Amazon retired the Fire tablet name in October and replaced the whole line with Alexa Tablets. Software is the change that counts: the new tablets run Android with the full Google Play Store, and Alexa+ is built into every one of them. We covered the Alexa+ side of the launch, including how it reads what’s on your screen, in our launch piece. Android and the Play Store run on all three sizes.
Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is the flagship. It starts at $499.99 with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage in Graphite, and the Nanomatte version runs $549.99. Availability covers the full line now in the US, Canada, and Mexico, and Amazon sells it at Best Buy and Target as well.
Alexa Tablet 12 Pro
Price: $499.99
Where to buy: Amazon
12 Pro screen and body
Its screen is a 12-inch panel at 280 pixels per inch with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 3:2 shape. That squarer shape suits documents and web pages better than the 16:10 panels on the smaller tablets. An aluminum body at 6.5mm thick carries four speakers with Dolby Atmos, and Wi-Fi 6E handles networking.
Battery is rated at 16 hours of video playback, the longest Amazon has put in a tablet, and up to 20 hours in Kindle reading mode.
Inside is a 4nm eight-core chip with up to 16GB of RAM. Amazon says the 12 Pro delivers nearly three times the processing power and nine times the graphics of any tablet it has shipped before, and that’s the company’s own claim. Fire models always ran entry-level silicon and felt it.
Nanomatte is the upgrade to pay for
Nanomatte is a finish etched straight into the cover glass. Corning etches a texture into the glass at the pixel level, and that texture kills reflections and glare without the grain a stick-on matte protector adds. It costs $50 over the standard screen and it’s only offered on the 12 Pro. Near windows or under office lights, it’s the version we’d buy.
A pen and a keyboard that skip the pairing menu
Pro Pen costs $89.99. It’s a USI 2.0 active pen with 4,096 levels of pressure and tilt support, and it docks magnetically on top of the 12 Pro, where it charges wirelessly.
Pro Keyboard costs $149.99. It snaps on with magnets and connects over pogo pins, so there’s no Bluetooth pairing and no battery to charge. It also carries separate work and personal profiles: sign into the work profile for work apps, sign out, and those apps leave the screen.
Alexa Tablet Pro Pen
Price: $89.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Alexa Tablet Pro Keyboard
Price: $149.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Together, the three pieces turn the 12 Pro into something the Fire line never tried to be: a work machine.
The 11 and the 8 cover the rest of the house
$329.99 is the starting price for the Alexa Tablet 11, with 8GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, in Graphite, Amethyst, or Matcha. An 11-inch 2.5K panel at 276 pixels per inch with a 90Hz refresh rate covers the screen. Dual Dolby Atmos speakers handle the sound, and battery is rated at up to 15 hours of video playback. Same Android, same Play Store, same Alexa+.
Alexa Tablet 8 starts at $229.99 with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, in Graphite, Rosette, or Teal. An 8.7-inch screen sits in a body that weighs 329 grams and measures 7.95mm thick, and the battery is rated at up to 14 hours of video. It’s the couch and kitchen tablet of the three.
It also shows the trade in the new line: the $99 Fire is gone, and the cheapest seat at Amazon’s tablet table now costs $229.99.
What you give up
Storage is fixed. Amazon doesn’t list a microSD slot on any of the three tablets, so the storage you buy is the storage you keep, and the configuration choice happens at checkout, not later. Software is young, too. First reviews praise the hardware and the screens, and call the multitasking the weak spot: split-screen and window handling aren’t where iPadOS or Samsung’s software is yet.
Alexa+ is the other open question. On-Screen Intelligence, the feature that lets Alexa+ look at your display and act on it, is opt-in and off by default, with an indicator on screen while it’s live. Whether it becomes part of your routine is a software question, and Amazon will be answering it with updates.
The right one for each job
Buy the 12 Pro if you want an Android tablet that can pull office duty. With the pen and keyboard it comes to $739.97, hundreds under a comparable iPad Pro or Galaxy Tab S11 setup.
Pick the 11 if the tablet is mostly for video, reading, and apps around the house; it’s the sweet spot of the line. Travel and kitchen duty go to the 8. Fire owners get the clearest upgrade of all: the app store you always wanted, on hardware that can finally keep up.
Alexa Tablet 12 Pro
Price: $499.99
Where to buy: Amazon
