Editors' Note: This is the most recent version of the Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus. Read our original review from June 9, 2021 below.
Alexa, can I take you with me? The 2021 edition of Amazon's Fire HD 10 Plus tablet ($179.99) adds some RAM and wireless charging to the base-model Fire HD 10, for $30 more. For most tablet users, those are perks, not essential features. But the tablet comes alive when you're using it as an Amazon smart display in an Alexa-powered smart home.
Fanning the Fire's Flames
Amazon has a bewildering array of Fire HD 10 varieties this year, but they're all the same tablet underneath the different accessories. You can read about the base Fire HD 10's features and capabilities in our main Fire HD 10 review; we also have reviews of the Fire HD 10 Kids and Kids Pro and the Fire HD 10 Productivity Bundle and Plus Productivity Bundle. Here's how the various tablets' prices and features lay out:
Two features set the Fire HD 10 Plus apart: more RAM and wireless charging. (It also only comes in black, as opposed to the main model's array of colors.) When you purchase the Plus, Amazon gives you the option to add a $40 Anker wireless charging dock that completely changes your experience of using the tablet, enhancing its use as an Alexa interface while removing the hassle of remembering to plug it in.
The combination of tablet and dock costs considerably more than the $129.99 Echo Show 8, and its audio quality is nowhere near as good as on the $249.99 Echo Show 10. But the Fire HD 10 Plus does double duty in a way those smart displays don't. Sit the dock on your kitchen island and the tablet can read out recipes, run timers, play music, and let you watch TV while you cook—until the kids grab it off the counter to play Toca Boca games. Sit it by the front door, and you can use Fire OS's device dashboard and Alexa voice routines to control your smart home lighting and climate. Then take it out the door with you, fully charged, for a few hours of backseat TV.
Amazon Fire HD 10 (2021)Wireless charging gets rid of an annoying little bit of friction in that workflow. Chargers can move around and cables can be misplaced, plus you might just forget to plug it in. Dropping a tablet into a stand that coincidentally charges it is a much more fluid experience.
The Fire HD 10 Plus falls short when being used as a music speaker, alas. The two speakers on the top of the tablet are loud enough, but they're painfully tinny, like listening to an old, battery-powered radio. On the iPad Pro, the Killers' "All These Things That I've Done" sounds like it has several additional instruments (bass, hi-hat, and organ) that are missing from the Amazon tablet's rendition. But the iPad Pro costs five times as much, so buy a smart speaker for the Fire HD 10 Plus and you'll still more than break even.
A $40 wireless charging dock sets up the Fire HD 10 Plus as a smart display.Just a Little More Power
The Fire HD 10 Plus has the same Mediatek Helio P60T processor running at 2GHz as the base Fire 10 does, with the same 1080p display, but more memory: 4GB as opposed to 3GB. The Fire HD 10 and Fire HD 10 Plus scored effectively the same on the PCMark Work 3.0 benchmark (which tends to have a little variation from run to run) and precisely the same on GFXBench. For media and gaming, they'll perform about the same.
The tablet has a 5MP camera, a USB-C port, and a standard headphone jack.The Fire 10 Plus did a little better than the base HD 10 on Basemark Web, at 163.46 to 143.24. Basemark Web drives the tablet's browser to eat up as much RAM as possible, and the extra gig came in handy there.
Battery life was exactly the same on both models: 12 hours, 48 minutes of streaming Amazon Prime Video over Wi-Fi. The base Fire HD 10, with its included adapter, takes 3.5 hours to come to a full charge. Using the Anker wireless charging dock, the Fire HD 10 Plus charged in 3 hours flat.
See our Fire HD 10 review for complete benchmarks and comparisons with other Amazon tablets, as well as details of the display, operating system, available apps, and more.
The dock is covered in a fabric-like texture.For Alexa at Home and Away
The perks of combining the Fire HD 10 Plus with a dock recall the Fire HD 8 Plus ($109.99, $139.99 with dock). The 10-inch tablet improves on the 8-inch one with a faster processor for productivity and some games, better battery life, and a bigger screen for displaying videos, comics, and picture books.
We generally say that the iPad is the best tablet for most uses (if you can afford it), and if hands-free Alexa isn't your killer app, you'll find even a used iPad to be a more flexible and more powerful tablet. If you're on a budget, the $150 Fire HD 10—our Editors' Choice for tablets under $200—will meet your basic Amazon-focused media tablet needs. But if your home is already Alexa'd to the gills and you need a tablet as much as a smart display, the Fire HD 10 Plus' combination of entertainment apps, wireless charging, and Alexa features hits the sweet spot, especially with a dock or two.
