Amazon's tablets like the Fire HD 10 and Fire 11 Max are up to 50% off — meaty savings on devices for Kindle books, browsing, inking, and even Xbox Cloud Gaming

Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet
Perhaps the cheapest "good" tablet, the Amazon Fire HD 10 is a great option for those who want a basic Android tablet for books and other apps. (Image credit: Amazon)

It's Prime Week. It used to be a day, but now it's a week. That means instead of a day of savings, we now have a week. Or well, it was previously a week+ long anyway, but they're not pretending it's just a day anymore.

Which brings me to my first deal of the festivities, Amazon's own Fire HD 10 tablet, which is down to its lowest price ever for the week.

Amazon Fire HD 10"
Prime Day Deal
Save $70
Amazon Fire HD 10" : was $139.99 now $69.99 at Amazon

The latest Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet is 25% faster than its predecessor, with boosted RAM, improved durability, battery life, and can even support Surface-like inking for notes and drawing. Pretty impressive.

See at: Amazon

Amazon Fire Max 11
Prime Day Deal
Save $90
Amazon Fire Max 11 : was $229.99 now $139.99 at Amazon

The very Surface-like Fire Max 11 is Amazon's top-end tablet, and boasts an aluminium chasis, HD+ screen, Wi-Fi 6, boosted battery life, and much more.

See at: Amazon

When Panos Panay left Microsoft to join Amazon, I knew he would bring the same fire and tenacity to Amazon's product range. Looking across the latest versions of Amazon's Fire tablets, which I honestly haven't checked out for years, you can see Panos' and other Surface alumni Ralf Groene's thought processes all over them.

Both devices now support inking, with Surface-like 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity. The Fire Max 11 also rocks an aluminium, Surface-like chassis, and comes complete with optional keyboard and stylus accessories, much like the Surface we (used to) love.

A spec breakdown between the two tablets is as follows.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Specification

Fire HD 10

Fire Max 11

Operating System

Fire OS 8 (based on Android 11)

Fire OS 8 (Android 11)

Display

10.1″ IPS, 1920 × 1200 (224 ppi)

11.0″ IPS, 2000 × 1200 (212 ppi)

Processor (SoC)

MediaTek MT8186

MediaTek MT8188J

CPU

Octa-core (4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A73 + 4×2.0 GHz A53)

Octa-core (2×2.2 GHz Cortex-A78 + 6×2.0 GHz A55)

RAM

3 GB

4 GB

Storage

32 / 64 GB; microSD up to 1 TB

64 / 128 GB; microSD up to 1 TB

Rear Camera

5 MP

8 MP, autofocus

Front Camera

2 MP

8 MP

Battery Life

≈10 hr video playback

Up to 14 hr mixed use

Charging

USB-C (standard)

USB-C, 15 W wired

Audio

Stereo speakers + 3.5 mm jack

Stereo speakers (no headphone jack)

Connectivity

Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac); Bluetooth 5.0

Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6); Bluetooth 5.3

Biometrics & Sensors

Accelerometer

Side-mounted fingerprint; accelerometer

Dimensions

247 × 166 × 8.6 mm

259.1 × 163.7 × 7.5 mm

Weight

433 g

490 g

Stylus Support

USI 2.0 stylus compatible

USI 2.0 stylus compatible (stylus included)

RRP

$139.99

$229.99

The spec sheet on these things is a lot more impressive than the Fire tablets I used back in the day, which were barely stable enough to run a heavy website, letalone run things like Roblox. Indeed, the Max 11 showcases its gaming chops on Amazon's store pages, running games like Minecraft natively with consummate ease.

One thing to note about these tablets, they come with lock screen ads that can't be disabled in the normal way. You can opt-in to receive ads, giving you the maximum savings on the tablets. If you opt-out of ads, it adds a bit of $ to the checkout fee. Head over to the store pages linked above to see which option is the best for you.

Another downside of these tablets is that Google Play isn't on them natively. There are ways to "hack" it onto the tablet, but if you didn't want to fiddle around with those things, you'll be pretty much restricted to whatever is in the Amazon App Store.

Thankfully, for missing services there are a lot of web apps available to inject some of that functionality. Things like Instagram, and so on, can be obtained this way. For apps like Xbox Cloud Gaming, there's no native experience anyway, sending you to Xbox.com/play to gain access. Both tablets support Xbox controllers via Bluetooth or USB-C, although the placement of the ports makes them a bit awkward to use with Xbox Cloud Gaming controllers like the Razer Kishi, and so on.

And sure, they're by no means the "best" tablets in the world, owing to the app gap more than anything. But, their price point makes them a compelling option for basic entertainment, socials, gaming, and other things. They're far cheaper than equivalent options from Samsung and Apple, and if all you're interested in is Kindle, Netflix, and maybe a spot of browsing, I'd argue that this Prime Day deal is your best bet.

It could be a great gift for a loved one, or indeed yourself, if you're big into books or comics.

Jez Corden
Executive Editor

Jez Corden is the Executive Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by tea. Follow on Twitter (X) and tune in to the XB2 Podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.