Amazon's New $50 7" Fire Tablet, What You Need to Know

Amazon today introduced a new extremely budget friendly 7" Fire tablet that will offer you plenty of features as well as some of your favorite Amazon exclusives all for under $50. The new Fire tablet includes a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 7” IPS display featuring 171 ppi and 1024 x 600 resolution, which Amazon is calling the "best display on any tablet under $50", VGA front camera and 2MP rear-facing camera, 8GBs of internal storage and up to 128GB of expandable storage.

“Today, we’re taking another step in our mission to deliver premium products at non-premium prices,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “The all-new Fire features a quad-core processor, is incredibly durable, and is backed by the Amazon content ecosystem, the new Amazon Underground, and Amazon customer service with Mayday Screen Sharing. Fire sets a new bar for what customers should expect from a low cost tablet.”

In today's market it isn't impossible to find a decent working tablet for around $50. Unfortunately though you are generally talking about an off-brand tablet that may or may not have a functional app store present and will have limited to no support from the company that produces it. Amazon, on the other hand, is a big company with a pretty solid reputation and offers plenty of backing for its products.

While the $50 price tag give some users concerns that they are getting something under-whelming or under performing the 7" tablet actually packs some pretty decent specs and of course it is hard to beat the load of freebies you get from Amazon, especially if you load on an Amazon Prime membership.

Fire - Decent Features In A Quality Tablet At An Affordable Price

For just $49.99, the new Fire tablet includes some pretty decent specs:

• 7” IPS display offers 1024 x 600 resolution at 171 ppi, providing SD video playback, sorry no HD here. However, unlike other low-cost tablets that use TN displays your viewing experience should be fairly reasonable with vivid and accurate color reproduction that can be seen at all angles.
• Quad-core 1.3 GHz processor and 1GB of RAM: Amazon states the Fire's processor offers 2x more processing power than Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite at less than half the price. We'd really like to have seen more RAM to be honest, but the CPU performance sounds impressive!
• VGA Front- and 2MP rear-facing camera capable of 720p video. While these do seem underwhelming they do allow you to complete the basics like video chatting with friends and family or taking photos and videos.
• 8GBs of storage and up to 128GB of expandable storage via microSD
• All-day battery life—Delivers up to 7 hours of reading, browsing the web, listening to music, and watching video. 
• Fire OS 5 “Bellini”—Includes an updated user interface that replicates the look and feel of a magazine, making browsing and searching for your content easier than ever—what you want is just one tap away; plus, Fire OS 5 includes hundreds of new and upgraded features and platform updates, plus Amazon-exclusive services. 
• 3.5 mm stereo jack and integrated speaker, Micro USB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n standard with support for WEP, WPA, and WPA2 security
• Size & Weight: 7.5" x 4.5" x 0.4" (191 x 115 x 10.6 mm) at just 11.0 ounces (313 grams)

Don't Forget The Amazon Exclusive Features

The Fire Tablet will also come packed with plenty of Amazon exclusive features and is packed with plenty of freebies!

• Amazon Underground—A new one-of-a-kind app store experience where over $10,000 in apps, games and even in-app items are actually free—including extra lives, unlocked levels, unlimited add-on packs, and more. 
• Free, unlimited cloud storage for all your Amazon content including unlimited storage on photos you've taken with your Fire tablet
• Activity Center—For parents whose kids have outgrown Amazon FreeTime, Activity Center provides an easy way for them to see how their kids are spending time on their Fire tablet—from how much time they spend playing games, to which websites they visit. Activity Center will be available via a free, over-the-air Fire OS update in the coming months.
• Mayday Screen Sharing lets an Amazon expert guide you remotely through any feature on your screen, available 24x7, 365 days a year—for free.
• Amazon-exclusive features—ASAP, X-Ray, Second Screen, Amazon FreeTime, Family Library, Word Runner, and more.
• Access to over 38 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, magazines, apps, and games

We have yet to see any real world reviews of the new Fire Tablet, we expect those to come in soon, but with all these features and the great price tag we wouldn’t be surprised if the new Fire becomes a favorite among parents or students looking for a cheap alternative tablet or a gift their children. For families looking to give a Fire to everyone, Amazon is even selling a six-pack for the price of 5 tablets. At $250 for six, that’s still cheaper than many people pay for just one tablet from most other companies!

Fire will start shipping on September 30—those interested can order at www.amazon.com/fire and for those looking for a bit more real estate and want a little more screen space Amazon has also released two new 8" and 10.1" Fire tablets that will offer even more performance and still won't break the budget!