HMD Global's Nokia T10 tablet is its smallest and cheapest yet, but it is not without competition in the budget Android tablet space, with one of its significant contenders being the Amazon Fire 7 Tablet (2022). Amazon has more experience making tablets, unlike HMD Global, which released its first, the Nokia T20, less than a year ago. Furthermore, Amazon's Fire Tablet line is mainly budget devices that are designed as a way for buyers to have access to its services, such as Prime Video and Kindle.
In addition to tablets, Amazon also makes eReaders under the Kindle brand. The Kindle readers are designed mainly for reading, unlike the Fire Tablets, which can do much more. They pack low-power e-ink displays and can last for weeks before needing to be recharged.
The Nokia T10 and Fire 7 Tablet (2022) are budget tablets, and it shows in their build. Their chassis and back panel are made from polycarbonate, and they feature thick bezels around their displays, although those on the Fire 7 are of equal width. Unfortunately, there is also no protection against dust and water. Amazon offers the Fire 7 Tablet in three colors — Black, Denim and Rose — while the Nokia T10 can be purchased in Ocean Blue.
The Nokia T10 Has LTE
The Fire 7 Tablet (2022) is the smaller of the two with its seven-inch 1024 x 600 LCD display. On the other hand, the Nokia T10 has more screen estate thanks to packing a larger eight-inch 1280 x 800 display. It is also an LCD panel, but unlike the Fire 7, which can only stream in SD quality, the Nokia T10 is capable of HD streaming. On the performance side, HMD Global ships its tablet with a Unisoc T606 processor. It is an octa-core chip with two Cortex-A75 cores clocked at 1.6GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.6GHz, and it is paired with 3GB/4GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB of storage. On the other hand, Amazon's tablet has an unnamed MediaTek chipset with four cores and a 2.0GHz clock speed. In addition, it is paired with 2GB of RAM, and buyers can choose between having 16GB or 32GB of storage. Like the Nokia T10, there is the option to add more storage space via a MicroSD card slot. However, while the Fire 7 supports cards with a maximum capacity of 1TB, the Nokia T10 caps it at 512GB. For video calls, a 2MP camera is present on both tablets, but the Nokia T10 should be capable of taking better shots with its 8MP rear camera (and LED flash) against the lone 2MP sensor on the back of Amazon's tablet. Software is a major differentiating factor between the two tablets despite both running Android. Amazon's Fire tablets run a fork of Android called Fire OS. It doesn't have Google services and apps, including the Play Store but comes with its own app store, Alexa voice assistant, and a handful of Amazon apps. The latest version, announced in 2022 and which the Fire 7 (2022) runs, is Fire OS 8 and is based on Android 11.
In contrast, the Nokia T10 runs Android 12 out of the box. It offers a near-stock Android experience with some exciting features, such as acting as a secondary touch display when connected to a Windows PC. HMD Global has also promised two OS upgrades and three years of security updates. Amazon promises the Fire 7 will receive security updates until 2026 but doesn't mention OS upgrades. In terms of battery life, the Fire 7 (2022) is advertised as lasting up to 10 hours on a single charge, and it takes up to four hours to fully charge it via a bundled 5W adapter. HMD Global also isn't specific about the Nokia T10's battery capacity but says it has "all-day battery life." Like the Fire 7, it charges via USB-C but charges faster at 10W. Both phones have Bluetooth, dual-band WiFi, and an audio jack but only the Nokia T10 has stereo speakers and LTE (optional), so users can connect to mobile networks when there is no WiFi.
The Nokia T10 goes for $169 in the U.S., and for that price, users get the variant with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and LTE support. That's almost triple the price of the Fire 7 (2022), which retails for $59.99 for the base model with 16GB and $79.99 for the 32GB version. Amazon sells its devices with ads on the lock screen but charges an extra $20 if users don't want ads. Those looking for an inexpensive tablet for reading books or watching moves and TV shows, albeit at standard resolution, may tilt towards the Fire 7 but the Nokia T10 is the choice for buyers that want a budget tablet with a powerful chipset, Google Mobile Services and LTE.