Amazon Fire 7 (2022)
MSRP $59.99
“Should you know what you are getting, the 2022 Fire 7 cannot be beaten for the value. But don’t expect it to be an iPad.”
Pros
- Excellent battery life
- Runs easy tasks efficiently
- Low price
- Portable
- Optimized for streaming
Cons
- Fire OS software
- Long charge times
- Poor display and cameras
The Amazon Fire 7 (2022) isn’t a tablet that’ll set the world on fire, but for the value, it’s surprisingly solid. It takes nearly all the things that its 2019 predecessor did and improves upon it, making it a no brainer purchase for anyone in search of a budget tablet. If you may have big plans on making the Fire 7 a piece device, nonetheless, you’ll be sorely disenchanted.
For a tablet under $100 though? The Fire 7 does rather a lot for what it’s working with, making it a tool that’s price picking up under the fitting circumstances.
Design
The 2022 model of the Amazon Fire 7 doesn’t change much from the 2019 design when it comes to the general look. Each feature 7-inch screens, however the 2022 model has increased the display size by reducing the quantity of bezel to only a half-inch on all sides. The backs of each devices are finished with coloured matte plastic.
The similarities end there, nonetheless, because the 2022 Fire 7 takes a latest approach to its layout. For starters, the Amazon arrow logo and all information text on the back of the device have been flipped horizontally.
Peter Hunt Szpytek/Digital Trends
Peter Hunt Szpytek/Digital Trends
The position of the rear camera and the Fire 7’s buttons have also been shaken up. The two-megapixel rear camera now resides in the highest right-hand corner just under the facility button on the highest of the tablet. Next to the facility button are the 2 volume buttons. Next to them is the microphone, after which the USB-C charging port. The three.5mm headphone jack has been moved to the far left side of the Fire 7 (although I only ever used wireless Bluetooth headphones with it.)
Along with the remainder of the hardware shakeups, the 2MP front-facing selfie camera has been moved to the middle of the left side of the display. On the left side of the tablet, you’ll discover a mono speaker, and on the fitting side, there’s a flap covering a microSD card slot (good for expanding the 16GB or 32GB of storage as much as 1TB).
Peter Hunt Szpytek/Digital Trends
With the way in which that all the things has been shifted around, it’s clear that the 2022 Fire 7 is supposed to have a heavier emphasis on horizontal use versus the standard vertical setup.
While that’s actually handy when streaming video content from the tablet, it becomes just a little disorienting when using it upright, which was how I spent nearly all of my time with it. Should you’re picking this up solely to be a further, portable streaming device, the redesign is about pretty much as good as you possibly can ask for. That said, I imagine that nearly all of people will probably be using it for multiple functions, resembling playing games and reading e-books, so the button redesign is perhaps a bit awkward each time using the Fire 7 vertically.
Display and performance
The tablet’s 7-inch LCD display is best described as tremendous. It’s not great, not terrible, and about what you’d expect for an Android tablet under $100. Its 171ppi screen caps out at a 1024 x 600 resolution, which frequently gives higher-res images a ceratin grainy texture to them. At worst, it makes nice photos appear like they’re barely out of focus. I’d obviously love a high-quality screen, but for $60, it’s difficult to complain an excessive amount of.
Similarly, the Fire 7’s performance is hardly anything to put in writing home about. It shines brightest when using easy word processors, streaming apps, and other basic programs. While the MediaTek MT8168V chip is capable of sustain when doing easy tasks, asking it to do way more is normally a stretch too far for the chipset.
Peter Hunt Szpytek/Digital Trends
As a fast test to see how much the Fire 7 (2022) could handle, I downloaded a couple of games to see how things faired. The Fire 7 had mixed performance when running a game like Minecraft, but excelled at simpler games like Wordscapes. This was to be expected because it’s removed from a processing powerhouse, but I used to be pleasantly surprised with how smooth Wordscapes ran — especially within the Fire 7’s devoted Game Mode, which optimizes the device specifically for gaming. Game Mode wasn’t enough to make Minecraft feel like a improbable experience, but it surely did enough for less complicated titles.
Overall, the performance isn’t ideal, feeling sluggish at times and never looking incredible on account of the screen resolution, but for a $60 tablet, it faired higher than I’d have expected. The actual issues I had with it got here from the software that the tablet was running on.
Software
The Fire 7 runs on Amazon’s custom Fire OS 8 interface, which relies on Android 11. This was my first exposure to Fire OS, and I can confidently say that it’s what’s holding the Fire 7 back. While Amazon is leading the way in which in a handful of various industries, resembling online shopping, it’s definitely towards the back of the pack on the subject of app design and support.
Fire OS doesn’t hook up with the Google Play Store despite its Android framework. which implies that quite a lot of staple Android apps aren’t supported properly on the Fire 7. There are a handful of useful Google-based apps available to you — like YouTube, Maps, and even the fundamental Google search app — but hardly any of them feel properly optimized for the Fire 7.
Across your complete OS experience, there’s a general feeling of clunkiness, like quite a lot of the rough edges of Fire OS are still yet to be sanded down. It will be one thing if this were Amazon’s first enterprise into the software world, but seeing how there’s been loads of time for the corporate to make something that feels responsive and intuitive, it’s just a little baffling.
All that said, the first-party Amazon apps all run quite well, but there’s actually a limit to their usefulness. The Fire 7 also features Alexa and all of the conveniences that include it, making doing quick searches rather a lot easier and overall improving the worth of the device. Certainly one of the higher software additions is the hands-free mode, which lets you invoke Alexa at any time just by saying “Alexa” as you’d to an Echo speaker/display. It’s pretty neat!
Cameras
Due to the lower resolution of the screen, the shortcomings of each 2MP cameras are on full display. To be blunt: neither camera adds much value to the Fire 7. They take low-quality pictures and, when viewed on the display, appear like they’re straight out of 2012. It’s a tremendous setup for a child to play with, but not something I’d ever see myself bringing with me on vacation to actually capture a memory.
Take a have a look at some photo samples that I took using the rear camera.
And now some samples using the front-facing selfie camera in several lighting.
As you may see, the cameras just don’t work thoroughly. Not only do they struggle to capture images in low-light environments, but they appear to also perform poorly when in well-lit spaces (see the photos of the kitchen and couch for examples of every.)
There’s a general smudgey-ness to the photographs that, to be blunt, looks quite bad. I discovered the selfie camera to be just a little higher than the rear one, but still not ok for use as a primary camera. For the value, you need to know that the Fire 7 isn’t bringing a high-quality camera to the table, but it surely’s price knowing that the tablet’s cameras are essentially useless for anyone wanting something greater than a grainy, low-res image.
Battery and charging
Previous Fire tablets disenchanted just a little bit within the battery department on account of Amazon overselling the battery lifetime of its devices. For reference, the 2019 Fire 7 was expected to run for seven hours off a single full charge, but our tests found that to be unfaithful, with heavy streaming use clocking the battery in at around 4 and a half hours. The 2022 Fire 7 blows the 2019 version out of the water in that regard.
Peter Hunt Szpytek/Digital Trends
I streamed movies on the 2022 Fire 7 for over ten hours on a single charge with still some battery to spare, exceeding Amazon’s promise of 40% increased battery life by a good margin. This, to me, is one among the Fire 7’s most impressive qualities. While its display and performance aren’t amazing, the indisputable fact that it’s capable of hold a charge for therefore long signifies that it’s a solid device to bring with you when traveling.
Unfortunately, while the Fire 7’s endurance impressed me, the indisputable fact that it takes upwards of 4 hours to be fully juiced again after a full drain is rather a lot less enticing. There’s not much else to say about how staggeringly long that’s in comparison to the much quicker charging times of other devices, but that’s what happens when Amazon limits the Fire 7 to 5W charge speeds.
One of the best solution can be to charge the Fire 7 at night while you’ve got time without it, but when you’re giving this to a child, they could just be taught a thing or two about patience when waiting for it to charge.
Price and availability
The Amazon Fire 7 (2022) costs $59.99 and will be purchased directly through Amazon or at other retailers like Best Buy and Goal. It’s also price noting that Amazon also launched a new edition of the Fire 7 Kids for $109.99.
Peter Hunt Szpytek/Digital Trends
The Kids version is precisely similar to the regular one reviewed here, nonetheless, it features a larger bumper case, a two-year “worry-free” warranty (versus the 90-day one for the regular version,) and a year-long subscription to Amazon Kids (which provides a plethora of kid-friendly content to be viewed on the tablet). Should you’re trying to get the Kids version while also saving just a little, it wouldn’t be a foul idea to only get the bottom version and a good case.
Our Take
Should you’re in search of a budget tablet, the 2022 Amazon Fire 7 is a solid alternative. There are many areas where it falls short, but for a tablet under $100, it actually has it where it counts. Because of the portable design, excellent battery life, and good performance for easy tasks, you’re getting a good amount to your $60’s price.
Is there a greater alternative?
At the present price, the one other real competition for the 2022 Fire 7 is the 2021 Walmart Onn. While the Onn is commonly on sale for $10 cheaper, each tablets have comparable specs. The essential difference is that the Fire 7 is running Fire OS while the Onn is using a stock-like construct of Android 11. I personally don’t love Fire OS, as mentioned above, but I still found the Fire 7 to be a solid alternative despite that.
Obviously, there are higher tablets on the market, but picking up a latest Apple or Android device will ring you a minimum of several hundred dollars. Currently, the most cost effective latest iPads are over $300, and other low-range Android tablets will probably be about half that.
Amazon also makes the Fire HD 10, which has a bigger and sharper display, more internal storage, higher performance, and even longer battery life. Nonetheless, it costs a minimum of $150. It’s an objectively higher tablet, but it surely’s also considerably dearer.
How long will it last?
With a tool at such a low price point, you may’t really expect prolonged longevity. I’d imagine that the 2022 Fire 7 would last about two to 3 years depending on how much use it sees. It actually feels sturdy due to its weight, but with none kind of water protection, it’s at all times vulnerable to devastating spills or splashes.
Amazon has a history of supporting its devices with regular security and software updates, so it’s likely that the Fire 7 will see that support for a minimum of two years or so if the 2019 version is anything to go on.
Do you have to buy it?
Yes, but only when you know what you’re getting yourself into. The 2022 Fire 7 is a fantastic device when you’re just in search of a screen you could stream movies to, read e-books on, and play easy games with. Should you’re wanting anything aside from that or find Fire OS to be irritating, I’d recommend in search of a distinct tablet. At the value, nonetheless, it’s tough to beat.
Editors’ Recommendations
