The Best Amazon Fire Tablets for Every Person

Amazon offers perhaps the best value in tablets, as long as you are willing to live with some compromises. The Fire series boasts more than acceptable specifications for reading emails, light web browsing, and movie watching. The trade-off for the low prices is that the selection of apps available for the Fire platform is somewhat limited, but that shouldn’t be a problem for most users.

What to Consider

One of the benefits (or drawbacks depending on how you look at it) of buying a Fire tablet is that Amazon makes it easy to choose which model you want. There are really only two necessary specifications to consider: screen size and storage. Otherwise, you’ll need to decide whether or not you want to look at ads Amazon loads on your device.

Display size: The Fire tablets come in a choice of 7-, 8-, or 10-inch displays. The smallest size is fine for quick emails and reading books, but I recommend upgrading to the 8- or 10-inch model if you plan to watch movies or TV.

Storage: Fire models come in a choice of 16, 32 or 64 GB, which is on the low end. I own the 8- and the 10-inch Fire tablets and use them primarily for streaming, so it isn’t a significant consideration for me. However, if you want to download movies or games, keep in mind that the storage space will quickly fill up. That said, you can always increase your storage using a microSD card. Nevertheless, if you plan to use your tablet as a daily driver, it’s advisable to opt for a higher capacity model.

Ad-supported models: The cheapest Fire tablets come ad-supported, which means that you are opting for a constant stream of messages from Amazon. I enjoy getting the little notifications and don’t find them too intrusive. However, if you suffer from information overload, you might want to pay the one-time fee to remove the ads from your device. You can also remove them after your purchase through the Amazon website if you change your mind later.

How We Evaluated

As a technology writer with 20-plus years of experience, I’m always on the lookout for the latest and greatest when it comes to tablets. I’ve owned Amazon tablets for more than a decade and currently have several models in my drawer. I spent many hours looking through reviews and experimenting with Amazon’s Fire series for this article. I considered screen size and quality, storage space, and cost while sifting through the lineup.

For more tablets to consider, check out our pics for Best Android Tablets, Best Tablets for Kids, and Best Tablets for Photoediting.