Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids (13th Gen) Review: Big tablet for little humans

Introduction

If you’ve been on the hunt for a great kids’ tablet, there’s a very good chance you’ve come across Amazon’s Fire portfolio of tablets, and if you haven’t, you’re about to.

You can, of course, buy an iPad, like the iPad (2025) or an Android tablet like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab A series for the little people in your home, but Amazon’s Fire tablet range not only offers exceptional value, but some great child-friendly features too. 

The latest edition of the Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids launched back in 2023, marking the 13th generation of this 10-inch tablet. There is a 7-inch model and an 8-inch model, as well as a Pro version of this 10-inch model and the 8-inch model, so you’re not without options. Here I am focusing on the regular Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids though. 

At £199/$189 (when not discounted), is this 10-inch tablet one of the best tablets for kids? Here’s my review (with some help from my 7-year-old daughter), having lived with it for the last couple of months. 

Design

• Kid-proof case included 
• Stand and handle within case
• Three colour options

I’ve always really liked the design of the Amazon Fire Kids tablets – sure, there are zero thrills on offer, but when you’re talking about a tablet aimed at kids aged three to seven, there’s absolutely no need for thrills. 

The Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids comes inside a Kid-Proof Case when you take it out of the box so it’s ready to go straight into the hands of little ones.

The rubber case is excellent – not only bright and colourful whichever of the three options you choose from, but it includes a stand and handle too. That stand/handle is a little stiff to adjust so younger kids may struggle, but the older end of the 3-7 year old scale should have no issues moving it to a good position. 

Drop it on the floor, as children will inevitably do, and the case practically bounces. I wouldn’t say it’s unbreakable because kids will always be kids, but the Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids has been in the hands of both my five-year-old and seven-year-old for weeks, and it still looks good as new. It also comes with a two-year Worry-Free Guarantee, so if it breaks within that time, Amazon will replace it.

Remove it from the case (I don’t recommend this if you plan to put it back in, as it’s awkward to get in and out), and you’ll be greeted with a slim, lightweight tablet featuring a plastic back. It’s nowhere near as premium as the likes of the Apple iPad (A16, 2025) or Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs and their aluminium builds, but this is a tablet for kids; there’s no need for premium. 

The edges of the tablet itself are curved, so it’s easy to hold if you do take it out of the grippy case, and uniform bezels sit around the screen – something you don’t see when it’s in the case. A single front camera is positioned in a landscape orientation at the top of the tablet, along with speakers on the top edge, while a 3.5mm headphone jack and USB-C charging port sit on the right edge with the volume rocker and power button. At the bottom, there is a microSD slot for storage expansion – which you will very likely need.

There’s just one other thing to mention on the design, and that’s water resistance. The Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids doesn’t have an IP rating, so while the case looks like it could make this tablet float – it won’t – keep it well away from any swimming pools, baths or water in general. 

Screen

• 10.1-inch LCD panel 
• 1920 x 1200 resolution
• Quite reflective

As its name suggests, the Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids has a 10.1-inch display with a 1,920 x 1,200 pixel resolution that delivers a pixel density of 224 pixels per inch. That’s slightly less than Apple’s regular iPad, which squeezes in 264 pixels per inch of its 10.9-inch display, but it’s more than adequate, and you aren’t going to notice those extra pixels unless you get your magnifying glass out.

Like the iPad, it’s an LCD display, which means you won’t get the same contrast you’ll find on more expensive tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus and its OLED screen, but there’s still plenty of punch.

For playing games, reading books and watching videos, the Fire HD 10 Kids’ display is very capable. Content looks great, and while we’re not talking about the kind of great you’ll find on a tablet like the iPad Pro (M4) or the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, we’re talking about great for the money this tablet costs and the users it targets. 

Colours are nice and bright, there’s good detail, and the brightness is good enough even when the sun is beaming through a plane window, though the screen is very reflective. Tip it at an angle, and the colours do wash out a little too, so the viewing angles aren’t the best out there.

However, considering the price and its target audience, this really doesn’t matter. My seven-year-old was thrilled with the large screen, and that was all she cared about.

Cameras

• 5MP front camera
• 5MP rear camera 
• Video recording supported

There are very few occasions when I would recommend using a tablet’s camera to take photos instead of a smartphone, but a kid’s tablet is one of those occasions.

There is a 5-megapixel sensor on the rear and a 5-megapixel sensor on the front of the Fire HD 10 Kids so neither are what you would consider to be top spec. You will get better images from Apple’s regular iPad, but you’ll also pay more money for that privilege, and I really don’t believe children will be able to tell the difference. 

My daughter took photos of everything from our dog to her brother and flowers in the garden with this tablet. None were in focus, all were grainy and all lacked detail and colour accuracy. That was partly down to her photography skills (we are working on those), but the hardware isn’t amazing either. 

I’d argue it’s not really about the quality of the results, however. The Fire HD 10 Kids offers enough for children to be creative in capturing what they deem to be a decent photo, whether that’s of their favourite pet, a picture of mum and dad on the sofa or a selfie of half of their face. It also helps them understand the controls for taking a photo, and if they take enough, they may even learn a thing or two about focusing and framing a shot. 

Video recording capabilities are on board too, allowing your kids to have fun filling up the storage with videos of them singing, dancing or talking to their soft toys. Again, the quality isn’t brilliant, but it doesn’t need to be either. A child will be excited at the prospect of videoing whatever they want to video; they aren’t expecting 4K quality that they can then cut and edit.

The front camera allows for video calling too, and it’s perfectly capable of that. I had many video calls with my daughter when she called my phone on a Saturday morning from her bedroom using Alexa calling. The quality was good enough for that, as well as proper video calls with family. 

Performance

• Octa-core processor
• 3GB RAM
• 32GB storage, microSD up to 1TB

The Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids has an eight-core CPU under its hood with two 2.05GHz Arm Cortex-A76 cores and six 2.0GHz Arm Cortex-A55 cores. It’s not officially detailed who makes the processor, though it is thought to be MediaTek, which you will find in a number of mid-range phones. There’s 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, but you can expand the storage using the microSD slot up to 1TB, as I mentioned. 

It’s by no means the fastest and slickest tablet I have used, but then I have reviewed slabs like the Apple iPad Pro (M4) and the latest Samsung Galaxy Tabs, and given this is a quarter of their price, it would be unfair to hold it to the same expectations. As such, I thought the performance on offer here was good enough for what most kids would want to do. 

Running multiple apps at once and navigating the user interface isn’t a problem, and neither was switching between different apps. Most games I tried, as well as those I watched my daughter play, ran smoothly, while steraming content and tasks like video calling were also no issue. There was some lag and stutter with larger, more complex games like Roblox and Minecraft, but they weren’t unplayable; just slower to interact with. 

I mentioned the Fire HD 10 Kids had two speakers at the top, and these are also more than capable, even with the case covering the grilles. There’s enough detail to determine what characters are saying when streaming content, and good enough volume to hear all of the irritating theme tunes. 

As I also mentioned however, there is a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can encourage your kids to plug in some headphones so the people near you on the plane don’t have to have Bluey’s Dance Mode stuck in their heads for the rest of the flight, or you could connect a pair of Bluetooth headphones. If you have neither, the speakers on board the Fire HD 10 Kids will do the job.

Software

• Fire OS
• Amazon Kids+ subscription
• Age-related content

The Fire HD 10 Kids runs on Amazon’s Fire OS software, which is based on Android. Key to the experience is Amazon Kids+ subscription service, however, which you get included for a year with the price of the tablet itself. After 12 months, you will need to pay £4.99/$5.99 a month for your kids to continue getting access to the wealth of apps, games and books offered through the service.

Setup of the Fire HD 10 Kids is nice and simple, requiring you to sign into your Amazon account and then set up a profile for your child. If you’ve already done that, like I had, you can use the Alexa app on your phone to set up the tablet, which makes things even quicker.

Once set up, the Fire HD 10 Kids will display age-appropriate content on the main page based on the age of the profile you have created, and that includes everything from videos to apps and games. 

The layout, when in the kids mode, is incredibly child-friendly, and even if your child is too young to read yet, they will likely have no problem navigating the interface. Both my kids have had Fire tablets for the last few years, and while they are now five and seven years old, they managed just fine when they were a couple of years younger, too.

At the top of the screen when in your child’s profile, there’s a banner of buttons: For You, Apps and Games, Videos, Educational, Books, Audible and Stations. Tapping on any of these will serve up content suitable for the age of the profile, while below the banner are all the apps that have been downloaded, whether that’s Netflix, Roblox or Minecraft. There are also a number of pre-installed apps like Announce, Call, Camera, Store, Web Browser, and Web Videos.

The Kids+ subscription service offers access to a range of apps, books, games and videos, many of which are educational and designed to help your children learn. The Sesame Street Alphabet Kitchen app is great for helping with spellings, for example, but there are also apps like Angry Birds and Monopoly, so there’s something for every child and importantly, every age range too.

What’s perhaps the best part about the Fire HD 10 Kids for parents though, is Amazon’s Parent Dashboard. This allows you to adjust your child’s profile, as well as set time limits, manage content and restrict access to the tablet if you need your child to have a time out, for example. It will also tell you what they have been doing on their tablet, so you know how much time they are spending learning, and how much time is being dedicated to building those square-block houses on Minecraft, for example.

Switching profiles is nice and simple too – done in the top right corner – and this is one area where Amazon has the edge over Apple. This could be your child’s tablet during the day for example, while in the evening, you could switch it to an adult profile to browse the web or watch your own thing on Netflix.

It also means the tablet can grow with your child – ditching the kid-proof case as they get older and more trustworthy. Apple’s iPad, by comparison, can’t switch between users.

Battery Life

• All day use
• Around 11 hours streaming video
• 9W charger included

Battery life on the Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids is great too. It will last a day, no problem, and that applies even if your child is playing games, watching videos or doing a mixture of both. Of course, screen time recommendations suggest they shouldn’t be watching a tablet all day, but should you need it for a long-haul flight, it will oblige. 

An hour of streaming video at around 50 percent brightness uses 6 percent of battery, so your child should get around 12 to 13 hours of watching from a single charge.

Charging is pretty slow, though, and that is certainly something that could be improved. Does Amazon not realise that when you give your child a tablet, it’s usually because you’re looking for some peace and quiet? Waiting 3 hours for it to charge from flat is 3 hours too long. 

A 9W charger is included in the box – something that’s somewhat of a novelty these days – and you get a USB-A to USB-C cable too. The Fire HD 10 Kids does support up to 15W charging, however, so if you happen to have a faster charger lying around, you can cut charging time down by about an hour by using it.

Should you buy it?

FAQs