Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsStill not an HDX, but is it better than the 2019 model?
Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2021
I won't repeat my complaints about the lack of a successor to the HDX (see my earlier reviews) and will focus this review only on what matters to me vis-a-vis the 2019 model.
2019 HD 10
I'm on my second one because the first died before a year was out, and Amazon replaced it under warranty. I hate it. Almost as much as I disliked the 2017 HD 10" model.
Why? Well, for the first month or so it ran OK. Then the same problems occurred: constant freezes, the screen always going blank and an apparent utter dislike for Twitter, the only social media I use. A software update temporarily seemed to solve the problems, but they reappeared after a few weeks.
The 2019 has become increasingly slow. Moving from app to app is torturous. The Candy Crush games I play sometimes won't even load, other times semi-freeze. And Twitter is simply awful. I've tried repeatedly to delete the cache to speed things up, but it only occasionally helps. Either it won't load at all or videos won't play or it fails to update the TL of somebody I follow. And it is more often than not slower than molasses.
App updates: I have to download and install them one-by-one because if I simply do an "update all", they'll all end up showing either "downloading" or "installing" forever. Even if the battery is 100% or the HD is plugged in.
Even the Kindle Library has become barely usable. Books won't load or I'll start a book and get thrown back to the Library screen repeatedly.
I've increasingly come to rely on my Galaxy S20+ for everything except reading books because one needs a larger screen to enjoy a book.
2021 HD 10
It turned on easily after unboxing and everything went smoothly until:
COLLECTIONS
Although, supposedly, a restore was down from the last 2019 backup, only five collections appeared and they weren't fully populated. I thought "Here we go again. I'll have to download the apps one by one and slowly recreate the collections". Only part of that proved to be true. As I downloaded the apps, they filled in the collections where they belonged or created the collections they were in. This wasn't as easy as if Amazon had down a complete restore but it was far better than what I went through, twice, with the 2019 model.
On the other hand, Amazon's handling of collections should shame every single one of its developers who, presumably, owns a smartphone. Even the cheapest smartphone lets you create collections by selecting apps/games from a list. You can't do that with Amazon's non-book collections. Nor can you sort them or even scroll through a collection easily. It drives me nuts.
APP UPDATES
I ran the first multi-app update the other night and it went quickly and smoothly.
APP SWITCHING
So far, I've been able to easily and quickly switch among various apps.
TWITTER
It works smoothly with one big hiccup today: a number of videos/photos simply didn't load. I checked Twitter on my smartphone and everything was fine. Fingers crossed that this was a momentary glitch and not a sign of things to come.
PERFORMANCE
Performance has been quite snappy, not quite on a par with my smartphone but close enough so I don't feel a need to use the Galaxy.
SD CARD
I haven't ever used one because of numerous problems reported over the years, and I bought the 64GB model so I'm hoping I won't need to try it out.
NON-AMAZON APPS, GAMES AND BOOKS
As usual, you're up a creek if you've downloaded anything that doesn't come from Amazon. They won't be restored. You won't even find them on your tablet. This might be a good reason for indulging in an SD Card, but there's no guarantee that it will work in the next model. (Samsung's flagship models no longer have a slot for an SD Card.)
SECURITY
Why oh why oh why must I login anew to every app and every web site? Amazon has my ids and passwords. Why does it forget them every time I get a new device?
CONCLUSION:
Overall, this is a solid entertainment tablet with more than adequate performance. The updated software is, IMO, less user-friendly than the software version it replaced, but it is usable. (I wish I could talk with some of the developers to find out why they are doing what they are doing.)
