Bloomberg 评测好评亚马逊新款 Alexa Tablet 12 Pro，但仅为产品评测、无业绩增量

Before this month, I wouldn’t have recommended Amazon.com Inc.’s tablets to anyone but the most budget-conscious shoppers or people with kids. Now, following a drastic revamp, the company is offering what I consider to be the best sub-$1,000 Android tablet.

The Alexa Tablet lineup, announced in late September, bears the stamp of Panos Panay, the devices chief who Amazon poached from Microsoft Corp. three years ago to overhaul its hardware lineup. The series, available in 8-, 11- and 12-inch sizes, replaces the “Fire” brand that originally debuted in 2011.

In its place, the company is offering sleeker hardware and a more open approach to software that, finally, lets consumers use these devices like any other Android tablet: download apps from the Google Play Store and access popular services like Gmail and YouTube. Until now, Amazon restricted access to is own app marketplace.

The Alexa Tablet starts at $300 for the 8-inch model, $330 for the 11-inch version and $500 for the premium 12 Pro. The base version includes a standard glossy screen, 128 gigabytes of storage and 8 gigabytes of memory, but my review unit is configured with an optional “Nanomatte” anti-glare display that makes it especially great for reading and outdoor use.

Between the fancier screen option, more storage and memory, and optional keyboard and stylus accessories, that brings the total price of my kit to $800. That’s richer than most Fire Tablets, but still less than what you’d pay for Apple’s iPad Air with similar extras. And if you want a comparable screen, the cheapest way to get an etched “nano-texture” iPad is to spend at least $1,899 for the 11-inch Pro.

Read More: Amazon Is Overhauling Its Devices to Take on Apple in the AI Era

Ultimately, Apple’s tablets remain significantly more powerful than the new Alexa Tablets, which use MediaTek Inc. chips that trail Apple’s latest silicon in benchmarks — especially in graphics horsepower. And the selection of tablet-specific software for iPadOS dwarfs what’s available on Android where, even in 2026, too many experiences are just super-sized phone apps.

But the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro doesn’t need to be a full-blown “iPad killer” to find a receptive audience. It’s easily the company’s most elegant product in this category yet and feels more premium than its price would suggest. The device, which has an aluminum rear shell, is well constructed and has a smooth 120-hertz display — something the iPad Air lacks. Best of all, the Alexa Tablet is finally unshackled from arbitrary software limitations that hamstrung previous Fire Tablets.

A Standout Screen

For me, the Alexa Tablet has proven itself as a serviceable laptop replacement when I want to travel light and easily handles my standard tasks like writing, photo editing and keeping up with colleagues in Slack. The Alexa Tablet remains a capable entertainment machine, but now you can get actual work done, too.

It’s the Nanomatte screen that has kept me reaching for the Alexa Tablet over the last few weeks of testing. I’m a fan of anti-glare screens wherever I can get them and am willing to pay the premium — especially when the results are this impressive. Amazon worked with Corning Inc. to develop “a photolithography process that etches a precise, pixel-aligned texture into the glass at the sub-pixel level.” In simpler terms, the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro can cut down on glare without sacrificing clarity or color saturation.

The underlying screen uses LCD technology instead of the more premium OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, panels found in the iPad Pro and high-end tablets from Samsung Electronics Co., but I have no gripes with what’s here: At a resolution of 2,800 x 1,840, the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is more than sharp enough. I was satisfied with the black levels and contrast when watching movies even if they aren’t as inky as OLED.

When using the device’s built-in Kindle app, you can choose between three different display modes: Standard, Color Paper and Ink Paper. That last one turns everything grayscale for focused reading, making the tablet nearly as easy on the eyes as a dedicated Kindle, which uses different E-ink technology. Color Paper softens vibrance for a printed paper feel that’s well-suited for comic books or graphic novels. You can also automatically silence notifications when reading to cut back on distractions.

This underlying concept isn’t new: Companies like TCL have long offered special software modes (and matte screens) to mimic the look and feel of paper. But Amazon has nailed the execution out of the gate. I only wish I could use Ink Paper and Color Paper modes with other apps like Chrome, Reddit or news readers like Feedly. Perhaps Amazon will make this possible in a future software update.

Not Just An Entertainment Device

The Alexa Tablet supports both side-by-side multitasking and a “desktop” experience with windowed apps, though the display’s size means you can only open three or four before things get too crowded. The MediaTek Dimensity 8400 processor offered strong performance in the apps I use daily, and while I’ve occasionally seen some stutters and minor lag, it’s unclear whether they’re the chip’s fault or just early growing pains of Amazon’s newly revamped software. Tasks like video editing or running the latest GPU-intensive games is where the iPad Air will consistently outclass the Alexa Tablet, but those generally aren’t part of my everyday routine.

Since I’ve been testing a tricked-out model, I can’t speak to how the base Alexa Tablet 12 Pro with 8 gigabytes of memory will fare. I haven’t tried the smaller sizes either, but I gather I’m not missing much: They’re affordable, but with no Nanomatte option and lower-resolution screens, they seem destined for the same fate as Fire tablets — which is to say they’ll mostly be used for entertainment, reading and light web browsing. A smaller Nanomatte Alexa Tablet might cannibalize Kindle sales, so I can understand why the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is positioned as the do-everything choice — even if it’s a little big for nighttime reading in bed.

So far I’d describe battery life as average at best. Like any iPad, the Alexa Tablet will quickly lose juice if you start pushing its multitasking abilities or crank up the screen brightness. Amazon advertises a maximum of 16 hours of video playback, but with more realistic usage that includes other kinds of apps, I’ve been seeing roughly half that. By comparison, the iPad Air is rated for around 10 hours of web browsing or video.

The four-speaker audio system is also passable. I found toggling on Dolby Atmos helped make voices clearer in movies even if there’s no perceivable surround sound benefit.

Amazon’s keyboard and stylus accessories serve their purpose well. The $90 pen magnetically latches onto the tablet with surprising strength, supports 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and can detect tilt. That makes it a capable drawing tool on top of basic annotation duties.

The two-piece $150 keyboard, which also includes a kickstand, is comfortable to type on and its glass trackpad worked smoothly, though there’s no key backlighting. When the Alexa Tablet is fully outfitted, it’s impossible to ignore the similarities between it and Microsoft’s Surface line, though here you get an Alexa key instead of a Copilot AI button. Both can be tricky to use on your lap and are best-suited for working at a table.

The AI Story

Since this is an Amazon tablet, it’s no surprise that the company’s Alexa artificial intelligence assistant is tightly integrated across the user experience. At the upper left of the home screen is a clock widget that rotates through suggestions like your in-progress Kindle reads, recent Prime Video content or pictures you’ve uploaded to Amazon Photos.

At the lower right is a small “Ask Alexa” widget that allows for immediate access to the assistant either through typing or voice. Both are permanently anchored to the home screen and cannot be removed, but you can disable suggestions in favor of a simpler clock and temperature widget. Alexa is also able to analyze what’s on your screen for contextual help or shopping links — but only if you opt in to share that data.

I’m usually the first to be annoyed when brands are heavy-handed with plugging their own services, but Amazon’s approach here toes the line without feeling egregious. For one, you can switch your chosen digital assistant to Google Gemini if you prefer that to Alexa. And dedicated apps for ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Muse are all a quick download away in the Google Play Store.

Secondly, the “Discover Page” to the left of the Alexa Tablet’s home screen is more useful than the generic Google feed that’s found on most Android devices, which tends to be filled with clickbait news articles and off-the-mark recommendations. I’ll take the carousels of Kindle and Prime Video picks over that low-grade content any day, though the provocative headlines are still there if you scroll down.

The Takeaway

The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is Amazon’s best tablet to date. It’s not easy for a company to acknowledge that it was going down the wrong path for over a decade, but Panay is steering the brand’s devices business in a smarter direction by embracing Android and Google apps while still elevating its own services like Kindle.

What Panay can’t solve for is Android’s uneven selection of tablet software, which is where the iPad still reigns supreme — and a key reason Apple can get away with its higher prices. The disparity is still obvious, and this is why I’ll personally be sticking with my 13-inch iPad Pro.

But that’s a $1,499 product before you add in a keyboard or an Apple Pencil, and some people simply can’t justify the cost. With its superb anti-glare display, a more refined design and a much-improved operating system as the foundation, the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is an easy recommendation for anyone who can’t fathom spending a grand or more on a tablet.