Amazon has revamped its line of Fire tablets and Fire TV devices, introducing a new $49.99 price for the 7-inch Fire tablet, the addition of a new 10.1-inch Fire HD 10 tablet and the debut of a new Fire TV Gaming Edition.
In a series of announcements on Sept. 17, the company unveiled the new products, which also includes updated Fire HD 8 and Fire Kids Edition tablets and a new Fire OS 5 “Bellini” operating system.
The $49.99 Fire tablet (pictured) includes a quad-core processor, a 7-inch In-Plane Switching (IPS) display, front- and rear-facing cameras, up to 128GB of expandable storage, all-day battery life, and runs on the latest Bellini OS, according to Amazon. The company is also offering special pricing on the Fire tablet by giving away a sixth Fire with the purchase of five Fire tablets for $249.95.
The Fire OS 5 Bellini operating system has an updated user interface that “replicates the look and feel of a magazine” to make it easier to find content, the company said. Fire OS 5 is based on Android Lollipop and is deeply integrated with Amazon’s hardware, platform, software, content and cloud, according to the company.
The Fire tablets will start shipping on Sept. 30.
The other new Fire tablets, the Fire HD 8 and the Fire HD 10, feature 8-inch and 10.1-inch widescreen HD displays, 7.7mm thicknesses, MediaTek quad-core processors that run up to 1.5GHz, stereo speakers with Dolby Audio, front- and rear-facing cameras, and microSD card support providing up to 128GB of expandable storage.
The Fire HD 8 is available in black, magenta, blue or tangerine with either 8GB or 16GB of memory, and starts at $149.99. The Fire HD 10 comes in black or white with 8GB or 16GB of memory, and starts at $229.99. Both devices also begin shipping on Sept. 30.
The all-new Fire Kids Edition is priced at $99.99 and comes with an updated kid-proof case, one year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, 20,000 hand-curated and age-appropriate featured Websites and YouTube videos and a two-year guarantee that the company will replace the device if it’s broken inside the warranty period. The Kids Edition can be preordered immediately and will ship starting Sept. 30.
The Fire Kids Edition tablet features a quad-core processor, front- and rear-facing cameras, up to 128GB of expandable storage via a microSD card slot and more. The Kids Edition machines were introduced in 2014. Parental controls are also included so that parents can monitor what their children access on the devices.
The new Amazon tablets also include access to the company’s content from video to audio to books.
The new Amazon Fire TV devices boast 4K Ultra HD and support High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), which will be available for more Amazon videos in the coming months, according to the company. The device has 75 percent more processing power than the previous version and costs $99.99. It includes a MediaTek 64-bit quad-core processor, a dedicated GPU, 802.11ac WiFi, 8GB of on-device storage, Dolby audio, Mayday Screen Sharing and expandable storage up to 128GB. Fire TV can be preordered immediately and will ship on Oct. 5.
A new Amazon Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote is also available for immediate preorder today for $49.99, with shipping expected on Oct. 22. The latest Fire TV Stick gets a new voice remote, which allows users to speak the name of a movie, TV show, actor, director or genre to call up content. It can also be used to ask the Alexa personal digital assistant for weather, sports scores, traffic, music and other information.
The new Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition includes the all-new Fire TV, the new Fire TV Game Controller, a 32 GB microSD card and two popular games—Shovel Knight and Disney’s Ducktales—for a package price of $139.99. The gaming edition will start shipping on Oct. 5.