Amazon Fire 7 tablet (newest model) 7” display, read and watch, under $60 with 10-hour battery life, 16 GB, Black

So I only just got this and thought I'd share my initial review and hopefully answer questions that others might have that has been difficult to find answers for.Size differencesAs most have already seen, this version is different from the previous in shape and size, yes it is slightly smaller. For most users who had the previous version, the kicker is that your covers and cases etc. are no longer compatible.Also the Charger uses USB-C plug also which is different from the previous versions.In terms of performanceThis is night and day in comparison to the older versions. The older version was slick when it first came out but like most people know, the FireOS is basically Android and as more and more updates have been applied, the older version is now running really slow. So basically this new version hardware was tailored for the today's version of android thus it runs very fast and very slick, this is a very crucial issue.NO YOUTUBE KIDS APPThe biggest issue anyone will encounter and is well known about is that this does not have the Google Play Store or accompanying services. That means that IT DOES NOT HAVE THE NATIVE YOUTUBE KIDS APP.There are many people on here that simply either don't understand what a native app is or simply confuse it with the main Youtube. I myself had multiple answers that failed to answer this basic question with multiple contradictory answers or reviews that failed to understand the question.Amazon FIRE tablets DO NOT HAVE YOUTUBE KIDS Apps. Amazon has their own Youtube.com app which it seems they created as the developer email address for that app is an amazon.com email address. When you click YOUTUBE KIDS link in that app it jumps to the browser and opens in the browser which is a terrible experience. It is strange given that on the fire TV, the YouTube app allows you to switch to kids profiles, if only Amazon would do that for their tablet youtube app. But until then What you have are 3rd party apps built by you know who on the AppStore that plays youtube. They are not native apps, nor do they support most of the functionality as is. They are not written by Youtube, Google or Amazon either, so if you want to give those apps your google login which is used for Youtube Kids then you do so at your own risk.YES YOU CAN INSTALL YOUTUBE KIDS NATIVE APP, BUT YOU HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF.I don't know why nor will I try to even get into this very very old topic of not having youtube kids, but the GOOD news is that it is very simple and easy to get Youtube kids native apps on this 12th gen version. You don't need to be a modder or anything intense. But a simple web search will tell you how to do this. Just know that you will have to install 4 different google apps/services first to get the Play Store. This is even easier as you simply open the browser, download each of them from the website and Click to install. DONE AND DUSTED. Once you have the Play Store you can easily install any of the native youtube Kids apps or even the original Youtube app from google and even login to your tablet with your gmail account. I was able to do this in 30 minutes.With YouTube Kids installed. I am now able to give this 10 Stars.This is basically very decent hardware and latest OS for $60.You cannot go wrong with this as a kids tablet especially with the ability from Amazon to quickly lock this down.Touch Screen is extremely responsiveI have struggled to find a decent priced kids tablet that is responsive enough to use the ANTON app without lag. This is the fastest tablet I have seen at this price point. For those that haven't used ANTON, it is by far the best app for teaching your kids. It has school derived lessons, I would recommend every parent should download ANTON. But it's writing lessons, needs a screen that is responsive and a fairly decent tablet. This tablet passes the ANTON test with a gold star.Sound is clear with some bass. It doesn't sound like a tin can.Sound quality is very loud and clear. Trust me, if you've been through the dozen kids tablets I have, you will be surprised how much of a let down it would be when you have poor sound. Kids need to hear clearly and this does it without issues.The Amazon AppStore itself is actually pretty good. All the apps we had on our old android tablet were available except for Youtube Kids. I'd imagine there are many more that are not available but most of the decent kids ones are on there including ANTON, ABC Kids etcI would think that since the FireTV Youtube app allows kids profiles, that Amazon would at some point do the same with their own tablet Youtube app.As it is right now this table is almost perfect especially once I was able to manually install play store and youtube kids easily. I'm ordering a second one.

I purchased this tablet for one reason: To use it as a monitor for my DJI drone. I originally was going by a video that claimed that everything Amazon could be removed from the tablet using Fire Toolbox...but that didn't seem to work for me. I had one thought...how about just loading the DJI Fly app on the tablet, and run it. I thought loading the DJI app might fail because of the app's APK. I was told that wouldn't work, but it did, and the included screen-shot shows the image taken by the DJI Mini 2 drone, displayed on the tablet, wired successfully to the controller. The second photo is of the Fire 7 menu screen, showing the DJI app on the left. Tapping on it brings up the DJI Fly app.One problem that has been suggested to me is that the RTH (Return to Home) won't work, since the Fire 7 doesn't have GPS.I'm going to try things out tonight and see if everything works. Especially the RTH function.

I snagged this latest 12 th gen 7” fire tablet at one of amazons sales $39 in late 2023. The latest chip and 2 gigs RAM makes a real difference compared to a 7” fire I had a couple or so years ago. Last one was basically useless, slow, crashed, and the book reader could not even smoothly do page curl turns. BUT THIS ONE IS DIFFERENT. IF YOU ARE A BOOK READER I ASSURE YOU THERE’S A LOT TO LOVE HERE. (and see one more surprising positive below in my update). The kindle app is flawless and almost snappy on this device. Page turning page curls are smooth and totally free of stutter or lock up like the earlier generation. It has a LOT of nits of brightness - surprisingly VERY bright even for my somewhat older eyes. Making text a bit larger is great (if your vision can use that help) and the screen resolution is totally fine for reading text, no issues at all even though it seemed like it’s a bit lower resolution in its specs. I leave it full brightness and still the battery lasts forever. Given a choice of the e-ink kindle costing much more, and this tablet (I have both) this little 7” fire tablet is FAR SUPERIOR FOR BOOK READING THAN THE e-ink tablet: it is more responsive, agile in changing text size, and lots of nits of brightness for easy reading. If you buy it ONLY as a dedicated book reader, and especially if you get the $39 price - it’s a steal and an incredibly under recognized useful budget reading tablet. Scale of 1-10 as a book reader I give it a 10. No question. More pros: surprisingly solid feel, no bending or creaking- really feels solid in the hand. Not too heavy but it’s not like so paper light that it feels flimsy. I recommend you get a case however cheap, because it is a little slippery to hold. Current OS on it is reasonably responsive and has not once ever crashed. Ok now some practical comparisons. As a tablet it is maybe a 4 on that same scale of 1 to 10: it is not super fast opening apps, the selection of fire available apps is poor, and you should accept that this is not a high end android or apple tablet. Yet, several streaming apps work flawlessly and you can watch media on it but the screen is a little washed out on color and lower resolution when your eyes compare to a high end tablet, or iPhone or 4k TV. The silk browser does work, just not super fast. The USB C charging port (!) was a splendid surprise, and the files app built into the OS let’s you surf a USB flash drive you can plus into that USB port which is surprising and kind of really cool FOR A THIRTY NINE DOLLAR TABLET! I did find that USB 3.0 maybe 3.1 works plugged into the USB C port but not USB 3.2. Last note: it has a standard headphone jack. Streaming audio including Spotify through headphones gives very very good sound. Shockingly the OS is sophisticated enough that you can plug a USB C to 3.5 mm female headphone adapter and plug headphones into that and it DOES stream the sound that way to headphones too. Sound quality seems identical either way. Portable, fun, great book reader, quite competent on card game apps and streaming apps including Netflix, Amazon prime, HULU, Disney, other free streamers like Crackle and Pluto and more; long lasting battery life, quite solid, lots of fun and so budget priced that if these capabilities sound appealing just buy the thing you will love it. Great toy to add to the small electronics fun gadgets in our lives. Update 11 22 23: one more positive to note: surprising but absolutely true: just discovered that Facebook's Messenger app will handle video calling and the result is extremely good - even shockingly good; sharp image, no dropped frames, perfect clean sound quality. Years ago it would have been impossible to imagine an inexpensive tablet gadget that could do video calls like that; yet, here we are. Outstanding!