Amazon is upgrading its cheapest range of tablets with Amazon Alexa for those in the UK and a few other minor improvements for everyone, but the great price is here to stay.
The new Amazon Fire still costs $49.99 (£49.99) but is now thinner, lighter, comes with dual-band Wi-Fi and slightly improved battery life.
There’s still a 7-inch IPS display on the front, but it is now slightly clearer than in previous iterations and the slate will also pack a MediaTek 1.3GHz chipset. Amazon claims the battery life will be improved too, with an extra hour of life, giving you around eight hours of mixed usage.
Storage-wise, the cheapest version is still on 8GB, but there’s microSD support and a slightly more expensive 16GB option. You can also pick this up in new shades of blue, black, red and yellow.
Plus a HD version too
Amazon is also upgrading the slightly more expensive but better Fire HD 8 range and including dual-Wi-Fi support as well.
You’ll be able to get 16GB or 32GB versions of this tablet for either $79.99 (£79.99) or £99.99 (about $130) respectively.
Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa being integrated with the Amazon Fire range is perhaps the most exciting element for those in the UK - the US got the feature last year - and it allows you to do almost anything you can on the Echo or Echo Dot, but on your tablet instead.
Unlike those devices it will offer up a visual sign of what you’re doing as well though. For example, if you ask it for sport scores it will give you more information, including the date and time of the game.
The new versions of the Amazon Fire and Fire HD 8 will be available from June 7 in both the US and the UK. There's no word on the tablets coming to Australia at the moment.
- Be sure to read the hands on review of the new Amazon Fire and Fire HD 8
