
Feels durable but there's no water resistance. (Image credit: Michael Hicks / Future) Design For more hardcore applications or access to all your non-Amazon apps, though, you'll want to look elsewhere. It can also double as a portable Echo Show for controlling your smart home and telling you the weather. It has most of the popular streaming apps (not just Prime Video), but Amazon Music, Amazon Photos, Amazon Silk (a web browser), Alexa and Kindle have monopolies on Fire OS, and other categories like messaging have extremely limited options.Īnyone who wants a cheap, relatively long-lasting ereader that also streams movies and shows should seriously consider the Fire HD 10 or Fire HD 10 Plus. Truly, this tablet is designed for people who are deeply invested in Amazon's services – or designed to make them invested. Amazon Game Mode helps your games run smoothly, but Amazon's Appstore doesn't have the breadth or quality of games available on Google's or Apple's app stores, and mobile-quality games blown up on a large HD tablet tend to look somewhat pixelated. Gamers should also look elsewhere, at least until Amazon decides to add cloud gaming with Luna. Check out the best tablets for kids, best tablets for seniors, or best tablets with keyboards.
Moreover, a Bluetooth controller is recommended for the best experience, as using your Fire TV Stick remote will not be a great idea. Do note that due to the entry-level hardware on most Fire HD tablets and Fire TV Sticks, performance will likely not be smooth across all titles - though many games should run just fine.
The Amazon Appstore listing mentions Android 4.1 as the minimum OS requirement, so it should be possible to run RetroArch even on Fire HD tablets from several years ago. However, it's not a big deal since there is already a Windows version available on Steam. This also means that the Android port of RetroArch will likely be available to Windows 11 users through the Amazon Appstore/Microsoft Store partnership.
But with the official availability on the Amazon Appstore, users won't have to resort to any such workarounds. Earlier users had to sideload the APK from RetroArch's website or install a custom ROM with Google Play Store services. In a blog post on Saturday, the team behind RetroArch announced the availability of RetroArch on the Amazon Appstore, allowing users to emulate retro games on Fire TV dongles and Fire OS tablets.