Amazon made waves last year when it introduced a $50 Fire tablet that was actually a fairly decent device for the price. Today, the company is rolling out a middle-of-road option for those who want a bit more storage, but who still aren’t interested in paying for the higher-end Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 tablets, at $150 and $230, respectively. The earlier $50 Fire tablet offered 8 GB of storage, but today’s new Fire tablets, priced at $70, let you increase that to 16 GB. The company is also debuting a few new color options for the Fire tablets: magenta, blue and tangerine.
As you may recall, these candy-colored choices were also previously available for the Fire HD devices.
In addition to the Fire tablet upgrades, the Fire Kids Edition will also be available with 16 GB of internal storage for $120. This device costs a bit more because you’re not just paying for a tablet, you’re also getting a kid-proof case and a 2-year insurance plan that covers you when your kid breaks it. (The 8 GB version will still cost $100, as before).
These new mid-tier Fire tablets will continue to offer a 7″ IPS display (171 ppi / 1024 x 600), 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, front and rear cameras, and will let you expand storage to 128 GB via a microSD slot. They will also run the updated Fire OS which offers features like “Blue Shade,” for better nighttime reading that won’t leave you feeling wired, along with other standard Amazon features like X-Ray, Amazon FreeTime for the kids, and more, including access to Amazon’s content library of songs, books, videos, apps and games.
The only big news is that you get more GB’s for a few more dollars. That may actually make them a better buy if you can spare the extra $20, as apps and games and downloaded content – including Amazon Video’s offline movies – can easily take up space on a device. 8 GB can quickly start to feel constraining.
The new devices are live today on Amazon.com: the 16 GB Fire 7″ is here and the Kids’ version is here.