Amazon continues to renew its devices and, after the announcement of new e-readers, it is now the turn of the Android tablets to be refreshed with fairly significant new features for these products.
First of all, Amazon’s in-house system, Fire OS, is no longer part of the picture. You will indeed get a full Android operating system with the Google Play Store on these devices.
There are different versions available:
- Alexa Tablet 8
- Alexa Tablet 11
- Alexa Tablet 12 Pro
- Alexa Tablet 12 Pro with Nanomatte display
As their names suggest, the number corresponds to the screen diagonal of the tablet. And, of course, prices have gone up in recent months on this kind of product.
The renaming to Alexa tablet also places these devices within Amazon’s range of personal assistants, alongside the Echo Show and other Echo devices that benefit from the Alexa voice assistant services.
In fact, prices will vary depending on whether or not there are ads on the home screen, the amount of storage and the performance. This new lineup is complete, but a bit confusing for people who do not regularly follow the technical specifications of this type of device.
However, there is something that caught my attention. Here is what can be found in an Amazon press release presenting these new Alexa tablets:
With Amazon Alexa Tablets, the best of that experience comes to tablets for the first time—open a book in the Kindle app and the device transforms into a distraction-free reading sanctuary. Notifications go silent, blue light is reduced, and battery life stretches up to 20 hours. Three display themes let you choose your look—from subtle warmth with natural color, to a softened paper tone, to pure grayscale. The Nanomatte display takes it further: razor-sharp text, a paper-like feel, and readability in any light. Plus, you can highlight, underline, write notes, and markup pages directly with the Pro Pen. Annotations in your books also sync across Kindle apps on pen-supported devices and on Kindle Scribe.
The most expensive version of the tablet, the 12-inch one with the Nanomatte display, may therefore also be interesting for reading. And Amazon does not hesitate, by the way, to indicate that it is potentially an alternative to the Kindle Scribe, which seems rather surprising to me.
This Alexa Tablet 12 Pro can be paired with a keyboard to turn the device into a true productivity tool.
Prices are, however, high and I have no doubt that there are surely cheaper alternatives already available:
The Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro starts at $499.99 ($549.99 for the Nanomatte version), in Graphite, with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.
The Amazon Alexa Tablet 11 starts at $329.99, in Graphite, Amethyst and Matcha, with 8 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage.
The Amazon Alexa Tablet 8 starts at $229.99, in Graphite, Rose and Teal, with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage.
Available accessories include the Amazon Alexa Tablet Pro Keyboard ($149.99), the Amazon Alexa Tablet Pro Pen ($89.99), as well as a range of protective folio cases.
You can see all these tablets on Amazon.com by clicking here.