Amazon is getting ready to announce a new Fire HD 10 tablet. Which is currently the oldest current-gen tablet in Amazon’s lineup. So it is more than due for an update.
This information comes from the FCC. Amazon has pushed through a new tablet through the FCC (and it has been approved), and it appears to be a 10-inch tablet. What’s also interesting here is that the Fire HD 10 does support WiFi 802.11 ac, which is something that the other Fire tablets do not support. The current Fire HD 10 also supports WiFi 802.11 ac, so this should come as no surprise.
The FCC filing does not offer a lot of details on what Amazon might be doing with this tablet. But many expect that it’ll sport an upgraded processor. It already has the fastest processor compared to the other Fire tablets. It’ll likely get better SD card support. Currently, they can only handle up to 256GB micro SD cards, but the newer Fire tablets can handle the 400GB and 512GB micro SD cards.
It’s unlikely that the display is going to get an upgrade. It’s already a 1080p display, which is a big upgrade compared to the other tablets in the lineup. And where Amazon wants to keep the price of the Fire HD 10 low, so that more people are buying it, seeing it jump to Quad HD would be a very surprising thing.
Currently, the Fire HD 10 with 32GB of storage runs about $149. That’s a pretty incredible price for a 10-inch tablet. Keep in mind that this will not be a high-end tablet, Amazon typically sells these tablets at cost, hence the super low price tag. As it is a gateway into using more Amazon services like Kindle Unlimited, Audible and Amazon Prime Video.
This has worked pretty well for Amazon over the past 10 years or so, as it is now one of the only tablet makers that is still selling and making tablets. Companies like Google, LG and HTC have all given up. Samsung is still making tablets, but not that many – mostly a high-end tablet and a low-end tablet and that’s it. So the only real competition would be the iPad, but Amazon is not competing with the iPad. A $149 tablet can’t compete with a $600+ tablet, for obvious reasons.
It’s worth noting that just because this tablet has made its way through the FCC doesn’t mean that it’s going to be announce anytime soon. Companies send new products through to the FCC before launch – most of the time – but there are some very rare occasions where the device never actually gets announced or goes on sale. As we mentioned, that is very rare though. So it’s pretty likely that this will be coming to Amazon’s site pretty soon.
With this news, it’s probably a good idea to skip out on buying a Fire HD 10 tablet, if you were looking to buy one right now. As that is a nearly two-year old tablet, and it does look like it’ll be replaced pretty soon.