Key Facts

• Product: Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro
• Price: $549.99 for the tested model; line ranges from $229.99 8-inch to $679.99 12 Pro with extra RAM.
• Display: 12-inch 2800 x 1840 LCD with Nanomatte anti-glare coating, 120Hz refresh rate, 3:2 aspect ratio.
• Software: Full Android with Play Store and Gemini support, plus extensive Amazon bloatware and Alexa Plus.
• Performance: MediaTek Dimensity 8400; adequate for daily use, far behind current iPads.
• Battery: About eight hours of screen time.
• Accessories: Keyboard case $149.99; stylus $89.99.
• Verdict: 6/10; gorgeous screen and solid build undermined by Amazon's software.

The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro arrives at a moment when the Android tablet market is finally interesting again. After years of Fire tablets that felt like portals to Amazon's storefront rather than general-purpose computers, Amazon has built a slate that runs full Android and can install apps from the Play Store. That alone makes it more useful than any previous Amazon tablet. The catch is that Amazon has also loaded the software with promotions, unremovable widgets, and an assistant that too often assumes every request is a shopping request. The result is a device with a spectacular screen and genuinely good hardware that keeps tripping over its own ecosystem.

A Screen That Justifies the Hype

The first thing anyone notices about the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is the display. It is a 12-inch, 2800 x 1840 panel, and Amazon has equipped it with a new technology called Nanomatte. The company says it worked with Corning to etch the glass at a sub-pixel level, reducing glare without creating the rainbow shimmer that can affect other matte screens. In practice, the effect is striking. Using an iPad outdoors often turns the screen into a mirror; the 12 Pro reflects only a small sheen of light, and it does so without losing sharpness. Viewing angles are excellent, and the 120Hz refresh rate makes motion look smooth when playing games such as Star Wars: Galactic Racer. The 3:2 aspect ratio also feels right for web browsing and side-by-side work.

The screen is not perfect. The anti-glare texture introduces a bit of shimmer, especially when displaying light text on a black background. The iPad still has deeper blacks; on the Alexa Tablet's LCD, the letterboxes above and below a movie are slightly lit, while they are completely off on an OLED iPad. Amazon offers specific modes that automatically tweak tone and color for reading, and there are picture presets similar to those on a TV. The review unit shipped with Boosted mode enabled, which made colors a little too vivid. Switching to Natural immediately improved the picture. The muted display modes make reading more pleasant than on an average giant screen, though it is disappointing that they only work in the Kindle app. After several days of indoor and outdoor use, the 12 Pro's screen is preferable to any iPad that has been tried, though a direct comparison with the iPad Pro's nano-texture glass was not possible.

Hardware That Is Mostly Fine

All that display technology in a $549.99 device requires tradeoffs elsewhere, and Amazon makes plenty of them. The MediaTek Dimensity 8400 processor benchmarks somewhere between a flagship Android phone from last year and a flagship phone from two years ago. It is thoroughly outpaced by practically every current iPad. In one graphics-heavy benchmark, the current 13-inch iPad Pro scored about nine times higher. That gap sounds alarming, but in day-to-day use the tablet has plenty of power. Over several days of gaming, work, and watching NFL RedZone, the only slowness detected came from small Android annoyances. The app switcher sometimes stutters when it loads. There is some concern about how the tablet will age without the iPad's excessive processing overhead, but for now it is fine.

In fact, fine explains most of the 12 Pro's hardware. The four speakers are a little thin and muddy, but they are loud and clear enough. The cameras wash out some colors, but they work for video calls. The $149.99 keyboard case is nice to type on, but it is a little awkward to detach and manipulate. The $89.99 pen is smooth and responsive, but not many Android apps support a stylus. The battery lasts about eight hours of screen time, which is a little less than desired and less than Amazon advertises. Nothing here is a deal-breaker; there is just a lot of fine.

Full Android, With Amazon Everywhere

The software is where the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro becomes a study in extremes. The great news is that these tablets run full Android, not the unusual off-brand operating system Amazon's Fire tablets have used for the last 15 years. That means access to every app in the Play Store, a vastly improved interface, and support for Google's Gemini assistant. By itself, that change makes these the most functional Amazon tablets ever released. Unfortunately, Amazon did to Android exactly what anyone would fear: it Amazon-ed the experience. The slide-over panel to the left of the home screen is filled with content recommendations, which is tolerable because the overlap between tablet owners and Prime subscribers or Kindle readers is probably high. Amazon also preloads its own browser, photos, and music apps, none of which are better than the competition.

What is truly outrageous is that Amazon adds two separate, non-removable home screen widgets that serve no purpose other than advertising Amazon products. One widget vaguely offers to cook with premium ingredients, and it launches an also unhideable Alexa chat window in the bottom right corner of the home screen. A company that says it obsesses over customers should not borrow the top left corner of a home screen and use that space for an ad. Fortunately, this is Android, and installing a new launcher takes about 30 seconds. Anyone who buys an Alexa Tablet should do so immediately.

Alexa Plus Is Not the Assistant to Beat

The overbearing presence of Alexa would be less annoying if Alexa Plus were actually useful, but it mostly is not. If the goal is to buy whatever is on the screen, Alexa is the right bot: it can be invoked in any app and will almost always assume the goal is to shop for whatever is currently being viewed. For almost anything else, the assistant is a poor fit. Nearly a year after its launch, Alexa Plus is slow, it gets lost in back-and-forth conversations, and it still does not have enough access to apps and data to be genuinely useful. Users can switch to Gemini in the device's settings, and they should.

A Better Tablet Once the Bloatware Is Gone

Once the tablet is de-Amazoned, it becomes a pretty useful Android device. This is where evaluation gets tricky. It would not be recommended as a primary computer, given the still sorry state of large-screen Android apps. Between this device and the ongoing Googlebook situation, there is hope that Google is learning a lesson about incentivizing developers to care about big screens and keyboards. But between the Kindle-specific display mode, all the streaming and reading apps in the Play Store, and the terrific screen, this is immediately one of the best tablets for tablet things. It is excellent for reading, watching video, and casual browsing.

The iPad Comparison

Realistically, most buyers will debate whether to buy the Alexa Tablet or an iPad. Apologies to Samsung Galaxy Tab shoppers, but this one is a better buy for almost everybody. For the same $550 spent on the 12 Pro, a buyer can get a base-model iPad with 256GB of storage. The recommendation would probably be to buy the iPad. It has much better tablet software and much better big-screen apps, and Apple has a much better track record in tablets. And yet, with an iPad and an Alexa Tablet sitting on the desk, every time the goal is to watch or read something, the Amazon device keeps attracting attention. It is really nice to look at.

Who Should Consider It

The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro makes the most sense for someone who wants a large, sharp screen for reading and streaming but does not need a laptop replacement. It is also a strong choice for households already invested in Amazon services, provided the buyer is willing to replace the launcher, hide or ignore the promotional widgets, and switch the default assistant to Gemini. The tablet's Nanomatte display is the standout feature, and it is rare to see this level of anti-glare technology at this price. The keyboard case and stylus expand its abilities, but neither turns it into a productivity machine. The shortcomings are not fatal, but they are persistent: the processor is midrange, the battery is average, and the software constantly pushes Amazon products.

Amazon's broader tablet lineup now includes four new models, starting at $229.99 for an 8-inch version and climbing to $679.99 for a 12 Pro with the Nanomatte coating and extra RAM that most people do not need. The tested $549.99 model sits in the middle of that range, and it is the one that best balances price and features. The cheaper models may appeal to casual users, while the $679.99 version is for those who want the best possible screen and are willing to pay for more memory. Across the line, the pitch is the same: well-made midrange tablets that can access the full universe of Android apps through the Play Store, plus a whole bunch of Amazon bloatware whether the owner wants it or not. Cheap, good Android tablets are too hard to come by, so the existence of this lineup is welcome even if the execution is uneven.

For all the complaints about software and performance, the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro gets the most important thing right for a media tablet: the screen. The Nanomatte coating reduces glare without destroying sharpness, the 120Hz refresh rate keeps animations fluid, and the 3:2 aspect ratio is comfortable for reading and browsing. Those strengths are enough to make it worth considering, especially for someone who wants a Kindle-like reading experience on a much larger canvas. The device is not the Android tablet the market needed in every respect, but it is closer than Amazon has ever come. Its best feature is impossible to ignore, and that is why it keeps drawing attention away from more polished alternatives.

Source: The Verge News