The Good
The budget tablet king
Tough exterior that makes it perfect for travel
Amazon Kids+ subscription is worth it
The Bad
Cameras are 720p and bad quality
Some issues with apps unexpectedly crashing
Amazon has been the king of the low-cost tablet market since the first Fire tablet all those years ago. They recently refreshed the Amazon Fire 7 with a better battery and a faster processor, and we’ve been testing one out.
The thing is, Amazon sent us the Fire 7 Kids edition. This is the normal Fire 7 tablet, with a bump-proof foam protective case, a two-year worry-free guarantee, and a year of Amazon’s Kids+ content subscription.
Who better to test it out than my more-than-willing three-year-old? She’s been putting it through every torture test imaginable, and we’ve got the results.
I scribbled some other notes while watching her play along the way, so here goes.
What’s good about the 2022 Fire 7? Image: Joe Rice-Jones / KnowTechie
Amazon’s latest iteration of the Fire 7 is just that, a minor refresh of its low-cost Android tablet. This year, the price got increased by $10 to $59.99.
That gets you 16GB of storage and lock screen ads. You can pay more for double the storage, to remove lock screen ads, or to get the Kids version.
That price increase comes with increased performance. Amazon says the new quad-core processor is 30 percent faster.
Our testing found that’s about right, based on the difference in smoothness between the new Fire 7 and the Fire 8 Kids that we have, which came out in 2020.
Amazon doubled the RAM to 2GB and changed the charging port to use USB-C. It still takes a while to charge, as no fast charging capacity, but the common connector is a welcome change.
The screen is unchanged from the prior model, with a 1024×720 resolution. The front and rear cameras have 720p recording from the 2-megapixel lenses.
The design Image: Joe Rice-Jones / KnowTechie
The Fire 7 is surprisingly sturdy with its plastic build. There isn’t much that stands out about the design, other than its weight distribution is good for holding it one-handed.
All buttons are now on the same edge, with physical power and volume, a USB-C for charging, and a 3.5mm headphone port.
The selfie camera is now centered on one of the long edges, which puts it in the perfect position when it’s stood up on the case’s stand.
The integral speakers are passable for watching content or playing games, but they’re thin when playing music. We feel that’s okay given the device’s price and intended use.
Many parents prefer their kids to use volume-limiting headphones, so Amazon keeping the 3.5mm jack was smart. The Fire 7 also has Bluetooth, if you prefer to go that route.
Image: Joe Rice-Jones / KnowTechie
See how dirty the screen is? That’s the daily muck and assorted stickiness a toddler leaves on a touchscreen.
The impressive thing is that the touchscreen still stayed responsive throughout. We’ve got no qualms recommending this tablet to kids of all ages.
Amazon Kids+ Image: Joe Rice-Jones / KnowTechie
For me, Kids+ is the star of the show here. My iPad has robust parental controls, but I still have to monitor what she’s looking at on Safari or the App Store.
With Kids+, I only needed to set the age range, and the system limited the apps shown.
That’s great, although it took a bit of tweaking and increasing the age range to find some of her favorite puzzle apps.
You can also start backward by blocking everything and whitelisting individual apps and games you approve. That felt a little time-consuming, but I can see how that could be a plus for some parents.
I did block some individual apps and games that I didn’t like the content of, but overall the curated content list is great.
The battery life Image: Joe Rice-Jones / KnowTechie
The Amazon Fire 7 Kids still managed all-day usage with an ever-curious toddler at the helm. That’s the best thing we can say about the tablet.
The only times that battery life didn’t last all day
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