Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro vs Amazon Fire HD 10: What's changed, and is the upgrade worth it?

Amazon's best tablet ever didn't have to work hard for the title, but a new nanomatte screen and Kindle mode sweeten the deal.

Amazon

With a brand new series of tablets announced today, including the top-end Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro which usurps the Fire HD 10 at the top of the lineup, Amazon's hardware is better and bolder than before. That may sound like high praise, but the e-retailer's tablet lineup has always been aimed at the bargain bin rather than taking aim at the iPads and Galaxy Tabs of the world. This time around, the new hardware still doesn't reach those heights, but it flies cleanly in between and soars above its predecessor.

To hear Amazon tell it, the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is built around two things that could hardly be further apart: reading, and lots of AI. To that end, its marquee features include a "nanomatte" display to better imitate paper, along with a new processor to power Alexa+, the AI-powered version of Amazon's long-running voice assistant. Whether or not you're enthused about the presence of AI here (Amazon would certainly like you to be), it's hard to turn down better hardware.

Compared to the Fire HD 10 tablet, which has until now occupied the top slot in Amazon's mobile hardware lineup since the Fire Max 11 was quietly discontinued in the US, the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro appears to be a significant upgrade in all the ways that matter. Here's how Amazon is taking its new tablets up a notch.

Amazon's latest tablet is its best ever (but that's faint praise)

Amazon

The previous flagship tablet in Amazon's lineup was the Fire HD 10, but to call it a flagship risks overstating its appeal. Its base model has just 32 gigabytes of storage and 4 gigabytes of RAM, which in combination with its practically ancient MediaTek Helios chip means it has roughly the performance of a cheap Chromebook. Slap a 10.1-inch WUXGA display on it, and you've got a device that's perfectly suited to watching videos or reading books, but which isn't a productivity machine. But at $155 for the base model, it's a clear bargain pick for those on short budgets or who don't need a lot of tablet to begin with.

The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is a massive upgrade in every regard. An aluminum build does away with the plastic elements of the Fire HD 10, and cradled inside is a 4-nanometer, 8-core MediaTek Dimensity 8400 CPU, which can be paired with up to 16 gigabytes of RAM. There are also two display options, a standard glossy display or a textured "nanomatte" one which should be better for reading. Both panels measure 12 inches with a pixel density of 280 pixels per-inch (with some quick math, roughly 2,880 by 1,920 is the closest standard resolution).

Software gets a big overhaul, too. Sure, there's a ton of Alexa+ integration  — Amazon is the preeminent builder of data centers, after all  — from the expected smart home controls to the ability to chat about what's on your screen or go hands-free in a live voice chat mode. But arguably the biggest change is the addition of the Google Play Store. We relayed last year that Amazon might be ditching its Fire OS software, and sure enough, we're seeing Android as the underlying software here. The new home screen seems to have ditched the storefront-like layout Fire tablet users are used to in favor of a more Alexa-focused experience.

Amazon goes back to its roots with a dedicated Kindle mode

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One major reason to buy an Amazon tablet is as a Kindle alternative. If you read a lot of ebooks but want the ability to watch videos and run Android apps, Fire tablets have had your back. Of course, the Kindle app runs perfectly well on tablets from other brands, so Amazon is leaning hard into its first-party advantage with the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro. In fact, all the new Alexa tablets announced today will offer a new Kindle mode, designed to "preserve the sanctuary of reading," according to Amazon's Panos Panay.

The updated Kindle reading experience will be enhanced if you're using the tablet with the optional nanomatte display. Amazon designed it in partnership with Corning, the company behind Gorilla Glass, to create a texture that lines up with the pixel grid in the panel. The upshot of this is that it should reduce screen glare, making it easier to read text in bright conditions. We've seen other new devices with similar finishes, including Apple's foldable iPhone Duo.

While reading in the Kindle app, the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro will silence notifications, reduce blue light, and extend battery life (presumably by killing some background processes you don't need while stuck in the Kindle app). You can also pick from three display settings: warm, paper-like, or grayscale. We'll need to test this in order to know whether it's a better experience than, say, programming a Samsung tablet to enter do-not-disturb and turn on a blue light filter when you open the Kindle app. But if you're fully ensconced within the Kindle or Alexa ecosystems, this is one device to keep on your radar.

Pricing for the Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro starts at $500 for the standard display version with 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, or $550 for the nanomatte display version with the same storage and memory configuration. There is also a Pro Keyboard case accessory for $150 and a Tablet Pro Pen stylus for $90, both sold separately.