The Amazon Fire HD 10 is the most powerful model in Amazon’s tablet lineup. It has the fastest processor, the most RAM and storage space, and the highest resolution display. But it’s also the oldest current-gen Amazon Fire tablet, having last received a hardware refresh way back in 2017.

It looks like that could change soon. An unannounced Amazon Fire tablet just passed through the FCC website, and while there’s no flashing sign that says this is definitely a 2019 Amazon Fire HD 10, I’d be rather surprised if it were anything else.

First of all, while the word Amazon doesn’t show up anywhere in the FCC documentation, this listing has all the hallmarks of an unannounced Amazon device. Last time we were pretty sure we spotted an Amazon tablet at the FCC, it turned out to be the 2019 Amazon Fire 7.

Not only is the Fire HD 10 next in line for a hardware update, but it’s also currently the only Fire tablet to support 802.11ac WiFi (the smaller models have dual-band 802.11n support). And guess what? FCC documents make it clear that whatever this new model is, it does support 802.11ac.

While it’s likely a safe bet that a new Fire HD 10 would get a processor upgrade, it’s unclear what other changes are on the way. I suspect one obvious room for improvement is SD card support — the 2017 Fire HD 10 can only handle cards up to 256GB, while the 2018 Fire HD 8 can use 400GB microSD cards and the 2019 Fire 7 tablet works with cards up to 512GB.

Does the impending launch of a new tablet mean that today is a bad day to buy a 2017 model? That depends.

On the one hand, Amazon is selling the 2017 model for one of the lowest prices ever during its Prime Day sale — you can pick one up for $100 or purchase two for $180. It’s unlikely the new model will be on sale for prices this low until Black Friday. And even with two-year-old specs, the Fire HD 10 is still the most powerful current-gen Fire tablet.

On the other hand, a new model is likely to have at least some improvements, and if Amazon stays true to form, it’ll likely still keep a relatively affordable $150 starting price.

via Tablet Monkeys

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers

6 replies on “A new Amazon tablet hits the FCC (Probably Fire HD 10 2019)”

  1. You can update with a confirmation: it is definitely the new Fire HD 10.

  2. I own the1st gen Fire table( still works) and the last gen 7,8 and 10in. I have the Google services installed on all. I always leave the Special Offers on because the add for me is mostly about more tech(it’s what I do) I would love to see 3 or 4 go of ram and maybe a Snapdragon processor. These things have held up very well for me so,I would gladly pay a little more for a spec bump.

  3. I think this is going to be the Fire 13 to be a super cheap alternative to the iPad Pro 12.9.

  4. The greatest reason to get the current Fire HD 10 is that if this upgrade is similar to the HD 8 and 7 upgrades, it will be more locked down. I have the previous gen Fire 7, the latest gen HD 8, and the current gen HD 10. Both the 10 and 7 are quite configurable and modifiable WITHOUT rooting.

    The ability to “freeze” Amazon bloatware (without rooting) provides a significant boost in performance to both of them.

Comments are closed.