ALEXA+ FIRE TABLET - *AVOID, AVOID, AVOID.

0* Non-tech and pissed-off review.

I initially got the lovely sage-green budget/basic Kindle in the run-up to the October Prime day sales, for £89.99, down from £134.99. It was plasticky and kept freezing. The tech team couldn't help and could only send me a black replacement, as the green was out of stock. 

The black one ended up delayed, and the same freezing happened, so I returned it for a refund after a day's trying - I'm not the patient type.

I then bought the new Alexa+ fire tablet with 'early Alexa+ access' for £60 off at £139.99. It arrived the day after release day. Looked lovely, but was very slippery, and very sluggish during set-up. It lasted an hour. 

So, yes, the first one froze during set-up, the tech team couldn't sort it and sent a new one - which as I whinge-review, is just going back for a refund. The kindle app keeps freezing on non-Amazon-bought/borrowed books, and then the power button freezes and does nothing, and a hard restart becomes necessary. And, Amazon has the gall to state that there are no return options and would I like help with anything else? WTF???

Reviews confirm others are experiencing the same. Alexa+ changed the voice on all our speakers to Stroppy Toff Teen Alexa+. 2 hours later, I'd had enough and declined the early access to Alexa+ to Akexa+'s seeming shock, horror and indignation. Thankfully,  all the speakers went back to Zen Alexa. I also had to untick an option for a month's free trial of Audible, and still it asked did I really mean to decline. Yes, I did. I really did. Then I had to disable a facility whereby she offered to view every page I browsed and to offer commentary. WTF? This smacked too much of Skynet and Scary Arnie. 

So, my advice would be to avoid this like the plague. Amazon wants the monopoly on selling kindle books - now narrated by AI under the new Kindle+ rebranding of KU. No thank you. It doesn't freeze as much when I'm reading a KU title but omg, it hates the ARCs I get from NetGalley. Constant freezing and force-restarting of the tablet. Alas, no more. Better the 😈 I know and the faulty but fixable kindle app on Google PlayStore on my S25. 

One good thing about the Aiexa+ tablet is that it runs on Android and is compatible with Google apps. Finally, although it still offers its faulty Silk browser as the go-to one. No. And, slow golf clap.

Sad that the admittedly lovely-looking, sleek tablet seems to have a version of AI clap. 

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