Anyone using an Amazon Fire HD10 tablet to access the internet?

[mnorian]

I have gotten an early Christmas present of a 2019 Amazon Fire HD10; which I wanted as a back-up for my long-in-tooth HP laptop; encase it bits the dust one day; so I wouldn't be off CF for a while; as I was looking for another LT.

It is a steep learning curve; to say the least; trying to learn the ways of Amazon's browser; Silk; it sure isn't windows.

I almost bought an android 8" tablet by Samsung for more money--$119 vs $139--but the big 10 inch screen got me to choose the Amazon.

Does anyone have any tips on using this tablet?

 

[mnorian]

I,ve been serfing the net and trying to get used to typing in reply to CF; but using the on-screen keyboard is a real challenge as I don't use mobile phones so I'm no used to them.

 

[mnorian]

Really getting to like this tablet. The screen is big enough to watch movies with; and it makes the virtual key board large enough to type easily with my fat fingers.

I can see this would be a nice gift for a youngster to watch movies and play games with; and doesn't cost $300 like some 10" tablets.

 

[mnorian]

Also the Amazon browser Silk is easy to use and set up; also there are lots of tutorials on Youtube to show you how to set up things like; the Google aps store; free movies and music, games; etc.

 

[mnorian]

I was looking at the specs on this tablet; and it has a quad core CPU at 1.8 Ghz and 2GB of ram (I know this is not much) which would have been good for a laptop not that many years ago; so to me it's like walking around with a mini-computer in my pocket.

 

[mnorian]

I have been looking to get a new laptop; and have had good luck with HP for the last several ones; and the specs for a $500 HP LT are:

• Display: 15.6 inches 1366 x 768 (HD)
• Cpu: i5-8250U 1.6 gigahertz
• Storage: 128G SSD/SD card reader card reader
• Graphic: Intel UHD Graphics 620/DVDRW Stereo speakers with 8 GB ram
• Os: W10/color: Natural silver
• OS : Windows 10 Home

What's with this? A $119 10" tablet has a higher CPU speed then a $500 LT?

 

[elytron]

Nope, but I did use a Samsung tablet for a number of years. Samsung quit updating it's software rather quick though. So I eventually retired it and no longer in use. At this time I have an OnePlus smartphone. Smaller screen than my old tablet, but much more powerful. I wait for OnePlus to release the Android 10 update. Amazon tablets are popular, not familiar with their web browser. I use Chrome and Firefox Focus on the phone.

Have owned three HP computers. A laptop and two desktops. The laptop finally died though, no longer boots 100% of the time. Was bought back in 2005, so I don't mind too much. Besides that have mostly had good luck with HP. Four HP CD/DVD drives did failed on me. Probably because of dust. I bought an external USB DVD for when I need one.

Good luck with your laptop shopping/purchase. Yes make sure to get one with a fast SSD. Various types so research.

 

[mnorian]

I have watched about 10 reviews of the Fire 10HD and all of them gave a thumbs-up for it; especially when considering the value-for-price equation.

The only thing they all agreed on that was less then ideal; was the cameras--it has one on the front & back--at 2 megapixel. But I will probably never use the cameras anyway. For video chat; the laptop is so much easier to use; and I have a digital camera for everything else.

 

[elytron]

My phone has 3 cameras, one front facing. (I don't like to video chat) The other two cameras on the back are 16 and 20 megapixels. My smartphone seem to take better picture than my Canon PowerShot. Though 10 years older than my phone.

 

[mnorian]

I have been using the tablet off and on for a month now; and it's pretty much useless as a back-up to the Laptop. Here are the reasons:
1--the on-screen typing is excruciatingly difficult to use; you start typing and using the character keyboard; then need to put in a number or a symbol; you have to switch screens; which is time consuming--this for cell phone users is probably second nature. Also trying to highlight and C&P a section of text is next to impossible--you have to set way-points and then hit the enter key--just doesn't work.
2-- the font size is tiny--and I have set for the largest--I get the tablet 6 inches from my nose and still can't see as good as with the LT at 18 inches.
3--there is no provision to hover with a curser (doesn't have one being a touch screen) and preview anything.
4--if you bump or swipe the wrong way--it goes back to the home page. or someother page for some reason that I'm not sure of.
5--to go from one forum to another on CF is a major task; most of the time i get lost.
6--trying to hit the little letters on say like the "new threads" I ususally end up in a different place then i was trying to hit--like hitting the members name instead of the title of the thread.
7--scrolling up and down a thread is next to impossible; there is no scroll bar; no curser to point at things; it took me 15 minutes to type one sentence into a reply in a thread,

Anyone look for a low-mileage tablet REAL cheap!