$50 amazon fire 7" tablet ($35 sale over) Root, CM12.1

Did you see somewhere that says the $35 sale will last until the 29th? I believe it’s today only.

What are the best free security programs to run on this?

They seem to be selling like hot cakes; that restock date keeps moving further and further away. :stuck_out_tongue:

I bought an astro tab brand for 39.90 a few days ago with better specs than the low end Fire, none of Amazon’s ads or bloatware, and I can just install the Kindle app from the Google Play store. It even has Lolipop 5.1. It’s a better Kindle than the Kindle.

I’m a huge fan of Amazon and buy most of the stuff I own from there, but not tablets.

Yay a 35$ tablet…oh wait, I’m in France, I have to check on Amazon.fr
Oh 60€ only ? What a bargain…

X3, is it not possible to order through Amazon UK and get it shipped to France?

Well I ordered one via Amazon UK for £35.00 a bargain but nothing like the bargain they are having in the States. Mind you I don’t have any sales taxes or charges to add on to that price. I shall be running it stock as I have an Amazon Prime account. I will also invest in a 32gb micro sd card and fill it with a few box sets of tv shows and just use the device as a rough and ready media device that can be dropped in my work bag or whatever and not worried about.

So how tolerable is this screen really?
I did see a warning not to even try to use it outdoors, I think “world of pain” was the reviewer’s description

Is this flash card compatible with the Amazon fire?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TB8XZOK/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?tag=dealnewscom

Another question is, how do we know which flash cards are compatible with what devices, in other words, which are interchangeable, for instance SDXC UHS-1, or SDHC for example?

The Fire tablet (stock amazon OS) is compatible with microSD cards up to 128gb. As long as it’s not over 128gb it should work.

Though I would recommend sandisk microSD cards. They are the leader in SD. Any brand microSD should work fine, in any device, as long as the device supports the card’s capacity size. But once in awhile some brands other than sandisk can have compatibility problems. Not suppose to happen but it can happen.

For those planing to use a custom rom you might need to reformat larger SD cards to something other than exfat. See the xda CM12.1 thread.

What is an xda CM12.1, or it’s thread, for that matter, what is a custom rom?

Rom refers to the OS (operating system) in android devices. “Custom rom” means changing the OS on an android device. CM (CyanogenMod) 12.1 is one popular custom rom. Xda is a forum, by far the biggest forum for custom roms and major tweaking of android devices.

The OS is the entire environment that you see on screen, controls everything, Mac, windows, linux are OSs for computers.

Ok!
So… I got a Fire in my hands. Now be aware I did not spend a lot of time using the Fire in it’s stock form (with the stock amazon OS / environment). I saw lots of amazon apps that point you toward purchasing stuff from amazon. E-books, music, movies / tv shows, etc. And I don’t believe you can delete or hide these amazon apps from within the Fire (you can hide them if you are computer inclined). Personally I don’t buy e-books, music, videos or any media from amazon, so seeing all these things suggesting buying stuff is annoying to me. The tablet felt limited by amazon’s OS. But, I think I am biased, first thing I do with my devices is root, change the OS and start tweaking to my liking. “Is that an ad?! Where is my adblocker?” I’m afraid I can’t really say how tablet will be for those who don’t have “amazon prime” or don’t want to buy into amazon’s ecosystem. As I said I didn’t spend much time trying it in it’s stock form. I wanted to see what the Fire could really do so I loaded a custom rom (aka removed the entire amazon OS / environment). If there is interest I might try to find the time to go back to stock form and provide a better impression of how it is stock.

With a custom rom (I’m currently trying out CM 12.1 CyanogenMod), the Fire is quite nice. And for $35… I’m tempted to call it great! All previous limitations due to the amazon OS are gone, of course. Only been using for a day but so far no problems.

I almost got one. I returned the cheap tablet I got because it had a bad display, and almost pulled the trigger on one of those Fires with the intention of rooting it. The HD one is only $69.

All I want a 7 inch tablet for is reading books, but I decided that the higher resolution was better for text (the fonts look smoother) and ended up getting an octa core 1280x800 tablet for $99. Better reviews than the big name brands. Deerbrook brand I think (?)

Either way I settled on buying a tablet from Amazon because the return process is so painless, and it’s already paying dividends with a return on the first tablet I bought. I put it on the porch. UPS comes the next business day—painless.

Last year I bought the $600+ Fire HDX for the wife and mother in law. The wife had to return hers once, and the mother in law had 3 returns I think before she got one that worked right. So keep in mind that an Amazon tablet is just a Chinese tablet that they stand behind.

What were the problems that they returned their tablets for?

none.
waste of resources.
root,install f droid,install adaway,enjoy.
oh and dump all the system locked crap apps.

I think the tally was 2 that wouldn’t charge to 100% and 1 bad one out of the box. Amazon was great about it, though. They cross shipped the new ones and took care of everything, no questions asked.

And that to me is the only reason to buy Amazon’s generic branded Chinese tablet over the other cheap Chinese tablets, which give you better bang per buck IMHO.

My reason to buy Amazon’s cheap Fire tablet over any cheap chinese tablet,
Manufacturers usually discontinue support for a device as soon as they can. And I mean major top manufacturers… Some devices never get a single update / new version of android (with needed security fixes plus new features) from the manufacturer. Small brand chinese devices are even less likely to ever see an official update.

I only get major brand popular devices because rom developers (open source volunteers) will put out updates long after the manufacturer has abandoned the device. The more popular a device is, the more rom developers plus xda forum users it will attract and the longer it will continue to get updates from the community. This Fire tablet will have the new Android 6.0 “Marshmallow” even if amazon never releases an update. Small brand cheap chinese devices just are never popular enough or interesting enough for developers to care about them. Also root and good custom roms is just a requirement for me. Imho you can’t really take full advantage of a device, get the best usability without at least root. “Is that an ad taking up half my screen? Where’s my adblocker?” Less data charges when you firewall apps that have no need to download junk secretly in the background, costing you extra money. Often downloading ads or sending usage statistics.

I should got one of these yesterday. Oh well.