With the Amazon Fire Tabs dead, good cheap Android tablets are now impossible to find

This is going to sound over-dramatic, but bear with me here: a 15-year era is over, and it ended with Amazon's release of its new Alexa tablet series, pricey iPad rivals that are on sale now.

Since the release of the original Amazon Fire in 2011, the brand has been the foremost name in the super-low-cheap Android tablet race, with the likes of this year's Fire 7 (2026) going for $60. Its 15% share of the tablet market shows the demand for budget slates.

However, with the brand replacing these low-cost Fire slates with the new pricier Alexa ones, it's leaving a gaping hole in the market for affordable large-screen devices, and there's nothing substantial that fills the void.

Meet the new trio of Amazon Alexa Tablets

The Fire's over, Alexa's here

There are three new members of its Alexa Tablets line: the 8, 11, and 12 Pro, and each takes naming inspiration from the Fire slates in that the number refers to the screen size.

But that's where the similarities end. These are completely new devices, borrowing the slim, limited-bezel look of Apple's last few iPad lines (also seen on most contemporary Android rivals).

That means these models don't come in cheap-feeling but protective plastic shells; there's very little visually to differentiate them from a generic Android tablet. I've reviewed countless Android slates, and I'm bored with their samey looks.

So the design's seen an upgrade, and it now supports a first-party stylus and keyboard attachment, similar to what many other Android tablet makers offer.

The Fire tablets technically used Android, with Amazon's highly walled Fire OS atop. However, the Alexa tablets use a more stock-looking Android, and have ditched the Amazon App Store for Play Store access.

If you're worried about how much they'll set you back, you should be. The Tablet 8 sells for $230, the 11 for $330, and the 12 Pro for $500.

Reports suggest the Alexa line is replacing the Fire line, so we won't see the old tablets upgraded (though existing ones will still get several years of updates). The days of sub-$100 Amazon Fire Tablets are certainly over, and they probably won't come back.

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Amazon Fire Tablets had an important role in the market

Pour one out for the fallen slate

I never loved receiving an Amazon Fire Tablet to review. They were slow to use, felt cheap to hold, and were more limited in function than a standard Android slate. It took several tweaks to make them work well. But that's the point.

As super low-cost tablets, they were designed for a really limited range of function: entertainment. They worked well as on-the-go slates for streaming TV shows, listening to music, playing basic games, or reading in the Kindle app.

I'm a tech reviewer; I'm used to fancy, flashy, fast gadgets. But for general buyers, they offered something other brands don't: simplicity.

I know plenty of technophobes who found them sufficient for what they needed: seniors who didn't want anything techy, families who wanted something simple for a kid, even a screenwriter who wanted a no-nonsense slate for writing.

This kind of buyer could pick up a simple screen at an incredibly low cost and achieve their aim without spending hundreds on an expensive slate. It bears underlying: not everyone needs high speed, a suave design, or the Play Store.

People need cheap tech, and there's very little competition at the market point in which Amazon was operating. Sure, brands like HMD, TCL, and Samsung have low-cost options, but none of them hit the brief the way Amazon did.

Now, when you look for an affordable Android tablet, Amazon gives you pages and pages of options from brands which I've never heard of and wouldn't recommend you buy. There are very few valid picks for buyers on a budget now that the Fires are going.

Someone else will fill the void, but it'll take time

Before the release of the Alexa Tablets, Amazon held a 15% share of the US tablet market, all through its budget options. There's an appetite there for cheap tech, which Amazon is no longer addressing. So I imagine another company will fill the void.

I'd put my money on a legacy maker like TCL, Lenovo, or HMD Global trying to fill the void; they have experience in the department. But maybe a more established Chinese maker, like Xiaomi, will come and try to fill the void.

So I don't imagine the days of cheap tablets are gone, but the successors won't have the solid reliability of the Fire slates. And you'll need to find a new brand to rely on if you want a tablet project, like turning a cheap Android into a dedicated home hub.