A new lineup of Amazon tablets has been announced, and the devices are designed for both work and play. Amazon Alexa Tablets combine cloud-based device syncing functionality, onboard AI capabilities and the entirety of Amazon’s media catalog, making them something akin to on-the-go entertainment hubs.
Each of the three Alexa Tablet models has an aluminum chassis, which will protect what’ll be some of the thinnest devices Amazon has ever released. More importantly, Fire OS and the Amazon Appstore are going away. Instead of a custom, forked operating system, the Alexa Tablets will run Android 16 at launch, and will upgrade to Android 17 in early 2027. That means these devices will offer full Play Store functionality, giving you access to plenty of apps that haven’t previously been compatible with Amazon tablets.
But the software capabilities are what I suspect will be the real draw. If you use an Amazon account on your computer, phone, TV or other device, it will automatically sync up with the Alexa Tablets. A dynamic tab on the home screen allows you to quickly pick up movies, shows, books and games wherever you left off. There’s also an algorithmic “For You” layout that shows you other content you might enjoy based off of what you’re currently enjoying, like a streaming model that pulls together every form of media in one place.
Avid readers will be able to access their Audible and Kindle libraries in one place, and a new Kindle mode also silences notifications, turns down blue light and enhances battery life. I got a firsthand look at the e-ink and color paper modes at an in-person event in New York and was impressed with how the pages looked on-screen. The texture of the display is sufficiently papery, too. (TCL’s Nxtpaper devices may soon be given a run for their money.)
The Alexa Plus AI assistant may not be the speediest helper, but it has all of your Amazon account’s personal information at its virtual fingertips.Tyler Graham/CNET
Each Alexa Tablet is deeply integrated with Alexa Plus AIallowing you to converse with it and pull answers from Amazon’s Silk browser on the fly. Opting into on-screen intelligence allows the generative model to see what’s on the display. It can answer questions about images in a browser, locate listings for specific products shown in a social media video and more. During the product demonstration, Alexa Plus took upwards of half a minute to respond to complicated prompts, but the onboard model responded accurately to verbal requests about managing a personal calendar and finding nearby restaurants based on dietary restrictions.
Kevin Keith, vice president of Amazon’s devices team, told me that the new lineup of Amazon Alexa Tablets will supersede the Fire Tablets entirely. The company will wind down production of its old product and sell the remaining stock over the next few months. Once those Fire tablets sell out, Amazon has committed to providing at least four years of software support, including security and operating system updates.
The Amazon Alexa Tablet lineup
The cloud syncing, Kindle mode and Alexa Plus on-screen intelligence features are packaged into every Alexa Tablet, but these devices aren’t all built the same. The three models have different hardware and peripheral capabilities. Here’s what you can expect from the first wave of Alexa Tablets.
The flagship tablet includes deep AI integration and multiwindowing functionality. It blends work and entertainment capabilities into one device.Tyler Graham/CNET