The Amazon Fire 7 tablet is on sale for $ 40

As regular Cheapskate readers know, Amazon Gear is on sale All the time. The Fire 7 tablet, for example, has been handed over no less than seven times in the past 12 months. So this offer is not super special.

Except, in a way, it is. The Fire 7 was among the first inductees in the new Skating Hall of Fame, and that was based on its regular price of $ 50. Now that it is on sale againI wanted to develop what makes this such an amazing business.

Put simply, it’s a full tablet for $ 40. Think about it a bit. The original cost of the Kindle e-reader $ 400. The first iPad: $ 500. They were big, clumsy and limited devices; the Fire 7 is thin, light and powerful. Not powerful in terms of processing, although its 1.3GHz quad-core processor can handle most tasks fairly well; no, I mean powerful in its breadth of capabilities.

It is an electronic player, of course, but also a video player, a music player, a games console, an educational tool, a virtual assistant (Alexa on board, natch), a digital camera, a video camera, a web browser, a Zoom station and more.

Your $ 40 only buys you 16GB of built-in storage, but that’s easily (and inexpensively) expanded up to 512GB (!) With microSD cards. Remind me again which iPads support memory expansion? Right: none of them.

Certainly, the Fire 7 is better associated with a Amazon Prime subscription, which would be a huge extra expense if you bought it just to go with the tablet. But most of us buy it for shipping and streaming; the Fire 7 is just another delivery vehicle of the latter.

Some might quibble with the screen, which at 1024 x 600 pixels isn’t exceptionally sharp. Some might argue that a 6 inch phone in your pocket eliminates the need for a 7 inch tablet anywhere.

Fair points, both. And I’ll tell you about the existence of the Fire HD 8, which for an additional $ 25 (based on the current sale price of $ 65) gives you a bigger screen with better resolution, a faster processor, two speakers, a USB-C port and twice the storage. It’s the smartest buy, without a doubt.

But seen in a vacuum, the Fire 7 for $ 40 is an absolutely amazing deal. He fully deserves his entry into the Hall of Fame.

Your thoughts?

Read more: CNET Amazon Fire 7 Tablet Review

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