I just learned that Amazon is phasing out their line of Fire tablets, replacing them a line of Alexa-fied Android tablets with price points closer to iPad territory. The announcement I read said Fire tablets will be phased out in the next few, but will continue to be supported for another four years, giving me a little time to enjoy what I have before they get bricked.
This is most unfortunate. I feel that Fire tablets fill an important niche for people who want to read on a screen larger than their phone, but don't always want to lug a laptop around. These imminently affordable tablets present an affordable alternative to the likes of an iPad, and for users like me, who use a them simply to read books on the Kindle app, occasionally surf a Website, and read--but not write--email messages. Many tablets are being marketed as quasi-laptops, but I don't need that. I have laptops at home and at work.
To be sure, Fire tablets are not without their compromises. Amazon uses them as an advertising platform, with ads on the lock screen, unless you pay an extra $20 at the time of purchase to have that disabled. They run a modified version of Android that has access only to an Amazon-curated assortment of applications. The new Alexa tablets run what Amazon claims is a full Android operating system with access to the Play Store. A simple Web search will give Fire tablet users easy-to-follow instructions for putting the Play Store on their devices.
It may just be coincidence, but I have to wonder about the announcement of the Alexa tablets coinciding with the debut of the Googlebooks laptops by HP, Lenovo and others, running on an enhanced version of Android. There is no overt indication that the two events are related, but one still has to wonder.
Over the past decade, I have had four Fire tablets, a 7-inch model, an HD-8, and two different HD-10 models. All but the first one have been very satisfactory for my needs.
I purchased the 7-inch model early in 2016 at a deep discount for the princely sum of $39, mostly out of curiosity for what a tablet at that price point would have to offer. Let's just say I barely got my money's worth and was happy to trade it in on the HD-8 a year or so later for a $10 credit.
The HD-8 was a far more satisfactory tablet, with a considerably larger screen and considerably more processing horsepower. I used it as my primary tablet for a couple of years, until it froze up and quit working over Thanksgiving weekend in 2019. Tinkering with it later on, I discovered the problem was a corrupted microSD card, which turned out to be easily repairable by replacing the offending card. Meanwhile, I had acquired the first of my two HD-10 tablets on sale for half price. A $25 gift card and a $15 credit on the old tablet brought the purchase price down to the sub-$50 range.
Although that tablet continues to serve me well, its battery life has grown considerably shorter and it has a greater tendency to freeze up, so when I caught an updated HD-10 on an early prime day sale in the summer of 2025, I went ahead and replaced it. I now alternate between the two, whenever the one I'm using needs a charge.
Amazon is already offering trade-in deals for Alexa tablets, and I might consider trading in the HD-8, except I likely wouldn't get more than the price of a hamburger for it. As things look now, I intend to keep the Fire tablets I have going for as long as I can. Once support for them ends, I may try to jailbreak them with Cyanogenmod, or something similar, to see if I can restore their functionality and extend their useful lives a bit longer. Otherwise, I'll have to see what other alternatives for a cheap-but-usable tablet are available. I have what I need for now and we'll just have to see what the future holds.
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