Amazon quietly upgraded its 10-inch Fire Tablet with a surprising hardware boost – more RAM is rare these days, but here we are
It's not wildly different, but it is a minor upgrade if you buy the right one
Quick Summary
Amazon has shuffled its listings for the Fire HD 10, with a 4GB model offered as an alternative to the normal 3GB.
Currently, this only appears to have happened in the US, but it looks like Amazon is trying to offer an upgrade while keeping prices under control.
Amazon appears to have tweaked the Fire HD 10, its big screen value-focused tablet. The RAM has been bumped by 25%, but there are a couple of interesting things in the new listing to be aware of.
This appears to be a tweak to the Fire HD 10, with the higher RAM level listed with limitations: it's only available with 32GB storage and it comes with lockscreen ads. It's also listed separately to the 3GB version with has a couple more options to choose from.
Currently, this only appears to be in the US, with the 4GB model listed here, while the 3GB models remain here.
Typically, Fire HD tablets are listed with a couple of options. That allows buyers to move from the base model into more storage, while the other option is to have the adverts on the lockscreen or to disable those, usually for a small price increase.
It appears that this new version of the Fire HD 10 with 4GB RAM was listed on Amazon at the beginning of June and buyers need to make sure they're choosing the right version, as currently, both the 3GB and 4GB models offer 32GB storage at the same price.
However, the 3GB version at the $155 price has no lockscreen ads.
With a lack of changes elsewhere, it looks like Amazon is trying to boost the performance of the model without ramping up the price – and limiting the options seems to be the way to do this. With that said, Engadget notes that it can charge in four hours instead of five.
Admittedly, at the moment these listings are a little confusing and we're not seeing the same changes in the UK – where currently the Fire HD 10 is listed at £110 thanks to a 27% discount. That's for the 3GB RAM, 32GB storage version, with ads.
Amazon's Fire HD 10 is a respectable tablet for those looking for a cheap media device: it's great for streaming content with its 1080p display, but it's not hugely powerful and because it doesn’t support the Google Play Store, it's not ideal for those with greater demands.
One of the slightly rare features is that it supports microSD meaning that the base storage can be expanded. The 32GB model only has 24GB available to users which isn't much, especially if you start downloading apps that have higher storage demands. Even downloading movies from several streaming services and music from Spotify will quickly fill the available space.
Sadly, microSD cards have not been exempt from price rises, but for some users this will be a cheaper way to increase the capacity, with up to 1TB supported on these tablets.
As I said, this listing isn't currently showing on Amazon UK, but if you're interested in buying the tablet in the US make sure you pick the right version for you.
