Amazon replaces Fire tablets with Alexa Tablets, brings Android 16 and Google Play to its hardware

Amazon has retired the Fire tablet brand after more than a decade and replaced it with a new lineup it calls Alexa Tablets — which run Android 16 and include full Google Play Store access for the first time in Amazon’s hardware history.

The three new models go on sale October 14 in the US, Canada, and Mexico, and October 19 in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.

The lineup:

Alexa Tablet 12 Pro ($499.99) is the flagship: a 12-inch, 280 PPI display at 120Hz refresh rate, in an aluminum unibody chassis just 6.5 mm thick. Amazon claims it delivers nearly 3x the processing performance and 9x the graphics performance of its previous tablets. A Nanomatte anti-glare variant costs $549.99. Accessories include a Pro Pen ($90) and a Pro Keyboard ($150).

Alexa Tablet 11 ($329.99) has an 11-inch 2.5K display at 90Hz and a 16:10 aspect ratio, aimed at media consumption and light productivity. Available in Graphite, Amethyst, and Matcha.

Alexa Tablet 8 ($229.99) is the entry-level option, with an 8.7-inch display in an aluminum body weighing 329 grams. Available in Graphite, Rosette, and Teal.

All three tablets ship with Alexa+ built in — Amazon’s latest AI assistant with conversational capabilities — plus an on-screen intelligence layer that can act on whatever is visible: summarizing content, answering questions, or taking direct actions. A dedicated “Ask Alexa” hardware button is on every model.

Why this is a bigger shift than it looks:

Amazon’s Fire tablets ran a heavily forked version of Android that excluded Google Play entirely. That decision made sense when the product’s purpose was streaming Amazon Prime Video and buying Kindle books on a $50 device. But it left Fire tablets unable to compete as general-purpose tablets as iPads and mid-range Android slates improved.

Opening the Google Play ecosystem changes the calculus entirely. Amazon hardware now runs virtually the same app library as any Android tablet, while adding Alexa+ as a differentiator. For the 30-plus million households that already own a Fire device, the upgrade proposition is real: same affordable price range, same form factor, now with the full Android app ecosystem.

The Kindle reading experience also gets a dedicated mode called “Sanctuary” that silences notifications, reduces blue light, and extends battery life — a direct pitch to readers who want a tablet that can double as a premium e-reader without buying a separate Kindle Paperwhite.

Amazon also announced Kids Tablets in 8.7-inch and 11-inch sizes, bundled with drop-proof cases and a one-year Amazon Kids+ subscription.

The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro competes directly with iPad Air and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S9 at its price point. The $229.99 Tablet 8 undercuts nearly every comparable Android tablet with a name-brand AI assistant built in.

Reported by Aisha Malik for TechCrunch. Images credited to Amazon.