Amazon Fire 7 tablet (newest model) 7” display, read and watch, under $60 with 10-hour battery life, 16 GB, Black

I snagged this latest 12 th gen 7” fire tablet at one of amazons sales $39 in late 2023. The latest chip and 2 gigs RAM makes a real difference compared to a 7” fire I had a couple or so years ago. Last one was basically useless, slow, crashed, and the book reader could not even smoothly do page curl turns. BUT THIS ONE IS DIFFERENT. IF YOU ARE A BOOK READER I ASSURE YOU THERE’S A LOT TO LOVE HERE. (and see one more surprising positive below in my update). The kindle app is flawless and almost snappy on this device. Page turning page curls are smooth and totally free of stutter or lock up like the earlier generation. It has a LOT of nits of brightness - surprisingly VERY bright even for my somewhat older eyes. Making text a bit larger is great (if your vision can use that help) and the screen resolution is totally fine for reading text, no issues at all even though it seemed like it’s a bit lower resolution in its specs. I leave it full brightness and still the battery lasts forever. Given a choice of the e-ink kindle costing much more, and this tablet (I have both) this little 7” fire tablet is FAR SUPERIOR FOR BOOK READING THAN THE e-ink tablet: it is more responsive, agile in changing text size, and lots of nits of brightness for easy reading. If you buy it ONLY as a dedicated book reader, and especially if you get the $39 price - it’s a steal and an incredibly under recognized useful budget reading tablet. Scale of 1-10 as a book reader I give it a 10. No question. More pros: surprisingly solid feel, no bending or creaking- really feels solid in the hand. Not too heavy but it’s not like so paper light that it feels flimsy. I recommend you get a case however cheap, because it is a little slippery to hold. Current OS on it is reasonably responsive and has not once ever crashed. Ok now some practical comparisons. As a tablet it is maybe a 4 on that same scale of 1 to 10: it is not super fast opening apps, the selection of fire available apps is poor, and you should accept that this is not a high end android or apple tablet. Yet, several streaming apps work flawlessly and you can watch media on it but the screen is a little washed out on color and lower resolution when your eyes compare to a high end tablet, or iPhone or 4k TV. The silk browser does work, just not super fast. The USB C charging port (!) was a splendid surprise, and the files app built into the OS let’s you surf a USB flash drive you can plus into that USB port which is surprising and kind of really cool FOR A THIRTY NINE DOLLAR TABLET! I did find that USB 3.0 maybe 3.1 works plugged into the USB C port but not USB 3.2. Last note: it has a standard headphone jack. Streaming audio including Spotify through headphones gives very very good sound. Shockingly the OS is sophisticated enough that you can plug a USB C to 3.5 mm female headphone adapter and plug headphones into that and it DOES stream the sound that way to headphones too. Sound quality seems identical either way. Portable, fun, great book reader, quite competent on card game apps and streaming apps including Netflix, Amazon prime, HULU, Disney, other free streamers like Crackle and Pluto and more; long lasting battery life, quite solid, lots of fun and so budget priced that if these capabilities sound appealing just buy the thing you will love it. Great toy to add to the small electronics fun gadgets in our lives. Update 11 22 23: one more positive to note: surprising but absolutely true: just discovered that Facebook's Messenger app will handle video calling and the result is extremely good - even shockingly good; sharp image, no dropped frames, perfect clean sound quality. Years ago it would have been impossible to imagine an inexpensive tablet gadget that could do video calls like that; yet, here we are. Outstanding!

OK. we know it's not a high end, super expensive, gadget.It's cheap.It is NOT stereo soundIt works.Setup was a breeze.The "denim" color, made this old hippie smile, but am getting a composition book style case to hide it...Test ran videos...at 70% charge and it lasted 8ish hours. 4 hours to recharge.It will keep you amused in the doctor's' office, or in the garage waiting for your tires to be rotated.I bought this solely because I wanted to see how the Fire 7 compares to my BELOVED HDX7 of years gone by. No comparison. The HDX 7 was the VERY BEST of the whole shebang, and I still own and use (blush) several of them. Stereo sound still is excellent, picture, etc....please bring it back. sigh....This little baby will, however, be thrown in my purse for the little annoyances of life stated above. Much prefer to lose this, than the iPhone or iPad. My books, access to my music, news, videos and the time will fly. I sprung for the 32 gig..and can't see a reason to expand. And when I leave it laying ...no huge loss.Best thing about it...size. It fits my small hands, it fits in purse, or jeans/cargo pants/jacket pocket. The library...worth its weight in gold. I have a lot of cookbooks, gardening books. They just don't look as good in the grey format of the Paperwhite , and this is another reason I'm keeping this little rhinestone.I recommend for a handy, cost effective diversion..and plan on using it a lot. I think a child...especially one who likes to read...not so much gaming...could use this.11/20/22sooo...a little update.I use this almost daily, because of weight and size. I LOVE the ease with reading, much better as far as I am concerned than the Paperwhite (yeah...I own SEVERAL gadgets) color screen, play a little soft music or rain in background, etc) I've read almost every day!!! I LOVE ITThe lack of 2 speaker stereo bugged me a lot. Sooo...i grabbed a set of earphones..and BOB's YOUR UNCLE. I can listen to CCR, and play some solitaire, read the Post or Times...watch my tv shows, etc and the stereo sound comes in very well.Flying out for the holiday on Tuesday. This will be in my hand or purse during the grueling 7 hr flight, stop overs. And if something happens....its a damned cheap, but VERY serviceable source of entertainment.your gift to yourself. I think you will be more pleased than you think. Happy Holiday's Folks!!

I've been a customer of Amazon since February1998.I bought the ORIGINAL kindle device with the keyboard. I HATED the damn thing. Insufficient memory, and the CPU was so slow it couldn't get out of its own way! I kept threatening to break the thing in half. I finally deregistered the device and gave to a friendLater I bought the second model the Kindle Touch. This device was completely unstable and crashed 4 times before downloading 100 of my Kindle books. That device DID GO IN THE GARBAGE! When I reviewed it I ripped the device apart in the review saying it was awful not to buy when the Kindle app on smart phones wss much more stable and reliable when I was able to have700 books in my Android phone, and categorically stating I would NEVER BUY ANOTHER AMAZON DEVICE!never say never!.After 10years or so; my eyes were getting worse and the small iPhone no longer worked for me to read100± books a year I needed a larger screen, and NY Android tablet was too darn big. So I came to Amazon and looked at Amazon devices that was a comfortable size.I bought this 32 GB 7 inch fire tablet.A comfortable size to holdLight weightPlenty of memory 32 GBNot as nimble as my 128 GB iPhone but reasonably quick.Amazon FINALLY GOT it right!I LOVE THIS DEVICE AND HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. 9 1/2 STARS!