Amazon includes a USB-C charging cable as well as a 5W wall charger in the box, though at 5W, it will take about four hours to fully charge the device from zero, so plan ahead for long trips.īattery life also received a boost, with Amazon boasting 10 hours of use on a single charge. Since so many of our devices have already made the leap to USB-C, this means one fewer charging cable to carry around with you when you’re on the go. One of the most notable upgrades to the Fire 7 tablet is that Amazon ditched the older Micro USB charging port in favor of the newer USB-C type port. It’s not a deal breaker on a $60 device, but not something I would find acceptable on a more expensive iPad or a tablet running full Android software. A few times my Kindle app either froze or closed while I was reading my book and I had to reopen the app. They worked OK for the most part, but there were times when there was lagging or the screens didn’t load as quickly as I hoped. For my weekend away I downloaded the YouTube, Hulu and Spotify apps from the Amazon Appstore as well as Kindle, Instagram and Zoom. However, most of the popular social and streaming apps are available. You’re limited to the apps available in Amazon’s app store, which is not nearly as extensive, so you might be disappointed at not being able to download some of your favorite games or apps. The Fire 7, while technically an Android tablet, runs on Amazon’s Fire OS 8 software and uses its own Silk browser.

They’ll probably just be glad to have their own tablet to watch and not have to share with a sibling. While the screen resolution is not HD (1024 x 600), I don’t think kids watching videos on a screen not much larger than a Pro or Max version of a smartphone will notice or mind very much.

At 7 inches, it’s the right size for holding and watching videos, reading and playing simple games. The Fire 7 tablet is an ideal content consumption device for younger kids, when you need an extra device in the house or when you’re taking a car trip or vacation.

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