There’s Google Now on Tap, Doze Mode, App Standby, improved permissions, faster Android Runtime called ART, and Flex Storage. Android 6 provides more features, is faster and more secure than than 5.
You don’t have to subscribe to a service to get this tablet, but if you did, you could get it for free with a 2 year commitment with plans starting at $10 per month.
(Update: CNET is reporting Amazon Black Friday price is $59.99 for 16GB with ads.) Again, read this article before proceeding where I give details on the Amazon Fire HD 8. The Amazon Fire HD 8 with ads and 16GB storage costs $89.99 (without ads $104.99) and with ads and 32GB for $119.99 and without ads $134.99. I compared the Amazon Fire HD 8 to the AT&T Trek 2 HD and the Apple iPad mini 2. As a follow up to that article, here I wanted to compare the Fire HD 8, a lower featured and priced tablet to 8″ upgrades if you are looking for a more expensive and improved experience alternative. I go over its specifications and talk a little about Amazon’s growing tablet business. Yesterday, I wrote about the Fire HD 8 tablet in detail and you should check that out here before reading this. I still use an 8″ tablet at night to crank through my content like reading the news and social media, even though I use my smartphone and notebook a lot.
While the tablet market is way down from where it used to be, over 200M could be sold in the next year. Given the price difference between the two, I think the Fire HD 10 does a good job of holding its own against the iPad, but the downgraded display, poorer battery life, and no cellular data options make the Fire HD 10 more of a budget tablet than a real competitor to the iPad.It’s getting very close to the gift-giving time in the U.S.
The Fire HD 10 might be a good tablet, but it's not a patch on the earlier 8-inch Fire HDX.
You might still be swayed to buy the Fire HD 10 if you're more into the Amazon ecosystem or previously owned an Amazon tablet, but this is a personal thing. However, if price is not an issue - and remember that you are looking at a difference of over $250 - then the iPad Air 2 is the clear winner from a hardware perspective. Sure, you don't get a retina display screen, and you have to put up with ads everywhere, but it's only $229, and you do get a microSD card slot thrown in. If you want a cheap tablet then the Fire HD 10 for $229 is an excellent tablet. This time around the decision is down to one factor - price. A year and a half on and it's clear that Amazon is making design decisions based on bottom line rather than building an iPad-beating tablet. What's weird is that when I compared the 8.9-inch Fire HDX to the iPad Air 2, the Fire HDX was the clear winner.