Amazon has announced a new version of its incredibly popular Fire 7 tablet. The new version comes with a tweaked design, upgraded internals, better battery life, a USB-C port for charging, and a higher price tag of $59. There’s also a new Fire 7 Kids Edition that comes with a special protective case in the box, a two-year warranty, and a one-year Amazon Kids+ subscription.
The Fire 7 has been upgraded with a new quad-core processor that Amazon says is 30 percent faster than the previous model. The RAM has been doubled, going from 1GB to 2GB, and the battery life has increased by 40 percent for up to 10 hours of use. What’s probably the most appealing spec change, however, involves its port: Amazon has traded microUSB for USB-C, freeing you of one less cable you have to lug around. Storage sits at up to 32GB.
The screen is obviously still 7 inches in size, it’s still 1024×600, and it’s still surrounded by huge bezels. I wish Amazon would improve the quality of the display a bit since it’s basically been using the same panel since 2015 when the tablet was first released, but I suppose it doesn’t really matter when the entire package costs less than $60.
Amazon notes in its press release that the Fire 7 now supports “Android Dark theme,” and I have to assume this means the tablet comes with a new version of Fire OS (a.k.a. Android with Amazon’s skin on top). I don’t know the exact version, but I’ll be reaching out to Amazon for clarification.
Meanwhile, the Fire 7 Kids edition is the same tablet as the Fire 7 but with a protective case available in a variety of colors, an extended two-year worry-free warranty, and a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+. For the first time, it’ll be available in either 16GB or 32GB storage configurations.
Amazon is charging $59.99 for the Fire 7 with lockscreen ads and $74.99 without, while the Fire 7 Kids edition starts at $109.99. Both are up for preorder starting today, with shipping set to kick off on June 29th.
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