kindle app.
The one thing a tablet is better for than a laptop is reading a book on the Kindle app. I can and have read on a laptop from the Amazon Website, but the experience is not as good, and finding the book I want is a nightmare. While I'm still a laptop guy for most productivity tasks--give me a physical keyboard and an external pointing device (I prefer trackballs) any day of the week--this new Fire HD10 13th generation tablet is a welcome addition to my tech stable.
ADDENDUM--As often happens, the acquisition of a new piece of technology sparks a second look at an older one, in this case an Amazon Fire HD8 tablet I had pretty much stopped using shortly after acquiring my previous HD10, which had replaced it almost five years ago. Just for fun, I charged it up and turned it on to find it was trying to work--not very well, but better than it was when I put it aside.
This encouraged me to keep going, and after fiddling with it for a little while, including doing a factory reset, it's now working like it should. I was pleased enough with its revival that I ordered a new case for it, as the old one is in pretty rough shape, thanks to broken plastics at the corners and one of my cats using it as a scratching pad. At this point, I am seriously considering a factory reset for my older HD10 tablet as well.
Now that I have three functioning Fire tablets. I have to decide how best to use them. I don't really need that many, but I can certainly carry one with me while one the other(s) are charging.
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