Amazon Releases New Fire HD 10 (2017) Tablet

[Josieb1]

After thinking about it decided not to overspend by buying the 64GB and the Amazon Extended Warranty. Instead I've bought the 32GB Black from John Lewis, which has a two year warranty (for everything other than accidental damage) and the Purple Amazon case. I should have both tomorrow. I've also splurged out £6.95 on two screen protectors, allbe it for the 2015 model, but they should be fine as according to the specs the screen size hasn't changed.

My last two Fires have come from John Lewis and I haven't had a problem yet, although saying that i'm bound to be setting myself up for misfortune

[carld]

Mine should be here any minute.

[DiapDealer]

Been playing with mine for a bit, now. I had to immediately update to 5.5.0.0 in order to utilize the Hands-Free Alexa feature. Seemed a bit odd to me that one of the selling points of a new-released device wasn't immediately available (on release day no less) until after an update, but whatever--it works now.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Been playing with mine for a bit, now. I had to immediately update to 5.5.0.0 in order to utilize the Hands-Free Alexa feature. Seemed a bit odd to me that one of the selling points of a new-released device wasn't immediately available (on release day no less) until after an update, but whatever--it works now.

I suspect the devices were built a while ago and the latest software has only just been finalised, ready for installation, which is why you needed an update before you could utilise Alexa. No doubt I'll be doing the same tomorrow.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

See here for easy installation (no rooting involved).

This all went smoothly on the new Fire: now have Chrome, Gmail, and Google Calendar.

I'm a little miffed, however, that the Google Play Store now thinks it's responsible for updating Amazon for Tablets, Amazon Kindle, and Amazon Music. I'll need to quickly decide if I want to deal with always needing to remember to never "Update All" in the Play Store. That could be a lot inconvenient.

[PeterT]

Why not turn auto update off for those apps?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Why not turn auto update off for those apps?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

I turn auto update off entirely in the settings. But after seeing the updates that are queued, I often like to utilize the Update All button. Can't do that when there's apps in the list that weren't installed from the Play Store.

I'm noticing a few fiddly issues with having the Play Store core apps installed, actually. I may get rid of the Google stuff and go back to stock. The stock mail, calendar and contacts apps synchronize with my Google account well enough. The only thing I'd miss would be Chrome (and I can probably get over that).

To those more familiar with the xda stuff: can I just uninstall the apks in reverse to get back to stock, or would a factory reset be better?

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I turn auto update off entirely in the settings. But after seeing the updates that are queued, I often like to utilize the Update All button. Can't do that when there's apps in the list that weren't installed from the Play Store.

I'm noticing a few fiddly issues with having the Play Store core apps installed, actually. I may get rid of the Google stuff and go back to stock. The stock mail, calendar and contacts apps synchronize with my Google account well enough. The only thing I'd miss would be Chrome (and I can probably get over that).

To those more familiar with the xda stuff: can I just uninstall the apks in reverse to get back to stock, or would a factory reset be better?

I can't help with the uninstall bit but for Google Play apps what I have done before, because I have an android device as well, is just install the apks from Google Play for the apps not in the Amazon App Store. These are mainly Dropbox, Sky +, Firefox and Kobo. Everything else I need is in the Amazon App Store.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

This all went smoothly on the new Fire: now have Chrome, Gmail, and Google Calendar.

I'm a little miffed, however, that the Google Play Store now thinks it's responsible for updating Amazon for Tablets, Amazon Kindle, and Amazon Music. I'll need to quickly decide if I want to deal with always needing to remember to never "Update All" in the Play Store. That could be a lot inconvenient.

I've found that Google Play usually has more recent versions for apps including Amazon's own apps. I can't remember which Amazon app I found that didn't have the latest version.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I turn auto update off entirely in the settings. But after seeing the updates that are queued, I often like to utilize the Update All button. Can't do that when there's apps in the list that weren't installed from the Play Store.

I'm noticing a few fiddly issues with having the Play Store core apps installed, actually. I may get rid of the Google stuff and go back to stock. The stock mail, calendar and contacts apps synchronize with my Google account well enough. The only thing I'd miss would be Chrome (and I can probably get over that).

To those more familiar with the xda stuff: can I just uninstall the apks in reverse to get back to stock, or would a factory reset be better?

They are installed as user apps, so you might be able to uninstall in any order. Your device is already stock.

Like Josieb1 said you can just sideload most apps. Chrome is one of them I think. I hate Chrome so I uninstalled it.

[carld]

Got my new Fire a bit later than I expected. Amazon packed it with 4 air bags ... minus the air. It arrived in good shape regardless. Got it set up, SD card transferred, Google Play installed, Gmail, YouTube etc. All in all seems snappier, the screen is sharper, tough it's a bit heavier, and the screen isn't as bright as the previous model.

[Avwriter]

I have been considering picking up the new Fire HD 10. I love the idea of having hands free Alexa, and my current Fire, a 4-year old HDX 7" now needs to be recharged after every hour of use. However, do I understand correctly from the specs that the new Fire HD 10 actually has less processing power than the old HDX? This makes me hesitate. I know that Amazon has shifted it priority on tablets from power to price in recent years, but still I would have thought that their newest highest end tablet would be more powerful than their flagship from 4 years ago. But maybe I am misunderstanding something...

Amazon says the FireHD10 has a quad core 1.8 GHz processor, and my old HDX has a quad core 2.2GHz processor. Is there more to judging the speed of these processors than just the GHz? If someone could clarify, I would appreciate it. I would hate to find that my new tablet has trouble running apps/games that my old one handles fine.

Thanks,

Andrew

[carld]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Been playing with mine for a bit, now. I had to immediately update to 5.5.0.0 in order to utilize the Hands-Free Alexa feature. Seemed a bit odd to me that one of the selling points of a new-released device wasn't immediately available (on release day no less) until after an update, but whatever--it works now.

I wondered what was going on. Alexa didn't work out of the box for me either. It must have updated while I was asleep (I work 3rd shift).

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I turn auto update off entirely in the settings. But after seeing the updates that are queued, I often like to utilize the Update All button. Can't do that when there's apps in the list that weren't installed from the Play Store.

I'm noticing a few fiddly issues with having the Play Store core apps installed, actually. I may get rid of the Google stuff and go back to stock. The stock mail, calendar and contacts apps synchronize with my Google account well enough. The only thing I'd miss would be Chrome (and I can probably get over that).

To those more familiar with the xda stuff: can I just uninstall the apks in reverse to get back to stock, or would a factory reset be better?

Just uninstall. I've done it plenty of times. I prefer Google Play though. I do keep auto updates off. However if Google Play updates any Fire components you need to do a factory reset.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Blossom

However if Google Play updates any Fire components you need to do a factory reset.

Sent from my Nexus 7

That's the concern. I'm going to mess up and hit "Update All" at some point. It's just too ingrained in my habits to hope I won't.

I've also noticed that the first tab in the newly-launched Play-Store-installed Chrome is often non-responsive. No pages will load from it. Using a newly-opened tab will restore functionality (for the second tab), but that original tab is dead in the water for the entire time that particular instance of Chrome is open. Nothing can ever be loaded into it. Weird and annoying.