Amazon's All-New Fire 7 And Fire 7 Kids Edition Tablets: Faster CPUs, Doubled Storage, Same Price

by Brandon Hill — Thursday, May 16, 2019, 10:17 AM EDT

Amazon's Fire line of tablets have always been a popular staple for looking for a cost-effective way to consume videos, read books, play games and surf the internet. At the bottom of the range has been the Fire 7 family which today is getting a major overhaul.

The Fire 7 is all-new and comes with a new, faster 1.3GHz quad-core processor (with 1GB of RAM) and twice the storage of its predecessor. That means that base configurations now include 16GB of internal storage, and you can pay $20 more to get 32GB (previous versions came with either 8GB or 16GB of internal storage). If the internal storage is not enough for your needs, there's a microSD slot that will let you add up to 512GB of internal storage.

Those are the major changes for the tablet, which still comes with a 7-inch IPS display that features a rather lackluster resolution of 1024x600. The plastic housing is still built to withstand abuse, and Amazon claims that it is twice as durable as the aluminum-clad iPad mini. As for battery life, the new Fire 7 is rated for up to 7 hours of reading, browsing the web and watching movies. There are front- and rear-facing cameras, and the device comes with onboard dual-band Wi-Fi. Speaking of Wi-Fi, the Fire 7 supports hands-free Alexa when it's on a wireless connection.

For those that need an even more robust tablet that can stand up to constant abuse from children, there's an all-new Fire 7 Kids Edition that is only available in a 16GB configuration. It comes already ensconced in durable case that allows the tablet to sit up in stand mode. The Fire 7 Kids Edition also comes with a 2-year worry free warranty just in case your kids manage to somehow destroy it. Its features are otherwise identical to the standard Fire 7.

The new Fire 7 is available now for pre-order and will ship on June 6^th. It's priced from $49.99 and comes in Black, Sage, Plum and Twilight Blue. Amazon is also throwing in a $10 digital credit (can be applied towards games, apps, movies, etc.) if you pre-order before June 6th. The Fire 7 Kids Edition is priced at $99.99 (also shipping on June 6^th) and comes with a free year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited; you can also purchase two for a total price of $149.99. The Fire 7 Kids Edition is available in blue, pink and purple.

Tags: Amazon, tablet, (NASDAQ:AMZN), fire 7, fire 7 kids edition

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.