Amazon's started taking its tablet game seriously, but it might be too little too late for mobile players

Amazon has just announced its latest lineup of tablets, building on the original Fire roster with Amazon Alexa-branded devices spanning 8-inch, 11-inch, and 12-inch options. Crucially, though, it's also opened up to the world of Google Play Store. This is the first time Bezos's releases have allowed for additional app support from Android's biggest marketplace. That means more reliable updates and access to a much wider range of apps, all sidling up with Amazon's own Prime software.

Amazon Fire devices have always been the tablets we have at home. Restricted by their reliance on Amazon's own app system, even the slickest slab has always felt second to devices with more comprehensive app systems. We've consistently rated the Fire HD 10 among the best gaming tablets for its budget-friendly accessibility, but there's always been that heavy compatibility caveat hanging over any recommendation. With a price tag falling just under average across the rest of the competition, Amazon's new device could double down on this proposition.

We'll say Amazon's Alexa tablets start at $249.99, because picking up a $20 cheaper lockscreen-ad option doesn't exactly feel worthwhile. That puts it in line with sale prices on the Samsung Galaxy Tab A11+ and Lenovo Idea Tab, two entry-level MediaTek-touting slabs, one with a newer Dimensity 7300 chipset and the other running with Dimensity 6300.

Amazon uses the MediaTek Dimensity 8189 in its 8-inch and 11-inch models, with the 8400 model sitting in the 12 Pro. That's a pretty good result for those looking to take their tablet on the go for light work and streaming; this is a chip built far more around efficiency compared to Samsung and Lenovo's options. For anything more than a casual thumb-tap though, something like the Galaxy's Dimensity 7300 is going to be better suited. The system's Mali-G615 MC2 GPU will have an easier time running slightly more demanding games in medium settings, while the ARM-based Mali-G57 MC2 represents a slight step back in time.

More serious mobile gamers are going to have harder questions to answer. The top end of the Alexa tablet range, the matte version of the Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro, comes in at $679.99 with 256GB storage. That's only $50 less than the Legion Tab Gen 5 with a bona fide Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip at the helm ($729.99 at Lenovo). We're not even that far off the RedMagic Astra 2, a stormer of a compact gaming tablet available for $749.

So no, this isn't a new device pitched towards mobile gamers looking to invest hundreds in a high-end device. In fact, without testing, I'll provisionally say it's not going to give Lenovo or RedMagic anything too meaty to chew over. At the announcement, it feels a little late to the party, dropping now-expected features like OLED displays and 12GB RAM, while keeping its CPU cards close to its chest.

It's not just the more expensive Amazon Alexa tablets looking out at the boat they just missed. Lenovo's IdeaTab sports a 90Hz display (Amazon hasn't disclosed the speed of its entry-level model's face yet), and the Samsung Galaxy Tab A11+ will send you home with double the storage for your $250 (64GB vs 128GB).

So who is the Amazon Alexa Tablet for? There's hope that this could still be one of the better budget-minded tablets at the bottom end of its price range. If you're after an everyday browsing, streaming, and working device with full Google Play Store access, it's certainly leaps ahead of what came before. Whether it's enough to worry the old guard of more demanding slabs remains to be seen.

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