Fire 7 Tablet with Alexa, 7" Display, 16 GB, Canary Yellow — with Special Offers (Previous Generation - 7th)

I picked this up in the Amazon Black Friday sale for £30, and wasn't expecting much - I needed an inexpensive Android-based device for app testing (I'm a developer). But in all honesty, it's *far* exceeded expectations, given the price. First off, it's admittedly not the fastest, highest-benchmarking, supercharged tablet in the world. That said, you may only notice that if you're going to play graphics-heavy, all-singing, all-dancing mobile games. But for everyday tasks like email, social media, browsing, Kindle reading and such like, it does a fantastic job. The screen is clear and bright, and the Fire operating system simplifies the Android interface to make it as user-friendly as a tablet experience can be. It even *looks* good, and the choice of colours is a nice touch (I got snazzy red - fancy!). The low-res cameras are the device's chief weakness, although these should suffice for basic video calls and such like - you're typically not buying a tablet for its photography credentials anyway, so it shouldn't be an issue. I bought the slightly (£10) cheaper offering with special offers. I was worried they might be annoying and intrusive, but honestly, they're no bother - we're so used to being bombarded with ads these days, that a couple of promo items here and there don't make much difference to the user experience. The main one you can't miss is the lock screen, which displays a full-screen ad (often for a new book etc.) when you go to unlock it. They're more often than not attractive and relevant ads anyway, so I can't complain. At under 300g, it's the ideal pick-up-and-run device; I've got a larger, heavier iPad I use for most tablet-related stuff, but I've already found myself picking this up instead for a nip to the coffee shop or short train journey when all I need is a Kindle read. It might be a long way from the most fast and fancy tablet on the market, but five stars for amazing value - even at the normal price when it's not a Black Friday! There are so many applications for this - as a first tablet for youngsters or seniors, a test tablet for a developer, spare tablet, guest tablet for visitors to use... The list goes on. Simply cannot be beaten on usefulness for the price.

A brilliant little tablet. I miss goggle play though, and did find how I could add it. A lot of apps do rely on Google services so this should have been added as standard. I was happy with not having too many apps already installed. I did find alternatives to the apps that relied on G.P. These aren't as good or are older versions. I did add a sd card. At first it was brilliant, but now it's not recognising it at all. I only had the fire about 5 days when it suddenly stopped recognising the sd card, I will try again with another type. My fire has ads, when I ordered it I thought the special offers meant something different. I felt very disappointed by Amazon by this deception, I'm also disappointed that you also have to pay another £10 to remove them, although some lucky people have had them removed for free. The ads are on the lockscreen, which isn't too bad. If you have them removed you still can't add your own wallpaper, which is a shame. I was also disappointed to find that I had paid full price on prime day for my fire. I had put this in my basket on prime day and whilst I was checking out the time changed and i got charged full price. I should have been charged the prime day price as it was added on prime day and the time changed during the checkout. This is again very crafty of Amazon and I was disappointed. Just be careful of time for any bargains as Amazon doesn't honour it if during checkout the time changes! I love Amazon but this really needs to be changed! My fire I have found has slowed down quite considerably and I haven't used it that much. I haven't got a lot of apps using the memory so again have resorted back to using my phone as it's so much quicker to do anything. The fire is great for reading books, searching on the internet and playing a few game. I would like to hide my apps from the homescreen. I find it's tidier, and you can see your wallpaper. I like a few apps on the homescreen of my own choosing and those I use most often. I'm trying to find out how I can do this. I don't know why manufacturers are trying to copy apple all the time even though they are android based. Stop and find your own identity! All in all Amazon Fire is a good little tablet depending on what you want to use it for. Battery life is fantastic. It is fairly quick to charge and is still a very useful addition to the home. Great for children and adults alike.