Amazon Fire tablet
Shares rank 6 of 9 tablets by recommenders
Cheap tablet that people find fine for light use and simple tasks, often for little money. Critics say it is slow, locked down and designed to be addictive.
Cheap tablet that people find fine for light use and simple tasks, often for little money. Critics say it is slow, locked down and designed to be addictive.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 14
- approval share
- 33%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Low price for basic use
“it's really hard to beat the value proposition of modding a dirt cheap Amazon/Android tablet”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “CM0 – A new Raspberry Pi you can't buy” “Mine looks and works like brand new for $25”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “I spent $266 and four AI models to own my tablet. GLM-5.3 finished it in a day” Fine for light coding and tasks
“It is actually pretty fun to use for light coding.”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation” “works fine for that purpose”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “If Apple makes an iPad Neo, it's all over”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow, even after factory resets
“the Amazon Fire tablet we used to have which was so slow it was literally unusable”
Comment from 7 Mar 2026 in “PC processors entered the Gigahertz era today in the year 2000 with AMD's Athlon” “Ours has become so inexplicably slow it’s wild, even after factory resets.”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?” Locked down, spyware concerns
“products like this one that actively constrain people's actions and pressure them to perpetuate the system”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “Amazon’s “digital pacifier” for toddlers” “the locked-down android and really android of any kind is just not something I am interested in”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “CM0 – A new Raspberry Pi you can't buy” “They can keep their Fire tablets, TVs, and other spyware.”
Comment from 20 Dec 2025 in “Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks” Designed to be addictive
“Screens are horrible especially when they come attached to a device made to be addictive, like an Amazon tablet.”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “Amazon’s “digital pacifier” for toddlers” “Amazon going full Facebook-at-their-worst. Nice to know.”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “Amazon’s “digital pacifier” for toddlers”
Other tablets people recommend
The four most recommended other tablets, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPad | 268 | 302 | 47% | 12 | 5 yrs42 owners | — |
| iPad Pro | 95 | 80 | 54% | 12 | 8 yrs30 owners | — |
| Apple iPad Air | 61 | 69 | 47% | 9 | 6 yrs8 owners | — |
| iPad mini | 53 | 76 | 41% | 10 | 11 yrs8 owners | — |
| Amazon Fire tabletThis page | 7 | 14 | 33% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
18 of the 21 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Screens are horrible especially when they come attached to a device made to be addictive, like an Amazon tablet.”
“products like this one that actively constrain people's actions and pressure them to perpetuate the system”
“the battery lasts 5 seconds, the animations are chunky”
“This is basically, and obviously, child abuse in the implied usage.”
“it was absolutely terrible”
“Amazon going full Facebook-at-their-worst. Nice to know.”
“a fantastic daily driver for adults as the intended market of the device means all activity on it is a priori subject to COPPA”
“Fire tablets are on sale. The things that are always on sale are on sale.”
“Mine looks and works like brand new for $25”
“He ate shit twice: when he bought an Amazon product and when he spent money to fix it.”
“comes with useless apps you just cannot get rid off”
“It is actually pretty fun to use for light coding.”
“works fine for that purpose”
“the Amazon Fire tablet we used to have which was so slow it was literally unusable”
“Ours has become so inexplicably slow it’s wild, even after factory resets.”
“They can keep their Fire tablets, TVs, and other spyware.”
“it's really hard to beat the value proposition of modding a dirt cheap Amazon/Android tablet”
“the locked-down android and really android of any kind is just not something I am interested in”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.