Amazon launched an updated Fire HD 8 tablet last year, but the company hasn’t refreshed its Fire HD 10 or Fire 7 tablet since 2017.
It looks like that could soon change. As spotted by the folks at Tablet Monkeys, a new device that showed up at the FCC website last week has all the hallmarks of an unannounced Amazon Fire tablet.
It’s not entirely clear which tablet we’re looking at, but I’m leaning toward this being an update to the entry-level Amazon Fire 7 tablet.
What makes me say that? The FCC documents make it clear that the tablet supports 802.11n WiFi, but there’s no mention of 802.11ac support.
Other features revealed by the FCC documents include support for dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth, as well as inclusion of a camera, audio jack, microSD card slot, and USB port.
If you want to know any more than that about the new tablet, you’ll probably have to wait for an official announcement. But if last year’s very modest update to the Fire HD 8 is anything to go by, I’d expect a pretty minimal spec bump.
5/16/2019 Update: Yup, it’s a new Fire 7 tablet. Amazon is keeping the $50 price tag, 1024 x 600 pixel display, and 1GB of RAM, but the company says the new model has a faster processor, twice as much storage, a higher-resolution front camera, and new color options. Â
I’ve literally had a Google alert for this for many months. My sons Fire 7 tablet (Quad-Core 1.3 GHz with 1 GB of RAM) was bought back in 2016 and it’s getting a little slow for some of the things he wants to do with it, some games like MineCraft just fail to load, or are VERY slow.
Thanks for posting this, I’ll keep an eye out for a new announcement, but they probably won’t be one, don’t recall many previous announcements.
The 2.4 refers to the Bluetooth frequency. One of the other screenshot shows 5.8. personally I don’t see the point of a 7 in tablet when there are very capable 6″ + phones. But an improved 10″ would be worth looking at. It’s rugged, good enough for basic net use. And if you go through the hassle of installing the play store, you get access to 99.99% of all android apps.
Link it to a prime membership…….
Are 6″ phones $40??? Kids get lots of fun playing with a $40 Fire.
Looks low-end as it only has 2.4GHz radio. Probably Mediatek octa-core on a newer process node. Not sure what the “26g” means.
All Amazon tablets have been low end where they have the market to themselves. No other company can afford to compete with tablets that are essentially devices for consuming Amazon content.
I have a Fire HD 10 which is still excellent value whenever it goes on sale for $100.
I’m surprised Amazon didn’t employ similar strategy with low end phones.
The Fire Phone was from just before they settled into the low-price niche. That was back when the Fire HDX 8.9 was a $350 powerhouse tablet that outperformed comparable iPads.
An even bigger problem with the Fire Phone was that you still needed AT&T service to use it. If they relaunched today with a $99 or $149 phone and a flat $49/month no-contract service that paid directly through an Amazon subscription (using AT&T or Verizon like the prepay carriers), they’d probably have a lot more success.
If only to get around Google’s crippling of third party assistants and maps apps.
Half-hidden in there is that it supports 802.11a, so there’s a 5GHz radio, too.