Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Amazon is close to making the perfect budget tablet. First of all, I own the 2017 HD 8 as well and feel that this is a great upgrade. The size difference being obvious and the 10 might be a bit large for some but you may feel that it's a noteworthy upgrade. Everything seems to run smoother and faster. And it's brighter, sharper, and louder. The higher resolution is immediately noticeable. I can't believe that companies still make low res tablets. I bit my tongue and bought the HD 8 and regretted it for that. My 5 year old Nexus 7 had full HD and was sharp and crisp. This new HD 10 is beautiful. Even though it doesn't have the highest pixel density for reading fonts, it's perfectly acceptable for consuming video. The IPS display is very forgiving horizontally but slightly less so vertically. The screen is not as bright as an iPad but in my opinion it's fine for all but direct sunlight. The speakers, they're not full sounding at all. Very tinny with no bass. You're neighbors aren't ever going to complain, but it's significantly louder than the HD 8 which I struggle to hear anywhere except in a quite room. The HD 10, I can actually watch movies and hear things while I'm doing things around the house or at work. But paired to my Bluetooth speaker, this thing is really amazing. I have an Amazon Music account and since Alexa works even while in stand by, I can request it to play whatever I want. By now, most of you know what Alexa can do. And you know how convenient it is. And a lot of you spent money buying Echos, Dots, and Shows. And a lot of you have nice BT speakers and even stereo systems at home. Ummm... why not use your Fire HD 10 and your $300 BT speaker instead? My friend has a Show and it's fairly impressive. But my HD 10 and JBL Xtreme will blow it out of the water. Battery life is really good imho. I pushed it hard at work today. I had it streaming an event from 9:30AM to 3:30PM connected to bluetooth speakers. The screen was set to maximum brightness with adaptive brightness turned off. It had 2% battery left. I used the supplied charger and it took 3 hours to fully charge. 6 hours at max brightness is really impressive for a $150 full HD 10 inch tablet with a relatively high nit value. At medium or low brightness setting, I can't see why this couldn't last it's rated 9 hours of play time. I've had the HD 8 stream non stop for 8 hours before I had to shut it down for the day but I don't recall the battery capacity left. For all I know it could've gone 9 or 10 hours. That little sucker keeps chugging on. Unlock it's full potential. There are easy 4 step guides on YT to install Google Play Store. It literally takes 5 mins. Click to install a few files. That's it. This won't do anything bad to the tablet. All it's doing is installing files that all other Android tablets normally come with. It doesn't erase anything. And it doesn't overwrite anything. But you can install the YouTube app from the Google Play Store instead of the Amazon store and get full HD content. You can install Chrome browser and sync everything across all your platforms. Gmail, Kodi, Utorrent, yada yada yada. There's just so many things that Amazon app store doesn't have that many of us need. I wouldn't have purchased the HD 10 unless Google Play Store was available. Anyways, if you're on the fence between the HD 8 and the HD 10, I would steer you towards the 10. It provides a more immersive experience with it's sharp screen and loud speakers. If you want stocking stuffers this holiday, get the HD 8 and miser a HD 10 for yourself. And if you're on the fence between the HD 10 and the basic iPad, unless you're locked into Apple's eco system, I don't see a reason to spend more than double for the iPad with their locked storage capacity. A 32GB iPad is $329 and a 128GB is $429. For some of us, storage capacity is a big deal. Whether we're working with photography or downloading a ton of music, or storing hours and hours of movies and TV shows to watch in airports, planes, and hotels. And compared to the Pro models, the regular iPad feels cheap with it's thicker body and double layered screen (albeit still feels more top shelf than the HD 10). The one thing going for iPads are the wider 4:3 screen format for reading. I find older style screen formats to be more comfortable for stacking in longer lines for reading. What I don't like. There's no Fintie Tuatara with Magic Ring case! I have one for the HD 8 and it's incredible. Basically a giant rugged case with a kickstand that rotates so there's no limit on how to angle it in portrait and landscape modes. Also, the speakers are acceptable but I wish that they were better. Fuller sounding with more bass. And although I can link my Spotify premium account to the HD 10 Alexa App, when I request it, it says that Spotify is not supported on this device. That's a shame really because I use Spotify for all my music. I can still just use the Spotify app, just not with Alexa. The battery life is good. But can be better. Just compare it to an iPad. And last but not least, the screen is acceptably bright. But it can be brighter. Again, compare it to an iPad. But let's be real. This is a $150 tablet with a micro SD slot. EDIT: The Fintie Tuatara is coming out in a couple of days! And I added a 64GB micro SD card to store offline Netflix and Amazon videos. An entire season of Mind Hunter or Stranger Things is only a couple of gigs in standard quality and 7 or 8 gigs for high so you can store enough movies for a week or two for $20. To store vids on the SD card, go to the Fire HD Settings then Storage and make sure that Download Movies and TV Shows to SD card is clicked on. And in the Netflix app, click the hamburger then App Settings and set Download Location to SD card. You can also set the Download Video Quality to standard or high. Bought a 2nd Fire HD 10 in 32GB for $99 during Black Friday to keep at work for reading. Andy Weir's new book Artemis is calling. I've gotta go.