Amazon is retiring the Fire Tablet name. On October 8, the company announced the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro, Alexa Tablet 11 and Alexa Tablet 8, a trio of Android devices that put Alexa Plus at the center of the experience and lean on the Kindle app to double as dedicated e-readers.
All three share a 6.5mm aluminum unibody design, a shift from the plastic builds Amazon's tablets have used for years. The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro tops the range with a 12-inch, 3:2 display running at 120Hz, offered in either a standard vibrant panel or a Nanomatte option developed with Corning that Amazon says is "precision-etched" with anti-glare coating for outdoor use. It costs $499 for the 8GB/128GB vibrant model and $549 for the Nanomatte version, in Graphite.
Amazon says the 12 Pro's 4nm 8-core chip delivers "nearly three times faster processing and nine times faster graphics than any tablet we've ever shipped," though the company did not name a specific predecessor or share benchmark figures to back the claim. The tablet supports up to 16 hours of video playback, quad Dolby Atmos speakers and launches alongside an optional Tablet Pro Pen and Tablet Pro Keyboard.
The Alexa Tablet 11 sits in the middle, built for video and gaming with a 16:10, 90Hz display and dual Dolby Atmos speakers. According to Notebookcheck, it carries an 11-inch 2560x1600 panel at 500 nits, a MediaTek Kompanio 540 chip with two Cortex-A78 cores and six Cortex-A55 cores, 8GB of RAM, and either 64GB or 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage with no microSD slot. It has 8MP front and rear cameras limited to 1080p video, Bluetooth 5.2, an IP52 rating, a fingerprint reader, a 6,500mAh battery and 27W USB PD charging. It runs Android 16 out of the box.
Pricing starts at $329.99 for 64GB and $379.99 for 128GB, with both figures rising by $20 if buyers want to skip lockscreen ads. It comes in Graphite, Amethyst and Matcha. A Kids edition with 8GB of RAM and 64GB of storage runs $329.99, with licensed cases for Paw Patrol, Barbie and SpongeBob adding $10.
The Alexa Tablet 8 is the smallest and cheapest, at $229.99 for a 4GB/64GB configuration in Graphite, Rosette or Teal, with 14 hours of rated video playback aimed more at reading than gaming or streaming.
Alexa Plus runs across the lineup, summoned with "Hey Alexa" or an on-screen button, and Amazon's On-Screen Intelligence feature lets the assistant see whatever is on the display to answer questions about it. The company is pitching the Kindle tie-in as the signature feature: opening a book in the Kindle app is supposed to turn the tablet into what Amazon calls a "distraction-free reading sanctuary," muting notifications, dimming blue light and switching to a soft paper tone or grayscale mode, which Amazon says stretches battery life to roughly 20 hours on the 12 Pro.
Accessories for the 11-inch model include a $59.99 USI 2.0 stylus, a $79.99 Bluetooth keyboard case with a trackpad rated for up to 300 hours, and folio covers running $49.99 to $59.99.
All three tablets, along with 8.7-inch and 11-inch Kids Tablets, are available to preorder now. Shipping begins October 14, though Amazon says the Kids Tablets won't reach the US, Mexico or Canada until that date either.
GDFiled by The Gadgets Desk
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