Amazon is abandoning FireOS. After fifteen years of locking its tablet buyers into a heavily walled storefront and the Silk browser, the company's newest hardware family runs standard Android out of the box.
The shift arrives under a fresh moniker: the Amazon Alexa Tablet. The lineup spans three main screen tiers, led by the flagship Alexa Tablet 12 Pro, alongside the mid-sized Alexa Tablet 11, the compact Alexa Tablet 8, and dedicated Amazon Kids Tablets. Pre-orders are live now, with retail shipments scheduled to kick off on October 19.
Pricing for the top-tier Alexa Tablet 12 Pro starts at $499.99 in the United States (£449.99 in the UK). That entry specification packs a 120Hz display, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of internal flash storage. Buyers looking for reduced glare can opt for a Nanomatte display finish, which bumps the baseline asking price to $549.99 in the US and £599.99 in the UK. On the accessory front, Amazon will offer an optional keyboard dock alongside a Pro Pen stylus for drawing and productivity chores.
Under the hood, the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro runs on MediaTek's Dimensity 8400 processor. In configurations equipped with 16GB of RAM, Amazon claims the slate delivers nearly three times faster processing speeds and nine times faster graphics output than any previous tablet it has brought to market. The jump to standard Android also allows productivity software like Google's suite of office applications to run without the usual FireOS side-loading gymnastics.
The software layer integrates Amazon's generative Alexa+ assistant directly into system tasks. The software can inspect what is currently on screen to pull actionable steps, such as taking a cooking recipe off a web page and beaming formatted preparation cards directly to a kitchen Echo Show.
That functionality hinges on the underlying Alexa+ subscription. Amazon charges $19.99 per month in the US (£19.99 in the UK, AU$29.99 in Australia) for the standalone service, though anyone with an active Amazon Prime membership gets access without paying extra.
The October 19 launch will reveal whether standard Android app compatibility and MediaTek silicon can elevate Amazon's hardware past its historical role as an e-commerce impulse buy.
GDFiled by The Gadgets Desk
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