Amazon’s New Fire HD 10 A Hybrid Echo & Tablet, With Hands-Free Alexa
Amazon’s new tablet, the Fire HD 10, is not your average tablet – it’s also an Amazon Echo smart speaker, enabled with hands-free use of its virtual assistant ‘Alexa’. Rumour is, it may be among the the first Amazon products to officially roll out in Australia.
The tablet’s features are naturally limited, being restricted to Amazon’s Fire OS, however, it is positioned to be sufficient for entertainment needs such as watching movies or reading. As a tablet, the device is priced as a competitive deal. Amazon stresses its usability for children, by stating it’s more durable than the iPad Pro “as measured in tumble tests”.
The tablet boasts a 1080p and 10.1″ screen. It also features a 1.8 GHz quad-core processor, 32GB/64GB of storage and 2GB of RAM – these are somewhat limited specifications, though users can increase storage to 256GB via a microSD slot. The device features battery life of ten hours and Dolby Atmos dual-speaker stereo audio.
As a major addition, the ‘tablet’ will also be enabled for hands-free use of Alexa. Alexa can be kept on at all times – users simply have to tap in the settings section to activate ‘Alexa Hands Free’, which immediately transforms the device into an Echo-device, allowing an individual to call upon Alexa at any time.
Alexa integration will give an individual full control over the tablet using their voice.
The potential ‘weaknesses’ of the tablet are immediately repositioned, as the integration of Alexa transforms the product into a unique hybrid device,
The device will be the first time Alexa will be hands-free on an Amazon tablet, much like the usability of the smart Amazon speaker Echo. The company included Alexa integration in a previous Amazon Fire tablet, though it wasn’t hands-free.
With the Amazon Fire HD 10, users can say “Alexa” and the ‘tablet’ will work exactly like an Echo.
Using the function, individuals can turn on connected lights, play movies from Amazon Prime, enquire about the weather plus a suite more.
As Alexa continues to roll out to many new third party devices, it’s logical that Amazon would merge its smart assistant within its competitively priced tablets.
The device is tipped to be available in the US on October 11th, where individuals can find out the device’s full specifications.